Starts the replication synchronization in SQL for a given subscription using PowerShell. It's the equivalent of "Start Synchronization" in the GUI of Replication Monitor or starting the job that corresponds to that particular subscription. The names of the jobs it finds are written to a file.

Start-SQLSync.ps1

    $serverName = "SQL1" ###name of the SQL instance, not the server name
    $jobQuery = "select  jobs.name from msdb.dbo.sysjobs jobs (nolock)
                join msdb.dbo.syscategories categories (nolock)
                on jobs.category_id = categories.category_id
		            where jobs.name like '$servername-YourReplicationName%' AND categories.name = 'REPL-Merge'"###Used for merge replication but can be changed
    $jobQuery = (Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $serverName -Query $jobQuery | Select-Object -Property name).name
    $jobQuery | Out-File c:\logs\database\replication__sync_log.txt -Append

    foreach ($row in $jobQuery)
    {
        Write-Host "The script will start syncrhonization for $row. Is this correct?."
        $answer = (Read-Host -Prompt "Press 1 to continue. Press 2 to exit.").Trim()
        if($answer -eq "1"){ 
        $query = "USE msdb EXEC dbo.sp_start_job N'" + $row + "'"
        Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance $serverName -Query $query   
        }
        else{exit}
    }