Once the secondary database is transitioned to a source database, all activity that was formerly performed on the primary machine can now be performed on the secondary machine. (This assumes, of course, that your application is installed and accessible on the secondary machine.)
Figure 17. Secondary database transitioned to source database
You can configure transition to start the secondary database automatically once the transition process completes, or you can start the database manually. The decision is up to you.
Since the secondary database is now a source database (as shown in the previous figure), the Replication server is started at the same time the secondary database is started. The Replication server will continue to make connection attempts to any configured agent. To increase the number of connection attempts that will occur, use the defer-agent-startup property. For more information about setting this property, see Server properties.
If you suspect that the primary machine will be down for an extended period of time, you can allow the Replication server to terminate due to its inability to connect to the configured agents. The Replication server can then be restarted on the primary machine when the machine is again up and running.
Once you successfully transition the secondary database from a target to a source database, all activity that was previously performed on the primary machine can be performed on the secondary machine, as shown in the following figure.
Figure 18. Secondary database activity
Activity can continue for as long as you find necessary. You should, however, begin to consider when to initiate the process required to move production processing back to your primary computer.
