SAP services

SAP provides a way for service nodes to register their services and addresses in a Server Information table. This table is maintained by SAPD. Clients can query this table for available services and their addresses.

SAP is always up to date because it supports the dynamic registering of services. As services are booted up, they register themselves using SAP. When they are brought down, they use SAP to indicate that their services are no longer available. SAP removes those services from the Server Information table.

NetWare clients cannot initiate a session with a service without first knowing the address of that service. SAP provides methods for obtaining these addresses. Clients can either query a SAP agent or the bindery of a file server.

SAP agents

All NetWare file servers and routers have a SAP agent. The SAP agent for SCO IPX/SPX is SAPD. SAP agents:

• maintain tables of all available services

• broadcast their information to other SAP agents every 60 seconds

• update their tables every 60 seconds

• the names and addresses of all available services

• the names and addresses of servers of a specific type

• the name and address of the nearest server of a particular type

NetWare bindery queries

SCO IPX/SPX can be used to query a NetWare server's bindery, but a general programmatic interface to Novell's bindery or NetWare Directory Services (NDS) is not currently part of IPX/SPX. Information regarding the structure of the bindery or NDS queries and responses can be obtained from Novell.