In the same way that Adabas provides a time limit for its local database transactions, Adabas Transaction Manager supports a time limit for distributed transactions. When the time limit expires for a distributed transaction Adabas Transaction Manager attempts to complete it by applying or undoing it, depending on its status. If the transaction is undone, the application receives response code 9 with a suitable sub-code as applicable.

It is recommended that the distributed transaction time limit is lower than all of the individual Adabas transaction time limits, thereby enabling Adabas Transaction Manager to dictate when timeouts occur or not, which is what it is intended to do.