From: wagner@chepil.weru.ksu.edu (Larry Wagner)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs
Subject: pcnfsd version 2 on a SUN 386i
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:16:22 GMT
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: chepil.weru.ksu.edu

We have compiled pcnfsd version 2 that was obtained
from tmc.edu in the /pcnfs directory (pcnfsd.403c.tar.Z).

This is the only copy of version 2 that would compile on the
386i's that we found.  The one that came with pcnfs4.0 and two
others on tmc.edu would not compile for us.

We have two 386i/250's running SunOS 4.0.2, one is the master YP server
and the other is configured as a slave YP server.  We have several
88, 286, 386, and 486 PC's connected running PC-NFS versions 3.5c or 4.0a.

The copy of pcnfsd that compiled for us appears to work correctly on 
the master YP server.  Everything checks out as far as accessing the
printer queues, etc.  However, when we installed the pcnfsd daemon
on the YP slave, things did not work so nicely.

We currently have PCNFS configured to query for a YP server, etc.
Usually the YP slave server will respond first since it is usually
more lightly loaded than the master.  PCNFS apparently will use
the YP (NIS) server it has found and use it for as the authentication
server as well when configured this way.

The problem is that the pcnfsd daemon on the slave server apparently
dies off when the PC tries to initiate the authentication process
to verify the user who is logging in.  Anyway, the pcnfsd daemon no
longer exists afterwards and the user never does get "logged in".
This does not occur if the master YP server happens to respond to
the PCNFS requests and does the authentication.  Of course, if we
explicitely instruct PCNFS to use the YP master server, everything
also appears to work correctly.

We have run "rpcinfo -u hostname 150001 2" on the PC's,
where hostname is either the YP master or slave server
we get the expected response mentioned in the manuals.  After an
attempt has been made by PCNFS to use the YP slave server for authentication,
which apparently kills the pcnfsd daemon on that machine,
we get the expected "rpcinfo" response that pcnfsd version 2 is not available.

We have tried various things, like executing the identical binary used
by the YP master (they should have been the same anyway) to rebooting
the machine.  Nothing has worked. 

Also, even after the pcnfsd daemon has died on the YP slave server,
PCNFS appears to assume that the YP server will also be the authentication
server as well (without checking to see if pcnfsd is running on that machine)
unless told explicitly to use a different machine.

Therefore, our questions are:

1) most importantly, why does the pcnfsd daemon die on the YP slave
server but appear to work correctly on the YP master server?

2) shouldn't PCNFS really verify that the YP server it finds actually has
a pcnfsd daemon running (and can therefore also be the authentication server)
rather than blindly assuming that this is the case?

Thanks in advance for any help.


--
Larry E. Wagner                     | wagner@chepil.weru.ksu.edu
USDA-ARS Wind Erosion Research Unit | wagner@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
105B East Waters Hall, KSU          | phone: (913) 532-6807 
Manhattan, KS 66506                 | fax:   (913) 532-6528
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs