What impact does SQL transactional Replication have on the transaction log file

Question

Im setting up SQL Server Transactional replication that will be continuously running. The distributor for this setup at the server receiving the data

Should i have any concerns with transaction log file sizes if this is running continuously?

Answer 1

Considerations for Transactional Replication: Transaction Log Space

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For each database that will be published using transactional replication, ensure that the transaction log has enough space allocated. The transaction log of a published database might require more space than the log of an identical unpublished database, because the log records are not truncated until they have been moved to the distribution database.

If the distribution database is unavailable, or if the Log Reader Agent is not running, the transaction log of a publication database continues to grow. The log cannot be truncated past the oldest published transaction that has not been delivered to the distribution database. We recommend that you set the transaction log file to auto grow so that the log can accommodate these circumstances. For more information, see CREATE DATABASE (Transact-SQL) and ALTER DATABASE (Transact-SQL).

Disk Space for the Distribution Database

Ensure that you have enough disk space to store replicated transactions in the distribution database:

If you do not make snapshot files available to Subscribers immediately (which is the default): transactions are stored until they have been replicated to all Subscribers or until the retention period has been reached, whichever is shorter.

If you create a transactional publication and make the snapshot files available to Subscribers immediately: transactions are stored until they have been replicated to all Subscribers or until the Snapshot Agent runs and creates a new snapshot, whichever is longer. If the elapsed time between Snapshot Agent runs is greater than the maximum distribution retention period for the publication, which has a default of 72 hours, transactions older than the retention period are removed from the distribution database. For more information, see Subscription Expiration and Deactivation.