SQL Replication

SQL replication is a process for sharing/distributing data between different databases and synchronizing between those databases. You can use SQL replication to distribute data to a variety of network points like other database servers, mobile users, etc. You can perform the replication over many different kinds of networks and this won't affect the end result.

In every SQL replication there are 2 main players called Publisher and Subscriber. The Publisher is the replication end point that supplies the data and the replication Subscriber is the replication end point that uses the data from the Publisher. Depending on the replication architecture a replication can have one or more Publishers and of course any replication will have one or more Subscribers.

MS SQL Server offers several main replication types. The Transactional replication is usually used when there's need to integrate data from several different locations, offloading batch processing, and in data warehousing scenarios.

Another replication type is the Snapshot replication. The Snapshot replication is commonly performed when a full database refresh is appropriate or as a starting point for transactional or merge replications.

The third important SQL replication type is the Merge replication. The Merge replication is used whenever there is a possibility for a data conflicts across distributed server applications.