During my presentation at Pass Summit 2015, I announced that you can now configure Azure SQL DB as a subscriber of SQL Server Transactional Replication. This new capacity of Transactional Replication is available starting with the following versionsupdates of SQL Server:
- Community Technology Preview (CTP) 3.0 of SQL Server 2016
- SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update 3
- SQL Server 2014 RTM Cumulative Update 10
- SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 Cumulative Update 8
This enables two main scenarios:
- Migrate your data to Azure SQL DB with no downtime.
- Bridge SQL Server on-premises/on VMs to Azure SQL DB.
The way we enable Azure SQL DB as a subscriber is by extending existing logic of Transactional Replication. From the perspective of your experience with it, the only difference you’ll notice is when you create a subscriber: you give the URL to your Azure SQL DB instead of giving the name of a server or an instance. Because we designed the feature so you have a seamless experience, and you already know about Transactional Replication, the learning curve to use this capacity is 0. It will be very easy and quick for you to start replicating your data to Azure SQL DB.
How does it work? There is “no replication” service per say in Azure SQL DB. The actual replication of data is performed through the Distribution agents.
The chart below shows the architecture from a high level.
Find more details at the following links:
- Setting up Transactional Replication
- Azure DB Transactional Replication described on an episode of Data Exposed
- Migrating a SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database
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Thanks and enjoy.
