OSF DCE Administration Guide--Core Components

DCE Application Administration

10.4.3 UsingProﬁles to Direct Client Searches for Servers

Group entries offer clients a random choice from among multiple available services.

Although a group entry can help in load balancing and resource allocation, its random

nature resists ﬁne tuning. Furthermore, it doesn’t offer a way to prioritize servers for use

by particular clients.

Proﬁles offer a complimentary way to organize servers because you can prioritize the

search order of the proﬁle members. (These were called elements in previous DCE

versions.) Members identify servers by providing the following information:

• Interface identiﬁer

This ﬁeld is the key to the proﬁle. The interface identiﬁer consists of the interface

UUID and the interface version numbers.

• Member name

The entry name of one of the following kinds of directory service entries:

— A server entry for a server offering the requested RPC interface

— A group corresponding to the requested RPC interface

— A proﬁle

• Priority value

The priority value (0 is the highest priority; 7 is the lowest priority) is designated by

the creator of a proﬁle member to help determine the search order to select among

like-priority members at random.

• Annotation string

The annotation string enables you to identify the purpose of the proﬁle member. The

annotation can be any textual information; for example, an interface name associated

with the interface identiﬁer or a description of a service or resource associated with a

group.

Unlike the interface identiﬁer ﬁeld, the annotation string is not a search key.

Proﬁles are ﬂexible; they contain members that can point to server entries, groups, and to

other proﬁles. Proﬁles can also contain a special member called a default proﬁle

member. This optional member should point to a default proﬁle, usually a

comprehensive backup proﬁle that can serve the needs of most users in an organization.

Figure 10-4 shows some possible mappings of a proﬁle.

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