SAMBA on VMS

[Willem Grooters]

@Anton,

I'm afraid it won't be cluster aware - because IP isn't. Unless HP decides to add DECNet support in it (or find a solution)

[Uwe Zessin]

Who on earth is still using DECnet for file serving? The last time I sold Pathworks clients was for a better terminal emulator and the X-server.

You can also provide load sharing via DNS RR (and do update via the load broker) or WINS (no automatic updates available as far as I can tell, but most VMS systems are fairly stable ;-)

[Anton van Ruitenbeek]

@Willem

Now AS is cluster-aware using IP. The only problem with AS is that all the nodes wich are serving must be in the same IP-range/network. It may not be routed between the nodes on the IP site. Actualy this restriction is because Micro$oft has this limitation on the network site. Another restriction: there may be one NIC-card per node active for AS. If you have more then one NIC card, and you want AS not over the first IEA0, you must setup de PWRK$KNBDEAMON_DEVICE and the PWRK$KNBDEAMON_IPADDR logicals.
I think you have it about load-balancing or fail-safe.
Yes load-balancing wont work, but for fail-safe environment you can create (within IP) or a Cluster-IP-Alias or you can add fail-safe NICs.

AvR

[Jan van den Ende]

Wouldn't it be nice if the Decnet ALIAS functionality got ported to IP!


but is there any OS exept VMS that even _COULD_ benefit from such functionality?
I would guess so. Various conglomerates of *UX systems (which I refuse to call Cluster) DO have facilities that it is not important which NODE is accessed, as long as any member of the ensemle is accessed?
How about sent MAIL? The interesting sender address would be the cluster, wouldn't it? Not really the specific node, and much less so the specific NIC on a specific node?
Would such system not also benefit from OUTGOING ALIAS ENABLED?

But will it ever happen?
Oh well, sometimes daydreaming can be soooo nice!

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Uwe Zessin]

I don't get it...

All my outgoing mail looks like coming from 'zessin@.de', no matter what client I use (Mozilla Mail or our web interface) and we have changed mail servers over the years (hardware, OS, IP address and DNS name).

[Willem Grooters]

@Jan and Anton:
In another thread I said the missing cluster awareness in IP V6 is a missed opportunity. Here was the PERFECT time to get things done the VMS way. It would work for ANY OS. But OpenVMS engineering, or the program management of Digital (likely, since at that time drafts were made on IP6)/Compaq/HP have been sleeping, or deaf. I don't know. And for today, we're stuck with the (some would say "pathetic") Unix-type of solution. Ok, it works, but it could have bee a whole lot better.

@Brad:
Whatever choice will be made - porting Samba should be done properly - that is: the VMS way. We have seen enough attempts up to today that did work - as long as managers and users adhered to the Unix way things are done. I bet most VMS-bigots (within this forum, and elsewhere) agree here. So a PROPER error handling, a PROPER file handling, a CLI-interface we''re used to . All the right stuff. (I know Ian. I'll read it, for a change :D)
On the concerns where to hop on the bus: as soon as you can. I'm not aware of the current state of Samba (v2? V3? V4) but VMS should be in the forefront of development. And (again: Ian) if HP cannot free resources that have the required OpenVMS knowledge, it should come from outside - and these resources should have support by HP. For our both benefit ;-)
(Where do I get my time to spend on this...)

[Tim Nelson]

Thanks to all who responded

[Ian Miller.]

Note that the Alpha VMS version of the evaluation release of HP OpenVMS CIFS (based on Samba V3) is now available. The I64 VMS version was already available.

See
http://www.openvms.org/stories.php?story=06/05/02/7903776

[Volker Halle]

Please note that the previously released CIFS SAMBA E3.0.10 kit for I64 has been updated with a couple of fixes. The new compressed PCSI kit name is:

hp-i64vms-samba-e0300-10e001-1

Volker.

[Martin Vorlaender]

And just yesterday the message came in that there's an Alpha eval kit, see
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/network/CIFS_for_Samba.html

cu,
Martin