[9fans] Some questions...

[Mike Acar <mike@trolltech.com>]

So, after some interesting experiments and lots of digging through DejaNews
we've gotten a Plan 9 file and CPU/authentication server working. But I have
some questions regarding the normal network setup...

I installed a standalone CPU/auth server, following the instructions in the
Getting Started document. Then I built a plan9pc fs kernel, booted it on our
fileserver, configured the filesystems, mounted them on the CPU/auth server,
and used wrap/inst install the distribution on them.

At this point, though, I realized that people logging into the CPU/auth server
from terminals won't get the filesystems exported by the file server, but
instead the CPU/auth server's local disk. So I again followed the instructions
from the Getting Started document to get a CPU/auth server (i.e. enable the
authentication services, run them from the cpurc, configure /lib/ndb/local etc)
on the file server filesystem. Life is good now; terminals and the CPU/auth
server have the same root filesystem.

However, all CPU servers booted off this file server will also act as
authentication servers. This seems suboptimal, to say the least :)

So I'm lead to wonder: Is it usually the case that the auth/CPU server is
diskless? Or do you typically have an auth/bootp server with its own disk which
is used to bring up the whole network? The couple of network descriptions I've
found (Charles Forsyth's and Nigel Roles's), while pretty interesting, don't
really answer this question for me.

--
Brilliance and gorgeousness                        |   Mike Acar
And we tell ourselves we don't want the treasures  |   mike@trolltech.com
But we hate the glass anyway                       |