A Guide to Data Replication tools
Businesses today generate huge amounts of data and it is necessary to be able to access them round the clock. Additionally, outdated data have to be replaced periodically. All these activities require new and agile techniques of which SQL server data replication tools are considered to be one of the most effective. First, what is SQL server data replication? It is a technology that copies and distributes data and database from one source to a target after which it synchronizes data between databases so that its consistency and integrity is maintained. The process can be programmed to run continually or at pre-determined intervals. Types of SQL server data replication tools # Snapshot Replication – The tool takes a “snapshot” of the data on one server and replicates it to another server or database in the same server. After the first sync snapshot, the data in published tables can be periodically refreshed according to a pre-set schedule. Between the scheduled refreshes, the data on the publisher might not be the same as the data on the subscriber.
# Transactional Replication – Here, data is copied from the publisher to the subscriber(s) once and subsequently transactions are delivered to the subscriber(s) as when transactions take place on the publisher. The initial copy of the data is transported as in snapshot replication in the SQL server. # Merge Replication – This SQL server data replication tool combines data from multiple sources into a centralized database. Unlike transactional replication, this tool allows modification of the same data on publishers and subscribers, even though subscribers may be offline and not connected to the network. These are some of the important tools of SQL server data replication