Sql-server – How to Properly shutdown and disassemble SQL Database Replication

I'll throw an answer. The physical overhead of a new replication should not be too big, on an existing replicator. The more difficult part of a replication is the configuration and the monitoring.

You said that right now you have replication only to the reporting server, and you actually "...like to have replicated to our various production databases around the world", so you'll have subscribers all over the world for this new database.

This means you'll have to establish many physical connection between the home server and those new ones (firewall, permissions, SQL Server installation ..etc). You'll have new replications to monitor, new jobs to check, new logs to verify...etc.

In the case of a small database I'd go with a simpler case of copying it's data: just copy the backup over the wire and restore in the new places, use log shipping, anything that would not require cumbersome monitoring and configuration.

I just reviewed the replication on one of my clients systems and I see similar linked servers both on the publisher and the distributor. In my case the linked servers are all setup using the "Be made using the login's current security context".

If you've got the linked servers setup using a specific security context that's probably because the machines aren't on the same domain. If they are, and the rights are setup correctly you can try changing things. The linked servers should only be used when making changes to the replication configuration so if there's a problem you may not see it until later.