Information on ONC components

[Akash Dubey]

Hello all:

I need some information on the Open Network Computing (ONC) components. I would really appreciate if someone can help me with the same.

1) How dependent are various ONC components (Network File System, Network Information Service, CacheFS, AutoFS, Remote Execution Facility) on one another?

2) Which components are always used in combination to perform the configuration/administration tasks?

Thanks in advance!

Best regards,
Akash

[Dave Olker · Accepted solution]

Hello Akash,

Regarding question 1, the classic answer is "it depends". Some of these components depend on each other in one direction but not the other. For example, AutoFS depends upon NFS but NFS is not dependent upon AutoFS. In other words, you can use AutoFS to mount an NFS filesystem, and NFS has to be running for this to work; however you never need to use AutoFS to mount an NFS filesystem - it can be done manually without AutoFS.

Similarly, CacheFS is dependent upon NFS but NFS is not dependent upon CacheFS. CacheFS is used to cache files that are accessed via an NFS filesystem, so NFS must be available for CacheFS to work. However, NFS does not require CacheFS - you can use NFS without CacheFS at any time.

NIS has no dependency on any of the other products, however NIS can be used by AutoFS to store the AutoFS maps. NIS can also be used by NFS to store the /etc/netgroup, /etc/hosts, etc. file contents which may be referenced when mounting an NFS filesystem. However, NIS is never required to use NFS, AutoFS, CacheFS, etc. It is simply a means of sharing configuration data between systems.

As for question 2, my above answer probably addresses this as well. AutoFS and CacheFS won't work without NFS, but NFS works just fine without either of them. NIS can be used in conjunction with NFS and AutoFS but it is not required.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other ONC-related questions.

Regards,

Dave

[Akash Dubey]

Hi Dave,

Thank you so much for providing detailed information!

This information, in addition to the data I'm gathering, will surely help me in designing and developing effective ONC documentation.

Best regards,
Akash

[R. Sri Ram Kishore_1]

Hi Akash,

They are all RPC components. The user space components depend on libnsl and the kernel space components depend on kernel RPC.
For example, NIS/NIS+ depend on libnsl
while AutoFS and cacheFS depend on kernel RPC.


Just my 2 cents!

Regards,
Sri Ram