---
title: Standalone replicas and replication servers
description: Standalone replication servers have no application data backends. They store only changes to directory data. They're dedicated to transmitting replication messages and maintaining a replication change log.
component: pingds
version: 8.1
page_id: pingds:config-guide:repl-standalone
canonical_url: https://docs.pingidentity.com/pingds/8.1/config-guide/repl-standalone.html
revdate: 2025-10-22T14:42:39Z
keywords: ["Features", "LDAP", "Replication"]
---

# Standalone replicas and replication servers

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|   | This information applies to *advanced* deployments. |

* Standalone replication servers have no application data backends. They store only changes to directory data. They're dedicated to transmitting replication messages and maintaining a replication change log.

* Standalone directory servers store replicated copies of application data. These replicas send updates to and receive updates from replication servers. They connect to one replication server at a time and don't maintain a replication change log.

Configure standalone servers at setup time. Learn more in [Install standalone servers (advanced)](../install-guide/setup-rs.html).

With DS 6.5 and earlier, you could transform an existing server to a standalone server. The release of DS 7.0 simplified the process of setting up standalone servers, making transforming an existing server unnecessary. Rather than convert an existing server to a standalone server, replace it with a new standalone server.