Posted by Anthony Paul on 04/17/07 18:03

Hello everyone,

I am involved in a scenario where there is a huge (SQL Server 2005)
production database containing tables that are updated multiple times
per second. End-user reports need to be generated against the data in
this database, and so the powers-that-be came to the conclusion that a
reporting database is necessary in order to offload report processing
from production; of course, this means that data will have to be
replicated to the reporting database. However, we do not need all of
the data in the production database, and perhaps a filtering criteria
can be established where only certain rows are replicated over to the
reporting database as they're inserted (and possibly updated/deleted).
The current though process is that the programmers designing the
queries/reports will know exactly what data they need from production
and be able to modify the replication criteria as needed. For example,
programmer A might write a report where the data he needs can be
expressed in a simple replication criteria for table T where column X
= "WOOD" and column Y = "MAHOGANY". Programmer B might come along a
month later and write a report whose relies on the same table T where
column X = "METAL" and column Z in (12, 24, 36). Programmer B will
have to modify Programmer A's replication criteria in such a way as to
accomodate both reports, in this case something like "Copy rows from
table T where (col X = "WOOD" and col Y = "MAHOGANY") or (col X =
"METAL" and col Z in (12, 24, 36))". The example I gave is really
trivial of course but is sufficient to give you an idea of what the
current thought-process is.

I assume that this is a requirement that many of you may have
encountered in the past and I am wondering what solutions you were
able to come up with. Personally, I believe that the above method is
prone to error (in this case the use of triggers to specify
replication criteria) and I'd much rather use replication services to
copy tables in their entirety. However, this does not seem to be an
option in my case due to the sheer size of certain tables. Is there
anything out there that performs replication based on complex
programmer defined criteria? Are triggers a viable alternative? Any
alternative out-of-the-box solutions?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Regards!

Anthony

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