SUMMARY: UNIX - VMS NFS possible?

From: Lee, Hank <hank.lee_at_vta.org>
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 14:58:35 -0700

Thanks to everyone's speeding replies. In a nutshell, I was recommended
mounting the UNIX NFS shared directory with VMS's UCX. The alternative
solution is to use something called Multinet.

Many thanks go out the following people:

Scott L. McCracken <scottm_at_synergex.com>
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
Eduardo Bergasa [eduardo.bergasa_at_si.unirioja.es]
maurerf_at_post.ch
Joe Fletcher [joe_at_meng.ucl.ac.uk]
Leonard, Roger [rleonard_at_cvty.com]
Simon.Millard_at_barclays.co.uk
Paul Watson [phwatso_at_cooper-energy-services.com]
pgouffon_at_charme.if.usp.br
Otterson, Robert [Robert.Otterson_at_compaq.com]
Luciano Imamura [luciano.imamura_at_incor.usp.br]
pvhp_at_forte.com

This is my original inquiry:

> Hello managers,
>
> A need has cropped up recently. We need to share a Digital UNIX
> directory with a machine running OpenVMS. I heard cross-platform NFS
> can be done between UNIx machines. How about UNIX and VMS? Are there
> any special requirements that I need to do when exporting this
> directory? Are there any special things that needs to be done by the
> VMS administrator?
>

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These are the solutions:
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Hank,
        Stay away from Pathworks. We have had problems with Pathworks
converting
any "binary" files into 512 byte fixed length files. If the last block of
the file is not 512 bytes Path works pads the file with nulls. This may
not be a problem for you, but it caused havoc with some of our programs.
We were expecting the EOF to be in one place, and that was no longer true.
        We have used UCX which seems to work well. It is more NFS like in
its
connection. It is a bit of a bare to set up initially, but it works
extremely well for us.

Scott
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott L. McCracken
Product Develoment Manager
Phone (916)853-0312
FAX (916)635-6549

mailto:scottm_at_synergex.com
Web Site: http://www.pvcs.synergex.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com

I know that UCX and the TCP/IP Services for VMS has an NFS
server in it, but I don't know if it has a VMS client.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I know it works. Although I am not an expert using VMS I've done it many
times.

There's an VMS utility callled ucx. Using ucx you can mount any NFS
directory
exported as usually by a UNIX server.

you can try something like:

ucx mount sys$sysroot:[mountpoint] host.domain.com
/host="myunixserver.domain.com" /pathname="/myexportedpath"


