Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpda!hpcupt1!hpindwa!raj
From: raj@hpindwa.cup.hp.com (Rick Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: Re: CD-ROM Jukebox with NFS?
Message-ID: <36530003@hpindwa.cup.hp.com>
Date: 11 Apr 91 17:26:07 GMT
References: <7322@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Cupertino CA
Lines: 21


There are lots (?) of CD rom jukeboxes out there. 

However ;-)

They all (?) have platter change times measured in *seconds*. This
isn't such a big deal when you access the device locally - you wait
for as long as it takes for the data to come in. With NFS, things are
a bit more impatient shall we say ;-) Being an application written on
top of an 'unreliable' network, it retransmits and other fun things.

What does this mean? Well, unless you go out there and manually diddle
with the NFS/RPC retransmission timers (can one do that 'easily, or
does it require adb?), you will have all you clients sending-in
umpteen duplicate requests when they weren't needed. NFS is 'tuned'
(if one can really say such a thing) for LAN - ie 'fast' access times.

In a sufficiently large scenario, you might even achieve congestive
collapse of the network with your jukebox spending 99% of its time
changing platters ;-(

rick jones