A Replication Agent transfers transaction information, which represents changes made to data, from a primary data server to a Replication Server, for distribution to other (replicate) databases.
For Sybase data servers (such as Adaptive Server Enterprise), an embedded Replication Agent is provided with the database management system software. The Replication Agent for Adaptive Server Enterprise is called RepAgent, and it is an Adaptive Server thread.
For non-Sybase data servers, Sybase provides two Replication Agent products:
Replication Agent for DB2 UDB for OS/390 – provides primary data server support for DB2 Universal Database servers that run on OS/390 platforms
Sybase Replication Agent – provides primary data server support for DB2 Universal Database, Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle data servers that run on Linux, UNIX, or Microsoft Windows platforms
Replication Agents read a transaction log and transfer log records for replicated tables and replicated stored procedures to the Replication Server that manages the primary database.
Replication Agents for DB2 Universal Database (on all platforms) and Oracle read the Primary Database transaction log. For Sybase Replication Agents for Informix and Microsoft SQL Server, it uses its own proprietary transaction log, which consists of database objects created in the primary database.
The primary Replication Server reconstructs the transaction and forwards it to replicate sites that have subscriptions for the data.
A Replication Agent is required for each database that contains primary data or for each database where replicated stored procedures are executed. A replicate database that contains only replicated data, and that has no replicated stored procedures, does not require a Replication Agent.
For more information about Replication Agents, see “Replication Agent” and “Primary data servers”.
