Best way to setup a remote (across country) read only reporting database:mirroring or log shipping?

  • Excuse me if this is a foolish question but I'm not clear on some of the differences after reading TechNet docs.

    Mirroring with async seems like a good option for pushing data from production across the country to a read only copy.

    Log shipping also seems like a good option as well.

    The problem is our database is rather large and copying it over the wire takes about two days.

    So I can get a full backup, send it over the wire, and then send a few differentials, but is one option over the other going to be better with bringing the sync'd read only copy online and keeping it somewhat updated?

    I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that replication is not ideal for this scenario as my goal is to just keep a distant server in read only mode up to date with a production OLTP database.

  • Maxer (10/16/2014)


    Excuse me if this is a foolish question but I'm not clear on some of the differences after reading TechNet docs.

    Mirroring with async seems like a good option for pushing data from production across the country to a read only copy.

    Log shipping also seems like a good option as well.

    They are both acceptable although LS can have some latency based on the frequency of log restores

    Maxer (10/16/2014)


    The problem is our database is rather large and copying it over the wire takes about two days.

    So I can get a full backup, send it over the wire, and then send a few differentials, but is one option over the other going to be better with bringing the sync'd read only copy online and keeping it somewhat updated?

    I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that replication is not ideal for this scenario as my goal is to just keep a distant server in read only mode up to date with a production OLTP database.

    Bear in mind that if you want to use mirroring with async and readable then you'll need to create regular snapshots on the mirrored database. Both async and snapshot require enterprise edition or datacentre edition of SQL Server.

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  • If you choose mirroring, you need to understand something about the read requirements, as to how up to date the data needs to be.

    If latency is an issue and there will be long running queries run against the read only copy, you need to come up with a strategy for managing rolling snapshots and how clients reference them.

    If there are substantial index rebuilds being done on the primary, then you may have substantial latency during and after those times.

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