sql server replication: If I have a table on ServerA, and I want to do transactional
replication to ServerB, and I set up a pull subscription on ServerB,
is ServerB the distributor?

I'm trying to balance the load (we want to offload ServerA as much as
possible), and wonder how much (if anything) we save by doing the pull
from B instead of push from A. Does a pull subscription make ServerB
the distributor?

(I am running some performance tests on toy databases, but thought it
might be useful to run the questions by here, too)

There are also issues of the complexity of the configuration and doing
backups and restores and whatnot if you have pulls rather than pushes,
.... I guess.

I'm sure this is a very common situation.
Thanks for any advice.

Josh

ps - trying to load up SQLServer on some shiny new test servers is
amazing me, these things are FAST!!!!!

Pull subscriptions means that the distribution agent
works on the subscriber. It reads commands from the
distribution database. The distribution database can be
located on the publisher or a separate server. The
distribution database is written to by the log reader and
read from by the distribution agents, so a lot of work is
done on it. Most people offload work by using pull
subscriptions first and if this is not enough, then move
the distribution database to be set up on another server.
This article may help a bit:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/main
tain/tranrepl.mspx
rgds,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com

(recommended sql server 2000 replication book:
http://www.nwsu.com/0974973602p.html)

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 02:15:36 -0800, "Paul Ibison"
[quoted text, click to view]

Also at:
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sql2k_replperf_tran4.asp?frame=true

Yes, I think that after I posted the question, I read in this article
that the distributor stays with the publisher even for pull
subscriptions, moving the distributor is a separate issue.

Well, this is all a bit new to me, I'll just take this one step at a
time, leave the distributor in place until everything else is working,
then worry about it.

Thanks for your help.

Josh