OSF DCE Application Development Guide--Introduction and Style Guide

Chapter 8. Server Management
Every DCE server requires some management. At a minimum, servers need to be started
and stopped. In addition, servers usually provide generic server information such as the
server principal name and an indication that the server is listening for remote calls.
Servers may also permit other kinds of management operations while they are running; it
is perfectly feasible to have a server reinitialize or even unregister and reregister
endpoints while it is running.
From the management perspective, servers are thought of as either on-demand or
persistent. In the on-demand model, a server only starts (thus occupying system
resources) when it is needed. When an on-demand server is installed, a startup
configuration is also installed with dced. Such a server would then use the configuration
(obtained by a call to the dce_server_inq_server() routine) when it is auto-started by
dced on receipt of an RPC request for an interface, operation, or object registered for that
server.
A persistent server is one that runs continuously. Starting, stopping and otherwise
managing such a server are typically considered priviledged operations. In general, a
robust persistent server should provide a separate application control program that calls
the DCE management interfaces (APIs for dced, RPC, and the like) and the application’s
own management interface (if one is provided). Of course, a server cannot start itself,
but an application control client program can start the server via the dced. The model
looks something like that shown in the following figure:
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