OSF DCE Administration Guide--Introduction

Global and Cell Considerations
Regardless of which method you choose, in order for your cell to to communicate
with other cells, you must
— Establish a unique name for your cell and define it in the appropriate namespace
(GDS, DNS, or CDS)
— Have at least one GDA running in the cell
— Establish a Security Service trust relationship with the other cells with which you
wish to communicate
2.1 Establishing a Cell Name
You need to establish a name for your cell before you can begin the process of
configuring it. A uniquely identified cell name is critical to the operation of the Security
Service; this name is the basis for authentication in your cell. Whether or not your cell
name needs to be globally unique depends on your plans for communication with other
cells.
If you plan to create a private cell and do not ever intend for it to communicate with cells
outside your organization, you are not required to obtain a globally unique cell name.
However, if you plan to communicate with the cells of other organizations, you need to
obtain a globally unique cell name for your cell before you configure it.
If you plan to communicate with other cells through GDS, DNS, or CDS, you need to
obtain a globally unique name for your cell. The next sections describe how to establish
GDS, DNS, and hierarchical names for your cell. See Appendix A of the for a
description of the valid characters supported in GDS, DNS, and CDS.
In some cases, you may need to change the name of your cell after you have configured
it, for example, because your company has reorganized, and the cell name you
established at configuration time no longer reflects the new organization. In other cases,
you may need to add another name for your cell, for example, if you initially registered it
in GDS, and find that you also need to register it in DNS. To add a new name for your
cell or change your cell’s name, you use the dcecp cellalias task object. See the for more
details.
2.1.1 Establishing a GDS Cell Name
If you plan to use GDS to communicate with other cells, you need to obtain a globally
unique name for your cell from the GDS global naming authorities before you configure
your cell, then define it in the GDS namespace. The name you obtain for your cell will be
in GDS syntax.
As explained in the Introduction to OSF DCE, GDS-style names consist of a series of
attribute/value pairs, separated by equal signs (=). Each attribute/value pair is
124244 Tandem Computers Incorporated 2−3