DCE Directory Service
A distributed system may contain many users, machines, and other resources, along with large amounts of data, all geographically dispersed. The distributed system's attributes, such as the number of users, location of servers, and contents of data, are continuously changing. It is difficult to keep track of this potentially large, geographically distributed, rapidly changing system.
A directory service can help solve this problem. When a directory service is available, it is no longer necessary to maintain local copies of information, such as databases of users, hosts, and server locations, on each system. Instead, an application queries the directory service when it needs information. In a sense, the directory service is the most basic of all distributed system services, since it is used to find the information needed for accessing other services.
The next topic gives an overview of the DCE Directory Service architecture. DCE Cell Directory Service through DCE Global Directory Agent describe each of the DCE Directory Service components - the Cell Directory Service, the Global Directory Service, the Global Directory Agent. The Directory Service Interfaces describes the Directory Service application programming interface.
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DCE Directory Service Architecture
The Directory Service Interfaces