rbw@rti-sel.UUCP (08/16/84)
We at the Research Triangle Institute have ported the New- castle Connection to a Gould Concept 32/8750 running 4.1c BSD, a VAX 11/750 running 4.2 BSD, and a SUN 100 also run- ning 4.2 BSD connected via Ethernet. Using the Newcastle Connection software, it is possible, for example, for one to use files and peripheral devices on a remote machine, or to request remote execution of a program, all transparently. It is very handy to 'cd' amongst the various machines as one is used to doing on a single machine. And, 'rsh', 'rcp', 'rtar', 'rdump', ... become unnecessary. The hardware and software differences between these three machines caused several expected and unexpected problems. The byte ordering differences were addressed by the Newcas- tle Connection (but had to be modified to work properly). The networking code (provided by Ray Essick for 4.1a but modified by the Newcastle distributors) had to be updated for 4.1c and 4.2. System calls not present in V7 UNIX had to be added and tested. The new 4.2 signal mechanism and symbolic links caused some problems. More difficult prob- lems were due to the necessity of interpreting binary files (i.e. directories, utmp, etc.) between heterogeneous machines. For example, the file(I) command does not under- stand the magic numbers of files on an arbitrary remote machine. We were able to make directory access work, but in general this is a difficult aspect of distributed computing in a non-homogeneous environment. We would like to get in touch with people who use distri- buted UNIX file systems (and/or computation) to discuss these and other problems, and their experiences. What are the strengths/weaknesses of other systems (NETIX, Purdue IBIS, Bell's V8, etc.). Are there features that you have found you cannot live without? What misfeatures have you run into? What are your plans for distributed file systems/computing in the future? Bob Warren (mcnc!rti-sel!rbw) Research Triangle Institute PO Box 12194 Herbert Building Research Triangle Park, N. C. 27709