publisher and subscriber database differ in size (newbie question)

Hi there
I have 2 SQL servers. One of them is set up as publisher and the other as
subscriber. I have a database set up for replication so the changes gets
copied to the subscriber. I wish to use the subscriber in the event that the
publisher becomes unavaible (blue screen, hardware error, whatever)
However when I look on the disk the 2 databases differ greatly in size, the
one on the publisher is 450 Mb and the subscriber is 260 Mb.
Aren't these 2 supposed to be exactly the same size? It seems as if the
transaction log gets flushed weekly when I run a full backup of the
database, but the subscriber database is still consistently smaller.
Is this normal behaviour?
Thanks in advance for any input
Ib"Ib Schrader" <ibschrader@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ea1chVrVIHA.1184@.TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Hi there
> However when I look on the disk the 2 databases differ greatly in size,
> the one on the publisher is 450 Mb and the subscriber is 260 Mb.
Perhaps the larger database has a lot of free space and the smaller one
doesn't, or the transaction log on the subscriber is smaller as it isn't
handling the client transactions directly. Have a look at each database's
properties in Management Studio. Check the amount of free space on the
general tab, and check the size of the data files and transaction logs in
the Files tab.|||Thanks for your reply.
Should data size + available space (in the Enterprise Manager) equal size on
disk?
I am running SQL 2000 by the way, if that makes a difference.
"Leon Mayne" <leon@.rmv_me.mvps.org> wrote in message
news:53744401-9495-4913-B1BF-A19AA3850C58@.microsoft.com...
> "Ib Schrader" <ibschrader@.gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:ea1chVrVIHA.1184@.TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>> Hi there
>> However when I look on the disk the 2 databases differ greatly in size,
>> the one on the publisher is 450 Mb and the subscriber is 260 Mb.
> Perhaps the larger database has a lot of free space and the smaller one
> doesn't, or the transaction log on the subscriber is smaller as it isn't
> handling the client transactions directly. Have a look at each database's
> properties in Management Studio. Check the amount of free space on the
> general tab, and check the size of the data files and transaction logs in
> the Files tab.|||"Ib Schrader" <ibschrader@.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:OkNC2vrVIHA.5160@.TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for your reply.
> Should data size + available space (in the Enterprise Manager) equal size
> on disk?
I think Data Size is the actual size on disk inclusing the free space, but
I'm not sure.
I do remember there is a system stored procedure to give you all the details
about either the data file or log file, but I can't for the life of me
remember what it is.