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- Message-ID: <199301260119.AA00681@curly.cc.swin.edu.au>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.banyan-l
- Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1993 11:56:11 AUS
- Sender: Banyan Networks Discussion List <BANYAN-L@AKRONVM.BITNET>
- From: Brian=Tehan%CC.staff%Swinburne@BUSTER.CC.SWIN.EDU.AU
- Subject: re: NFS pros & cons
- Lines: 44
-
- <I believe there are a lot of UNIX knowledgable folks on this list. So, I'd
- like to pose the question: What are the pros and cons of NFS? We have a
- group who thinks they can replace VINES with NFS and provide superior
- connectivity for their PC, Mac and UNIX workstations. I have heard there are
- serious security holes in NFS. I even read a brief document by Sun (didn't
- they create NFS?) dated '89, that alluded to some security problems. Have
- all the holes been plugged? My contention is that VINES provides a superior
- connectivity platform for connecting the three platforms since PC and Mac are
- already built in and NFS/UNIX can be added with VINES for SCO or NFS support
- from Incognito. The problem is that the guys running the computing
- operations for this group are all old UNIX supporters. The group is mostly
- PC, with maybe 10% MAC and 5% UNIX workstations. Seems to me the already
- VINES PC majority is getting sold down the river. Any pertinent data
- gratefully appreciated.>
-
-
- Having installed and administered a PC-NFS network for a couple of
- years (plus a few Sun WS), then converting to Banyan at a different workplace
- (both mainly my decision), I think I can give you several good reasons to
- stay with Vines.
- We found that there was a much higher administration overhead with
- the PC-NFS system as you had to administer the Unix server UNDER Unix. You
- don't have all the nice menu driven systems to manage all aspects as you do
- in Vines. You had to use batch files rather than profiles. All this is
- daunting for your average PC jockey (typical PC NOS local admin). Licencing
- is a problem with a licence (and serial no) for every WS, rather than a
- server licence. Vines has a much higher level of security than Unix
- (especially Sun). I found that a 20 MHZ 386 PC server, running Vines, had
- much better performance than a Sun 3 or 386i as a file server, running NFS
- (my experience is about 3 years old now). Obviously, you don't have
- StreetTalk so resources are server dependant. You don't have Vines mail etc.
- etc..
- If you have lots of Sun's and a few PCs, I would certainly recommend
- PC-NFS, but with a large number of PCs, existing Vines and a few Suns you'd
- have to be as mad as those who rip out a perfectly good Ethernet to replace
- it with Token Ring to gain performance.
-
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Brian Tehan Email: BTehan@banyan.swin.edu.au
- Data Communications Tel: 061-3-819 8813
- Swinburne University of Technology Fax: 061-3-819 8944
- Melbourne, Australia
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-