Why 'Views' need to be replicated? - sql-server

Assuming View1 is based on Table A,B and C on Server1.
Table A,B and C are replicated to Server2 using Transactional Replication.
View1 is created on Server2.
ASK:
So will View1 on both the servers reflect the same data (discounting the replication delay)?
If they do, then what are the other reasons we replicate Views?
If the script of a View is changed at Publisher, do the changes reflect on the subscriber?

So will View1 on both the servers reflect the same data (discounting the replication delay)?
Yes,the view in general queries the underlying tables
If they do, then what are the other reasons we replicate Views?
In simple terms ,if you want your view to be used by applications that access server2 you need to replicate view
If the script of a View is changed at Publisher, do the changes reflect on the subscriber?
Yes DDL Changes are supported..
From MSDN.
Replication supports a wide range of schema changes to published objects. When you make any of the following schema changes on the appropriate published object at a Microsoft SQL Server Publisher, that change is propagated by default to all SQL Server Subscribers:
ALTER TABLE
ALTER VIEW
ALTER PROCEDURE
ALTER FUNCTION
ALTER TRIGGER
ALTER TRIGGER can be used only for data manipulation language [DML] triggers because data definition language [DDL] triggers cannot be replicated.

Related

SQL Replication - Need to replicate only data on exiting tables of the subscription database

I have a specific requirement in Transactional Replication, but I am not sure whether it is achievable or not. Could you please help me out if there is any possible way to achieve the same.
Requirement:
As per the requirement, there will be two databases. One is the publication database and another is subscription database.
I want to replicate some of the tables (articles) of the publication database to the subscription database. But what I want is to replicate data only. Because I want to keep those tables (replicating tables) to always present in the subscription database, they may be the empty table initially and when replication starts, these tables may get their data from publication database.
But I don't want the replication to create these tables for me in subscription database. I want to use already created tables. They will have the same schema as publication database tables.
When you configure a publication, you can set the properties for articles. One of the article properties is called Action if name in use. You can set that to the option Keep existing object unchanged.

Trying to validate if a SQL Server data model uses temporal tables?

Looks like SQL Server 2008 and later uses the concept of "temporal tables" to manage table data history:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/tables/temporal-table-usage-scenarios
Looks like the following clause is used to accomplish this:
WITH (SYSTEM_VERSIONING = ON (HISTORY_TABLE = dbo.MyTableHistory));
Let's assume that a data model has tables TableX and a TableXHistory and I select the following context menu path to generate a DDL script of TableX:
Script Table as > CREATE to > New Query Editor Window
If the generated SQL script does not have a text reference to "HISTORY_TABLE" then can I say 100% that the history table is not managed as a temporal table? Also, would a temporal table be explicitly displayed in the standard tables directory for the data model? Is there any reason not to use temporal tables in 2018 as opposed to manually created history tables? My first impression is that anyone who creates manual history tables in 2018 is most likely out of date with SQL Server capabilities.
Temporal tables available only from 2016. Technology is not mature yet.
Temporal tables have their own Pros & Cons. Other options should be considered (classic triggers and history table, change data capture, replication, etc.)
The main disadvantages of temporal tables for me:
multiple changes made at the same time are invisible (only one row is returned)
history tables must be located at the same DB
limitation for transactional replication, merge replication is not supported
issues when system time has been changed - no way to know which update was first w/o implementing additional logic (version)
history tables can'be updated w/o disabling versioning
to get net changes you need to query the base table (which is not good).
how to detect which columns are changed? (CDC & triggers can detect that naturally, with temporal it may be very expensive)
...

DDL Statements does not replicated on SQL

I don't have much experience on SQL replication(SQL Server 2014). My client have a replication process which was created by his previous contractor. It worked well and suddenly it stopped replicating DDL statements couple of days ago. We have not done any change related to replication. When I checked data, subscriber has received up to date data. Only DDL statements have the problem. It uses transactional replication.
When I searched on web it says that the "Replicate schema changes" option need to set as true on Publication Properties.In my case it was already set to true.
Is there anyway for me to fix this and again have DDL statements to replicate as earlier?
Thank you
SQL Server Replication does support schema changes, but not all of them. In your case, CREATE PROCEDURE is not a supported schema change. Why? It's not an article yet, and not marked for replication, thus it cannot be replicated - replication has no way of knowing whether or not you would want that object replicated.
However, if you create the stored proc, then create an article for it, then issue an ALTER PROCEDURE, you will see the change replicated.
Please see article Make Schema Changes on Publication Databases:
Replication supports a wide range of schema changes to published objects. When you make any of the following schema changes on the appropriate published object at a Microsoft SQL Server Publisher, that change is propagated by default to all SQL Server Subscribers:
ALTER TABLE
ALTER TABLE SET LOCK ESCALATION should not be used if schema change replication is enabled and a topology includes SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server Compact 3.5 Subscribers.
ALTER VIEW
ALTER PROCEDURE
ALTER FUNCTION
ALTER TRIGGER
ALTER TRIGGER can be used only for data manipulation language [DML] triggers because data definition language [DDL] triggers cannot be replicated.
Please ensure you read the whole article, to be fully aware of what can be replicated, and under what circumstances.

Database Difference on publisher and subscriber

I currently have SQL Server Transactional replication running. Server A (Publisher & Distributor) to Server B (Subscriber). Everything is working great. I just need to know whether i can add a table to the subscriber only in that database? will it affect my replication? must the databases be the exact same in terms of schema etc?
I need to add a table that's not part of the publishers published articles on Server B(Subscriber).
I just need to know whether i can add a table to the subscriber only
in that database?
Yes, you can. It won't affect to the replication, but, for example, if you create table dbo.A on subscriber database first and later you'll create table with the same name and schema on publisher database you can lost data in table dbo.A on subscriber because by default new articles on the subscriber will be drop if exists within initialize process.
You can change this behavior in publication properties.
must the databases be the exact same in terms of schema etc?
No, it must not. In transaction replication you can replicate either whole tables or some columns of those tables.

How to update database on which replication is configured?

We have replication setup on a database and is working fine.
Now we want to update the database on publisher. So using installer we updated the database but we are getting errors like cannot update table as table is in use.
So how can we update the database which is part of replication?
DML changes (insert, update, delete) will work as expected and replicate to subscribers. By default schema changes (DDL) will be propagated to subscribers on synchronization, publication property #replicate_ddl must be set to true. There are some exceptions which can be found in Making Schema Changes on Publication Databases.

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