The operations in 3.4 & 3.5 (Start & Stop AcceptingNewActivities) I see as being a service specific management function (i.e. they effectively alter the behavior of one specific operation within the service).
While its semantics references a BES operation, it seems to me that it is a more general management pattern for any service that has a stateful, factory-like interface: stop accepting/creating new work items but continue processing the existing ones (whatever they are). The BES-specific meaning could just as easily be specified by calling out this work acceptance model so that it can be related to an external management mechanism.
I don't disagree with your statement. 1. Do these exist at the moment for use within the BES specification? 2. Would I want to adopt a whole new set of specifications (assuming the answer to 1 is yes) to turn this off in a 'generic' way?
I think it is wrong to burden BES implementations with these kinds of management functions that are specific to a hosting environment.
Altering the behaviour of one operation within the service has nothing to do with the hosting environment in my view. The 3rd operation (to stop the service) - would be hosting environment specific - and perhaps does belong elsewhere. Steven -- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Steven Newhouse Tel:+44 (0)2380 598789 Deputy Director, Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII) Suite 6005, Faraday Building (B21), Highfield Campus, Southampton University, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK