WABI doesn't work with NFS V3
Charles
I'm surprised no one else on here has complained about this "bug"
yet...
I'm posting this to warn others about this "bug" and hopefully get a Sun
engineer to respond with a technical explaination.
The problem is with both SunPC and WABI running under Solaris 2.5 client
trying to access files on a Solaris 2.5 NFS server (This combination is
required so that you are using NFS V3). Now, fire up MS Word and try and
open or save a .DOC file across the NFS V3 mount. It doesn't work.
Remounting with the vers=2 option works just fine.
Why? The reason given to me by a Sun rep is that WABI and SunPC do not
support NFS V3. (I didn't realize applications needed to support NFS V3,
I thought it was supposed to be transparent). I was told by Sun that in
order to fix WABI, an RFE (request for enchancement...Remember, this
isn't a bug, supposedly) would need to be filed, which would typically
take 3 years before making it into production code. Instead, they plan
to work around whatever problem exists and make it available in Solaris
2.6, which I am told is still 12 months away.
Now, my questions are:
1) How on earth did this compatability problem make it into production
code in the first place? Surely somewhere along the line in Solaris
2.5's supposedly comprehensive beta program, someone must have tried to
run MS Word (which is a certified WABI application) on a Solaris 2.5
machine against a 2.5 server through the course of a normal work day. (We
found it 2 days after upgrading from 2.4...)
2) If Sun is so quick to kludge around an application problem by fixing
the OS, what other applications did Sun discover might break after
analysis of the situation?
3) How can Sun make it's customers wait so long to fix a compatability
problem between two of it's strategic applications? They push WABI as
this great value added feature to Solaris 2.5, then boast about the
performance gains in NFS V3, but then it turns out that you have to pick
one or the other!
Charles
--
Harnad describes the status of Usenet aptly:
a communication medium with revolutionary intellectual
potential being used mostly as a global graffiti board.
[Harnad 1991]
Michael Wong
Turn off file locking/sharing in Wabi, and you can use it with NFS V3. Of
course, you won't have file locking and sharing, but it's not as if people are
running multiuser applications through Wabi on their Solaris networks anyway.
Where I am, we only use it for whipping up memos and spreadsheets.
Charles Stephens
>>>>> "C" == Charles <cha...@backfire.mn.org> writes:
C> I'm surprised no one else on here has complained about this "bug"
C> yet...
Before I worked for Sun, I actually encountered this problem. I
almost opened a bug call on it. However, Sun called me up and offered
me job, so I didn't have time to do so. Conspiricy theorists can not
offer an explanation why.
C> The problem is with both SunPC and WABI running under Solaris 2.5
C> client trying to access files on a Solaris 2.5 NFS server (This
C> combination is required so that you are using NFS V3). Now, fire
C> up MS Word and try and open or save a .DOC file across the NFS V3
C> mount. It doesn't work. Remounting with the vers=2 option works
C> just fine.
C> Why? The reason given to me by a Sun rep is that WABI and SunPC
C> do not support NFS V3. (I didn't realize applications needed to
C> support NFS V3, I thought it was supposed to be transparent). I
The quick solution is to grab WABI v2.2 beta update and install that.
It is quite stable and works well with NFS v3.
I also suggest you look at Bug ID 1147458 and give SunService a call.
It seems that WABI uses a private interface that was changed with the
introduction of NFS v3.
cfs
--
Charles F. Stephens = c...@eng.sun.com
Software Engineer (I think) = "And thus spak the great lawyers:
SunSoft, a SMCC Business = thou shall not speaketh for Sun or its
Menlo Park, California, USA = subsidaries, and disclaim all information
= hereforth, so they sue you not us."
Spitting is strictly prohibited. = THIS SPACE FOR SUBLEASE, reasonable rates.
R. Stewart Ellis
c...@dobbs.eng.sun.com (Charles Stephens) writes:
>>>>>> "C" == Charles <cha...@backfire.mn.org> writes:
...
>The quick solution is to grab WABI v2.2 beta update and install that.
>It is quite stable and works well with NFS v3.
Where can one grab it?
>I also suggest you look at Bug ID 1147458 and give SunService a call.
>It seems that WABI uses a private interface that was changed with the
>introduction of NFS v3.
