sql server replication: Well, sort of. By default when you create a replication topology, the
publisher or source will change the subscriber or destination so that it is
a copy of the publisher and keep it synchronized after that.

You can do a no-sync subscription where you don't change the subscriber so
it is identical to the publisher, and only the changes occurring on the
publisher will be replicated to the subscriber. To get this to work you have
to take special steps however.

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Hi

When setting up a new replication, can I take 2 non identical databases and
set up the replication and all changes the differences will be updated

OR

For full consistency it is necessary to start off with identical databases

Thank you for your advice,
Samuel

Samuel,
certainly the situation where the 2 databases must be identical is the most
simple case to set up - either you initialize as per normal or do a nosync
initialization.
To make transactional replication work with schema changes, you can use
indexed views on the publisher and replicate these - and this can be
automatic or nosync also.
Cheers,
Paul Ibison SQL Server MVP, www.replicationanswers.com .