Step 14.15 – Setup the Subscription
Once finished, the Publisher will be created. Under the Replication → Local Publications folder, you should see the publication you just created. Next, we need to setup the Subscription. There are two scenarios when setting up a Subscription. If the Secondary SQL Server is a Standard or Enterprise Edition, then the subscription can be created through the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) with a wizard similar to the Publisher creation. This scenario is very simple and is not discussed here as the wizard is straight forward. For information on how to create either a push or a pull Subscription through SSMS, visit either of these TechNet articles.
The difference between a Push and a Pull subscription is simply a matter of where the merge processing occurs. In a Push scenario, the publisher pushes the data down to the Subscriber. In a Pull scenario, the Subscriber pulls data from the Publisher. The processing difference in a QMS deployment is insignificant, so it really doesn’t matter whether you setup a push or a pull scenario. When the Secondary server is SQL Server Express, the Subscription must be setup as a Push Subscription. In this scenario, the deployment is much more complex than using a wizard, so it is described in greater detail below.
With SQL Express, the only way to create the Subscription is through SQL. Microsoft provides a SQL script, which is used to set up the Subscription.
Details of this process can be found on the Microsoft website here: