2.2.1.2 COM+ Remote Administration Protocol (COMA)

The COM+ Remote Administration Protocol (COMA) specified in [MS-COM], enables remote clients to register, import, remove, configure, control, and monitor components and conglomerations for an Object Request Broker (ORB) ([MS-COMA] section 1.3.1).

In COM+, the indivisible unit of software functionality is the component. Each component defined to the server is identified by a GUID called a class identifier (CLSID). A conglomeration, identified by a conglomeration identifier, is a collection of component configuration entries for components that a component developer or administrator wants to be managed as a group.

COMA is related to the following protocols:

  • Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) [MS-DCOM] is the foundation on which COMA is built.

  • Component Object Model Plus (COM+) Tracker Service Protocol [MS-COMT] provides functionality for obtaining run-time information about instance containers.

  • Component Object Model Plus (COM+) Event System Protocol [MS-COMEV] provides functionality for configuring event classes and subscriptions.

  • Component Object Model Plus (COM+) Queued Components Protocol [MC-COMQC]: COMA can be used to configure the COM+ Queued Components Protocol on a server. Several configuration properties of objects in the COMA catalog are designed to support enabling the COM+ Queued Components Protocol as a transport for communication between components.

  • Service Control Manager Remote Protocol [MS-SCMR]: COMA can be used to configure system services (also known as daemons) for conglomerations. The Service Control Manager Remote Protocol enables configuration of system services. Neither protocol makes the other obsolete because each enables configuration that is not available in the other.

  • Common Internet File System (CIFS) Protocol [MS-CIFS]: COMA provides limited management of CIFS file shares for use in replication scenarios. COMA replication functionality is intended to be used alongside CIFS to copy conglomerations between COMA servers in these replication scenarios. Other COMA functionality requiring remote file operations might use CIFS, but this is not required by the protocol.

COMA can be used to configure COM+ on a server. COMA partitions have a natural mapping to COM+ partitions, and many configuration properties of objects in the COMA catalog are designed to support configuration of COM+ behavior that is called out as implementation-specific in [MS-COM].

COMA is not a general-purpose or extensible configuration protocol. See [MS-COMA] section 1.6 for protocol applicability.