fks@mach.ftp.com (Frances Selkirk) (12/21/90)
The manager of Technical Support cc'ed me a correction to my earlier, rather simplistic post. I'm forwarding it for those interested in using NFS clients with non-UNIX NFS servers. ----begin forwarded message------- I am not sure from your posting whether you are asking about the feasibility of using IBMs TCP/IP for MVS with InterDrive, or have encountered problems making it work. If you are merely interested in its feasibility, it indeed should work properly. In fact, I have talked to a couple of customers who are successfully using this combination. In the event that you are having difficulties, I will share with you some observations and problems that customers have encountered with this combination. One problem that has been experienced by a few users is that neither the DOS file sytem nor the MVS file system is set-up like Unix. It is necessary to access the remote files with a syntax that the IBM system can understand. IBM's documentation provides information on accessing files from a Unix system. Much of this information can be applied to accessing files from InterDrive. Specifically, the netpath supplied to the IDMNT command must match the syntax that the MVS system uses to access its disks. This would be the same netpath syntax that IBM suggests using with a Unix system. Be aware, however, that the rest of our mount syntax is not identical to Unix. If you have any difficulty determining what command line arguments to use, I would be happy to work with you to determine the correct combination. IBM apparently supplies an equivalent process to the PCNFSD under Unix. I do not know if special steps must be taken to assure that this process is active. This is the process that authenticates the user before the mount request is issued. If your IBM system is not running this process, you will receive a message similar to: Authentication Server Not Responding or Authentication Refused after entering your password. If this happens, try using the special userid 'nobody'. This userid will cause NFS to mount the file system you have requested in read- only mode without verifying a userid and password. If this works properly, this indicates that your IBM system is not running a valid Authentication Server (called PCNFSD on Unix). Check the IBM documentation to determine if special steps are necessary to start this process. If you still have difficulties using the IBM TCP/IP for MVS with InterDrive, please feel free to contact us, and we will be happy to try to help you further. ----end forwarded message--------- Frances Kirk Selkirk info@ftp.com (617) 246-0900 FTP Software, Inc. 26 Princess Street, Wakefield, MA 01880