A few days ago I had asked whether or not it was recommended to use
NFS for a few Alpha machines to ease the software upgrades. We have a
few Dec Alphas running stand-alone DU. We don't have any problems with
disk space on local machines. One of our concerns is that in case of
network/server being down, we want the users to be able to use other
software which is installed locally. We were concerned that the systems
may hang if the remote service becomes unavailable.
Most people suggested using rdist. I think we will use this until
next year when we will get more Alpha boxes. Then we start using
NFS/NIS.
Thanks for the following people who took the time to reply:
Robert Kielty <klt_at_masadm1.mas.eurocontrol.be>
Anthony D'Atri" <aad_at_nwnet.net>
Gyula Szokoly <szgyula_at_skysrv.Pha.Jhu.EDU>
Carlos Sanchez <csanchez_at_cirp.es>
Hellebo Knut <Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com>
Complete replies follow:
Robert Kielty <klt_at_masadm1.mas.eurocontrol.be>
As a user I find that the client server approach is not a problem.
With NFS the uptime is fine. In fact I cannot imagine working on a
standalone Unix box. You should have access to at least local resources
(information, s/w, hardware) via the local network.
I would go as far to say that I would hate to work on a stand-alone
machine. I would feel very isolated. Your users musn't work together.
*********************8
Anthony D'Atri" <aad_at_nwnet.net>
Use rdist.
*********************
Gyula Szokoly <szgyula_at_skysrv.Pha.Jhu.EDU>
Have you looked into 'rdist'? You maintain one copy of all the SW
that you need, and distribute it to other machine overnight with rdist.
**********************
Carlos Sanchez <csanchez_at_cirp.es>
Look the man for the mount command and the soft and hard parameters. I'm
not sure (I have not tested them), but I think that these can help you.
***********************
Hellebo Knut <Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com>
By using automount you can by far eliminate the 'hang' situation you
describe. The only way a NFS filesystem hang when using automount is when
the client have open files in this particular filesystem. Also, by making
use of the 'retry' and 'retrans' options you shouldn't have to wait too
long when a filesystem becomes unavailable.
Received on Fri Jun 07 1996 - 16:50:19 NZST