About mcell.dir, the cell directory file

The mcell.dir file is created during product installation. It acts as the cell directory file and contains the list of cells, servers, and gateways known on a specific computer. Upon startup, the cell reads the mcell.dir file and associates itself with the appropriate name, encryption key, address information, and port number. In addition, it reads this information for the other cells and gateways to which it connects.

Related topics

Managing-cells 

Cell-configuration-tasks

The mcell.dir file for a cell has an entry for each cell and the servers and integration gateways to which the cell connects. The following figure shows the format and an example of an entry in the mcell.dir file.

Format of an entry in the mcell.dir file

#
## One line per component :
# <Type> <Name> <EncryptionKey> <IpAddress/Port>
# <Type> = cell | gateway.type
#
# cell              <ComponentName>                    <EncryptionKey>    <Host>/1828
# admin             ImpactAdministrationServerName   UserID/Password  Host/3084

Each parameter in the file is defined as follows:

Attribute

Description

Type

Typeof component. It can be:

  • cell—cell name
  • gateway.type—gateway of type type
  • gateway.jServer—predefined JServer gateway type
  • admin—named Impact Administration Server (IAS)

Name

Name is an abstract name for the component. Component names are not case-sensitive and might be any alphanumeric string, including underscores (_).

EncryptionKey

String to be used as part of the key for the encryption of the communication between a cell and the component. The default value is mc.

Note

If the string has an odd number of characters, the last character is ignored.

For an IAS component, the string must have the form UserID/Password, or be 0. If the value is non-zero, the indicated UserId and Password are used as IAS login credentials.

IPAddress/Port

Host name or IP address and port number on which the component is listening. Default port number for a cell is 1828.

Example of the mcell.dir file

The following figure shows an example of the mcell.dir file with typical component entries.

Example of the mcell.dir file and its entries

#
## One line per component :
# <Type> <Name> <EncryptionKey> <IpAddress/Port>
# <Type> = cell | gateway.type
#
cell             bos-71               mc             bos-71/1828
cell             local                mc             127.0.0.1/1828
admin            ias1                 Mac/FreeAI1    bos-71/3084
cell             sim1                 mc             pprod001:1828 bprod001:1828

Conventions for mcell.dir file entries

 The following conventions apply when creating entries for the mcell.dir file:

  • Cells might be grouped into separate mcell.dir files readable only by certain users or groups (domains). 
  • A cell must be configured to communicate with, at a minimum, the cells to which it propagates events. A cell does not need to be configured to communicate with the cell from which it receives events, even for backward propagation. 
  • The mcell.dir file might define any number of entries, but each entry must be on a separate line. 
  • You can place mcell.dir files on remote mountable partitions or distribute them using rdist,tftp, or any other distribution mechanism.

 

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