DCE is an Open Systems Foundation** (OSF**) architecture that provides tools and services to support the creation, use, and maintenance of applications in a distributed heterogeneous computing environment. It is a layer between the operating system, the network, and a distributed application that allows client applications to access remote servers.
With local directories, the physical location of the target database is individually stored on each client workstation in the database directory and node directory. The database administrator can therefore spend a large amount of time updating and changing these directories. The DCE directory services provide a central directory alternative to the local directories. It allows information about a database or a database manager instance to be recorded once in a central location, and any changes or updates to be made at that one location.
DCE is not a prerequisite for running DB2, but if you are operating in a DCE environment, see Appendix E, Using Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Directory Services for more information.