From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <7a5d553c-a776-4456-b2b2-63968833f9bf@n19g2000vba.googlegroups.com> References: <20090615095102.18213itzeyac1qrs@web.mail.umich.edu> <7a5d553c-a776-4456-b2b2-63968833f9bf@n19g2000vba.googlegroups.com> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:01:41 -0700 Message-ID: <7d3530220906190901k70a55715t664fe89585bd7ade@mail.gmail.com> From: John Floren To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] How to set up network? Topicbox-Message-UUID: 0d0545a2-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 8:33 AM, Angelo Papenhoff wrote: > > Ok, thank you guys. I'll have a look at it once I have time (which > won't be until monday). > I don't seem be quite understand the plan9 concept. > What exactly is a cpu, file and terminal server in plan9 (I know what > the latter two are in UNIX, not in plan9 though)? > And what services do I need to set up in order to use a standalone > plan9 box? > Finally a rather pragmatic question: For what purposes is plan9 > actually used? I get the impression that programming and file/cpu/ > terminal serving is all you can do, but that can't be it, right? > > So long, > Angelo > Your best bet is to read the wiki and the papers. However, I'll give a condensed version here: The CPU server is intended as a high-power system for doing compilation, number crunching, etc. The file server stores all the files. The auth server manages user accounts and such (also runs cron, etc.) The terminal is where you actually work--it runs most of your programs locally, but you can also connect to a cpu server to run higher-demand stuff. Since you have the cpu server, terminals can be cheaper/older hardware. If you actually want to use Plan 9 'properly', you'll want at least one box acting as a standalone CPU/auth/file server. You can follow the directions at http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/wiki/plan9/Configuring_a_standalone_CPU_server/ (follow the instructions after installing from the CD, preferably choosing fossil+venti as your filesystem) Once the server is set up, you can connect using drawterm from a Windows, OS X, or Linux box, or you can set up another computer as a terminal to boot from the server (my preferred setup). As for uses, I'm hacking on it for use in supercomputing (currently, the BlueGene/P machine from IBM). Coraid uses it as the basis of their network storage devices. I prefer the programming tools over emacs/vi, gcc, Visual Studio, Eclipse, all the other crud I've tried. For me, it just seems to be easier to do what I need to do with Plan 9--for instance, using Plan 9 to access a serial console is easy, while it's always a huge hassle for me on Linux. It's also good for preparing papers. Plan 9 can do whatever you program it to do. John Floren -- "I've tried programming Ruby on Rails, following TechCrunch in my RSS reader, and drinking absinthe. It doesn't work. I'm going back to C, Hunter S. Thompson, and cheap whiskey." -- Ted Dziuba