A replica database can be populated by subscribing to a publication from a master database, but because data is sent in one logical chunk, this method is problematic for replicas that are larger than 2 GB in size (unless the data is BLOB data). Downloading large amounts of data might take a substantial amount of time, and there are limitations in sending large amounts of data in a single Advanced Replication message.

Therefore, when creating replica databases that are greater than 2 GB in size (but not due to the size of BLOB data), use the EXPORT SUBSCRIPTION and IMPORT statements. You can export any subscription from a master database to a file and later import that file to a replica. For details, see Managing data with synchronization bookmarks.