DCE RPC enables clients to find servers that offer specific RPC objects. An RPC object is an entity that an RPC server defines and identifies to its clients. Frequently, an RPC object is a distinct computing resource such as a particular database, directory, device, process, or processor. Identifying a resource as an RPC object enables an application to ensure that clients can use an RPC interface to operate on that resource. An RPC object can also be an abstraction that is meaningful to an application such as a service or the location of a server.
RPC objects are defined by application code. The RPC runtime provides substantial flexibility to applications about whether, when, and how they use RPC objects. RPC applications generally use RPC objects to enable clients to find and access a specific server. When servers are completely interchangeable, using RPC objects may be unnecessary. However, when clients need to distinguish between two servers that offer the same RPC interface, RPC objects are essential. If the servers offer distinct computing resources, each server can identify itself by treating its resources as RPC objects. Alternatively, each server can establish itself as an RPC object that is distinct from other instances of the same server.
RPC objects also enable a single server to distinguish among alternative implementations of an RPC interface, as long as each implementation operates on a distinct type of object. To offer multiple implementations of an RPC interface, a server must identify RPC objects, classify them into types, and associate each type with a specific implementation.
The set of remote procedures that implements an RPC interface for a given type of object is known as a manager. The tasks performed by a manager depend on the type of object on which the manager operates. For example, one manager of a queue-management interface may operate on print queues, while another manager may operate on batch queues.