You do not need to use replication definitions with warm standby applications. However, you can use them to control the flow of information to the standby database—even though no subscriptions are needed.
You can create replication definitions just for replication to the standby database or use existing replication definitions for this purpose.
Use send standby in any form to replicate transaction data into the standby database using this replication definition. Replication Server uses the replication definition’s primary key and minimal columns setting.
Use send standby or send standby all columns to send all columns in the table to a standby database.
Use send standby replication definition columns to send only the columns specified in the replication definition to a standby database.
If you omit send standby, another replication definition may be used in replicating data for this table to the standby database, or no replication definition may be used.
create replication definition publishers_ws with primary at LDS.pubs2 with all tables named 'publishers' (pub_id char(4), pub_name varchar(40), state char(2)) primary key (pub_id) send standby replication definition columns replicate minimal columns
If a replication definition already exists for the same primary table and is marked for use by the standby, creating a new replication definition using send standby (or altering another replication definition) unmarks the previous replication definition as being used by the standby.
See Replication Server Administration Guide Volume 2 > Manage Warm Standby Applications > Use Replication Definitions and Subscriptions for more information about using replication definitions with warm standby applications.