You can choose between two agent startup modes for OpenEdge Replication: immediate agent startup or deferred agent startup.

The immediate agent startup mode requires that the OpenEdge Replication agents start before the length of time you set in the connect time-out agent property has expired. The connect time-out specifies how many seconds the OpenEdge Replication agent will wait for connection from the OpenEdge Replication server before the replication agent shuts itself down.

The deferred agent startup mode allows the source database and the OpenEdge Replication server to start without connecting to an agent. This startup mode is useful if you need to create a target database from an online backup of the source database. The advantage is that you can get your source database up and running much sooner.

Keep in mind that if the database is large and backups are time consuming, you may want to consider deferred agent startup rather than immediate agent startup. Deferred agent startup allows online backups, which will minimize the downtime of the database. For more information, see Set up the OpenEdge Replication databases and Set up the source database with an online backup .

You can also alternate between startup modes from session to session.

For details about starting the agent in either mode, see Use the immediate agent startup mode and Use the deferred agent startup mode .