beacker@mips.com (Bradley Eacker) (06/21/91)
Folks,
I was wondering how extensively the nis/yp services are
used within the sites that exist in the un*x community. The
main information that I am looking for are:
Do you use yp/nis?
If you do, do you wish that you didn't have to?
If you don't, would you be willing to explain why not?
And saying that you just don't want to, is a valid
reason :-)
How many machines are in existance on your net?
I am looking for orders of magnitude (1 - 10 - 100 - 1000)
How many subnets they are broken into?
How many yp masters do you have on your net?
I'm just a lowly engineer trying to collect some data on yp
and will post a summary to the net of any info that people
are willing to pass on.
If I am asking for information that you consider proprietary
I apologize in advance, and will obviously not publish any names
of machines/companies that do respond.
Thanks in advance,
Brad Eacker (beacker@mips.com)marmen@bwdla31.bnr.ca (Rob Marmen 1532773) (06/21/91)
In article <4932@spim.mips.COM>, beacker@mips.com (Bradley Eacker) writes: > Folks, > I was wondering how extensively the nis/yp services are > used within the sites that exist in the un*x community. The > main information that I am looking for are: > > Do you use yp/nis? Yes, we use NIS extensively. It makes my life much simpler. There is a lot of folklore with the system, but it can be made to run with few problems. I also have 7 subnets of Apollos that use registries. I find the NIS system easier to maintain, but I like the administration side of NCS better. > How many machines are in existance on your net? > I am looking for orders of magnitude (1 - 10 - 100 - 1000) > Over 2000 Unix workstations. I can't be any more specific than that. > How many subnets they are broken into? > Over 50 subnets spread across several buildings in the city. > How many yp masters do you have on your net? We have two domains. One domain, BNROTTAWA has over 90 slaves and 1 master. Some work was required to structure this so that the master wouldn't overload and self-destruct. The second domain has one master and approx 10 slaves. The master gets the majority of its data directly from the BNROTTAWA master. > regards, rob... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | Robert Marmen marmen@bnr.ca OR | | Bell Northern Research marmen%bnr.ca@cunyvm.cuny.edu | | (613) 763-8244 My opinions are my own, not BNRs |
rfarris@rfengr.com (Rick Farris) (06/22/91)
In article <1991Jun21.140331.14724@bwdls61.bnr.ca> marmen@bwdla31.bnr.ca (Rob Marmen 1532773) writes: > ...we use NIS extensively. It makes my life much > simpler. There is a lot of folklore with the system, > but it can be made to run with few problems. Hal Stern's new book "Managing NFS and NIS", from O'Reilly & Associates should go a long ways toward obviating the need for the folklore. It's the best discussion I've seen of NIS issues, including suggestions for subnet size and configuration. -- Rick Farris RF Engineering POB M Del Mar, CA 92014 voice (619) 259-6793 rfarris@rfengr.com ...!ucsd!serene!rfarris serenity bbs 259-7757
scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) (06/24/91)
marmen@bwdla31.bnr.ca (Rob Marmen 1532773) writes: >In article <4932@spim.mips.COM>, beacker@mips.com (Bradley Eacker) writes: >> How many machines are in existance on your net? > Over 2000 Unix workstations. I can't be any more specific than that. >> How many yp masters do you have on your net? > We have two domains. One domain, BNROTTAWA has over 90 slaves and 1 master. > Some work was required to structure this so that the master wouldn't > overload and self-destruct. The second domain has one master and approx > 10 slaves. The master gets the majority of its data directly from the > BNROTTAWA master. I think you've got a massive case of overkill here. My experience was that one 3/160 could happily server approx 50 YP clients. Assuming a sun4 is twice as fast (heh), your 2000 workstations should need about 20 nis servers. Also, I second the recommendation of the Hal Stern book. Very nice. -- "FACT: less than 10% of the psychiatrists in the US are actually practicing cannibals." Rod Johnson
marmen@bwdla31.bnr.ca (Rob Marmen 1532773) (06/25/91)
In article <1991Jun24.030546.19659@lokkur.dexter.mi.us>, scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) writes: > marmen@bwdla31.bnr.ca (Rob Marmen 1532773) writes: > > I think you've got a massive case of overkill here. My experience was > that one 3/160 could happily server approx 50 YP clients. Assuming a > sun4 is twice as fast (heh), your 2000 workstations should need about > 20 nis servers. There is an overabundance of slaves. However, since I am on 7/24 call, I'll take a bit of redundancy in favor of a few more hours of sleep. We use a ratio of 1 slave per 25 workstations. This was for the older release of HP workstation (most of our slaves are old HPs) and was backed up by test results. The new Sun Sparc 2s can easily handle over 80 clients. I am being limited by older hardware and software releases (HP NIS code is ANCIENT!). Our machines are organized into workgroups that are isolated from the backbone by bridges. To minimize single points of failure, we have a minimum of 1 nis slave per workgroup ( with an additional slave for every 25 additional clients). A workgroup with 45 clients will have two NIS servers. The failure of a workgroup is an automatic severity one problem. You don't go home till it's fixed. Therefore, each workgroup needs to be an autonomous entity. Every couple of months, I re-examine the performance numbers. However, I still get performance problems with clients trying to bind to an insufficient number of slaves. I could probably reduce my overhead by 50% if I was just running Suns, but I have to work with what I've got. I am hoping that HP will finally wakeup and implememt the Sun improvements. However, I am not holding my breath on that one! So to summarize, I agree with your statement that it appears to be overkill. But having gone from total chaos to a stable environment, I'll keep the current setup I have. As vendors PROVE that their code can handle our applications, then I'll adjust the ratios and distribution accordingly. > > Also, I second the recommendation of the Hal Stern book. Very nice. I've had the book on order for several weeks now. Unfortunately, it takes a while for books to get across the border. It does look like an excellent book. ( Care to ship me a copy? ;-) ) My apologies to all if it appears that I am ducking an issue. However, corporate policy ( yes, that ugly demon again) forbids me from disclosing actual numbers or describing the topology in detail. I like my job and it does pay the rent. cheers, rob... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- | Robert Marmen marmen@bnr.ca OR | | Bell Northern Research marmen%bnr.ca@cunyvm.cuny.edu | | (613) 763-8244 My opinions are my own, not BNRs |