HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: roder@mayo.edu (Mark N. Roder)
Subject: Cost of hardware, software, and training for the NeXT
Reply-To: roder@mayo.edu(Mark N. Roder)
Organization: Mayo Foundation, Rochester MN. Campus
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 15:41:29 GMT


	I need to show some numbers on what it costs to support NeXTs.     
The data you give me will be held in strictest confidence.  I will post a  
summary (with out company names, etc)

	Please answer the following questions if you are in charge of  
supporting  and training of NeXT users.

First What do I mean by support? 
 
	By support I mean:  "The activity of  unboxing, installing,  
configuring, network hookup, user management, backups, software installs,  
software upgrades, problem resolution(hardware and software), service, etc  
on NeXT Hardware, Software and Third Party Software for the NeXT platform"  
(general hardware and software stuff)

	By  Training I mean:  "Training new users to the NeXT environment,  
training users on specific software packages, answering user questions,  
etc"  (People type stuff)

	I am mainly interested in end-user type of support, but if you  
have a programming shop/department, just break that into another section.

Please answer the following questions: 
	 (example answers are here)

1)   Name:				
	(Joe Sysadmin  joe@SDBoA.com)
	
2)   Name of Company:		
	(Super Duper Bank of America)

3)   Number of NeXTs and their use.  	
	(50 NeXTs in joe department doing 3270 connections to the 
	mainframe,WordProcessing, Spreadsheet and Custom Database 
	application)

4)  Type of Hardware/Software support provided, could be different for
    each of 3  
	(we contract this out and they do all things you listed for 
	support except backups)

5)  Who do you hire for above support?
	(we hire a person that breaths UNIX/C) or ( a General Technoid 
	that doesn't even know UNIX)

6)  What do you estimate the service reliability is?
	(We have 500 NeXTs, we average 1/2 disk drive problem/breakdown a 
	month)

7) What are the costs.  I am looking for a dollars per box, or a Full Time  
Equiv estimate
	(we contract this out and pay $150/box) or (we average one 1/2 
	time sysadmin  for every  500 boxes)

8)  What kind of training is provided, could be different for each of 3	 
	 (we have 3 classes.  they are "intro to NeXT"-8 hours, "Use of 
	the 3270 emulator" - 4hours and "Use of our Custom App"-10 hours)

9) What are the costs.  I am looking for a dollars per person, or a Full  
Time Equiv estimate
	(we have a full time person that handles all computer training and 
	it roughly takes 1/4 of her time or .25FTE)


I do not speak for the Mayo Foundation.  Any views expressed are my own.

Thanks

---
Mark Roder
NeXT Consultant
NeXT Mail: 	roder@mayo.edu
From: lfahnoe@kegworks.mn.org (Larry Fahnoe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: How to map bad blocks on a scsi disk?
Keywords: scsi bad-blocks
Date: 14 Aug 92 02:20:45 GMT
Organization: The Kegworks, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I've recently run into my first disk errors on my cube's scsi disk and am
looking for ways to map them to a bad block area on the drive and out of
the file system.  I've looked at disk(8) but this does not seem to offer a
means to do what I wish unless the verify option would work--since this is
my only disk, I'd rather not learn about this by experimentation. 

Any other utilities out there to help me out here?  NeXT's sysadmin manual
and the various NeXT answers that I have do not seem to point out anything.

--Larry

-- 
Larry Fahnoe                        Cellular One
612/832-7616                        7900 S. Xerxes Ave, Suite 301
lfahnoe@kegworks.mn.org             Bloomington, MN  55431
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: Peter Purgathofer <root@iguwnext.tuwien.ac.at>
Subject: Re: NeXT as Mac server?
X-Xxdate: Wed, 19 Aug 92 18: 15:21 GMT
Organization: Institute for design and assessment of technology
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1.1d7
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 16:15:17 GMT

What we here at the Institute did, was quite easy (in terms of
unix-admin)

* we got ethernet cards for all the macs of the stuff.
* we got a big, big HD (1GB) for the NeXT
* we installed NFSshare on the Macs (actually on one till now, just
to try)
* we launched the nfspcd daemon on the NeXT

Now (since 3 days) we are able to access the 1GB disk from the macs.
It isnt even necessary to install yp on the unix-machine (which we
thought we had to do. It was a mess)

We then installed the apple router software on one of the
ethernet-macs, and now even some (students) Appletalk-connected Macs
are able to talk to the (ethernet) printer (oh yes, we had to buy
EtherPrint, a AppelTalk-EtherTalk converter for our Eternetless
LaserJet III).

