Hello folks...
Earlier, I asked the question "what's the most recent 'amd'", as well
as requsting 'hints, tips or pointers to using "amd"'. Here's the
summary of responses:
o The most recent "amd" seems to be "5.3beta", with the current version
always available on "usc.edu" via anonymous ftp in the directory
"/pub/amd" (this is apparently the official distribution point).
o Documentation for "amd" *seems* to be quite extensive, although,
sadly, it seems to exist only in "TeX" format. Needless to say, it
just provides ONE MORE THING that needs to be done (find a TeX to
PostScript converter and install it) before getting to what I wanted
to do in the first place, which is install "amd". [It seems that the
life of a system administrator can never be too easy...8^)]
o There is an email-alias that you can subscribe to, that deals with
the "amd" automounter. You can be added to it by sending a note to
"amd-workers-request@acl.lanl.gov" asking to be added. It seems to
be a "low traffic" alias (less than a dozen emails over the course of
a week), for those of you who receive too much email already.
o There was apparently a good article on (either "amd" or automounters
in general, not sure which, as I didn't see it) in the Jan-1993 issue
of "UNIX World".
o A majority of folks seem to like the "amd" automounter, with only a
few suggesting that I am better off with the Sun automounter, or that
"amd" had been crashing, hanging, etc. on their machines.
Several folks mentioned how robust "amd" was, etc. They also
mentioned it being somewhat complex to set up the maps. While I
don't doubt this fact, Sun's automounter can also be complex when
trying to get it to do the right thing while using the same maps on
all systems (servers and clients) in a group.
o One person sent me example direct and indirect maps that he uses, a
sample Makefile for creating the maps, and a script (lsa) used for
'listing "empty" directories in indirect maps." As I haven't
installed "amd" yet, I'm not sure exactly why it's needed. I expect
I'll find out.
In my case, I have commercial applications that *insist* that certain
directories be at a given location. They also install themselves
there, making it difficult to avoid situations where an automounter
mount-point would overlay the actual installation directory. From the
material I have been able to read about "amd", I can use the same maps,
but have an exclusion applied on the server(s), so that they will use
the actual directory, while other systems can use the "amd" mounted
entries.
Anyhow, that was the summary of what I learned about "amd" from the sun
managers group. Thanx for all the information, tips, pointers to
aliases and machines, etc.
I was trying to decide if I should attach all the email I got or not,
but it works out to 1,604 lines (60,912 bytes). I decided that my
summary contained most of the info, and figured I'd save your mailbox
from further assault. If anyone would like to see the complete set of
responses please ask me and I'll sent it to you.
I AM however, appending a SUMMARY (including an interesting late
addition) that was previously posted to sun-managers by Amir Katz. I
include it as a refresher on some reasons why you might want to try
"amd".
Thanx to all who replied, including:
} Ron Russell <Ronald.C.Russell@ag.auburn.edu>
} mcb@mach.eng.hou.compaq.com (Mike Busby)
} Steve Lodin <swlodin@kocrsv01.delcoelect.com>
} trinkle@cs.purdue.edu (Daniel Trinkle)
} ajs6143@eerpf001.ca.boeing.com ( Andy J. Stefancik 206-234-3049 )
} winters@ct.med.ge.com (Steve Winters 5-5784 NB-920)
} csmoko@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Chuck Smoko - K31)
} Roger Jagoda <rogerj@lps.cornell.edu>
} kovert@cs.UMD.EDU
} Doug Neuhauser <doug@perry.berkeley.edu>
} David Rubin <drubin@forte.poly.edu>
} Stephan Deutsch <sd@germany.eu.net>
} G.ROBERTSON@aberdeen.ac.uk
} amir@matis.ingr.com (Amir J. Katz)
} fgreco@shearson.com (Frank Greco)
} walt@adaclabs.com (Walt Klingenberg)
} Anthony Veale' <veale@coma.Colorado.EDU>
} Peter Gray <pdg@cs.uow.edu.au>
} tim@canon.co.uk (Tim F O'Donoghue)
========================================================================
Andrew Rakowski Lab Manager - Remote Sensing & GIS Laboratory
rakowski@rsgis.nr.usu.edu Department of Geography & Earth Resources
College of Natural Resources / UMC 5240
(801) 750-2793 [office] Utah State University
(801) 750-2792 [lab] Logan, UT 84322-5240
========================================================================
My original query:
} From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Thu Apr 8 05:33:52 1993
} Sender: sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov
} Date: Tue, 6 Apr 93 17:38:38 MDT
} From: rakowski@land.nr.usu.edu (Andrew Rakowski - USU - RS/GIS Lab)
} Followup-To: junk
} To: sun-managers@eecs.nwu.edu
} Subject: Pointers to latest 'amd' automounter
} Reply-To: rakowski@rsgis.nr.usu.edu
} Content-Length: 1445
}
} Hi folks...
