Spawner Overview

The spawner is a program that runs on the server host and listens for requests. When a request is received, the spawner accepts the connection and performs the action that is associated with the port or service on which the connection was made. A connection to a spawner may

• request a SAS object server
• initiate the Administrator Interface
• request a Universally Unique Identifier (UUIDGEND).

In addition to the actions listed above, a spawner can be configured as a dependent spawner.

Request a SAS Object Server

When a connection is made on a port or service that is associated with a sasServer object, the spawner authenticates the client connection. The spawner then launches an SAS object server for use by the connecting client.

To launch the server, the spawner locates the appropriate object server definition(s) by using the following rules:

• The domain (sasDomainName) must match. The lack of a domain is considered a domain.
• The sasServer definition must have a protocol (sasProtocol) of bridge.
• The logical names specified in the sasServer definition must be a subset of the logical names that are specified in the sasSpawner definition.

Initiate the Administrator Interface

When a connection is made on the port or service that is identified as the sasOperatorPort or sasOperatorService attribute in the spawner definition, the spawner initiates the administration interface. Only one administrator can be active at a given time. For more information about the administration interface, see Monitoring the Spawner.

Request a Universally Unique Identifier (UUIDGEND)

A spawner may be configured to support UUID generation; or it may be configured solely as a UUID generator daemon. In either case, when a connection is made on the port or service that is identified as a sasUUIDPort or sasUUIDService attribute in the spawner definition, the spawner initiates UUID generation. For more information, see Configuring a UUID Generator.

Dependent Spawners

Dependent spawners are spawners that assist the main, or "master" spawner in handling client requests for an IOM server. When you set up and invoke dependent spawners, client requests rotate among master spawners and their dependent spawners on a round-robin basis. This configuration provides more efficient handling of multiple user requests. For more information, refer to Configuring a Dependent Spawner.