topic Sharing drives between systems in Operating System - OpenVMS

Sharing drives between systems

Mike Smith_33 — Tue, 03 May 2005 14:10:35 GMT

I am trying to share a couple drives from one OpenVMS box to another along the lines of nfs. I have shared out drives to my unix box over nfs with no problem but I don't know how this should be done in VMS. Basic scenario is this, the drive for all intents and purposes, appears to be local to both nodes. No, I don't want to cluster them.

Anybody got any advice?

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Hein van den Heuvel — Tue, 03 May 2005 14:29:52 GMT

Simple VMS to VMS sharing? Just allow RMS to do transparent network file IO over decnet (over IP).

Commands like:

$DIR other_node::some_disk:[some_dir]

and

$TYPE other_node"username password"::test.txt

Of course there are all sorts of security opens: defaul accounts (not advised), proxies, explicit username/password.

Hein.

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Jan van den Ende — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:00:36 GMT

Mike,

you may even be so lucky, that your network people do not block DECnet.
Then you do not even have to hassle with the DECnet-over-IP config.
A simple DECnet config __IF allowed__, is much simpler.

But after successful config, they work exactly the same.

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Mike Smith_33 — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:47:52 GMT

The decnet stuff is viable but I was really looking for something more along the lines of nfs. You are right though, that would work.

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Doug Phillips — Tue, 03 May 2005 16:30:44 GMT

Do both systems have a TCP/IP stack installed? If so, then you probably have NFS available if you need it. But, DECnet is the *natural* way to go VMS to VMS.

Aside from your familiarity with NFS, what advantages do you feel it has over DECnet?

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Antoniov. — Wed, 04 May 2005 02:05:10 GMT

Mike,
1) you have to enable NFS service
$ @SYS$MANAGER:TCPIP$CONFIG
Choice server component and client component.
2) enter into TCPIP console
$ TCPIP
look at MOUNT command that's like /etc/mount of unix system
TCPIP>HELP MOUNT

Good Luck!

Antonio Vigliotti

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Robert Gezelter — Wed, 04 May 2005 02:36:47 GMT

Mike,

In one of your earlier responses, you mentioned that you were looking for something "DECnet is more viable, but more like NFS".

I may be missing something. What characteristic of NFS is important?

In NFS, most definitely provides client/server access to files. It is by no means "both systems having the drives as local". DECnet transparent file access, properly configured with proxies and logical names, will give essentially the same degree of access. For jollies, I have, on occasion, set my default device to a DECnet-including path, and even done compilations, links, and, executions directly over the DECnet.

It is, for many people, a somewhat unexpected result. It is a direct result of OpenVMS' architectural approach to most things. A file is a file is a file, after all.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Anton van Ruitenbeek — Wed, 04 May 2005 04:01:41 GMT

Mike,

If you want security you use DECNet (for sure) and if security isn't such a big deal you can use the IP stuf. We still have to wait for IPv6 if we want some option of security in IP.

On the VMS site you can mount the drive eg:
$ tcpip mount dnfs1: " /host="" /path="" /gid=200 /uid=4029 /system

The best thing is to do this under the SYSTEM account. At boottime this wont work because the bootprocess is started as 'STARTUP'. We do checking at boottime or the username is an identifier, if not 'SUBMIT/USER=SYSTEM' .

AvR

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Ian Miller. — Wed, 04 May 2005 04:07:28 GMT

See also the DFS layered product - like NFS but over DECnet and native to VMS.

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Mike Smith_33 — Wed, 04 May 2005 14:05:54 GMT

I need to get more information from the dba. He presented to me something about the checkpoint files that he would be restoring from having hard coded device information in the file so that the device would need to be locally mounted in order for his database restore to work. That is why I felt nfs type mounting might be more appropriate. We currently do some decnet file stuff now as well as nfs between my vms and unix box. I really like the way the vms device appears as a mounted volume on the unix box. You all are correct, the decnet stuff is pretty powerful as well. I had mainly used it by pointing a logical over to a directory and having a proxy to give access.

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Jan van den Ende — Wed, 04 May 2005 14:49:44 GMT

Mike,

suppose your DBA needs a "local" device with syntax like like DZA100: or even DFSA123: if he 'requires DFS, for that matter), then,
for a device DUA4: at remote system "ABC", do a

$ DEFINE/SYS/EXEC/TRANS=CONC DZA100: ABC::DUA4:

and (assuming DB node XYZ) at ABC, do a
$ MCR AUTHORIZE ADD /PROX XYZ:: * /DEF

You also need to create your DBA's account with the same name, /ACCESSS=NETWORK, and give it whatever rights needed on XYZ.

Now, for all purposes, DZA100: can be used as-if local.

replace DZA100:, DAU4:, ABC::, XYZ, ,dba>, as needed.
If you have NOT defined logical names to your system and network authorisation files, then do a $ SET DEF SYS$SYSTEM before the AUTHORIZE command.

HTH,

Proost.

Have one on eme.

jpe

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Antoniov. — Thu, 05 May 2005 01:44:04 GMT

Mike,
on vms you can add new devices that are slightly different from unix filesystem. Mounted device is like network disk of windows but vms can usename longer than 1 charactes; e.g. DKA0: (vms), F: (windows).

Decnet scenario is sure but you must use proxies to avoid publish password.

Antonio Vigliotti

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Daniel Fernandez Illan — Thu, 05 May 2005 03:10:17 GMT

Mike
I have a network of VMS and Tru64 nodes.
On my experience, the best prectique to sharing drives between VMS nodes is to use DECnet (as say Jan) without forget to define nodes in database with DECNET_REGISTER. I use only NFS to share VMS and UNIX files. For my, DECnet guaranteed more security because use proxies defined on VMS.
Saludos.
Daniel.

Re: Sharing drives between systems

Mike Smith_33 — Thu, 05 May 2005 10:51:18 GMT

I am now ready to work on setting up the system as specified in the replies.