Modifying Schema on secondary replica

Question

I am looking for a solution for a secondary replica change. I have a vendor database that uses memory optimized tables. I am trying to find a solution that would allow the In Memory tables be changed to On Disk tables in a secondary replica for external integrations and reporting.

Can anyone think of a way to accomplish this?

SQL 2016 EE

Answer 1

Due to the "availability-groups" tag and the other terms you have used, I am assuming you are referring to a database in an availability group.

In short, the answer is no, you cannot do this. The secondary database is read-only since it is a replica of the database on the primary. If you removed the target replica from the AG, made the modification, and then tried to add it back to the AG, replication from the primary would no longer work. The solution you are suggesting is 110% not possible with availability groups.

Since you can't modify the schema of the secondary replica, you'll have to start with a completely separate database for the reporting and keep it in sync with replication or an ETL process. A lot more information would be required for anyone to be able to determine what would be the best solution.