| ## Routing Serviceability Messages The DCE serviceability mechanism is designed to be used mainly for server informational and error messaging - that is, for messages that are of interest to those who are concerned with server maintenance and administration (in the broadest sense of these terms). The essential idea of the mechanism is that all server events that are significant for maintaining or restoring normal operation should be reported in messages that are made to be self-documenting. As a result, (assuming that all events have been correctly identified and reported) users and administrators will always be able to learn what action they should take in a given situation. Note: User-prompted, interactive, client-generated messaging is handled through the standard DCE messaging interface. The serviceability component is used by the DCE components (RPC, DTS, Security, and so on) for their own server messaging, and it is made available as an API for use by DCE application programmers who wish to standardize their applications' server messaging. (The serviceability API is described in the DCE Application Development Guide .) Messaging uses XPG4 (X/Open Portability Guide ) message catalogs to hold message texts, but it adds an additional layer to the XPG4 functionality. The message catalogs and other required data (and documentation) files are generated by a utility called sams ("symbols and message strings"). Its input is a text file that establishes some organizational information about the program that is to use the messages, followed by a series of specifications of the messages themselves. The serviceability mechanism allows system administrators to control the routing of these messages. Specifically, you can define message routings based on the severity levels (FATAL, ERROR, and so on) defined for the messages. The following topics describe how to control the routing of serviceability messages. First, it provides an overview of serviceability messaging in the DCE. It then describes how you can use message severity levels to control routing. Finally, it describes the different ways you can specify routing for serviceability messages. More: Serviceability Message Severity Levels How to Route Serviceability Messages ###