CDS Namespace Entries
The CDS namespace contains entries for servers, hosts, CDS clearinghouses (collections of directory replicas stored at a particular server), RPC profiles, RPC groups, and subsystems. The entries have a CDS type of directory or object, indicating the kind of CDS object to which the name refers. A third CDS type, softlink, is an entry that points to another entry. A CDS directory is a container in which objects are stored. CDS uses directories to organize groups of object entries.
In addition, the CDS namespace provides specialized services for other DCE components, such as location information contained in the fileset location database (FLDB), which is the database that maps filesets to the file server machines on which they reside.
Profiles cataloged in the CDS namespace specify a search path through the Directory Service. The cell profile (/.:/cell-profile) stores the location of the servers that are available in the cell, regardless of physical location. In a geographically dispersed cell, servers can be located in different cities or even different countries. The LAN profile defines alternate servers that can be used in situations where geographic proximity is important. For example, /.:/lan-profile is the default LAN profile used by DTS. This profile contains entries for the DTS server local set. If a cell spans more than one LAN, another layer can be created below /.:/lan-profile to specify the location of the profile for each part of the cell. For example, in a cell that encompasses two LANs, you can direct hosts on one LAN to lanA-profile and hosts on the other LAN to lanB-profile. For information on setting up multiple LAN profiles, see Customizing the dce_config Processing.