This section describes the tasks the subscribing server performs when participating in package replication as the subscribing server.

Subscribers can retrieve packages manually or automatically. To retrieve a package manually, an administrator on the subscribing server views a list of available subscriptions and retrieves the desired package. When automatic pull is in effect, the subscribing server automatically pulls a package from the publisher when a new release becomes available.

For a package to be retrieved automatically, the subscriber must specify the automatic pull feature when setting up the subscription. When a new release becomes available, the publishing server sends a service-invocation e-mail to a designated e-mail server. The service-invocation e-mail contains a call to a service that runs on the subscribing server to retrieve packages. The subscribing server periodically checks the e-mail server through an e-mail port on the subscribing server. When it receives and processes the service-invocation e-mail, the subscribing server automatically pulls the package from the publisher and places it in the Inbound directory. The administrator on the subscribing server can then install the package.