OSF DCE Administration Guide--Core Components

Chapter 11. Introduction to the DCE Directory
Service
Distributed processing involves the interaction of multiple systems to do work that is
done on one system in a traditional computing environment. One challenge resulting
from this network-wide working environment is the need for a universally consistent way
to identify and locate people and resources anywhere in the network.
The DCE Directory Service makes it possible to contact people and to use resources such
as disks, print queues, and servers anywhere in the network without knowing their
physical location. The directory service is much like a telephone directory assistance
service that provides a phone number when given a person’s name. Given the unique
name of a person, server, or resource, it can return the network address and other
information associated with that name.
The DCE Directory Service stores addresses and other relevant information as attributes
of the name. For example, attributes can contain the name of an organizational unit, such
as European Sales; a location, such as the first floor of Building A; or a telephone
number. Users can search for a name by supplying one or more of its attributes. For
example, given the search criteria of John Smith and Chicago, the directory service
could produce a list of telephone numbers for users in Chicago named John Smith.
Note: Search capabilities are currently limited to the global part of the DCE
Directory Service environment.
11.1 How the DCE Components Use the DCE Directory
Service
The DCE Directory Service is a fundamental service that applications can rely on and
use to their advantage. This section describes how other DCE components use the DCE
Directory Service.
The DCE remote procedure call (RPC) interface facilitates the development and use of
distributed applications that follow a client/server model. In the RPC model, clients are
programs that make remote procedure calls, and servers are programs that carry out the
procedures. The DCE RPC software stores information in the directory service about the
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