Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ptsfa!pacbell!att-ih!att-cb!clyde!motown!vilya!aap
From: aap@vilya.UUCP (PARKER)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Unix on a VAXCluster ??
Message-ID: <369@vilya.UUCP>
Date: 3 Mar 88 14:49:43 GMT
References: <985@luth.luth.se>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Parsippany
Lines: 30
Summary: it works with System V

In article <985@luth.luth.se>, roland@sm.luth.se (Roland Hedberg) writes:
> The subject says it all, is it possible to run Unix on a Vax cluster.
> I have nearby a small cluster ,one 11/750 and one 11/780 currently running
> Vax/VMS 4.6 , and have been asked if it would be possible to change to unix
> without break up the cluster.
> 
> I would prefer 4.3BSD but if that isn't possible I might consider something
> else.
> 
> Have anyone tried ?
> 
> -- Roland
> 
> =============================================================================
> Internet : roland@umecs.umu.se , roland@omega.luth.se
> Bitnet : rhg@seumdc51
I don't know anything about BSD but we are running System V Release 2
on a VAX cluster consisting of a 785 and an 8650.  The necessary software
was supplied by and is supported by DEC.  (Unfortunately, they only will
do this for AT&T and the Bell Operating Companies, not anyone who wants it.)

Advantages of this configuration?  You don't really have shared discs,
as you do with VMS, but you can mount one machine's drives read-only on
the other machine.  You can also put tape drives on the cluster, so for
example, both of our machines can share the TA-78 high performance tape
drives.  The big win for us is that, if one cpu goes down, we can quickly
remount the drives on the other machine so that our users can continue 
working.  There is also a facility for cpu-to-cpu communication over the
cluster interface, but we don't use that so I can't say too much about it.

I hope this clarifies the issue somewhat.