1. Replication Magic: Initializing From Backup Robert L Davis

2. Who am I?

3. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup  Background  Use Cases & Misconceptions  Initializing from Log Backups  Initializing from Filegroup Backups

4. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup  Background  Introduced in SQL Server 2005  Limited adoption for VLDBs due to lack of native compression  Should be widely used for VLDBs  Highly flexible

5. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup  Use Cases & Misconceptions  VLDBs  Myth: Cannot use compression in SQL Server 2005  Myth: Must initialize with a full backup  Partial Database Replication  Myth: Must restore the whole database and then delete unwanted tables

6. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup  Initializing from Log Backups  Use case: set up log shipping then convert to transactional replication  Books Online correctly states: “… any recent backup can be used if it was taken after the publication was enabled for initialization with a backup.”

7. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup  Initializing from Filegroup Backups  Replicating select tables  Books Online incorrectly states: “A backup contains an entire database; therefore each subscription database will contain a complete copy of the publication database when it is initialized”  Can restore simply select filegroups  Partial database availability is an Enterprise-only feature

8. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup

9. Q&A

10. Replication Magic: Initializing from Backup Thank You! Slide deck and code samples will be posted to my blog later tonight: www.sqlsoldier.com