You can run scout from any machine configured as a DFS client or server. In a standard configuration, the binary file for scout is stored in the dceshared/bin/scout file. Both terminals and windowing systems that emulate terminals can display scout's statistics; the display appears best on systems that support reverse video and cursor addressing.
When using scout, set the TERM environment variable (or its equivalent) to the correct terminal type or to one with characteristics similar to the actual ones. Do not resize the window while scout is running; the program does not adjust to the new dimensions if the window is made larger, and, if it is made smaller, the columns may not align properly. To resize the window, stop scout, resize the window, and then restart the program.
Although no special privileges are required to run scout, it is useful primarily for system administrators who need to monitor File Exporter usage. While scout imposes only a minimal burden on the File Exporter on a File Server machine, you may wish to place the binary file for the program in a secure directory that is available only to administrative users. Other users are then prevented from needlessly running the program.
You can run multiple scout processes from a single machine; because the scout program must run in the foreground, each instance runs in a separate, dedicated window. You can also run scout on several machines and view the output on a single machine. To do this, open several windows on one machine, log into different remote machines in each window (by using telnet or an appropriate program), and run scout in the windows. You may find it useful to include the -host option with the scout command; this option marks each window with the name of the host machine that is running the program.
You use the -server option of the scout command to indicate each File Server machine whose File Exporter is to be monitored. You can specify machines by DCE path name, hostname, or IP address.
In most cells, the DCE path names of all File Server machines share the same base name, or common DCE prefix; for example, all File Server machines in the cell abc.com have DCE path names of the form /.../abc.com/hosts/hostname. If all of the machines to be monitored have the same DCE path name prefix, you can specify the common prefix (for example, /.../abc.com/hosts) with the -basename option and specify only the unique part of each machine name (for example, fs1 or fs2) with the -server option. If you use the -basename option, the common prefix you specify is displayed on the screen (see The scout Screen).