A database snapshot in SQL Server provides an instant, read-only view of your data at a specific point in time without blocking the live workload. This post explores how snapshots interact with high-availability technologies—Always On Availability Groups, log shipping, and transactional replication—highlighting that creating a snapshot is always safe but restoring it severs existing sync mechanisms. You’ll learn the steps required to roll back to a snapshot, including AG reseeding, log-shipping reinitialization, or replication re-initialization, and why planning for these operations is essential. The post also covers practical tips on monitoring sparse-file growth and choosing between snapshots and full backups for longer-term retention.
Category: Replication
Combining Always On Availability Groups with Peer-to-Peer Replication
Starting with SQL Server 2019 CU13, databases participating in a peer-to-peer replication configuration can now be part of an Always On availability group. This integration is flexible—you are not required to have all members of the replication configuration within an AG. You can mix and match AG and non-AG databases within your replication setup, significantly improving the availability and scalability of your configurations.
Mastering Partition Switching in Transactional Replication
Learn how to effectively manage partition switching in SQL Server transactional replication environments. This guide covers key properties such as @allow_partition_switch and @replicate_partition_switch, the benefits and challenges of using partition switching, and important considerations for ensuring consistency and performance. We also discuss unsupported scenarios and provide best practices for setting up partition switching in your replicated databases.