There are several pieces of information you require to create a replication definition.
The name of the replication definition.
The names of the primary and replicate tables.
Replication Server assumes that the replication definition name is the name of both the source and destination tables, unless you specify differently.
To use table names containing spaces or special characters, enable quoted identifiers support.
The name of the data server and database where the primary table is located.
The column names and datatypes that you want to copy. You can copy all or a subset of the primary table’s columns. The replicate column names and datatypes are the same as the primary column names and datatypes, unless you specify differently.
To use column names containing spaces or special characters, enable quoted identifiers support.
The primary key—one or more columns that uniquely identify each row in the source table.
A primary key cannot include encrypted columns, or columns with text, unitext, image, rawobject, or rawobject in-row datatypes. See Datatypes in the Replication Server Reference Manual for datatypes that Replication Server supports.
The names of the owners of the primary and replicate tables. The default table owner is the Database Owner (dbo).
The names of searchable columns—columns that can be specified in the where clause of a subscription to indicate the rows from the primary table to copy into the replicate table.
For a warm standby application, whether to use the replication definition to copy data into a standby database and whether to copy all of the table’s columns or just the columns in the definition’s column list.
Whether to copy only the minimal number of columns required for update and delete operations. This option may enhance overall system performance.
Replication options for text, unitext, image, and rawobject columns.
Column-level datatype translations.