Like stateless, an AppServer running in state-free operating mode does not dedicate any AppServer agent to a client connection. Also, like stateless operating mode, all AppServer agents remain generally available to execute remote procedure and user-defined function requests from all client applications. However, unlike stateless, an AppServer running in state-free mode is never physically connected to a single client (except for bound connections, as described in this section). Instead, clients are logically connected (bound) to the application service that the AppServer provides, and the AppServer broker serves, not as a physical connection point, but as a request listener.
When a client wants to send a remote procedure or user-defined function request for the specified application service, OpenEdge forwards the request to an AppServer that supports that application service. The AppServer broker, which is listening for requests from any client on the network, receives and dispatches the request for execution to any available AppServer agent in its agent pool. When the agent completes execution of the request, it returns the results to the broker, which passes them back to the client, and the agent becomes available to service another request that might be received and passed to it by the broker.
Note: The name of this operating mode ("state-free") refers to the lack of any context maintained by AppServer sessions between client requests. The state-free operating mode does support limited context management as described in the following sections. However, the benefits of the state-free operating mode can degrade significantly if you attempt any session context management in this mode.
