eric@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Eric Fielding) (11/10/89)
In a recent article grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) wrote: >In article <4823@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes: >> Is it possible to use a VMS system as a file server for Ultrix workstations? >It is said that the VMS/Ultrix Connection (aka UCX) can (or will be able) >do this. Get the latest dope from your DECperson and make sure you're >talking about release 1.2, which may or may not be available yet... We have been running UCX on our VAXcluster to serve a DECstation 3100 for about a month. >Rumor has it that there are two modes available - one where you get NFS >access to ordinary VMS filesystems and the other where VMS/UCS maintains >a Unix disk image inside a "container file" and serves this up. This is right. We have been using the access to the VMS files mode so far. >It's not clear exactly to what extent UCX supports booting Ultrix diskless >workstations in a VMS only environment I don't think this is presently available. >...or how, overall, the UCX service >compares to the usual unix flavor. >...Works with TCP/IP protocols over ethernet, not sure how/whether DECnet >is involved or not. Well, it looks to me like it is pretty much standard NFS service, using TCP/IP. DECnet is not involved at all. From the U*IX end, it looks like a U*IX NFS disk, with the one exception being the fact that the VMS files ignore UPPER/lowercase, just like VMS does. It is amazing that it even seems to deal with transferring file types most of the time, though not always. The main disadvantage I can see so far is that the NFS$SERVER process on the VMS machine grabs a lot of physical memory (6000 pages). ++Eric