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From: boyd@ausmelb.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Mixing vaxen and suns on NFS
Message-ID: <135@ausmelb.OZ>
Date: Tue, 31-Mar-87 21:05:46 EST
Article-I.D.: ausmelb.135
Posted: Tue Mar 31 21:05:46 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Apr-87 06:06:07 EST
References: <5762@brl-adm.ARPA> <1333@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Reply-To: boyd@ausmelb.UUCP (Boyd Roberts)
Organization: Austec International Limited, Melbourne
Lines: 41

Ok, lets look at what's been said.  The people who say that it works
all run in a homgeneous environment.  That are either all SUNs
or they are SUNs with VAX file-servers.  That is a homogeneous environment.
NFS works in said role.  But you've got to pay a price.

The price is -

    - a flat namespace

    - shiping copies of binaries to machine where they won't run

    - administration limiting the size of hetrogenity

    - the users must be educated to know where the files are

A file-server environment does not ``mix''.  It leans to support
one dominant machine type.  The NFS claim is to be able to get widely
disparate machines to function together.  But, it provides none of
the tools needed to do this.

Where are the name servers?  Don't say ``yp''.  Because all it does is
is provide one global /etc/passwd.  And, very badly at that.  You can
do this by simply moving /etc/passwd to globally known place.  And,
if you've got symbolic links you don't even need to do that (Sys V
NFS doesn't support them).

The point of a network file system is that a pathname is a pathname.
It doesn't matter where it is physically.  It should be transparant.
NFS doesn't provide this sufficiently.

It should also work.  What is the difference between a disk controller
barfing and a server crashing?  If a disk controller dies you call
in the engineers.  If a server crashes, what do you do?  You say
reboot it?  I say ``call in the engineers''.  Things should work.  Surely
you wouldn't pay for anything less.  I wouldn't.


--
Boyd Roberts			boyd@ausmelb.oz | boyd@basser.oz

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro...
D