A Replication Agent transfers transaction information, which represents changes made to data schemas and execution of stored procedures, from a primary data server to a Replication Server, for distribution to other (replicate) databases.
In Adaptive Server Enterprise, an embedded Replication Agent is provided with the database management system software. The Replication Agent for ASE is called Replication Agent, and it is an Adaptive Server thread.
For non-ASE data servers, Sybase provides Replication Agent products:
Replication Agent for DB2 UDB – provides primary data server support for IBM DB2 UDB servers that run on IBM z/OS platforms.
Replication Agent – provides primary data server support for DB2 UDB, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle data servers that run on Linux, UNIX, or Microsoft Windows platforms.
Replication Agent for SQL Anywhere – is designed specifically for high-performance OLTP (online transaction processing) and mixed-workload enterprise computing. It is designed for embedded database applications, mobile computing applications, and workgroup server applications.
Replication Agents read the primary database transaction log. 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.