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From: jeg@ptsfa.UUCP (John Girard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.unix.questions,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386 machines and NFS ??
Keywords: unix sun nfs intel ada
Message-ID: <4038@ptsfa.UUCP>
Date: 20 Jan 88 17:59:22 GMT
References: <210@turbo.RAY.COM>
Reply-To: jeg@ptsfa.UUCP (John Girard)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 72


I administrate a SUN 3/260C which is used as a PC-NFS controller
and Yellow Pages Gateway.  We have several Compac 386s connected at 
this time, via Ungermann/Bass broadband.  The approach we have 
taken to this point is to use the SUN as a standard multiuser
development environment via Telnet, and to use the NFS "DOS" disk
drives for shared PC file systems.  In this fashion, we have high
performance development environments for both DOS & UNIX applications.

Things are working out pretty well.  Here's a summary of the
interesting things we have learned.

	It makes sense to back up the PC shared file systems
	to a large hard drive on one of the PCs.  After all,
	if the network goes down, how can you access those 
	files?

	PC-NFS is very poor at diagnosing its own problems.
	In fact, it cannot even tell whether or not the 
	ethernet carrier is present.  The utilities, such
	as "nfsping" are less than satisfactory.  The majority
	of our transmission problems have turned out to be due
	to low signal strength.  When you get hooked up, drag
	someone with a signal analyzer out and make sure you
	have sufficient DBs to meet your network standard. 

	We were dissatisfied with the lack of good pc-to-pc 
	utilities supplied with NFS and have written many 
	of our own.  This is simple to do with DOS batch and
	a few auxiliary programs.

	If you want to use a PC type printer on the network,
	such as an HP Laserjet+, be warned that (in our
	experience), the SUN strips the 8th bit off of data
	going to the printer in "cooked" and CBREAK mode.  If
	you want to be able to send rasters and graphic characters,
	you will have to put the printer in raw mode.  Unfortunately
	you will lose flow control in raw mode, so you have to 
	slow the baud rate down to 2400 or so (and don't run 
	out of paper).  Someone from HP suggested configuring the
	printer as a *modem* ... it's on our list to try.

	PC-NFS does fight with some software packages, but there
	are workarounds.  The major problem is that its drivers
	gobble up a terrific amount of memory and are not relocatable
	in extended memory.  We are looking at using DESQview or
	Windows to allow us to open up application windows with
	reasonable amounts of memory.

	If you have a Microsoft Bus mouse, try setting it for
	interrupt 5 and set your NFS interface card for interrupt 7.

        Telnet bypasses the local screen drivers, which means you
	can't write your own ANSI, X, or other escape coded 
	command sequences.  Telnet only recognizes vt100 sequences.
	Richard Spellman of SUN PC NFS product support says this
	is a "feature."

	Our attempts to get advice and assistance from SUN have 
	been unsatisfactory.  They tend not to answer mail and not
	to call back.  They have broken all committments with me 
	to respond to our questions.    


Overall impression:  It's a pretty good file system even though the
support is lousy.  Hope this helps people who are considering NFS.
BTW, I am thinking about writing some articles about the utilities
we have developed.  Any suggestions for the best magazines to pursue?


John Girard
{ihnp4,pyramid,cbosgd}ptsfa!jeg