1-DRC INSIGHT - Central Office Services (COS) Overview

Audience: IT Administrators / MSP Engineers

Purpose: Explain what COS is, what it does, and how it fits into DRC INSIGHT testing.

Overview

DRC INSIGHT Central Office Services (COS) is a local content hosting system that allows testing devices to retrieve assessment content from a local server instead of relying entirely on internet delivery.

How COS Fits into DRC INSIGHT

DRC’s training materials describe COS as the content hosting layer for testing devices. When COS is available, test content is delivered locally. If COS is unavailable, content can fall back to DRC cloud delivery. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Testing Devices
    ↓
DRC INSIGHT Secure App
    ↓
COS Service Device
    ↓
Local Content Delivery
    ↓
Fallback → DRC Cloud

Supported Platforms

• Testing Devices: Windows, macOS, Linux, iPadOS, ChromeOS
• COS Service Device: Windows, macOS, Linux

DRC states that testing devices can connect to any supported COS operating system type. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Main COS Components

• management - configuration and management service
• relay - communicates with DRC backend services
• proxy - local proxy service
• contenthosting - serves local test content

Important Design Notes

• Use COS for local content delivery and better testing consistency
• Do not design COS as an SMB or NFS share
• Registration with DRC is required for full functionality
• Chromebooks should register to the COS Configuration using the ORG Unit ID

Next Page: Ubuntu COS Installation