still@usceast.UUCP (Bert Still) (07/21/87)
Greetings Netfolk, First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those that responded to my queries on the shell$xxxx calls and .DIR file formats. I tried to thank each person that sent me mail, but our BSD system (which runs all mail :-) was undergoing the upgrade to 4.3, and we were having some problems with mail and news for awhile (I think it's now fixed...); so, if you didn't receive a thank you, please accept my thanks now. Now, I have another question: much easier I believe. I am an assistant systems manager for the Math/Stat Computation Center (and using the Computer Science Dept's BSD VAX as a guest) which has a VAX 11/750 and VAX 8300, both running VMS 4.4 and DECNet. We have been given a PDP 11/34 which we would like to upgrade to an 11/84 class machine and use with UN*X, both for faculty accounts and for communications purposes. The users of the PDP accounts need to be able to log in from DECNet (DECServer 100s on the Ethernet), and they need to be able to initiate dialouts. It would be nice if a user could do remote logins (like SET HOST :-) between the PDP and the VAXen, but this is not necessary. Here is the question: it seems our best choice is ULTRIX-11, but the information I have gotten is rather nebulous about DECNet access to/from ULTRIX-11 (saying that there has to be an ULTRIX-32 node around in order to SET HOST from the PDP, and that going the other way is impossible :-( ). Does anyone know if ULTRIX-11 will allow access from a terminal server running on the Ethernet (hello, any ULTRIX-11 system managers out there?) ? Can anyone give me a better understanding of exactly what the restrictions on DECNet access are? Are there any other options? (We need the PDP to be able to "talk to" VMS and UN*X machines, and I don't think we can convert either of the VAXen to ULTRIX-32 without endangering our lives with our users... ;-) Many thanks in advance.
sytek@tekgen.TEK.COM (Mike Ewan) (07/21/87)
In article <2416@usceast.UUCP> still@usceast.UUCP (Bert Still) writes: > > The users of the PDP accounts need >to be able to log in from DECNet (DECServer 100s on the Ethernet), and they >need to be able to initiate dialouts. It would be nice if a user could do >remote logins (like SET HOST :-) between the PDP and the VAXen, but this is not >necessary. Here is the question: it seems our best choice is ULTRIX-11, but >the information I have gotten is rather nebulous about DECNet access to/from >ULTRIX-11 (saying that there has to be an ULTRIX-32 node around in order to >SET HOST from the PDP, and that going the other way is impossible :-( ). > I have an 11/44 running Ultrix-11. Unfortunatly I don't have any experiance connecting to DECnet. But I can quote from the DEC Software Technical Description. "An ULTRIX-11 Version 3.0 system can gain access to DECnet networks by means of a TCP/IP Ethernet connection to the ULTRIX-32 or ULTRIX-32m node that is running DECnet-ULTRIX. This DECnet access is transparent to the end user. The DECnet access facility supports: o Electronic mail o Remote login o File transfer "Users on the ULTRIX-11 V3.0 system can log into a remote DECnet system, but users on the DECnet system cannot set host to the ULTRIX-11 system. Files may be transferred to and from the DECnet system but the transfer must be initiated from the ULTRIX-11 V3.0 system. The supported DECnet commands are: dcat dcp dlogin dls drm mail "For file transfer operations, wild cards in the file names are not supported. Also, source and destination files must be explicitly given. That is, automatic generation of destination file name from source file name is not supported." It's still vague but I hope this helps. What I get from this is that, yes the PDP can talk to the VMS VAX, but a VAX running ULTRIX-32 must be in the circuit to do the translation from TCP/IP to DECnet. I got the same impression when talking with the folks at the Bellevue DEC ACT. Mike Ewan Tektronix Inc. sytek@tekgen.UUCP
aad+@andrew.cmu.edu (Anthony A. Datri) (07/22/87)
First off, I don't know how feasible upgrading a 34 to an 84 class machine is going to be. The 84's got a different bus, needs special memory, etc. You could keep your disks and muxes, potentially using the box from the 34 for unibus expansion. I'm not sure what DEC's support of DECnet for Ultrix-11 is. Last I knew, DECnet for RSTS was only up to Phase III, but that was a couple years ago. I think DECnet/Ultrix on the 11 would support remote logins via host, but I'm told that DECservers need lat servers running on the remote machines, and I'm not sure if DEC would have ported them. I'm running V7 now, (soon to be 2.9 as soon as i find someone with an 11 with a tape drive and rl drives who'll build me a root), so I can't claim familiarity. I think you've got a better chance of running a telnetd on it over the ethernet.