Changes made to the Capture/Publisher Agent Configuration (.cab) file are not effective until they are applied. If changes were effective immediately or automatically upon start, then those changes could not be made until the production Agent is stopped for the migration. Staging the changes eliminates the risk of premature activation should the agent be stopped for unrelated production issues.
Forcing a distinct and explicit apply step, insures that such changes can be planned and prepared in advance, without putting the current production replication in jeopardy. This allows Agent maintenance to be staged outside of the production implementation window.
In order to apply changes, the agent must first be recycled using the ISPF panel or JCL containing the steps below, also found in sample member RECYCLE included in the distribution. This operation in effect pauses the agent task and permits the additions and/or modifications to the configuration to be applied. Once the agent is restarted, the updated configuration will become active.
//*----------------------------------------
//*- STOP THE AGENT
//*----------------------------------------
//STOP EXEC PGM=SQDCONF
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SQDPARMS DD *
stop /home/sqdata/db2cdc/db2cdc.cab
//*
//*----------------------------------------
//*- APPLY UPDATED CONFIGURATION FILE
//*----------------------------------------
//APPLY EXEC PGM=SQDCONF
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SQDPARMS DD *
apply /home/sqdata/db2cdc/db2cdc.cab
//*
//*----------------------------------------
//*- START THE AGENT
//*----------------------------------------
//START EXEC PGM=SQDCONF
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SQDPARMS DD *
start /home/sqdata/db2cdc/db2cdc.cab
//*