greetings from Spain

--
________________________________________________
Eduardo Bergasa Balda
UNIVERSIDAD DE LA RIOJA
Servicio Informático   Sistemas y Comunicaciones
C/Avenida de La Paz, 93         Tf:+34-41-299176
26004 Logroño - SPAIN           Fx:+34-41-299180
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have UCX on the OpenVMS side, you could do it. I did it sometimes
ago, so I can't remaind me the details. If you are facing to problems, I
look around for my notes.
Kind regards
__________________________________________________
Felix Maurer
Die Schweizerische Post     Tel: +41-31-338 98 49
Informatik POST             Fax: +41-31-338 98 80
Messaging Management
Webergutstrasse 12          Mailto:maurerf_at_post.ch
CH-3030 Bern                http://www.post.ch
__________________________________________________
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Joe Fletcher [joe_at_meng.ucl.ac.uk]
Hi,
> A need has cropped up recently. We need to share a Digital UNIX directory
> with a machine running OpenVMS.  I heard cross-platform NFS can be done
> between UNIx machines. How about UNIX and VMS?  Are there any special
> requirements that I need to do when exporting this directory? Are there
any
> special things that needs to be done by the VMS administrator?
> 
> Thanks for any help. I will summarize.
VMS systems can't mount nfs shares from unix systems. You can share a VMS 
directory out to a unix system via nfs though. 
Even if you do that you may find things don't behave quite as expected.
Have your VMS admin walk you through the UCX docs assuming that is what you
intend to use at the VMS end.
Cheers.
Joe
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Leonard, Roger [rleonard_at_cvty.com]
We use MultiNet on the vms side and set up a logical with a "unix-like" name
instead of the $whatever syntax.  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Simon.Millard_at_barclays.co.uk
I believe that you need to run a version of UCX (or whatever it is 
called today).  This software provides TCP/IP services, including nfs 
on a OpenVMS platform.
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Paul Watson [phwatso_at_cooper-energy-services.com]
The VMS administrator will need to have installed UCX for VMS software this
gives the ability to nfs mount unix drives amongst other things. There are
quite a few items to be set-up tcp/ip networking will be required to allow
nfs
mounting, and unix users will will have to be mapped to VMS users along with
proxy access rights.
--
Regards,  Paul Watson MSc(M:MT)(Open) - CAD Systems Supervisor,
          Cooper Energy Services, Bootle, Liverpool, UK.
          http://www.cooperenergy.com - Internet
          http://coops.ces.com - Intranet
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Hi
	In the past we had a Vax/VMS system that exported disks using NFS.
The software we ran was called Multinet and worked very well. We never
imported disk from unix systems, only exported, because a special licence
was required for that that was not bought.
						Philippe Gouffon
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Instituto de Fisica         |   INASMUCH as three quarters of the earth's
Universidade de Sao Paulo   |   surface is water and only one fourth is land
Caixa Postal 66318          |   the good Lord's Intentions are very clear:
05389-970 Sao Paulo         |
Brazil                      |        A man's time should be divided:
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Tel: (55)(11)818-7045       | three fourths for sailing and one fourth for
work.
Fax: (55)(11)818-6832       |
email: pgouffon_at_if.usp.br   |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
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Otterson, Robert [Robert.Otterson_at_compaq.com]
 hello,
        You'll probably get a lot of answers;
        Can be done; on the VMS you will need SW (TCP/IP Services) also
called UCX.
        I've been out of VMS for awhile; I do not know if that is built or
standard  in Post 7.0 VMS installs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Luciano Imamura [luciano.imamura_at_incor.usp.br]
Hi, on OpenVMS there is a application named UCX, you can use this to export
directories.
Good luck,
Luciano.
====================================================================
| Luciano Imamura                    | mailto:luciano_at_incor.usp.br |
| Instituto do Coracao - HC-FMUSP    | http://www.incor.usp.br     |
| Av.Dr.Eneas de Carvalho Aguiar, 44 | phone : +55 11 3069-5549    |
| 05403-000       Sao Paulo - Brazil | fax: +55 11 282-2354        |
====================================================================
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pvhp_at_forte.com
Yes this is possible.  On DU you want to configure and run nfsd
and be sure to export the filesystem/mountpoint so that other systems
can see it.  Since most NFS documentation has a unix bias toward it
you may want to verify the export and mountability from another unix
machine before moving to the VMS machine.  See man mount e.g.
On the VMS machine you need to configure and run the NFS client.
The details of how to do that depend on which tcp/ip stack you are running:
Digital tcp/ip services for OpenVMS (aka UCX), Multinet, Wollongong,
Process are some of the most common ones (though recently there has been
some consolidation with Process software buying up the others and handling
tech support for UCX through a contract with digital).
Under UCX the mount command is as follows:
   $ UCX MOUNT DNFS'p1': 'p2' 'p3' /HOST="''p4'"/PATH="''p5'" /NOADF/SYS
where:
  * p1 is an integer representing the next logical nfs mount.  Use:
   $ show devices d
   to determine what the next integer should be (it'll be '1' for your first
   mount)  
  * p2 is the host
  * p3 is a disk volume logical name
  * p4 is the hostname (lower case if necessary)
  * p5 is a path in unix form (e.g. "/path/to/shared/directory").
  * the /noadf/sys qualifiers are optional
Under Multinet the mount command could be:
   $ MULTINET NFSMOUNT 'p2'::"''p5'" 'p3'
/SOFT/TIMEOUT=300/PROCESSOR=UNIQUE/VOLUME='p3
For either tcp/ip stack you can run it interactively and then ask for help 
from the program, e.g.:
   $ ucx
   UCX> help mount
or
   $ multinet
   MULTINET> help nfsmount
Some things to beware of: NFS is unreliable and based on UDP packet
exchange,
it is OK for sharing where you may be skimming files and willing to re-read 
files, but for more reliable file transfer you'd do better with a tcp based
protocol like ftp.  In order to allow for the illusion of support for mixed 
case filenames such as on Unix, the vms nfs clients map uppercase names and
punctuation to weird characters.  It is best if you restrain your unix 
filenaming to: 39.39, no more than one period, all lowercase.  If you 
are not so constrained be prepared for map renamings (e.g. FileName on Unix 
-> $F$ILE$N$AME. on VMS)
Peter Prymmer
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--
Hank Lee <hank.lee_at_vta.org>
UNIX Systems Administrator
SAP Basis Administrator
Santa Clara County Transit District
Received on Mon Apr 26 1999 - 21:58:54 NZST

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