Administering SLP (Tasks)

The following sections provide information and tasks for configuring SLP agents and processes.

• "Configuring SLP Properties"

• "Modifying DA Advertising and Discovery Frequency"

• "Accommodating Different Network Media, Topologies, or Configurations"

• "Modifying Timeouts on SLP Discovery Requests"

• "Deploying Scopes"

• "Deploying DAs"

• "Multihoming"

Configuring SLP Properties

SLP configuration properties control network interactions, SLP agent characteristics, status, and logging. In most situations, the default configuration of these properties requires no modification. However, you can use the procedures in this chapter when the network medium or topology changes and to achieve the following goals:

• Compensate for network latencies

• Reduce congestion on the network

• Add agents or reassign IP addresses

• Activate SLP logging

You can edit the SLP configuration file, /etc/inet/slp.conf, to perform operations such as those shown in the following table.

Table 20-1 SLP Configuration Operations

SLP Configuration File: Basic Elements

The /etc/inet/slp.conf file defines and activates all SLP activity each time you restart the SLP daemon. The configuration file consists of the following elements:

• Configuration properties

• Comment lines and notations

Configuration Properties

All of the basic SLP properties, such as net.slp.isDA and net.slp.DAHeartBeat, are named in the following format.

net.slp.<keyword>

SLP behavior is defined by the value of a property or a combination of properties in the slp.conf file. Properties are structured as key-value pairs in the SLP configuration file. As shown in the following example, a key-value pair consists of a property name and an associated setting.

<property name>=<value>

The key for each property is the property name. The value sets the numeric (distance or time), true/false state, or string value parameters for the property. Property values consist of one of the following data types:

• True/False setting (Boolean)

• Integers

• List of integers

• Strings

• List of strings

Comment Lines and Notations

You can add comments to the slp.conf file that describe the nature and function of the line. Comment lines are optional in the file, but can be useful for administration.

Note - Settings in the configuration file are case insensitive. For more information, refer to: Guttman, Erik, James Kempf, and Charles Perkins, "Service Templates and service: scheme," RFC 2609 from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2609.txt]

How to Change Your SLP Configuration

Use this procedure to change the property settings in your SLP configuration file. SLP- enabled client or service software also can alter the SLP configuration by using the SLP API. This API is documented in "An API for Service Location," RFC 2614 from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2614.txt]

1. Become superuser.

2. Stop slpd and all SLP activity on the host.

   # /etc/init.d/slpd stop

3. Back up the default /etc/inet/slp.conf file before you change the configuration settings.

4. Edit the property settings in the /etc/inet/slp.conf file as necessary.

   Refer to "Configuration Properties" for general information about the SLP property settings. See the sections that follow this procedure for examples of different scenarios in which you might change the slp.conf properties. See slp.conf(4).

5. Save your changes and close the file.

6. Restart slpd to activate your changes.

   # /etc/init.d/slpd start

Note - The SLP daemon obtains information from the configuration file when you stop or start slpd.

For example, you can change the SA server default to enable slpd to operate as a DA server by setting the net.slp.isDA property to True in the slpd.conf file.

net.slp.isDA=True

In each area, various properties control different aspects of the configuration. The following sections describe different scenarios in which you might change the default property settings that are used in SLP configuration.