<title>Initial Snapshot</title>
<para>
The initial data in existing subscribed tables are snapshotted and
- copied in a parallel instance of a special kind of apply process.
- This process will create its own replication slot and copy the existing
- data. As soon as the copy is finished the table contents will become
- visible to other backends. Once existing data is copied, the worker
- enters synchronization mode, which ensures that the table is brought
- up to a synchronized state with the main apply process by
- any changes that happened during the initial data copy using standard
- logical replication. During this synchronization phase, the changes
- are applied and committed in the same order as they happened on the
- publisher. Once synchronization is done, control of the
- replication of the table is given back to the main apply process where
- replication continues as normal.
+ copied in a parallel instances of a special kind of apply process.
+ These special apply processes are dedicated table synchronization
+ workers, spawned for each table to be synchronized. Each table
+ synchronization process will create its own replication slot and
+ copy the existing data. As soon as the copy is finished the table
+ contents will become visible to other backends. Once existing data
+ is copied, the worker enters synchronization mode, which ensures
+ that the table is brought up to a synchronized state with the main
+ apply process by any changes that happened during the
+ initial data copy using standard logical replication. During this
+ synchronization phase, the changes are applied and committed in the same
+ order as they happened on the publisher. Once synchronization is done,
+ control of the replication of the table is given back to the main apply
+ process where replication continues as normal.
</para>
<note>
<para>
when copying the existing table data.
</para>
</note>
+ <note>
+ <para>
+ If a table synchronization worker fails during copy, the apply worker
+ detects the failure and respawns the table synchronization worker to
+ continue the synchronization process. This behaviour ensures that
+ transient errors do not permanently disrupt the replication setup. See
+ also <link linkend="guc-wal-retrieve-retry-interval"><varname>wal_retrieve_retry_interval</varname></link>.
+ </para>
+ </note>
</sect2>
</sect1>