The TechNet article, "Optimizing Microsoft Office Access Applications Linked to SQL Server", recommends adding a rowversion column to SQL Server tables linked from MS Access. From the Supporting Concurrency Checks section:
Office Access automatically detects when a table contains this type of column and uses it in the WHERE clause of all UPDATE and DELETE statements affecting that table. This is more efficient than verifying that all the other columns still have the same values they had when the dynaset was last refreshed.
The nice thing is that every UPDATE/DELETE statement and bound form will benefit from this addition without having to make any changes within MS Access (aside from re-linking the tables).
I was unaware of this feature until recently. I am considering adding a named rowversion column to every table in SQL Server that I link to from MS Access. Are there any downsides I should be aware of before I do this?
Obviously there will be storage requirements and performance impacts, but I assume these will be negligible. Also, several of these tables are articles in a merge replication scenario; does that make a difference?