Discovery of the Publishing Service

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

The RMS publishing service issues publishing licenses, which are used to protect content. It also issues client licensor certificates, which that allow users to publish content while they are not connected to the enterprise network.

The publishing service is available from the root cluster or from licensing-only clusters. An RMS-enabled application requests this service when an author publishes rights-protected content. To make a publishing service request, the application first retrieves the URL to the Licensing virtual directory of the cluster, where the publishing service is located, from Active Directory. It then appends the path to the publishing service.

For example, the URL to the Licensing virtual directory of a server is stored in Active Directory in the following form:

https://server_name/_wmcs/Licensing

When a server requests a publishing license, it appends the publishing service file name to the URL as follows:

https://server_name/_wmcs/Licensing/Publish.asmx

If RMS detects that the rights account certificate is based on Windows user authentication, the location of the publishing service is determined by the Active Directory forest. This applies to both internal users and external users who connect to the enterprise network through a virtual private network (VPN).

If RMS detects that the rights account certificate is based on Windows Live ID, the location of the publishing service is the Windows Live ID account that is specified in the rights-protected content.