Replication Agent Functionality

Replication Agent supports transaction replication from a primary database through Replication Server.

Replication Agent runs as a standalone application, independent of the primary data server, the primary Replication Server, and any other replication system components.

Replication Agents can reside on the same host machine as the primary database or any other replication system component, or they can reside on a machine separate from any other replication system components that has network access to the primary database. Replication Agents must execute on a machine that has access to the transaction logs for the primary database. For Replication Agent for UDB, this is accomplished using the IBM DB2 client.

For Replication Agent for Oracle, this is accomplished using Oracle Log Miner or Oracle XStream. Replication Agent for Microsoft reads the Microsoft SQL Server transaction log file.

You can completely configure, manage, and monitor a Replication Agent instance using any Open Client™ application that is capable of communicating with the Tabular Data Stream™ (TDS) protocol (such as isql).

• Replication Agent Instances
  You must create an instance of Replication Agent for each primary database from which you want to replicate transactions. Each Replication Agent instance is an independent application with its own configuration and log files, administration port, and connections to the primary database and the primary Replication Server.
• Replication Agent Communications
  Replication Agent uses the Java Database Connectivity (JDBC™) protocol for all communications. However, some supported databases require the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) protocol. When connecting to a primary database, Replication Agent connects to either the JDBC driver or the JDBC/ODBC bridge provided by the database vendor.
• Replication Agent Components
  Replication Agent consists of a set of components that work together to perform all the operations required to propagate transactions from a primary database for replication.
• Multiple Replication Agents
  Replication Agent for Oracle supports the use of multiple Replication Agent instances with Replication Server Multi-Path™ Replication.