12.4 Discovery Services

Various discovery mechanisms are usually available on an OES network.

  • DNS/DHCP

  • Directory services

  • Local host configuration files

  • Service Location Protocol (SLP services)

    NOTE:NetWare 3 and 4 used the IPX-based Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) as the discovery mechanism. All the servers advertised their services automatically. If a server went offline, the SAP information on the network was dynamically refreshed.

    Starting with NetWare 5 and pure TCP/IP, the Service Location Protocol was adopted as the default, though optional, discovery mechanism. SLP was chosen because it was the TCP/IP-based protocol most like SAP in its automatic nature and dynamic refresh capabilities.

    For more information, see Section 12.5, SLP.

  • Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) server

Some systems are designed to leverage only a single discovery technology. Others choose among the various providers. And some use different technologies in combination with each other.

12.4.1 Novell SLP and OpenSLP

NetWare 3 and 4 used the IPX-based Service Advertising Protocol (SAP) as the discovery mechanism. All the servers advertised their services automatically. If a server went offline, the SAP information on the network was dynamically refreshed.

Starting with NetWare 5 and pure TCP/IP, the Service Location Protocol was adopted as the default, though optional, discovery mechanism. SLP was chosen because it was the TCP/IP-based protocol most like SAP in its automatic nature and dynamic refresh capabilities.

For more information, see Section 12.5, SLP.