log shipping and replication

Ive got my publishers and distributors on the same server say Server A . We
have implemented log shipping as Disaster Recovery solution.
Ive got my published databases log shipped to Server B.
My questions are : Do I need to log ship the distribution database as well ?
How can I recover from this scenario should Server A fail ?
I have read Books Online on Replication and Log shipping.. We cannot
implement the " sync with backup " option because of the increased latency.
It also talks about the semi-synchronous mode. I havent really followed it
for the fact that the distribution database is on the same server as the
publisher and currently we are not log shipping that.
Can someone guide me here on how to recover based upon my settings ? Using
SQL 2000
Thanks
Hassan,
In my experience when replication databases are restored onto another server
than the original, restoration is only partially successful using
KEEP_REPLICATION, and on failover it was not possible to rename the server
then start synchronizing - I found it easiest to recreate the publications
from scratch. However if you restore to Server A itself (or another "Server
A") then it should be ok.
The "sync with backup" option is to ensure that transactions don't get into
the distribution database before the publication database is backed up,
otherwise the distribution database backup could be ahead of the publication
backup. You can achieve the same effect by making sure that the restore of
the publication database and logs is older than the restore of the
distribution database - then you have essentially performed a synchronous
mode backup. In your case you will need a distribution backup, as regular as
possible.
To see the order of restores if Server A goes down, have a look in BOL at
"replication, backup and restore operations".
hth,
Paul Ibison