The recommended approach for using groups is to first create a group, then, as you create replications, create them in the group. This saves time because you only need to set replication properties once for the group. You can also create replications first, then add replications to the group. However, any settings for the replication you are adding will be overridden by the group replication settings.
Certain conditions apply when adding a replication to a group:
All replications in the group must use the same source connection
All replications in the group must be the same type (i.e. refresh, mirroring, mirroring with initial refresh, synchronization)
If replicating from SQL Server using mirroring, all replications in the group must use the same source database.
If replicating from IBM Db2 for i/iSeries/AS400 using mirroring, all replications in the group must use the same journal for source tables.
To add a replication to a group:
In the Metadata Explorer, select the group to which you want to add a replication.
From the right mouse button menu, choose Group Properties. Make sure to disable the group before adding a new replication.
In the Group Properties dialog, check the replication that you want to include in the group.
Click OK.
If the group already contains one or more replications, the properties of the replication you are adding change to match the properties of other replications in the group.
Important!
It is mandatory to run a Refresh for the entire group once you add a new replication. This is because the Refresh is responsible for creating a baseline of the data on the target side, which subsequent mirroring operations can then update incrementally with changes captured from the source.