Replication Server uses the relational database model to represent data in tables that have a fixed number of columns and a varying number of rows. Each table you want to replicate must have one or more columns that can be used as a primary key to uniquely identify each row.
Replication Server lets you define the data and stored procedures that you want to replicate at remote databases, as well as letting you specify the destination databases themselves. As part of design and planning, you designate source and destination databases for your replication system and create the routes that replicated data follows from one Replication Server to another.
In general, a source database contains primary data and may be called the primary database, while a destination database contains replicate data and may be called the replicate database. Depending on your implementation, the same database may contain both primary and replicate data. Transactions or stored procedure executions are replicated from primary to replicate databases. Stored procedure executions may also be replicated from replicate to primary databases.
See “Replication Server basic primary copy model” for details.
