Question : SQL 2005 log shipping vs replication question.

Hello Experts,

I have a primary site in Chicago that hosts my main application database (200GB). We have another instance in our California office and use SQL safe backup and log shipping to get the data back to a “mirror” copy of production if you will.

We have a test and Dev environment in this office that we refresh with this process as well. There are additional sql jobs that run after the restore to setup permissions and such as these environments are in different domains.

Internally at our CA office our DB report writers often need to run their reports against the mirror of production but their jobs and queries will often alter the copy of production. This makes the model not work well because of the log shipping piece and the database being in read only mode.

Would it be best to set up replication instead and have a distribution database that subscribes to my “mirror” instance then set up other subscribers and let the report writers have at that instance? I’m not too familiar with the pros and cons of log shipping vs. replication, or other options.

I would love to hear suggestions or ideas on how best to design this environment.

Answer : SQL 2005 log shipping vs replication question.

There is a useful article here:

http://shop.duxtel.com.au/article_info.php?articles_id=18

Cheers.