htx@gnsun.UUCP (Henrik Tuxen) (03/14/89)
I have a 'funny' experience with the PC-NFS software. This experience should be shared with the rest of the group, since others may experience similar problems, if they stick to the SUN manuals. We have recently installed the PC-NFS software in a number of PC workstations (10), and I am watching with interest the mail on this subject. We are using these workstations to develop software to run on PC's and other target hardware, and are using the SUN as the centralized storage medium for programs and source. Each of the PC are either AT-3 or 386 with at least 30 Mbyte disk. The other day I had a 'funny' experience with the PCNFS software located on our SUN 2/120 running OS 3.2. The PCNFS software is installed as outline in chapter 4 of the PCNFS manual, that is make rc.local start up the pcnfs deamon. This works fine, and everybody is happy. In addition to this we have 4 copies of nfsd and biod running to handle the other things. During the process of developing software I had the need to print 2 files with the same extension. This I did using the net print *.lis command, and the NFS software started and responded with Queueing file [DSP.LIS] Queueing file [DSPIF.LIS] NFS045F: Remote procedure call to PCNFSD deamon on gnsun failed. and no print appeared anywhere on our printer. I really needed that print, so decided to print them one at a time. The net print command for the DSP.LIS file came through ok, but the net print command for the DSPIF.LIS file did not. The Queueing file... message appeared on the PC screen and after that I was the happy owner of one *V*E*R*Y* dead PC. The first file was printed, but not the second. After having said a suitable sequence of four-letter words, I started investigating the problem. The conclusion I came to was that the pcnfsd deamon (started by rc.local) only can handle one request at a time, and does not queue the requests. The solution to the problem was to install a line in /etc/servers like this: rpc udp /usr/etc/rpc.pcnfsd 150001 1 and remove the activation from the rc.local file. As far as I could remember, this should cause the nfsd to start the pcnfsd whenever needed. And it did. The conclusion is NOT to use the procedure in the PC-NFS manual when installing the pcnfsd deamon, but to do it the other way. Apart from this mishap, we are happy SUN owners and drivers. The local support here in Denmark are doing all they can, and a wee bit more to keep us customers happy. /htx@gnsun.dk P.S. Thanks for the bulletin board, which supplies us with a lot of hard information on various problems.