Using Last Agent Optimization of Transactions

Transactions that involve multiple resources or multiple participant processes are distributed or global transactions. A global transaction can involve one non-XA resource if last agent optimization is enabled. Otherwise, all resources must be XA. For more information about transactions in the Enterprise Server, see Chapter 15, Using the Transaction Service.

The Connector specification requires that if a resource adapter supports XATransaction, the ManagedConnection created from that resource adapter must support both distributed and local transactions. Therefore, even if a resource adapter supports XATransaction, you can configure its connector connection pools as non-XA or without transaction support for better performance. A non-XA resource adapter becomes the last agent in the transactions in which it participates.

The value of the connection pool configuration property transaction-support defaults to the value of the transaction-support property in the ra.xml file. The connection pool configuration property can override the ra.xml file property if the transaction level in the connection pool configuration property is lower. If the value in the connection pool configuration property is higher, it is ignored.