Original question:
We recently moved an old ComputerVision machine running CV UNIX 4.2(essentially a Sun3 with a modified Sun OS 3.5 or so), leaving a diskless machine behind.
We now have to resurrect the diskless machine, but problems develop because
it is in a different subnet from the server.
I have other Suns, both 68020 and SPARC in the old subnet, so easily provided
the RARP and TFTP part, but don't know how to get network disk (nd) support
to the diskless unit.
Is there a way I can accomplish this across a router? Or, is there a means
whereby I can get the 3/280 in the old subnet to support nd (it runs 4.1.1)?
============================
The best answer came from Mike Raffety <mike_raffety@il.us.swissbank.com>:
> > Is there a way I can accomplish this across a router?
> No.
> > whereby I can get the 3/280 in the old subnet to support nd (it runs 4.1.1)?
> No.
> You must have the client and server on the same subnet.
============================
Thanks also to:
perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison), who provided the useable alternative:
>
> I may be able to help some with this, as I am running SunOS 3.5 on a
> 3/60 and have a full set of manuals. Feel free to mail back if there's
> anything specific you need looked up.
>
> I don't know the feasibility of running nd across a router, however my
> first suggestion would be to provide the now-diskless machine with a
> local disk for root and swap (i.e. convert it to dataless or standalone).
> A 40Mb disk is sufficient for dataless, and 70Mb will support standalone
> operation. The old ACB-4000 SCSI=>MFM controllers are very inexpensive
> these days, as are many old MFM disks. You can probably get an ACB-4000
> and a pair of Maxtor XT-1140's (about 100 Mb each formatted) for $100 or
> so, which will probably compare very favorably with the value of the
> time it would take you to get another solution working. A somewhat
> higher-class solution along the same lines would be an Emulex MD21
> SCSI=>ESDI board and one or two Micropolis 1355 (140Mb) or 1558 (300Mb)
> ESDI drives.
>
> There is one potential problem with this approach: if you initially
> install an ACB-4000-based solution and later want to add more local
> disks, you are stuck with using ACB-4000's for all of them. (Each
> ACB-4000 will handle two MFM drives, but the largest MFM drive I've
> heard of is the Maxtor XT-2190 at about 150Mb formatted.) SunOS 3.5
> does not at all appreciate the mixing of the ACB-4000 with other types
> of SCSI disks.
>
> As to supporting nd under 4.1.1, as I recall there is an "ndbootd" in
> 4.x but its intended purpose is solely to support booting of Sun2
> systems (which evidently cannot support root on NFS for some reason).
> I don't know how useful it would be in your situation.
>
And to
glenn@uniq.com.au (Glenn Satchell - Uniq Professional Services)
> I'm pretty sure the nd support for booting is still in 4.1.1. Have a
> look in /etc/rc* and lokk for the nd startup to see what
> files/directories it expects to find before start up.
>
> I'm pretty sure that nd won't work across routers.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:09:10 CDT