}
} After a weekend of hell fighting with Sun's automounter (and battling
} direct versus indirect mount points, and numerous L1-A reboots...8^),
} I've decided that it might be worth switching to the "amd" automounter
} after all.
}
} Now, can somebody tell me the most recent version of amd? I will be
} running it on Sun systems (1's, 1+'s, 2's, IPC's, IPX's, 10's and a
} 4/690), all running SunOS-4.1.1 or 4.1.2 (okay, and 4.1.3 for the
} SS-10's).
}
} I checked "archie", and found hundreds of entries, but the most recent
} I found was from "comp.sources.unix/volume21", which is pretty old. I
} also found a couple of entries mentioning "v5.2", but I *thought* I
} remembered it being something like version 8.x.
}
} If somebody has hints, tips or pointers to using "amd", I'd appreciate
} it. After this weekend's disaster with the SunOS automounter, I'm
} ready for a change...
}
} I will also happily summarize any info I receive, as the Sun-Managers
} Charter and Rules requires.
}
} Regards...
}
} -Andrew
[...snip...]
Previous SUMMARY from Amir (Thanx again, Amir!):
} From amir@matis.ingr.com Sun Apr 11 01:13:43 1993
} Date: Sun, 11 Apr 93 09:03:56 IDT
} From: amir@matis.ingr.com (Amir J. Katz)
} To: rakowski@rsgis.nr.usu.edu
} Subject: RE: Pointers to latest 'amd' automounter
} Reply-To: amir@matis.ingr.com
} Organization: The VaporWare Factory Outlet
} X-Mailer: emacs 19.4 Lucid, sendmail [BPL/AJK]
} Content-Length: 2855
}
} Here's a summary I recently posted to sun-managers:
}
} Recently I asked:
} AJK> Following the interesting article by Marty Leisner in UnixWorld, 1/92 about
} AJK> the AMD automounter, I'm considering the possibility of using it. My
} AJK> questions are:
} AJK> 1. How better is it than Sun's automounter?
} AJK> 2. What kind of support is available for AMD? Any mailing list? Newsgroup?
}
} The major win points for AMD are:
} 1. AMD supports redundancy. Sun's doesn't.
} 2. AMD is architecture neutral (SGI/DEC/HP/NEXT/IBM/SUN and on).
} 3. You have the source code.
} 4. AMD deals with failures better.
} 5. AMD is non blocking and multi-threaded. Client won't freeze if a server
} crashes somewhere.
} 6. You can put in host and network dependencies.
} 7. You can mount more than just NFS file systems.
} 8. More reliable than some Sun versions.
} 9. AMD can read maps from NIS, Hesiod or text files.
} 10. AMD is much more configurable than Sun's.
}
} Other notes of interest:
} 1. The mailing list is:
} amd-workers@acl.lanl.gov
} subscribe by sending mail to:
} amd-workers-request@acl.lanl.gov
} 2. Current version (5.3 beta) needs may patches. (only one person said
} that, though).
}
} Marty Leisner says:
} ML> There's also a good article by Dinah McNutt in March Unix Review on
} ML> automounters.
}
} Perry E. Metzger <pmetzger@shearson.com> adds:
} PM> No real support, but Jan Simon Pendry tends to fix bugs if you point them
} PM> out. We run it in a mission critical network at a financial institution,
} PM> so our reliability constraints are very high -- we are perfectly happy with
} PM> it. In fact, its far more reliable than the "supported" automounter from
} PM> Sun.
}
} Thanks to:
} ----------
} Chuck Yerkes chuck@fsg.com
} Joel Abbott, DoD#272 abbott@ms.uky.edu, abbott@ukma.bitnet, uunet!ukma!abbott
} Marty Leisner leisner@eso.mc.xerox.com
} Jack Stewart jack@CCSF.Caltech.EDU
} Gary Blumenstein garyb@gcm.com, uunet!gcm!garyb
} Perry E. Metzger pmetzger@shearson.com
} Michael C. Busby mcb@compaq.com
} Simon Leinen simon@lia.di.epfl.ch
} Piete Brooks Piete.Brooks@cl.cam.ac.uk
} Tom Crummey tom@sees.bangor.ac.uk
}
} >>>> late response <<<<
}
} From: fgreco@shearson.com (Frank Greco)
} Subject: Re: SUMMARY: AMD automounter vs. Sun's
}
} This is not true as we experience freezes when server crashes.
} Also we've experienced amd forking itself many, many times.
} Last week we had a little SS2 fileserver had an uptime of about
} 82 processes in the queue!
}
} But in general we've found AMD to be better than automounter.
}
} Frank G.
}
} /* ----------------------------------------------------------------- */
} /* Amir J. Katz | amir@matis.ingr.COM (or ingr!matis!amir) */
} /* System Specialist | Voice: +972 52-584684 */
} /* SEE Technologies Ltd.| Fax: +972 52-543917 */
} /* ......... To Boldly Go Where No One Has Hacked Before .......... */
}
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