Change Tracking internals behave differently, SQL Server 2012 vs SQL Server 2008

Question

<original post by Glenn Estrada>
Reposting an issue from Stack Overflow that a coworker and I are dealing with.
In trouble shooting an issue with synchronizing disconnected devices with a central database server using Sync Framework 1.0, we are experiencing a problem after upgrading to SQL Server 2012 on the server. It appears that the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION
is returning a value 1 higher than it should (or at least than it did prior to the upgrade.)
I have been working thru Arshad
Ali's great walk thru example of how to set up a simple example.
I have run the scripts from #1 thru #5 to insert, delete, and update a row in the Employee table in both a SQL Server 2008 and a 2012 environment.
In 2008, the following statement returns a 0:
SELECT CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION(OBJECT_ID('Employee'))
In 2012, it returns a 1.
In working thru a few more scripts (6-8) in the tests, I set the retention period to 1 minute to hopefully force a cleanup action. I left for the day and apparently it ran overnight.
In the 2008 instance, the CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION and the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION are equal (11). In the 2012 instance, the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION is one higher (12) than the CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION (11). This could have
an impact to the synchronization process when a database is idle for extended periods of time. And we have found that process could get caught in a loop, especially when the following test is performed to determine if a re-initialization, as opposed to synchronization,
is required:
IF CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION(object_id(N'dbo.Employee')) > @sync_last_received_anchor
RAISERROR (N'SQL Server Change Tracking has cleaned up tracking information for table ''%s''...
Has anyone else experienced this change in behavior? Does anyone have an explanation?

Answer 1

<original post by Glenn Estrada>
Reposting an issue from Stack Overflow that a coworker and I are dealing with.
In trouble shooting an issue with synchronizing disconnected devices with a central database server using Sync Framework 1.0, we are experiencing a problem after upgrading to SQL Server 2012 on the server. It appears that the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION
is returning a value 1 higher than it should (or at least than it did prior to the upgrade.)
I have been working thru Arshad Ali's
great walk thru example of how to set up a simple example.
I have run the scripts from #1 thru #5 to insert, delete, and update a row in the Employee table in both a SQL Server 2008 and a 2012 environment.
In 2008, the following statement returns a 0:
SELECT CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION(OBJECT_ID('Employee'))
In 2012, it returns a 1.
In working thru a few more scripts (6-8) in the tests, I set the retention period to 1 minute to hopefully force a cleanup action. I left for the day and apparently it ran overnight.
In the 2008 instance, the CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION and the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION are equal (11). In the 2012 instance, the CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION is one higher (12) than the CHANGE_TRACKING_CURRENT_VERSION (11). This could have
an impact to the synchronization process when a database is idle for extended periods of time. And we have found that process could get caught in a loop, especially when the following test is performed to determine if a re-initialization, as opposed to synchronization,
is required:
IF CHANGE_TRACKING_MIN_VALID_VERSION(object_id(N'dbo.Employee')) > @sync_last_received_anchor
RAISERROR (N'SQL Server Change Tracking has cleaned up tracking information for table ''%s''...
Has anyone else experienced this change in behavior? Does anyone have an explanation?
sql-server sql sql-server-2012