7 HP Network File System Services/9000 Technical Data For HP Series 800/600/700/400/300 Systems HP's Network File System NFS product allows HP 9000 systems to access and share files in a multivendor network of machines and operating systems. Machines running NFS and sharing files can range from minicomputers and superminicomputers to high performance workstations and personal computers. After mounting a file system using NFS, most user commands (list, [Figure 1 (HP Network File System) Caption: none] remove, copy, etc) performed on a local file system will operate on the remote file system, making the remote file system look local to the user. NFS, a de facto industry standard, permits workgroups to integrate remote data or files into local applications. Those applications can run on a variety of machines while accessing information on remote disks because of XDR, External Data Representation, a feature in NFS. The XDR creates a machine-independent data format facilitating multivendor file sharing. In addition, users may access printers, plotters, and other resources on servers through the use of spooling routines. Computers running NFS may access remote databases containing drawings, schematics, netlists, models, or source code. This eliminates the need to maintain consistency between multiple copies of files and to store that information locally, thereby reducing disk storage requirements on individual systems. NFS facilitates the transition from timesharing to distributed environments by migrating those general purpose minicomputers into NFS servers. A server running the NIS Network Information Service, formerly Yellow Pages, a component of the NFS product, provides the convenience of centrally administering files. NIS with NFS helps your systems administrator manage a distributed network of NFS clients and NFS file servers. NFS provides high performance because of its stateless nature, such that the system avoids the overhead associated with the tracking of transactions. In addition, application programs using NFS will take less time to port. File paths in applications do not need adjusting as NFS allows the path to remain unchanged from machine to machine. NFS gives programmers the ability to create distributed routines that execute on remote machines with the ONC RPC, Remote Procedure Call mechanism. NFS also provides transparent access to compute servers using the REX Remote Execution facility. Features and Benefits o De facto Industry-Standard Networking - Integrates multivendor systems, applications, and peripherals - Lasting value in hardware and software; connects old with new systems - Facilitates evolution from timesharing to a distributed environment; transforms general-purpose minicomputers to servers o Network File Sharing - Maintains consistent files among a work group, no longer need multiple copies - Reduces storage among multivendor and homogeneous systems, creating cost reductions 8 - Easier system administration by sharing OS-dependent files; updates and backups only done once o Stateless Server - Automatic crash recovery - Greater performance by reducing overhead of transaction tracking o Network Information Service (NIS) - Simplifies network administration - Automounter - Improves transparency by allowing automatic client file system and directory access/mounting o File Location Transparency - Eases application portability, allowing paths (file location) to remain consistent from machine to machine - ONC Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - Simplifies writing distributed application programs o External Data Representation (XDR) - Facilitates multivendor data sharing through a machine-independent format HP's versions of NFS/300/400, NFS/700, and NFS/800 contain all the components of NFS Revision 3.2 and with HP/UX 9.0, the major features of 4.1: o Capabilities to mount remote file systems and directories, to transparently access files on remote machines and gracefully recover from file server crashes. o Capabilities for servers to export both file systems and directories and export read-only files and root capability to specific clients (NFS 4.1 feature as of HP/UX 9.0) o Automounter allows the systems administrator to establish maps specifying which directories can be mounted by clients. These directories are then mounted automatically upon client access and unmounted after a timeout. o External Data Representation (XDR) specifies alignment and size of data types in a machine-independent manner. o Remote Procedure Call (RPC) allows programmers to execute routines on remote machines and, upon completion, receive the results. RPC allows network programmers to write customized networking applications. o Lock Manager provides advisory file locking between systems over an NFS network. With file locking implemented in an application, if two different clients are accessing the same file on an NFS server, the second user will be prevented from inadvertently overwriting the first user's data. File locking using the Lock Manager is implemented using the same system calls as local file locking in HP-UX. o Network Information Service (NIS) gives the user a centrally administered data look-up service (/etc/passwd, host), including utilities for global system administration and the associated user-level commands. NIS combined with Automounter allows the system adminstrator to configure a dynamic and location transparent file