LIZAK98%SNYBUFVA.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu (THE DRUMMER BOY 1989) (09/01/89)
Good Day! Currently I am working on a new and exciting educational CAI system. The system has training hardward along with CAI software w/ databasing on an Amiga 2000 system. Our goal (and actually need) is to outfit each customer with 2-6 Amigas as workstations and 1 Amiga that would have a 200Mb harddisk. Is it possible to have 1 hard disk shared over multiple computers. If so, how is it done. If not, is X11 or Ethernet the way to go and what would have to be done in a nutshell to get that configuration to work? Thank you very much. Rob Lizak Jr. Lead programmer, Hale Educational Systems (Not networked yet... but I am on Bitnet) Bitnet Address: LIZAK98 @ SNYBUFVA
dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) (09/01/89)
In article <22987@louie.udel.EDU> LIZAK98%SNYBUFVA.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu writes: > Currently I am working on a new and exciting educational CAI system. The >system has training hardward along with CAI software w/ databasing on an >Amiga 2000 system. > > Our goal (and actually need) is to outfit each customer with 2-6 Amigas >as workstations and 1 Amiga that would have a 200Mb harddisk. Is it possible >to have 1 hard disk shared over multiple computers. If so, how is it done. >If not, is X11 or Ethernet the way to go and what would have to be done in a >nutshell to get that configuration to work? Presently there is no capability to share a amiga harddisk with any other machine. There is work in progress to make this happen but I don't think anyone has any real time schedules they can commit to yet. The current NFS implementation from Ameristar on the Amiga is client side only and requires the shared disk to be on an NFS-server such as a Sun or some other unix with NFS server capability. We really need an NFS server! So you could place the shared database on a non-Amiga server for the time being and move it to an Amiga with NFS-server in the future when one is available. Another option is to have all your code run on the shared A2000 (Better make it a beefed up A2500) and have it bring up pictures and create graphics on remote A2000's via ethernet/X11. This is not the optimal solution at present for one reason GfxBase's current shipping X11 is only monochrome. Color is currently in alpha testing. For another reason, the xlib/toolkits for the Amiga X11 are also only in alpha testing. -- Dale Luck GfxBase/Boing, Inc. {uunet!cbmvax|pyramid}!amiga!boing!dale
staatsvr@asdcds.cds.wpafb.af.mil ( Vern Staats;;) (09/02/89)
In article <848@boing.UUCP> dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: >In article <22987@louie.udel.EDU> LIZAK98%SNYBUFVA.BITNET@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu writes: >> Our goal (and actually need) is to outfit each customer with 2-6 Amigas >>as workstations and 1 Amiga that would have a 200Mb harddisk. Is it possible >>to have 1 hard disk shared over multiple computers. If so, how is it done. > >Presently there is no capability to share a amiga harddisk ... C-Ltd *claims* that their Kronos SCSI controller will allow multiple Amigas to share a harddrive. Each computer can have its own partition with its very own startup-sequence, and I believe there can be shared partitions too. Has anyone out there in netland actually tried this? It sounds like a pretty good controller (Well, at least according to C-Ltd :-) ---- INET: staatsvr@asd.wpafb.af.mil Vern Staats (513) 255-2714 /// Save UUCP: nap1!asd!staatsvr ASD/SCED \\\/// The Opinions: my!own! WPAFB OH 45433 \XX/ Guru
wdimm@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU (William Dimm) (09/02/89)
In article <848@boing.UUCP> dale@boing.UUCP (Dale Luck) writes: >Presently there is no capability to share a amiga harddisk with any other machine. >There is work in progress to make this happen but I don't think anyone has any >real time schedules they can commit to yet.... Really? Way back when I bought my CLtd SCSI controller for the A1000 their docs talked about attaching multiple Amigas to a hard drive. It seemed that the main difficulty was that if one computer wrote to a partition, another computer wouldn't know that the table of free blocks needed updating. BUT, since WB 1.3 allows you to lock a partition for read only, I would think that you would be safe if you made sure that only one computer had write permissions for any particular partition. Just make sure each SCSI controller has a different unit #, & go to it, right? Does anyone know for sure if this works? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ // Bill Dimm wdimm@lehi3b15.csee.Lehigh.EDU wcd0@lehigh.BITNET \X/ "It's not the facts but the explanation that counts." - unknown ------------------------------------------------------------------------
dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dale Larson) (09/08/89)
In article <277@nap1.cds.wpafb.af.mil> Vern Staats writes: > > C-Ltd *claims* that their Kronos SCSI controller will allow multiple >Amigas to share a harddrive. Each computer can have its own partition >with its very own startup-sequence, and I believe there can be shared >partitions too. Has anyone out there in netland actually tried this? >It sounds like a pretty good controller (Well, at least according to >C-Ltd :-) I replied via email to the original posting, but since there seems to be general interest: Yes, the shared harddrive stuff is doable with the CLtd. controllers. There are drawbacks, but they are survivable. The system I set-up in a law-office I work in as systems manager shares one harddrive between 2 2000s and a 500. We have had few problems with the CLtd. hardware in the 11 months this has been running. We have had problems with CLtd. support. Their shipping department is FUBAR. Well, heck, I'll just tell the story: The system started with only two machines. When I added the third (january) I needed to remove the terminating resistors from the middle controller on the bus. The manual instructed me to call customer support for this. They told me that the resistors weren't socketed - that I had to cut them off of the board!!! (I asked "with scisors?") They were VERY unclear with what needed to be removed, and they could not clarify. When I followed there instructions, the thing