jeanpaul@duteca.et.tudelft.nl (J.P.M. van der Jagt) (03/16/91)
Hi,
I'm trying to make a diskless VAX2000 swap on a SUN-Sparc-station.
The VAX is running Ultrix3.1, the SUN is running SunOS4.1.
Reason: trying to increase performance.
Current setup: VAX is diskless booting from a DEC2100-server (file-server)
(also Ultrix3.1). I Installed it with 'dms' and changed the location of the
swap file, by moving it to another place and editing 'netblk.c' (and
compiling). No problems here.
SUN is already boot-server and file-server for some SUN3's.
So far no luck with making the VAX swap on the SUN.
Tried:
1. Copied the swap-file and the root-dir-tree of the VAX from the DEC2100
to a partition on the SUN and edited the original 'netblk.c' on the
DEC2100: changed the server-name to the SUN, root-dir-name on
that server and swap-file-name on that server. It's a pitty you can only
define *one* server-name for both root and swap; that's why I had to copy
the root also to the new server. Compiled 'netblk.c'. Kept 'netblk.o' in the
original place on the DEC2100 (because it is the secondary loader) and also
VAX-vmunix on the original place on the DEC2100 (tertiary loader).
Results: VAX broadcasts, gets 'volunteer assistance' from DEC2100, loads
primary loader (system-image) from DEC2100 ('usr/mdec/netload'), starts
system-image, loads sec.loader ('netblk.o'), rapports new server-name (SUN),
loads tert.loader ('vmunix') from DEC2100, starts vmunix which reports
devices etcetera and reports new root-dir and new swap-file and correct
swap-space-size...
and then: 'no rootfilesystem'
and starts reboot-sequence all over again. sigh :-(
Root-directory and directory which contains swap-file are both exported to
the world with root-access enabled (just to rule out mount-errors due to
non-authorization) and are indeed mountable on every machine on our net with
root-access.
Tried:
2. Original diskless VAX setup as described above. Functioning normally.
Mounted SUN-swap-file on a VAX mountpoint via NFS while VAX was normally
running. Tried to use the 'swapon'-command.
Results: 'swapon' refuses to add a non-block-device as a swap-area. If the
swap-file is added as an entry in the VAX /etc/fstab, swapon doesn't
understand the NFS-syntax, normally used for NFS-mounts.
Possible third option: obtaining the source of the Ultrix 'netload' program
and make it accept different server-names for root and swap.
I'm out of ideas. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
John-Paul.
--
[] J.P.M. van der Jagt [] Systems manager [] Delft University of Technology []
[] Email: jeanpaul@duteca.et.tudelft.nl [] Phone: 31-15-781366 [] e m p t y []
[] - He sells C-shells by the seashore - Lauren Bacall - Key Largo - 1948 - []