[comp.sys.hp] nfs for hp3000

dennisg@kgw2.UUCP (Dennis Glatting) (11/30/89)

i'm looking to connect my hp3000/48-or-hp3000/935 to a Sun 3/60
to use as remote storage.  I want NFS (i think).  got the
hardware.  need software.  help....




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 ..umbc3.umbc.edu!tron!kgw2!dennisg  
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human@hpindda.HP.COM (Aaron Schuman) (12/05/89)

I'd love to see NFS on the HP3000 too!  

There are some serious technical problems:

The HP3000 has a three tiered file system (file.group.account),
but DOS and Unix machines have arbitrarily deep directory trees.
There wouldn't be a clean mapping from file names on your Sun
server to file names on your MPE client.

It would be possible to create a shell that sits on top of MPE's
file system, so that references into directory trees are first
looked up in a database, then the file system calls are transparently
mapped to calls to MPE-format file names ... You get the idea.
It would be possible, but not easy.

Where Unix systems have flat files, MPE supports some highly
structured files.  This is one of the features that makes MPE
well suited to data base applications.  But how are you going
to get a non-MPE file server to understand KSAM files or even
numbered TDP files?

I guess none of these obstacles are insurmountable.  It's only
software!  But they're big enough that HP's management hasn't
wanted to tackle the problem, at least not yet, and they're big
enough that nobody's been willing to solve it on their own on
the weekends.

barbh@hpsmtc1.HP.COM (Barbara Holden) (12/07/89)

>The HP3000 has a three tiered file system (file.group.account),
>but DOS and Unix machines have arbitrarily deep directory trees.
>There wouldn't be a clean mapping from file names on your Sun
>server to file names on your MPE client.
    actually, doesn't he want an MPE Server?  To use as a remote
    storage machine?

>It would be possible to create a shell that sits on top of MPE's
>file system, so that references into directory trees are first
>looked up in a database, then the file system calls are transparently
>mapped to calls to MPE-format file names ... You get the idea.
>It would be possible, but not easy.
    I have run across this design idea other places.  I don't care for
    it (talk about confusing....)
    what about POSIX?  MPE should have a hierarchical file system in
      the near future (that is, if POSIX goes I to L next week)

>Where Unix systems have flat files, MPE supports some highly
>structured files.  This is one of the features that makes MPE
>well suited to data base applications.  But how are you going
>to get a non-MPE file server to understand KSAM files or even
>numbered TDP files?
    Do you think he will be using KSAM files from his SUN Machine?
    or TDP files?