Introduction to Service Publication

A service is a server process that performs a specific system function and often provides an application programming interface (API) for other processes to call. A server process provides one or more threads that accepts requests from client processes. It implements a set of services that it makes available to clients running one or more computers in a distributed network. Although Windows 2000 services are enabled for remote procedure call (RPC), meaning that their API routines can be called from remote computers, they do not require RPC.

Service publication is the creation, storage, and maintenance of information in the Active Directory data store. Network clients and network administrators can use the information stored in Active Directory to find, connect to, and manage a service. In addition, Active Directory enables clients and administrators to view the distributed network as a collection of services rather than as a collection of individual computers.