Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!longway!std-unix From: std-unix@longway.TIC.COM (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) Newsgroups: comp.std.unix Subject: Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7 Message-ID: <339@longway.TIC.COM> Date: 11 May 89 15:41:03 GMT Reply-To: std-unix@uunet.uu.net Lines: 189 Approved: jsq@longway.tic.com (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7 An update on UNIX|= Standards Activities January 1989 IEEE 1003 Meeting, Ft. Lauderdale Part 6: 1003.7 Shane P. McCarron, NAPS International 1003.7 - System Administration At the first official meeting of the 1003.7 working group, John Quarterman presented a USENIX concern about the direction that the working group seemed to be taking. USENIX was concerned about the "single machine" model which was being suggested by the working group for designing tools and utilities. USENIX felt that if a single machine model where used, it would be difficult or impossible to extend the utilities and interfaces adopted by the committee to a networked system. However, if the working group chose a model in which a machine was assumed to be part of a tightly coupled network, then a single stand-alone machine could be a simple special case of a networked machine. After some deliberation, the working group adopted the USENIX model of a machine in a tightly coupled network. This has some rather far-reaching implications on the direction of the working group, as it is a different approach than that taken by 1003.1 and 1003.2. It will also mean that the group will be relying heavily on work and expertise from 1003.8 (networking). It also means that some of the concepts, such as a filesystem, which we thought we had a definition for, suddenly become much more complex. In addition, it means that the working group will be reviewing several documents which reflect prior art in the area of networking, such as the CMIP, ASN.1 and SMNP networking protocols. These protocols will be reviewed at the next meeting. A number of areas are affected by networking implications. Some of these are difficult to resolve, since things like device management, print spooling and performance monitoring, to name a few, may want to cross a network. The working group is still undecided about the direction which is going to be taken here. The two obvious __________ |= UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T in the U.S. and other countries. January 1989 - 1 - Ft. Lauderdale Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7 options are to provide for centralized administration of a network of machines, allocating and deallocating devices over the network from central spot; or a decentralized model in which each machine in responsible for administering the devices connected to it. This will be reviewed at the next meeting. Although this was our first meeting, a substantial amount of work was done by the working group. The first two days were spent reviewing global issues to the working group, such as determining direction, reviewing IEEE procedures, discussion of previous informal meetings of the system administration group and discussion of which model to choose. Once all of this was done, the working group split up into small groups and focused on the areas which needed to be addressed. Specifically, the areas being addressed are: 1. Process Management 2. Spooling Management 3. System Startup/Shutdown 4. Communication Management 5. File Systems Management 6. Performance Monitoring 7. System Accounting 8. Device and Media Management 9. Software Management 10. User Administration 11. System Monitoring 12. Miscellaneous 13. Introduction Some items of note: Spooling Management The System V spooling mechanism was chosen as a model for the working group. This model has been adopted by X/Open. It was recognized by the working group that the January 1989 - 2 - Ft. Lauderdale Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7 current System V lp interface does not adequately support networking. The working group felt that it could be extended to support networking relatively easily. Communications Management The committee will review the CMIP, ASN.1 and SMNP protocols to determine if and how these protocols may fit into the work that the working group is doing. In addition, UUCP managed to rear it's (useful but ugly) head here. Even though 1003.2 has parts of UUCP within its scope, this committee may need to address the issues of UUCP administration. File System Management The biggest problem here will be defining what a file system really is. 1003.7 will be looking to 1003.8 for help in defining the concept. However, the group has realized that even without a definition it will be useful to be able to mount, unmount and check file systems. Performance Monitoring The performance monitoring group has followed the lead of the /usr/group performance monitoring committee. This is hardly surprising considering that the technical reviewer for this section is the chair of the /usr/group performance monitoring committee. Their model seems reasonable, and in fact represents prior work in this area. System Installation An inordinate amount of time was spent drafting an objection to the AIU facility described in 1003.2. The object will be submitted to 1003.2 as an objection from the 1003.7 working group. There are a number of concerns about the application installation which many in the working group and outside of it feel are not able to be addressed by a rigidly-defined installation utility. Work progresses in spite of these concerns. The working group submitted a substantial amount of work to the technical editors. The editors have now collated all of this information and produced a draft that will be discussed at tha April meeting. Although this document may not be suitable for release, it will at least provide a framework for development for the working group. Obviously, the work has just begun, but so far a fair amount of progress has been made, and hopefully, more January 1989 - 3 - Ft. Lauderdale Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7 progress will be made in future meetings. The USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee contact on 1003.7 is Mark Colburn. He can be reached at: Mark Colburn Minnetech Consulting, Inc. 117 Mackubin St. Suite 1 St. Paul, MN 55102 (612) 224-9108 mark@jhereg.mn.org January 1989 - 4 - Ft. Lauderdale Volume-Number: Volume 16, Number 37