Refresh Linked Server without restart?

Hi All,

Firstly, apologies if this isn't the correct category for this posting but I couldn't see anything more appropriate!

I have an alias set up on my server which I want to change to point to a different server. However when I do this, the original info seems to be cached within SQL Server so any connections that were open before the change continue to use the original server. The only CONSISTENT way (that I can see) of ensuring the new attributes are picked up is by restarting the server which is a little more extreme than I would have hoped. It's worth mentioning that on a couple of occasions the updates have seemed to have filtered through without a restart which has only caused me more confusion due to this inconsistency...

If anyone knows of a handy sp or the likes that forces the linked server attributes to be refreshed I'd be mighty grateful.

Thanks in advance,

Rob.

Probably too late, but I thought it worth posting for others who may run into this:

- Change your alias
- Open SMSS and connect to the server with the linked server
- Open Server Objects -> Linked Servers -> your linked server
- Select Catalogs, and right-click "Refresh"

On my machine, this instantly corrected the cached alias value.