Everything works fine till now. The advantages are like this: 

We will be able to print from the NeXT.
We can incorporate *ANY* Computer that has NFS Software available
(Some PCs are waiting for this)

Hope this helps,

Peter Purgathofer
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Institute for design and assessment of technology
Dep. of Somputer Science / Technical Univ. /Vienna
Moellwaldplatz 5/187     A-1040 Vienna/Austria


"ROMANES EUNT DOMUS"     (Brian)
From: alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: What's a better block size for a Fuji 520M drive?
Date: 16 Aug 92 21:08:55 GMT
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742

what is a better block size for a FUJITSU M2624F?
512 or 1024? and why?

-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted
From: root@next2.eng.sandy.novell.com (Operator)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Mail Woes II
Date: 13 Aug 92 19:02:37 GMT
Distribution: all
Organization: Novell, Inc.

In article <1992Aug13.164556.20434@newshost.lanl.gov>  
092306@hyperion.lanl.gov (Jerry Weber D417  7-7410) writes:
> Mail on my NeXT responds with :
> 
> 		Fatal Error
> 
> 	Invalid Mail Directory: /usr/spool/mail/user
> 
> 
> I have checked all the permissions that I can think of and even tried  
logging
> into a diffrent machine with the same result. Can anyone shed some light  
on 
> what might be the cause?

Is your uid at your mailhost machine the same as the one on your station.

ls -l /usr/spool/mail/user shows owner to be your uid. 

I hope this is it. I had a similar problem once.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: tagreen@lothario.cica.indiana.edu (Todd A. Green)
Subject: Re: NeXT as Mac server?
Organization: CICA - Center for Innovative Computer Applications
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:28:42 GMT

In article <1992Aug13.081418.21543@urz.unibas.ch> frank@ifi.unibas.ch writes:
>In article <1992Aug12.043358.29235@dtint.uucp>  writes:
>> In article <ward1.713544494@husc8> ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)  
>> writes:
>> > We have a single NeXTstation that we'd like to turn into a file-server
>> > for our programmers.  The five Mac ci's they work on are all ethernet
>> > compatible and have their own IP numbers.
>> 
>> First, buy ethernet cards for the Macs.
>  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>NOT necessary if using a GatorBox and MacTCP!

First of all the original poster says that the Macs are "ethernet
compatible".  So why are telling him to buy ethernet cards and/or
GaterBoxes? 

Secondly, while it is true that you can use a GatorBox and not need
ethernet cards for the Macs, the person only has 5 Macs.  It would be
_silly_ to buy a GatorBox instead of ethernet cards (if he doesn't
already have them).  If you use a GatorBox your Macs still run at
LocalTalk speeds (230.4 Kbps).  And a GatorBox is considerably more
expensive than getting 5 cards (Like about twice as much).  Of course
there are some nice features that a GatorBox offers...but I think that
the cost of it and the penalty you pay in speed won't compensate for
its features.

Todd
--
NeXTMail:  tagreen@cica.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: tlm@nextasy.physics.mcmaster.ca (Tom Marchioro)
Subject: Re: Turning off NeXT at night....
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 01:36:02 GMT

sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears) writes:
: In article <1992Aug18.115130.945@stc.nato.int> koelman@cuby.stc.nl (Ton  
: Koelman) writes:
: =>In article <1992Aug15.200341.14887@cco.caltech.edu> madler@cco.caltech.edu  
: =>(Mark Adler) writes:
: 
: =>> The big energy hog is the printer.  If you're not turning your
: =>> printer off after use, either automatically or manually (the
: =>> command is /usr/etc/nppower off), then you really are needlessly
: =>> consuming energy.  Not just in keeping the printer hot, but in
: =>> the air-conditioning to counter that heat source.
: =>
: =>Agreed. I think the system should power it up and down 
: =>automatically.
: =>
: 
: This is fixed in release 3.0.  The printer does not come on until you are  
: ready to print except for the occasional random powerup...
: 

You can also write a simple cron script (or I can provide you one
someone posted to the net a few months ago) which checks the printq
every so often (you input this in the cron file) and turns off
the printer is nothing is being printed.  The NeXT best thing is to 
get the little "sleep printer" application off the archives and put it
in your dock.  Just seeing it there serves as a reminder to me to turn
the printer off.

