On this property page you can create or edit the routing hierarchy for how a Distributor's Distributions are sent to all of the Subscribers in your network.
Subscribers can act as proxies for the Distributor to store and pass Distributions so that the Distributor does not need to send its Distributions directly to every Subscriber in the network. This minimizes the workload of the Distributor. Such Subscribers are known as parent Subscribers.
The Subscribers that exist in a routing hierarchy are generally parent Subscribers to other Subscribers that are not in the hierarchy. The only Subscribers you need to include in a routing table are those that will be used to pass on Distributions to other Subscribers.
However, a Subscriber in the hierarchy is not required to be a parent Subscriber. For example, you may want a Subscriber that is alone on a slow network link to be in the hierarchy so that it can receive its Distributions via the routing hierarchy.
You can use the routing hierarchy to minimize traffic on slow network links by having a Distribution go across a slow link just once, instead of many times for each Subscriber on the other side of the link. You would do this by having one parent Subscriber on the other side of this link be somewhere in the Distributor's routing hierarchy.
A tiered distribution model is used for the routing hierarchy. This model allows you to cascade parent Subscribers under the Distributor in a tree fashion. For example, the Distributor (first tier) could have three parent Subscribers (second tier) directly under it in the routing hierarchy. Then these three parent Subscribers could each have five parent Subscribers (third tier) directly under them. Those fifteen parent Subscribers on the third tier could each have five parent Subscribers (fourth tier) under them. All of these parent Subscribers could each be servicing 50 other Subscribers (the Subscribers subscribed to receive the Distributions, totalling 3,750).
In this example, the Distributions have the potential to be received by 3,842 Subscribers (if each parent Subscriber in the routing hierarchy also receives the Distributions). Yet, this routing hierarchy example is only four tiers deep, and you have the Distributor sending Distributions to only three Subscribers.
For more information, click the documentation link at the end of this topic to access the ZENworks® for Servers (ZfS) documentation on the Web. Then under the Policy and Distribution Services heading, click Planning a Policy and Distribution Services Configuration > Planning the Configuration > Determining Distributor Routing Hierarchies.
Subscriber Routing Hierarchy
Displays the current routing hierarchy, beginning with the Distributor and showing all parent Subscribers in the hierarchy using a tiered tree model.
Add
You can browse for and add one or more Subscribers at a time into the hierarchy. Doing so designates them as proxies for the Distributor in the hierarchy.
When you add multiple Subscribers at a time, they are entered at the same level in the hierarchy. In other words, if you add several Subscribers directly under the Distributor, the Distributor will directly service each of these Subscribers.
Before you begin, make sure you have planned how you want your routing hierarchy to be created.
Delete
Removes the Subscriber from the hierarchy (not from Novell® eDirectoryTM). This means that any Subscribers that used this Subscriber as a parent Subscriber might need to have their properties edited to select a new parent Subscriber that is in the hierachy.
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