COM & .NET Component Services

Features of COMAdminCatalog

There is more to the Catalog root object than providing you with access to the top-level collections. The ICOMAdminCatalog interface supports 22 methods, providing you with many useful features that allow you to:

• Connect to the Catalog root object on a remote machine

• Install a new COM+ application

• Export an existing COM+ application

• Start or shut down a COM+ application

• Install components into COM+ applications

• Obtain information regarding event classes

• Start, stop, or refresh load balancing routing (load balancing is not available in standard installations of COM+)

• Check the status of a COM+ service (currently, only load balancing)

• Back up the COM+ Catalog information to a specific file

• Restore the Catalog from a specific file

For example, you often need to programmatically administer a COM+ Catalog on a remote machine, during deployment or for automating remote administration of servers. To do so, you would use the ICOMAdminCatalog::Connect( ) method, defined as:

[id(2)] HRESULT Connect([in]BSTR bstrMachineName,
                        [out,retval]IDispatch** pRemoteRootCollection)

The first parameter to Connect( ) is the remote machine name, and the second is an out parameter—a pointer to a root collection on the remote machine. After calling Connect( ), the ICOMAdminCatalog you are holding starts affecting the remote machine to which you have connected—calls made on its methods administer the remote machine. You can also use the pRemoteRootCollection parameter to gain access to remote ...