To subscribe means to agree to receive a replica of a publication or an article. A destination database on a Subscriber subscribes to replicated data from a publication database on a Publisher.
When setting up a subscription, you can perform either a push subscription or a pull subscription. The type of subscription you choose is determined by the publication settings and who performs the subscription process.
A push subscription is performed while a Publisher is being administered (centralized administration). As part of the process of creating or managing a publication, subscriptions are created by “pushing” out a replica of a publication to one or more Subscribers.
A pull subscription is performed while a Subscriber is being administered (decentralized administration). A subscription is created by “pulling” in a replica of a publication from a Publisher. You can also create a special type of pull subscription: anonymous subscriptions. Anonymous subscriptions are not registered at the Publisher, and can be used for Internet applications. Pull or anonymous subscriptions must be enabled at the Publisher, but are created by the Subscriber.
After a subscription is set up, the publication and destination tables must be initially synchronized. Synchronization makes the table schema and the table data in the destination database identical to the table data in the publication database. Other tables can also exist in the destination database. The schema of the entire destination database need not be identical to that of the publication database.
When you set up a subscription, Microsoft® SQL Server™ performs initial synchronization by default automatically when the subscription is created. However, you can also specify that synchronization occurs at scheduled times or that no synchronization occurs.