CSE Installation and Configuration › CSE Installation Overview › Message Dispatcher

Message Dispatcher

Message Dispatcher is a network traffic controller that manages system resources, starts all server and utility processes, and manages requests between workstation clients and servers. When installing servers, install a local or remote Message Dispatcher. Local means that the Message Dispatcher and the server are on the same system. Remote means that they are on different systems.

The following diagram shows how the Message Dispatcher controls requests in the CSE environment.

When you configure the Message Dispatcher, the process creates the Message Dispatcher initialization file, iefmd.ini. This file defines the relationships between running processes in the network. The configuration process creates and uses two other files in the bin directory, es.cfg and ds.cfg. These files contain the Coordination and Encyclopedia Database names.

Important! Do not delete or modify the iefmd.ini, es.cfg, or ds.cfg files. The configuration process uses the cfg files when configuring remote Coordination and Encyclopedia Databases. The Message Dispatcher uses the ini file each time it starts.

During CSE configuration, you can select default configuration values to establish a basic configuration, or select options to customize server parameters.

A CSE network includes these components:

• One or more Message Dispatchers, each with its own configuration file.
• One Coordination Group. You can install only one Coordination group per network. A Coordination group includes a Coordination database and a Coordination Server.
• One or more Encyclopedia Groups that each include:
  • Encyclopedia Database
  • User/Group process
  • Model/Subset process
  • Lock process
  • ID Allocation process
  • Construction process
  • Version Control process
  • Utilities

Note: For more information about configuring the parameters in the Message Dispatcher initialization file and for details on avoiding model corruption and contention problems, see the Client Server Encyclopedia Administration Guide.