manager@Earth1.GPS.Caltech.EDU (01/19/88)
I'm looking for information on the Remote System Manager (RSM) product from DEC. We are wondering if the product is worthwhile to buy. We have 17 MicroVaxes, 8 in one "group" (NOT a LAVC), and 9 in another. If we bought RSM, we would like one server node for each group, and let all the rest be clients. I have the following questions: 1. Is there a good reason for DEC saying that one must have "one SERVER MicroVax for every five CLIENT MicroVaxen?" Someone has told me that this is only because of backup time. Is this restriction actually built into the software? 2. DEC advertises that one can set up remote print queues. But they are NOT clear on whether one can set up remote print queues on ALL the machines, or just on the servers. We would like to have three different machines to have print queues that anyone on any node could get to - a laser printer, a plotter, and a line-printer. 3. There is an "unsupported" feature of RSM that somebody mentioned - remote batch queues. Has anybody played with this feature/bug, and again, can one do this on just the server or on clients too? 4. Can one truly do BACKUP/IMAGE to and from the server nodes to client nodes? (This would be WONDERFUL.) 5. Are there any catches in software installation over the net with RSM? They say in the literature that it's "exactly the same." But DEC literature says lots of things... In addition, I would really appreciate any reviews or comments on the product. $19K/year is a lot of money to some of us... Thanks! Mark Porter MANAGER@MERCU1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU System Manager MARK@CALTECH.BITNET Caltech Planetary Science ...!cit-vax!porter EARTH1::MANAGER