OSF DCE Administration Guide--Introduction

Client and Server Considerations

these programs.

3.1.7 GDS Client Programs

This section describes the programs that make up the client side of GDS. The DCE

conﬁguration script installs the GDS client software but does not conﬁgure it.

To conﬁgure and activate a GDS client, run the gdssysadm program, then initialize the

Directory User Agent (DUA) cache by running gdsditadm. For details on these programs

and on setting up and activating GDS, see the .

The GDS control program (gdscp) is a utility that you can use for managing and

maintaining the GDS software. For additional information on the gdscp program, see the

If GDS is installed, the DCE client runs the DUA. The DUA, which is the client side of

GDS, sends requests to the GDS server process, the DSA. The DUA consists of the

following processes:

• The gdscache process caches user data and stores data used for regulation purposes

locally.

• The gdscstub process handles all outgoing requests to remote DSAs.

• The gdscacheadm program supports administration of the contents of the local DUA

cache database.

• The gdsipcchk program veriﬁes the IPC-state information contained in the shared

memory area of a GDS installation.

• The gdssysadm program supports administration of the local GDS installation, such

as conﬁguring GDS, activating servers, and backing up the database.

A machine running only the client side of GDS can access GDS servers on other

machines, or one machine can run both the client and server portions of GDS. Machines

running just the DUA are known as client systems. Client systems can access directory

information on server machines without having to store that information.

3.1.8 DFSClient Programs

If DFS is installed, the DCE client runs the following processes:

• The Cache Manager process (dfsd) initializes the cache manager in the kernel, alters

conﬁguration settings, and starts background daemons.

The dfsd process is responsible for the local caching of ﬁle and directory data on

machines used as DFS clients. When the dfsd process starts, it initializes the cache.

When a client retrieves part of a ﬁle from a remote File Server, the dfsd process

keeps a copy of that part of the ﬁle on the client machine’s local disk. As long as that

part of the ﬁle does not change, the locally cached copy remains available to the

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