3.1.1 Abstract Data Model

This section describes a conceptual model of possible data organization that an implementation maintains to participate in this protocol. The described organization is provided to facilitate the explanation of how the protocol behaves. This document does not mandate that implementations adhere to this model as long as their external behavior is consistent with that described in this document.

The overview, as specified in section 3.1, indicates a possible organization. These implementations are slightly elaborated on here because they can help in understanding the Distributed File System: Replication (DFS-R) Protocol in context. An implementation is in no way bound by this organization.

InConnection: A logical connection object maintained by the client to group state pertaining to a configured connection with the server.

File Replication Store: The store where replicated files reside and are changed. The store maintains file data and organizes the data in a way that is specific to the semantics of the store.

Database: A store that holds the metadata of replicated files, including updates and version chain vectors.