Impact on replication when a server goes into standby mode

We have the following scenario:

Server A replicates Database A to Server B.

Server C has Database A on it as well, but in standby mode. We are applying the transaction logs generated by Database A on Server A to the database on Server C leaving it in standby mode each time.

Let's say we had planned maintenance for Server Aand dumped the last set of transactions on Server A in standby mode to be applied to to Server C. What happens to the replica on Server B? When I start to use Server C, can I backup its transactions and apply them to Server A, and then have those transactions replicated to Server B? And then what do I do when the maintenance is complete so that I can swithc back to Server A and have the replication continue on as before the maintenance to Server B?

Thanls

In SQL 2000 unless you

1) have configured Server C to also ship the master, msdb, distirbution and publication databases
2) restore the last log with the keep_replication switch
3) take Server A completely offline
4) rename ServerC to ServerA and reboot ServerC(now ServerA)
5) run sp_replrestart
6) use the continue on data consistency error profile

it will not work.

If you also follow the sequence in a failback scenario it will also work.

In SQL 2005 you can configure Server A and C as log shipping failover partners (use a remote distributor and set the publisherfailoverpartner accordingly).

Note that it is possible to do the following in SQL 2000

1) ship logs to ServerC from Server A.
2) on failover restore the tail of A to C with the keep_replication switch
3) use the sp_replrestart command to pick up where you left off

There is more potential exposure to data loss with the above method.