The table that SAP agents use to store information received in
SAP broadcasts is called the server information table.
If all SAP
agents on the network are exchanging SAP information
properly, each agent's server information table should have
information about all the servers on the network,
thus
providing clients with nearby access to the IPX addresses
of all the servers on the network.
The server information table contains
the following fields:
Server Name
The name of the server.
Server Address
The service's full IPX address,
including the network, node, and socket numbers.
Server Type
A number designating what type of service the server
provides.
One server might provide printing services as opposed
to file services, for instance.
The server type designation used
to assign numbers to the different services that servers provide
is part of a more generic scheme used in the bindery to classify
objects.
``Novell object types''
lists some of the more common object types.
Hops to Server
Specifies the number of routers to reach the server.
Time Since Changed
The timer used for aging servers that have
unexpectedly gone down.
NIC Number
The number of the NIC on which the information about the
server was received.
The way that information within the server information table is
stored makes sequential access
("send me information about all
servers with server type 4, for instance")
possible but makes database access
("send me information about server FRED")
very difficult.
Therefore, the ``Server Name'',
``Server Address'', ``Server Type'',
and ``Hops to Server'' fields of the server information table
are periodically copied to file servers' binderies and
SAPDs.
With this
information stored in file server binderies, any client that has
a connection with a NetWare file server can query the bindery for
the IPX address of a specific server.