S: Symbolic link to a DECsafe NFS service

From: Randy Rodgers <rrodgers_at_fwi.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 10:40:42 -0500

My original question was:

> I was wondering if anyone out there could tell me if it is allowable to
> establish a symbolic link to a DECsafe NFS service on each of the hosts.
> An example follows:
>
> ln -s /var/ase/mnt/test_nfs_service/usr/test test
>
> If this is allowable it would allow access to the data in this service on
> the hosts without having to enter the long path name.
>

I got the 3 following replies. Two suggest that it is OK, the other says
to mount the NFS service back to the host.

I also had asked this question of a Digital person who works with DECsafe.
He advised that the symbolic link was OK.

=============================================================

Yes, it is safe but it probably won't do what you're expecting. The
contents of /test will be valid on only one ASE server at a time -
on the other(s) it will be empty. I use an NFS loopback mount to make
the ASE controlled filesystems available on the ASE servers at the
same pathname as on the clients.

-steve
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--
Steve Thompson                 Internet:   smt_at_corning.com
_at_ Corning, Inc.                Phone:      (607) 974 2659
Data Center, Sullivan Park     FAX:        (607) 974 3964
Painted Post, NY 14870
    "186,000 miles per second: it's not just a good idea, it's the law"
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--
=============================================================
Hello, 
You should mount the service just like any client even if you are the
currently the server.
If you cd into the directory /var/ase/mnt/test_nfs_service/usr/test, and 
then 
try to fail over the service, the system will not be able to unmount the
file system
and the service relocation may fail. So if you have a service called test
and the service
alias is called testserver. On each cluster node you would mount the
service test_at_testserver 
/test this will allow you to access the service without causing unmount
problems. It will
look a little strange on the node that is currently running the service
because it will be 
mounted twice ( /var/ase/mnt/test_nfs_service/usr/test, and /test ) but
when you have a 
failure or when you manually relocate the service you will not have any
problems. As a 
rule of thumb it is best to stay out of the service directories.
 
Also note if you are running the latest version on ASE we support forced
unmounts so
being in a cluster directory in most cases will not cause a relocation to
fail.
Sam S.
=============================================================
Hello,
	I've been using symbolic links on two disk services to allow common
acces to them without any problem.  It's been working for many months so I
guess there is no problem with it.
	I've only done one specific thing which is to create the links in the
disk service's start.script and destroy em in the stop.script.  But it is
not
mandatory.
	Hope it helps...
					Bye..
						...Louis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
						|	Louis Bouchard
J'aimes que ca cesse quand c'est fini. Quand	|	Ingenieur Systeme
ca recommence, ca me scie.			|	bouchard_l_at_decus.fr
			R. Ducharme		|	Bouygues Telecom
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=============================================================
[=================================
[ Randy Rodgers
[ rrodgers_at_fwi.com
[ System Administrator
[ Allen County/City of Fort Wayne
[ Information Systems
[ (219)449-7660
[=================================

Received on Fri Oct 25 1996 - 18:25:52 NZDT