Installing and Administering the NFS Client

Installation Considerations

The NFS client software depends on the SAS/C transient library, the SAS/C CSL transient library, and the TCP/IP software provided by your TCP/IP vendor. These must all be installed properly for the NFS client software to function correctly. Refer to SAS/C Library Reference, Third Edition, Volume 2 for additional information.

The NFS client commands must be accessible to users. On CMS, this involves accessing the disk. On MVS, the commands can be found if the commands are placed in linklist or LPALIB, or if they are in a data set allocated to the DDname CPLIB (provided that the optional SAS/C TSO command support is installed). Alternatively, MVS sites with REXX support can use REXX EXECs which invoke the commands. This avoids any need to install the SAS/C TSO command support.

In addition to mainframe installation considerations, you must coordinate NFS usage with the administrators of the NFS servers. They must grant the mainframe access in their configuration files. Additionally, they must install a login server for mainframe users to contact.

SAS/C CSL comes with distribution kits (in UNIX tar format) for two login servers. The first is the standard PCNFSD version 2 server from Sun Microsystems. The second is the CSL's sascuidd server, which is used for login without a password. If the NFS network is already running a PCNFSD version 1 server, it can be used instead of the PCNFSD version 2 server. The distribution kits come with "README" and "Makefile" files to guide the process of building the programs on your login server operating system.

PCNFSD may be hard to port to some systems, particularly systems that are not UNIX systems. There are a number of alternative approaches to solve this problem. If there is a secure UNIX system available in the network that is already running PCNFSD, then that system can be used. If no such system is available, sites with mainframe security systems can rely exclusively on sascuidd (which is much easier to port). sascuidd will run on any POSIX system that also supports RPC. It is also possible to use a stripped down version of PCNFSD. Only the authorization and null procedures are needed for CSL NFS. The others (mostly related to printing) are not needed.

Whatever server is installed and used, it must be up and running whenever mainframe users might need access to NFS files.

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