Introduction

This chapter covers the Microsoft-specified objectives with regard to the design and development of applications that involve replication. Many scenarios on the exam will relate to the efficient, appropriate design of a database for replicating data from one server to another. This was touched on in the replication overview provided in Chapter 3, "Physical Database Design."

The exam requires you to choose the appropriate technology and also asks about particular aspects of replication. It is imperative, therefore, that you have a complete understanding of what replication offers in contrast to other aspects of SQL Server.

You need to fully understand three separate areas of replication: physical replication models, types of replication, and replication processing. Each topic is covered in detail in this chapter so that you can understand the replication process completely.

Replication is the process by which data and database objects are distributed from SQL Server to other database engines that reside across your enterprise; this data can be distributed to other SQL Server databases or even non-SQL Server databases such as Oracle and others. To help you become more acquainted with the general format of replication, this chapter looks at SQL Server's implementation of the Publisher/Subscriber metaphor , which is a metaphor consisting of a Publisher, Subscriber, and Distributor that forms the basis of replication. The various types of replication available, and how to implement them in SQL Server, are covered later in this chapter.