3.2.4.3 Multiple-Partition Support Capability Negotiation

A COMA client MAY<358> attempt to perform capability negotiation for the multiple-partition support capability. This negotiation MUST be performed before the client attempts to change the configuration of partitions other than the global partition. Multiple-partition support capability negotiation is specified in section 3.1.4.3.

On successful completion of multiple-partition support capability negotiation, the client SHOULD set the "server supports multiple partitions" value in its per-session state to indicate the results of the negotiation.

If the COMA server is not capable of multiple-partition support, or if capability negotiation fails because the server returns a failure result from the call to ICatalogSession::GetServerInformation (section 3.1.4.5.2), the client MUST NOT attempt to change the configuration of partitions other than the global partition.

It is important to note that a server that is capable of multiple-partition support does not necessarily have multiple-partition support enabled.

In catalog version 5.00, multiple-partition support enabled is indicated by the PartitionsEnabled property of the machine settings. If the negotiated catalog version is 5.00, the COMA client MAY attempt to determine whether multiple-partition support is enabled by reading this property by calling the ICatalogSession::GetServerInformation method, before attempting to change the configuration of partitions other than the global partition, and MAY set the partitions enabled on server value in its per session state.

If multiple-partition support is disabled on the server and a client application requests to change the configuration of partitions other than the global partition, the COMA client MAY attempt to enable multiple-partition support on the server by setting this property before attempting these configuration changes and SHOULD NOT attempt these configuration changes if it fails to do so.