Question

I have to setup a database for reporting, and I chose transactional replication for that because it seems the easiest way (setup has to be easy, i will have to explain to customers how to do that). Now for that i do need a distributor database, and i found information that it should not be on the publisher. As there will only be one subscriber, and the performance of the publisher matters alot and the performance of the subscriber does not, I was thinking of setting up the distributor on the subscriber. Does that make sense and is that even possible?

Answer 1

Flo,

Yes, this is a popular configuration. You’ll want to configure distribution on the Subscriber and have it act as a remote Distributor for the Publisher. After configuring distribution on the Subscriber and creating the publication on the Publisher, you can then create the subscription on the Subscriber.

Remote Distributors are covered in Configuring Distribution and in How to: Configure Publishing and Distribution (SQL Server Management Studio).

Hope this helps.