std-unix@longway.TIC.COM (Moderator, John S. Quarterman) (05/11/89)
Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7
An update on UNIX|= Standards Activities
January 1989 IEEE 1003 Meeting, Ft. Lauderdale
Part 6: 1003.7
Shane P. McCarron, NAPS International
1003.7 - System Administration
At the first official meeting of the 1003.7 working
group, John Quarterman presented a USENIX concern about the
direction that the working group seemed to be taking.
USENIX was concerned about the "single machine" model which
was being suggested by the working group for designing tools
and utilities. USENIX felt that if a single machine model
where used, it would be difficult or impossible to extend
the utilities and interfaces adopted by the committee to a
networked system. However, if the working group chose a
model in which a machine was assumed to be part of a tightly
coupled network, then a single stand-alone machine could be
a simple special case of a networked machine.
After some deliberation, the working group adopted the
USENIX model of a machine in a tightly coupled network.
This has some rather far-reaching implications on the
direction of the working group, as it is a different
approach than that taken by 1003.1 and 1003.2. It will also
mean that the group will be relying heavily on work and
expertise from 1003.8 (networking). It also means that some
of the concepts, such as a filesystem, which we thought we
had a definition for, suddenly become much more complex.
In addition, it means that the working group will be
reviewing several documents which reflect prior art in the
area of networking, such as the CMIP, ASN.1 and SMNP
networking protocols. These protocols will be reviewed at
the next meeting.
A number of areas are affected by networking
implications. Some of these are difficult to resolve, since
things like device management, print spooling and
performance monitoring, to name a few, may want to cross a
network. The working group is still undecided about the
direction which is going to be taken here. The two obvious
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Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7
options are to provide for centralized administration of a
network of machines, allocating and deallocating devices
over the network from central spot; or a decentralized model
in which each machine in responsible for administering the
devices connected to it. This will be reviewed at the next
meeting.
Although this was our first meeting, a substantial
amount of work was done by the working group. The first two
days were spent reviewing global issues to the working
group, such as determining direction, reviewing IEEE
procedures, discussion of previous informal meetings of the
system administration group and discussion of which model to
choose. Once all of this was done, the working group split
up into small groups and focused on the areas which needed
to be addressed. Specifically, the areas being addressed
are:
1. Process Management
2. Spooling Management
3. System Startup/Shutdown
4. Communication Management
5. File Systems Management
6. Performance Monitoring
7. System Accounting
8. Device and Media Management
9. Software Management
10. User Administration
11. System Monitoring
12. Miscellaneous
13. Introduction
Some items of note:
Spooling Management
The System V spooling mechanism was chosen as a model
for the working group. This model has been adopted by
X/Open. It was recognized by the working group that the
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Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7
current System V lp interface does not adequately support
networking. The working group felt that it could be extended
to support networking relatively easily.
Communications Management
The committee will review the CMIP, ASN.1 and SMNP
protocols to determine if and how these protocols may fit
into the work that the working group is doing. In addition,
UUCP managed to rear it's (useful but ugly) head here. Even
though 1003.2 has parts of UUCP within its scope, this
committee may need to address the issues of UUCP
administration.
File System Management
The biggest problem here will be defining what a file
system really is. 1003.7 will be looking to 1003.8 for help
in defining the concept. However, the group has realized
that even without a definition it will be useful to be able
to mount, unmount and check file systems.
Performance Monitoring
The performance monitoring group has followed the lead
of the /usr/group performance monitoring committee. This is
hardly surprising considering that the technical reviewer
for this section is the chair of the /usr/group performance
monitoring committee. Their model seems reasonable, and in
fact represents prior work in this area.
System Installation
An inordinate amount of time was spent drafting an
objection to the AIU facility described in 1003.2. The
object will be submitted to 1003.2 as an objection from the
1003.7 working group. There are a number of concerns about
the application installation which many in the working group
and outside of it feel are not able to be addressed by a
rigidly-defined installation utility. Work progresses in
spite of these concerns.
The working group submitted a substantial amount of
work to the technical editors. The editors have now
collated all of this information and produced a draft that
will be discussed at tha April meeting. Although this
document may not be suitable for release, it will at least
provide a framework for development for the working group.
Obviously, the work has just begun, but so far a fair
amount of progress has been made, and hopefully, more
January 1989 - 3 - Ft. Lauderdale
Standards Update Part 6: 1003.7
progress will be made in future meetings.
The USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee contact on
1003.7 is Mark Colburn. He can be reached at:
Mark Colburn
Minnetech Consulting, Inc.
117 Mackubin St.
Suite 1
St. Paul, MN 55102
(612) 224-9108
mark@jhereg.mn.org
January 1989 - 4 - Ft. Lauderdale
Volume-Number: Volume 16, Number 37