Best -- tom

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: andrew@cubetech.com (Andrew Loewenstern)
Subject: Re: NeXT as Mac server?
Organization: Cube Technologies, Inc.
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 04:11:27 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.140612.10627@ldp.com> rolfe@ldp.com writes:
>In article <ward1.713544494@husc8> ward1@husc8.harvard.edu (Lester Ward)  
>writes:
>> We have a single NeXTstation that we'd like to turn into a file-server
>> for our programmers.  The five Mac ci's they work on are all ethernet
>> compatible and have their own IP numbers.
>> 
>> Does anyone know what is involved in setting this up?
>> 
>> Les
>
>You can install CAP, although currently it requires an Ethernet/Localtalk  
>router like a Fastpath or Gatorbox.  I don't know whether 3.0's support for  
>Appletalk in the kernel will change this, but I would think it should.  Other 
>than that glitch, CAP works great and is fairly mature at this point.

No, 3.0 only lets you become an AppleShare _client_ and not a
sever.  You'll need something like uShare to get the Macs talking
TCP/IP and NFS to let the NeXT be a server.


andrew
-- 
andrew@cubetech.com     | "We shall not cease from exploration
Andrew Loewenstern      |  And the end of our exploring
Cube Technologies, Inc. |  Will be to arrive where we started
                        |  And know the place for the first time." -T.S. Eliot
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: sherwood@fenris.space.ualberta.ca (Sherwood Botsford)
Subject: TarChive on Sonata
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 19:19:13 GMT

	Welcome to TarChive 0.7

This is a command line method of maintaining your sanity  
when dealing with tapes.  The TarChive package is a set of  
Perl scripts, and two binary files that together make a  
sensible way to deal with tapes.

This is a preliminary release. (escape?)  Use with the due  
caution for any beta software.  I appreciate bugs reports,  
suggestions, etc.

Tapes have several drawbacks as means of storing  
information.
	They're slow.
	You have to read the whole tape to find out what's  
on it.
	You often aren't quite sure if what you think is  
there is really there.
	You have little protection from someone else  
writing on the tape if you leave it in the drive.
	If you have serveral tapes they are difficult for  
programs to tell apart. (Generally you have to go look at  
the label.)
	If there is a glitch in the tape, you've usually  
lost the rest of the archive.
	
TarChive has partial solutions to most of the problems  
above.

	Speed:	TarChive encourages creating archives in  
the 20-100 MB range.  Because of this you can use the much  
faster file positioning commands (10-100 times faster than  
reading the tape).
	
	Directories:  TarChive keeps log files of whatever  
it puts on tape.  So later, a single grep command will tell  
you that file x is in the 11th archive on tape Y.
	
	Verification:  TarChive writes an archive to tape,  
then reads it back and compares it to the original.
	
	Tape Labeling:  TarChive will not write on a tape  
that is not labeled. TarChive will not write on a tape not  
owned by the user.  TarChive will not write on a tape that  
is not registered on the system.  All log files refer to  
the tape label so that you can easily determine what is on  
each tape.

	Error recovery:  TarChive uses gnutar as it's  
tarring command.  If gnutar can't read a part of the tape,  
it moves on to the next file header within the archive, and  
carries on from there.  Losses are minimized.
	
	Driver glitches:  On occasion Next's tape driver  
decides to reset the tapedrive. TarChive keeps track of  
what tapefile is being written, and when a reset occures,  
repositions the tape to the correct tar file, and carries  
on.
	
Prerequisites:
	In addition to this package, you need gnutar 1.10  
and perl 4.1
From: rutherford@ccsua.ctstateu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: next disks and swapfiles
Date: 18 Aug 92 21:27:47 GMT
Organization: Yale University, Department of Computer Science, New Haven, CT

How does the next maintain swap files? There is no entry in fstab for it
(or for my second hard drive, and internal 105 quantum).  There is an entry
for my boot drive. I am assuming that the internal drive is mounted
automatically by a non-standard method.  I have seen the swapfile in
/private/vm, and have wondered if it is possible to either physically
relocate it to the internal drive or to use a symbolic link instead.

I would also like to override whatever automounting is taking place
and make sure that on boot up the internal (non-boot drive) is mounted
automatically.

Can I manage the disks without using nextstep utilities?

