Will replication adversely affect Sharepoint?

Question

We have a SQL 2008 R2 instance with several sharepoint databases in it. If I configure replication with these databases as publishers, will that break or adversely affect the sharepoint? The purpose of the subscriber will be for remote backups. Thanks.

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Chuck

Answer 1

SQL Server Replication isn't supported with SharePoint.  You might be able to get it to work but it's probably not worth the hassle.

You might want to try the SharePoint Forums for ideas on remote backups with SharePoint.  I believe there are some third-party tools that are more SharePoint-friendly for things like this.

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Hope this helps.
www.sqlrepl.com

Answer 2

Sharepoint doesnot support any type of Replication , It will impact the performance and wouold not be possible to replicate articles.

Answer 3

You can successfully replicate Sharepoint databases using snapshot or transactional replication.

However what is your goal in trying to do this?

Most administration of Sharepoint has to be used using the configuration tools.

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Answer 4

My goal is backing up a remote sharepoint database via a local replica.

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Chuck

Answer 5

You are better of using a native SQL Server backup and restore it on a remote machine and then use configuration tools to repoint Sharepoint to the new database.

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looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Administration? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-2008-Management-Administration/dp/067233044X looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search? http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Full-Text-Search-Server-2008/dp/1430215941

Answer 6

Just so that I am clear, my idea of replicating the remote SharePoint DB to a local server and backing it up locally should work with no adverse effect on the remote DB. And if necessary I can restore the remote DB from the local backup. Is that correct?

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Chuck

Answer 7

Chuck why can't you simply backup the local SharePoint database? Is it a space issue? If so you can backup across the network.

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looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Administration? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-2008-Management-Administration/dp/067233044X looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search? http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Full-Text-Search-Server-2008/dp/1430215941

Answer 8

That's what my plan is. The remote database will be the publisher. The local database will be the subscriber. I will back up the local (subscriber) database.

The backups must be done on the subscriber as that's where the SAN space, tape drives, and responsible personnel are all located.

The publisher and subscriber are connected via a WAN which is nearly saturated. Its got enough bandwidth for replication but not for running backups over. Especially considering there are > 1000 other databases being backed up the same way... replication over WAN, subscriber gets backed up. The difference here is that this is the first SharePoint DB that I want to backup this way and I just want to be sure that replication will not break it.

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Chuck

Answer 9

I would try to ship differential database backups. The bandwidth of this should be less than replication (unless you do reindexing).

If you do use replication you will need to confirm that the subscriber can work as a SharePoint database. I've had surprises doing similar things to this, ie missing indexes, constraints, identity columns, etc.

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looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Administration? http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Server-2008-Management-Administration/dp/067233044X looking for a book on SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search? http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Full-Text-Search-Server-2008/dp/1430215941