Creating Subscriptions

A subscription defines the data that is to be replicated from a particular source object to a particular destination. The subscription is managed by the Replicator Service, which is connected to a SQL Server control database.

The Replicator Manager includes an Add Subscription Wizard to help you define subscriptions. You can use the Add Subscription Wizard to define a snapshot subscription, which performs a full refresh of the source data to the destination.

SQDR Plus optionIf SQDR Plus is installed at the source you also can use the Add Subscription Wizard to define an incremental replication subscription. Incremental subscriptions perform a baseline replication against which changes are tracked, and update the destination data as required to keep it synchronized with the source data. The topic Defining Incremental Replication Subscriptions describes how incremental subscriptions differ from snapshot subscriptions.

If you need to replicate several objects from the same source, you can use the Add Subscription Wizard to create multiple subscriptions at once. The Add Subscription Wizard allows you to create a new group to contain the subscriptions, or add the new subscriptions to an existing group. Subscriptions that perform incremental replication must belong to a group, although the group can have only one member subscription or many subscriptions. Creating a Group of Subscriptions describes the benefits of running subscriptions in a group and the methods for creating a group.

To start the Add Subscription Wizard:

  1. In the Replicator Manager main window, select the appropriate source, or add a new source if the desired source is not already defined.

  2. Select the Subscriptions folder beneath the appropriate source, then right-click and select Insert Subscription.

The Add Subscription Wizard launches to help you define what data you want to replicate. After you save the subscription you can select it and execute the Properties command to set additional properties or change existing properties.