The primary server requires almost no additional overhead. You should already be
backing up transaction logs, and the secondary servers initiate the file copy. That puts
a slight load on the primary server??™s networking resources in general, but not on SQL
Server directly.
CHAPTER 6 n MAINTAINING A WARM STANDBY SERVER VIA LOG SHIPPING 145
Standby Databases Are Accessible
Another great feature of log shipping is that you can place the standby servers in standby
recovery mode. While in this mode, a standby database is able to restore additional transaction
log backups. Also, you can access it as a read-only database. Using log shipping in
this manner is a great way to create reporting databases that have near to real-time data,
especially if you have reporting needs for the same data in different physical locations.
Drawbacks of Log Shipping
Does log shipping sound too good to be true? It is. Like everything else, it has its limitations.
Some of these limitations are major, which is why log shipping is often overlooked
for more robust solutions.
Data Loss
By design, log shipping almost guarantees data loss if the primary server is lost.
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