no longer worked. When I called back, the person I had talked to said that I shouldn't ask him about it, because he wasn't the one who knew about shared harddrives!!! Once I figured out that the board needed repair, he agreed to have it done the same day and ship it back to me the way I shipped it to them. I told them it would go out FedEx. I wasted 5 hours on a Saturday waiting for the package which he said had been shipped FedEx on Friday. When I called to complain on Monday, he said it went out UPS Red. Ten minutes later, I got a call from a kind gentleman in New Jersey (I am in Washington State) saying that he had recieved my controller!!! In spite of this horror story, there are situations for which I could recomend CLtd controllers. And surely, with the war on drugs in full force, their shipping department should no longer be so stoned. -- A lack of prior planning on the part of any programmer always constitutes an emergency. Digital Teddy Bear dlarson@blake.acs.washington.edu
joe@vixen.uucp (Joe Hitchens) (09/09/89)
> > C-Ltd *claims* that their Kronos SCSI controller will allow multiple > >Amigas to share a harddrive. Each computer can have its own partition > >with its very own startup-sequence, and I believe there can be shared > >partitions too. Has anyone out there in netland actually tried this? > >It sounds like a pretty good controller (Well, at least according to > >C-Ltd :-) > be general interest: Yes, the shared harddrive stuff is doable with > the CLtd. controllers. There are drawbacks, but they are survivable. I have an OLDER CLtd. controller (came with SCSIDos 2). I remember my docs went on at length about sharing harddrives. Will my controller do this (OLD one remember) if I only want a shared READ partition? What I want to do is this ... I have an A1000 and an A2000. The 2000 is just a stock 2000 with 1Meg and the fatter agnus, no SCSI controller. The 1000 has the older CLtd. controller. I have one ST277N drive on the 1000. I want to get another controller for the 2000 (possibly a GVP SCSI plus 2M ram) and put it on the SCSI bus with the 1000. THEN, I want to divide the ST277N into 3 partitions. One read/write for the 1000, one read/write for the 2000, and the other read-ONLY for both. That way, both computers have their own work space that the other is oblivious to, plus they share a common SYS: area where all the c: devs: etc is. When I want to alter the SYS: partition, I will just make sure that I do it quick, and then do a diskchange on both machines to make sure they have the right info. My main concerns are these: * Would I have to have the newer CLtd. controller to do this? * Would the two initiators on the bus conflict in any way to mess up communications on the bus assuming that the device ID's for all controllers and drives are unique? * Would the configuration work (assuming it would work with two CLtd. controllers) with a GVP as one of the controllers? * Am I out of my mind? Thanks for any light anyone can shed on this scheme. j.h. -- ========================================================================== Joe Hitchens -- Artist, Sculptor, Animator of Sculpture, Iconographer Adept joe@vixen ...!uunet!iconsys!caeco!vixen!joe joe@amie ...!uunet!iconsys!caeco!i-core!amie!joe Phone: (801) 292-2190
roadman@portia.Stanford.EDU (arthur walker) (09/12/89)
In article <297@vixen.uucp>, joe@vixen.uucp (Joe Hitchens) writes: > What I want to do is this ... I have an A1000 and an A2000. The 2000 > is just a stock 2000 with 1Meg and the fatter agnus, no SCSI controller. > The 1000 has the older CLtd. controller. I have one ST277N drive on > the 1000. I want to get another controller for the 2000 (possibly a > GVP SCSI plus 2M ram) and put it on the SCSI bus with the 1000. > > My main concerns are these: > * Would I have to have the newer CLtd. controller to do this? No, I am doing it with an older CLTD 1000 host and a mac II right now. Just get the SCSIDOS 3.x upgrade. Believe me, it's really worth the $20. You'll get over 300k diskperf reads under FFS with a stock 68000 and the 277N. > * Would the two initiators on the bus conflict in any way to mess up > communications on the bus assuming that the device ID's for all > controllers and drives are unique? When you don't autoboot (when you don't have a Kronos) the 3.x stuff reads a configuration file to set up all three layers of code (Exec device, device driver/strategy, and host-hardware low-level handler code). As long as you stipulate in this file that arbitration be used, all will be fine....as long as all of the hosts arbitrate. I don't know whether the boot drivers in the KRONOS EEPROM arbitrate or not. If not, you might have to keep other hosts off the bus while the boot process went on. More likely though, the EEPROM keeps a structure identical to the one filled by the abovementtioned setup file, so all would be safe. Call CLTD. Also, some mac II programs don't use the SCSI manager to arbitrate when going underneath the filesystem (image backup... or polling for DISK_REMOVED) and they can mess up an ongoing transfer. > * Would the configuration work (assuming it would work with two CLtd. > controllers) with a GVP as one of the controllers? From what I understand, the GVP software doesn't now allow selection of the host ID. Maybe this could be cut into a boot EPROM. So, only one GVP to a bus, along with as many CLTD as you like. Hardframe has a jumper, but whether their current boot code checks it I don't know. Since CLTD is easily programmable, no problem. One host can even be set up as multiple host numbers. No target mode though, yet. If GVP uses the hardblok.s stuff to put junk in reserved cylinders, you will have to use their low-format and prep facilities. Thereafter, you must select the maountlist entries for the CLTD side correctly to avoid overlapping notions of partitions. The Kronos uses the EEPROM to store a list of sectors, LOCATED ANYWHERE ON THE DISK, in which the blessed files for startup are to be taken. So no collision with any other vendor-specific use of the reserved early cylinders. > ========================================================================== > Joe Hitchens -- Artist, Sculptor, Animator of Sculpture, Iconographer Adept > joe@vixen ...!uunet!iconsys!caeco!vixen!joe art walker walker@meggie.stanford.edu roadman@portia.stanford.edu