SQL Server 2005 Replication and different indexes on the subscriber

Question

We have SQL Server database setup. We are setting up a replication scenarios where we have one publisher and on subscriber. The subscriber will be used as a reporting platform so that we can run all the BI queries that we need and have to hit the server that is reciving all the data from our clients. The subscriber is set to pull data in from the distributer.

We don't have many indexes on the publisher db, but we will need them on the reporting server (i.e subscriber).

My Question is: Will SQL Server a) allow this scenario, noting that no changes on the subscriber are pushed back the the publisher. b) if a snapshot is run I am presuming it will overwrite our indexes, can I stop this from happening? c) is this a wise course of action.

Thanks.

Paul Kinlan,

http://www.topicala.com/ http://www.thecompanything.com/

Answer 1

The scenario you explain is a common one and one of the benefits of using replication. No changes or indexes you create on the subscriber will go to the publisher as it is a one way process. If you have to re-run the snapshot agent for some reason and re-initialize the subscriber than you will need to re-create your indexes on the subscriber. There are alot of things you can do to minimize the need to re-initialize the subscriber but some of them require some manual steps. Generally if you keep all of your index creation scripts for the subscriber up to date it usually isn't a big deal to re-run them if needed.