Sometimes, real-work scenarios are the best teachers. Without going into too many details or specifics of how we got here, this is my problem:

I need to get a “as near real-time” Read-Only copy of one of my largest production databases on a specific server, in another data center, on another subnet, with an entirely different active directory domain. I have to replicate Cluster A/AG-A1 to Server B with read only access. Here is the game plan to attemp to make this possible.

• Data Center A –> Domain A –> Cluster A –> 6 nodes –> SQL 2022 Enterprise –> 3 AGs — 8 TB of databases
• Data Center B –> Domain B –> Server B –> SQL 2022 Standard –> 4 TB of existing databases

Here are the knowns: full way trust between Domain A and B. Networking has full control over both subnets and VMWare in both data centers allow easy cloning, snap shots, etc. to ensure I don’t truly messup the production servers.

1. Upgrade Server B to Enterprise
2. Create Clusterless AG on Server B
3. Create Distributed AG between AG-A1 and AG-B with AG-B being Read Only

Luckily I am able to POC this toplogy to enusre that it is going to work. So we cloned Server B and I created a new Cluster A for just this purpose. I hope to document all my steps in making this happen.