Thanks,

John Rutherford
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: wucolin@popeye.CIS.McMaster.CA (Colin Wu)
Subject: Re: Automatic power ON
Reply-To: wucolin@popeye.CIS.McMaster.CA (Colin Wu)
Organization: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 14:08:37 GMT

In article <4081@seti.UUCP> quinquet@nuri.inria.fr (quinqueton joel -) writes:
# Hello,
# 
# When the electricity goes off, the NeXT won't reboot, you have
# to press the Power key. It is a bit annoying because we have a server
# that is suppose to run all the time.
# Is there a way to have the NeXT reboot when the electricity comes back?
# 
# I think it has to be by a physical mean (electronic or something).
# 
# Thanks,
# 
# Michel Jacquot
# jacquot@crim.fr

If you absolutely have to have the server on all the time you should consider  
an UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply).
--
   __     _             _            Colin Wu
  /  )   //            ' )   /       Network Analyst
 /    __|/  o ____      / / / . .    Computing & Information Services
(__/ (_) \_<_/ / <_    (_(_/ (_/_    McMaster University
email:	wucolin@popeye.CIS.McMaster.CA	(NeXTmail welcome)
	wucolin@McMaster.CA		(Generic email only)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson)
Subject: Re: rdump HELP!!!!
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 02:00:42 GMT

mbutler@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (M. COOPER / B. McQUAID) writes:

>I have a NeXTstation color and a Data General Aviion server.  The
>Aviion has a 525 MB 1/4 drive and I'd love to backup my NeXT to
>it.  Here's what I've tried :

>if I do the following as myself I get:

>cara> /etc/rdump 0uf host1:/dev/rmt/1 /Homes/bmcquaid/Forms
>  DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Mon Aug 17 10:17:23 1992
>  DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
>  DUMP: Dumping /Homes/bmcquaid/Forms to /dev/rmt/1 on host host1
> DUMP: bad sblock magic number
>  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.

Look at the man page for dump.  The final argument to dump (or
rdump) must be a FILESYSTEM, not a directory (like SunOS, for
instance).  So, if /Homes is a separate partition for you, then:
cara> /etc/rdump 0uf host1:/dev/rmt1 /Homes
should work for you, if the tape drive is on host1's /dev/rmt1 port
(I assume your /dev/rmt/1 is a typo, or else DG machines are really
weird).

-- 
David Lemson                                                 (217) 244-1205
University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant  / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin
Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu                 UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson 
NeXTMail accepted                                   BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: lemson@fnbc.com (David Lemson)
Subject: Re: Why touch can't follow symbolic links?
Reply-To: lemson@fnbc.com
Organization: First National Bank Of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 92 15:36:18 GMT

> 
> 
> In article <1992Aug12.021707.29856@ccsun7.csie.nctu.edu.tw>  
jypai@ccnext.csie.nctu.edu.tw writes:
> 
> Suppose I build symbolic link using command 'ln',
> say, 'ln -s /usr/local /home/yuan/local' ( in host ccnext)
> Then when I touch from ccnext2 to ccnext,
> switch to /home/yuan/local (in Touch), what touch shows 
> is just a text file icon with question mark in it.
> Obviously, it doesn't follow the link.
> Is it?
> 
> 
Don't use Touch.  It's buggy and can crash your machine hard.  Supposedly  
someone (Marble?) is re-writing it and will release it sometime in the  
future.  As for now, check out GatorFTP+ from sonata.cc.purdue.edu.  It  
does a similar job, more robustly. (by using the ftp protocol, which will  
follow symbolic links, by the way).

This should be a FAQ, too, I think.

--
David Lemson                                           (312) 732-4741
FNBC Sys Admin (Summer) UIUC NeXT Campus Consultant(rest of the time)
E-mail to: lemson@fnbc.com                          NeXTMail accepted
From: matthews@oberon.umd.edu (Mike Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: ioctl for DAT compression
Date: 21 Aug 92 12:36:32 GMT
Originator: matthews@oberon.umd.edu

Does anyone know the ioctl or whatever to turn hardware compression ON on an
Eclipse 4mm DAT tape drive?

I know that RunningBack has the option but it's manual is actually quite
worse than anything NeXT put out (well, the manual that I've seen at least)
and doesn't say anything other than how to plug it in.

