I have an environment that I need to be able to replicate (somehow) a read-only database to a live/online database.
From the source database (database1) I'm using "manual" log shipping to database2; logs are pulled manually to the database2 server then restored, at that point the database2 is left in standby mode, so that an hour later more logs can be restored.
From there, I need to be able to somehow replicate database2 to database3 where the database can be read and/or manipulated...without having access to database1 server.
I know that some people have used a third party tool such as SQL Examiner, but I'd really need to be able to do this without using a third party tool.
Is there any way of doing this? Can I use Availability Groups or something such as that?
Database2 is on a VM on the Azure platform...if that makes any difference in a possible solution. Also, I'm using SQL 2014.
Thanks.