RAPD(8)

NAME

rapd - Resource Administration Platform (RAP) server daemon

rapxfer - RAP resource directory manual area transfer

SYNOPSIS

rapd [ -d ] [ -l logfile ]

rapxfer [ -dnv ] [ -a area ] [ raphost ]

DESCRIPTION
The rapd command is normally run from a shell script during system start-up, to perform appropriate RAP services (these kind of commands are often called daemons, and their names end with the letter ``d''). The /var/rap directory is used to store the resource information, and this directory is created if it does not exist.

The rapd program implements the resource directory, the location function of the RAP package, so it should be run on every machine that wants to use the location function of RAP as either a client or a server.

When starting (and periodically afterward), rapd will broadcast to find existing resource directory servers, and become a server itself if there are fewer than the target number per subnet. The default target number of servers per subnet, four, is adequate for normal use. The target value can be changed by updating the value of the servers per subnet attribute on the RAP local agent resource, for situations like testing laboratories, when machines are turned off and on often. Increase the target value on stable machines that you wish to force to be servers. For example, you can manually select the machines on each subnet to be RAP servers, and set their servers per subnet value to five, while the other machines remain at four. Lower the target on desktop or experimental machines that you wish to never become servers. A target value of one will mean that rapd will only become a server if no existing servers at all are found.

The -d option turns on some debugging printouts. This option will use the current directory instead of always using /var/rap and also avoids the fork that runs the command in the background. Therefore, be sure to use a command like:
    cd /var/rap; rapd -d &
to change to the proper directory and run in the background unless you wish to override this behavior.

The -l option allows a log file to be specified. Otherwise, the file file serv.log in the default directory is used if it exists. Some typical messages seen in the log file:

    Becoming server, opening database file <area>

The <area>.db file indicated will contain a copy of the resource directory database.

    Bound to server name at address on date

The given server name is used to synchronize the server, or, if this rapd is not a server, requests will be forwarded to that remote server.

    Total of r resources, c checked in s seconds

On RAP servers, the server of each resource is checked periodically to make sure it still exists. These messages indicate how many resources are in the directory.

    need to rebind: Unable to receive; errno = Connection reset by peer

The server that was previous being used has been rebooted, so the connection must be re-established.

    No response from server name

The indicated server is temporarily down. Operations should still proceed with the servers that remain.

The rapxfer program copies an entire area from another server to the file named <area>.db in the current directory. It is normally not needed during routine operation, since the rapd(8) program will eventually synchronize each copy of the resource directory. The exception is when you wish to have servers sharing the same information (that is, be in the same RAP area) that cannot hear each others' broadcasts because they are not on a common subnet. Before installing the second server, but after installing the first server, a single invocation of the rapxfer command running on the new server, with the name of the old server as the argument, will cause the two servers to know about each other.

The -a option of rapxfer allows the area to be specified. If not specified, the default area will be used.

The -d option of rapxfer turns on some debugging printouts.

The -n option causes it to go through the motions, but not actually transfer any data.

The -v option turns on more verbose printouts.

In previous releases, some of the functionality of rapd was implemented in separate programs called rapserv, rapcheck, and rapla.

FILES

/var/rap/serv.res
    Resource file for the resource directory service program rapd.

/var/rap/<area>.db
    The actual common resource database file (this is a binary format file).

SEE ALSO
rap(8), rapcheck(8).