Also, is there a way to determine if a tape is in the drive and ready to go?
I tried mt -f /dev/nrst0 status but it never gave consistent errors (returned
06, then 02, then 00 without me doing anything  -- and this was after the
ready light came back on too).
------
Mike Matthews, matthews@oberon.umd.edu (NeXTmail accepted)
------
If A equals success, then the formula is:
   A= X + Y + Z
X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut.
- Albert Einstein

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: richard@csi.on.ca (Richard Martin)
Subject: Re: Color memory questions
Organization: Carp Systems International, Kanata, ON
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:40:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.210129.14534@cs.yale.edu> nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug11.201126.27227@CS.ORST.EDU> cowgilc@tsunami.CS.ORST.EDU  
>(Clayton Neil Cowgill) writes:
>> In article <1992Aug10.215117.25551@cs.yale.edu>  
>> > Try reading the current FAQ for the answers to all your questions.
>> > 
>> > People, USE THE $^$^$*($&$)(@#^@ FAQs!!!
>> > People, USE THE $^$^$*($&$)(@#^@ FAQs!!!
>> > People, USE THE $^$^$*($&$)(@#^@ FAQs!!!
>> > People, USE THE...
Where ARE the stupid FAQs?
When I first come into a group, the first thing I expect to meet is the
FAQ, but I haven't seen one here yet.  NO, I don't have ANY ftp access.

void *FAQ;

FAQ = GetPtrFAQ(Help!);

Please help, and don't flame for not being able to find something--I've
looked!
Richard =)
Aspiring NeXT user.  (That's aspiring to use, not a NeXT user who's
aspiring)  Sorry, no NeXTmail.
From: elmar@knipp.en.open.de (Elmar Knipp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Font not availible
Date: 10 Aug 92 20:26:34 GMT
Organization: Private/FRG

glenn@rightbrain.com (Glenn Reid) writes:

>Elmar Knipp writes
>> I copied some Fonts from my MAC to the NeXT and installed
>> them in /LocalLibrary/Fonts. But when I want to use the fonts, the
>> font panel always says: "Unusable Font".
>> 
>> The files are ok (converted with mfrc to ascii-readable), 
>> the permisssions and owner are ok, buildafmdir works ok.
>> 
>> The only applications which will use the new fonts is
>> Frame-Maker.

>This is one of the reasons why you should buy the fonts in
>NeXT format. They work, they're tested, and they're the same
>price as Mac fonts.

>Send mail to "fonts@rightbrain.com".  We have over 1100 fonts in NeXT
>format directly from Adobe, and you can call us today and be printing
>documents with them tomorrow morning.

This is no solution. The error also occurs, if you copy fonts
from an other NeXT-Computer.

The solution is to delete /LocalLibrary/Fonts/.fontlist and
.fontdirectory and maybe .afmcache. Then run buildafmdir.

>--
> Glenn Reid        		NeXTmail: glenn@rightbrain.com
> RightBrain Software		415-326-2974 (NeXTfax 326-2977)
> Palo Alto, California

Elmar
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
From: m@crito.stanford.edu (M Carling)
Subject: Re: What's a better block size for a Fuji 520M drive?
Organization: DSO, Stanford University
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 01:34:35 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.231820.948@convex.com> finger@convex.com (Jay  
Finger) writes:
> Will the NeXT support sector sizes greater than 1024 bytes?  Since the  
sd
> driver reads/writes 8K chunks, might one find even better performance  
with
> 8K sectors?

If the disk could do it, and the computer could do it, 8K blocks would be  
faster (not much) and increase capacity (again not much). But unless you  
have just a few files each of which is quite large, that is not an  
efficient way to use space. Also, I don't know of any drives which support  
8K blocks. NeXT's current software supports 512 byte or 1024 byte blocks,  
and I haven't heard anything that would suggest that they are considering  
changing that.

M Carling
Director, Bay Area NeXT Group
--
Dan Quayle needs a new running mate.
George Bush undermines his chances of being re-elected Vice President.
From: rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Lexi.font.  What is it and why can't I select it?
Date: 20 Aug 92 18:46:47 GMT
Reply-To: rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us (Bob Peirce #305)
Organization: Cookson, Peirce & Co., Pittsburgh, PA

In /NextLibrary/Fonts there is a font called Lexi.  I did not put it
there so it must have come with the system software - 1.0, 2.0 or 2.1.
None of the programs seem to be able to select this font.  I tried
running buildafmdir on NextLibrary/Fonts and got a message that
several fonts (including Lexi) existed in a new and old version.  I have
no idea what that meant because I could only see one version of each in
the directory.  I copied it to LocalLibrary/Fonts and tried buildafmdir
there, to no avail.  This in spite of having added some PD fonts which
do work.  I thought there might be a problem in the font's description
except I had a PD font that was selectable and crashed the
windowserver.

Anybody have any ideas?


-- 
Bob Peirce, Pittsburgh, PA         rbp@investor.pgh.pa.us         412-471-5320
venetia@investor.pgh.pa.us [NeXT Mail]  !uunet.uu.net!pitt!investor!rbp [UUCP]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin