Administration Guide › How CA Directory Works › Configuration › DSA Knowledge, DXmanager and the set dsa Command

DSA Knowledge, DXmanager and the set dsa Command

The information a DSA needs about other DSAs (and non-DSA directories): how to connect to them, their role (for example, replicas) and the entry namespace they manage is referred to as knowledge. The total knowledge of the system is used to form a backbone of directory servers to which each DSA belongs.

It is important that all DSAs in a backbone have a consistent view of each other. For this reason it is standard practice to ensure that all DSAs share the same knowledge.

There are two mechanisms you can use to define the knowledge: DXmanager and the set dsa command. They are mutually exclusive: If you have DXmanager installed, DSAs do not allow the set dsa command: if the command is entered at the console the DSA returns a syntax error, and if the command appears in a configuration file, it stops the DSA.

If you have DXmanager installed, use it to define the knowledge. It stores the knowledge in an XML file.

If you do not have DXmanager installed use the set dsa command to define the knowledge. The DSA knowledge is stored in a configuration file (.dxc) in the knowledge directory (along with other DSA definitions). A DXserver determines its own entry (identity) by looking for its own name among all the set dsa definitions.

Note: A DSA must use its own name (case insensitive) from the initialization file: serverName.dxi.

Note: The commands in the knowledge file must appear in the correct order. For information about this order, see the text file DXHOME\config\knowledge\knowledge.help.