The basic replication scenario is a central publisher replicating data to any number of subscribers. The publication server is the primary owner of the replicated data, and the subscription server will usually treat this as read-only data. (Note that this means the data should be treated as read-only for the users of the subscription databases. Do not set the Read Only database option, or that subscription database will be unable to receive replicated data.) In this scenario, the publication server also acts as the distribution server.
This scenario might be used, for example, to distribute master data, lists, or reports from a central server to any number of subscription servers.
For information about implementing this scenario, see Chapter 14, Setting Up Replication.