Certain configuration parameters in the %systemroot%/slp.conf file control DA discovery as well:
net.slp.useScopes = <comma delimited scope list> net.slp.DAAddresses = <comma delimited address list> net.slp.passiveDADetection = <"true" or "false"> net.slp.activeDADetection = <"true" or "false"> net.slp.DAActiveDiscoveryInterval = <0, 1, or a number of seconds>
The useScopes option indicates which scopes the SA will advertise into, and which scopes queries will be made to in the absence of a specific scope on the registration or query made by the service or client application. Because eDirectory always advertises into and queries from the default scope, this list will become the default scope list for all eDirectory registrations and queries.
The DAAddresses option is a comma-delimited list of dotted decimal IP addresses of DAs that should be preferred to all others. If this list of configured DAs does not support the scope of a registration or query, then SAs and UAs will resort to multicast DA discovery, unless such discovery is disabled.
The passiveDADetection option is True by default. Directory agents will periodically broadcast their existence on the subnet on a well-known port if configured to do so. These packets are termed DAAdvert packets. If this option is set to False, all broadcast DAAdvert packets are ignored by the SA.
The activeDADetection option is also True by default. This allows the SA to periodically broadcast a request for all DAs to respond with a directed DAAdvert packet. A directed packet is not broadcast, but sent directly to the SA in response to these requests. If this option is set to False, no periodic DA discovery request is broadcast by the SA.
The DAActiveDiscoveryInterval option is a try-state parameter. The default value is 1, which is a special value meaning that the SA should only send out one DA discovery request upon initialization. Setting this option to 0 has the same effect as setting the activeDADetection option to false. Any other value is a number of seconds between discovery broadcasts.
These options, when used properly, can ensure an appropriate use of network bandwidth for service advertising. In fact, the default settings are designed to optimize scalability on an average network.