system for a group of workstations. All automounted file systems and directories can be dynamically and transparently accessed by clients and file system locations can be updated via NIS transparently to the client user. In addition, HP provides the following features: - The Virtual Home Environment (VHE) provides a means of configuring a set of NFS nodes such that a user could log in to any node in a 9 grouping and be put into the work environment that is associated with the login on his home node - A high performance asynchronous write option provides increased throughputs o Remote Procedure Call Generator (RPCGEN) allows application developers to write C-language descriptions of networked applications and then automatically produce the C-code for the server and client sides of the applications. (See the Programming and Protocols for NFS Services for more detailed information on RPCGEN.) o Remote Execution Facility (REX) allows a user to execute a command on another system and have it look as though it is executing in his home environment. REX uses the on command to do this. When a user issues the command on remote-host command, his working directory is mounted to the remote system and all environmental variables are copied from the client to the server. REX can execute both interactive and non-interactive commands across the network. The following ISO model template shows what levels the components of the NFS product occupy. NFS Commands General User-Level Commands domainname(1) - displays the current NIS domain name ypcat(1) - prints the values in a specified NIS map ypmatch(1) - prints the values associated with the key(s) in a NIS map yppasswd(1) - allows users to change or install a password in a NIS password map ypwhich(1) - prints the host name of the NIS server on the host administrative commands ________________________________________________________________________ HP NFS Services/9000 ________________________________________________________________________ ISO 7 Application: NFS, NIS, Automounter ISO 6 Presentation: XDR (External Data Representation) ISO 5 Session: RPC (Remote Procedure Call) ISO 4 Transport: UDP (User Datagram Protocol) ISO 3 Network: IP (Internet Protocol) ISO 2 Data Link: Ethernet ISO 1 Physical: Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 ________________________________________________________________________ rup(1) - lists host information, users logged in, and load average rusers(1) - lists the host names and users for all remote nodes on(1) - copies environmental variables from client to specified host, mounts client's working directory on host, and executes the specified command on the host Administrative Commands 10 mount(1M) - allows the superuser to attach a remote file system umount(1M) - allows the superuser to detach a remote file system rpcinfo(1M) - tells which remote programs are registered showmount(1M) - lists all the clients that have remotely mounted a file system Product Requirements HP NFS/300/400/600/700/800 requires the HP/UX 8.0 Runtime product. HP LAN/LINK, with the appropriate LAN hardware, is also required. NFS is not supported over a wide area network. We recommend reserving 400 to 500 Kbytes of RAM for NFS on the HP Series 300. In addition, we recommend 4 Mbytes of internal system memory for acceptable performance, and allocating 3 Mbytes of external disk space for NFS/300. We recommend reserving 500 Kbytes of RAM for NFS on the HP Series 800. In addition, at least 8 Mbytes of internal memory is recommended for acceptable performance. 4.5 Mbytes of disk space should be allocated for the NFS files. See the HP LAN/9000 Link data sheet for the necessary HP LAN/Link hardware and software for the HP Series 800. NFS is bundled with HP/UX 8.0 for all 300/400/600/700/800 systems. The approprate HP/UX Product numbers for systems follow: o B2438A: HP/UX 8.0 for 300/400/600/800 o B2459A: HP/UX 8.02 for 8x7 systems o B2461A: HP/UX 8.06 for 8x7 MP systems o B2352A: HP/UX 8.07 2-user license for series 700 o B2353A: HP/UX 8.07 8-user license for series 700 NFS is not ordered separately. It is bundled with the above HP-UX operating systems. Connectivity HP certifies that its version of NFS will communicate with the following systems and that we have tested these systems to ensure interoperability. Communication between HP 9000 computers and DN Series is also certified. ________________________________________________________________________ Product Computer OS Company ________________________________________________________________________ WIN/TCP 3.0 VAX VMS 4.7 The Wollongong WIN/NFS 1.1 7xx-8xxx Group PC NFS HP Vectra MS DOS(r) 3.x Sun Microsystems 1.0, 2.0, 3.5 IBM PC PC DOS 3.x Inc. Sun NFS Sun 2/xxx, Sun OS Sun Microsystems Sun 3/xxx, Rel. 4.0 Inc. Sun 4/xxx ________________________________________________________________________ 11 Ordering Information There are no independent product numbers for NFS on the HP Series 300/400 600/700, or 800. For these systems, NFS is included with the HP-UX Run Time product, as is the following documentation: o B1013-90010 Programming and Protocols for NFS Services o B1013-90009 Installing and Administering NFS Services o B1012-90012 HP 9000 Computers Networking Overview From HP Networking Communications Specification Guide, 5091-3821E, 9205, p 176 Associated files: la3821g6.plt, la3821g6.gal, la3821176.doc HP Network File System Services/9000 Technical Data