Types of Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs)

The method used to specify the destination for an RPC can take one of two forms:

•      A directed RPC. This type of RPC specifies that the RPC should be executed on a specific machine, identified by name or IP.

•      A service RPC. A service RPC specifies that the RPC should be executed on one or more workstations that are participating in an application service (see Services), identifying the workstations using terms such as "on the server" or "on all clients".

The service RPC is by far the most common. Performing RPC via services is much easier, as RPC Manager does all the hard work of tracking which workstation is the server and, most importantly, of maintaining synchronization between workstations.