>cfs
>--
>Charles F. Stephens = c...@eng.sun.com
>Software Engineer (I think) = "And thus spak the great lawyers:
>SunSoft, a SMCC Business = thou shall not speaketh for Sun or its
>Menlo Park, California, USA = subsidaries, and disclaim all information
> = hereforth, so they sue you not us."
>Spitting is strictly prohibited. = THIS SPACE FOR SUBLEASE, reasonable rates.
--
R.Stewart(Stew) Ellis, Assoc.Prof., (Off)810-762-9765 ___________________
Humanities & Social Science, GMI Eng.& Mgmt.Inst. () / _____ ______
Flint, MI 48504 Free speech and free software! /\ / / / / / /
Web admin: http://www.gmi.edu/ el...@gmi.edu /________/ / / / /
Michael R. Eisler
I (Mike Eisler) am posting this on behalf of David Robinson.
In article <4n93e4$c...@gremlin.backfire.mn.org>,
Charles <cha...@backfire.mn.org> wrote:
>
>I'm surprised no one else on here has complained about this "bug"
>yet...
>
>I'm posting this to warn others about this "bug" and hopefully get a Sun
>engineer to respond with a technical explaination.
>
>The problem is with both SunPC and WABI running under Solaris 2.5 client
>trying to access files on a Solaris 2.5 NFS server (This combination is
>required so that you are using NFS V3). Now, fire up MS Word and try and
>open or save a .DOC file across the NFS V3 mount. It doesn't work.
>Remounting with the vers=2 option works just fine.
>
>Why? The reason given to me by a Sun rep is that WABI and SunPC do not
>support NFS V3. (I didn't realize applications needed to support NFS V3,
>I thought it was supposed to be transparent). I was told by Sun that in
>order to fix WABI, an RFE (request for enchancement...Remember, this
>isn't a bug, supposedly) would need to be filed, which would typically
>take 3 years before making it into production code. Instead, they plan
>to work around whatever problem exists and make it available in Solaris
>2.6, which I am told is still 12 months away.
Wabi supports DOS/Windows applications that use file share reservations
(last argument to OpenFile) by directly contacting the NFS lock manager
(aka lockd).
The simple fix to make applications like Word work is to go into the
configuration manager and turn off network sharing for the filesystem.
The only consequence is that MS Word will no longer detect two
users attempting to modify the same file, a very rare occurence with Wabi.
> Now, my questions are:
> 1) How on earth did this compatability problem make it into production
> code in the first place? Surely somewhere along the line in Solaris
> 2.5's supposedly comprehensive beta program, someone must have tried to
> run MS Word (which is a certified WABI application) on a Solaris 2.5
> machine against a 2.5 server through the course of a normal work day. (We
> found it 2 days after upgrading from 2.4...)
Wabi's support of file reservations has been a kludge since day #1. We knew
of this problem long before 2.5 shipped. The choice was if we should
"port" the kludge to support V3 or to solve the problem correctly in a
protocol/files system independant manner. Since there is a trivial workaround
that solves 99+% of the users by turning off sharing, we decided to opt
for the correct solution. Wabi 2.2 supports the new correct mechanism that
will be supported in Solaris 2.6. Unfortunately it is too complex to
make a patch out of.
> 2) If Sun is so quick to kludge around an application problem by fixing
> the OS, what other applications did Sun discover might break after
> analysis of the situation?
The kludge is that the Wabi developers wrote a custom driver that knew
about the private internals of Solaris. When we (NFS) changed the interface
by adding NFS V3 support it broke the Wabi kludge. In 2.6 we will have the
correct supported public interfaces that Wabi will use and no longer need
to depend on Solaris internals. In fact the Wabi device driver goes away
completely.
> 3) How can Sun make it's customers wait so long to fix a compatability
> problem between two of it's strategic applications? They push WABI as
> this great value added feature to Solaris 2.5, then boast about the
> performance gains in NFS V3, but then it turns out that you have to pick
> one or the other!
The decision was to do a kludge fix or require a reasonable workaround.
If the workaround does not solve your particular situation let me
know.
-David Robinson
david.r...@eng.sun.com
--
-Mike Eisler NFS group
m...@Eng.Sun.Com SunSoft
Charles
Michael R. Eisler (m...@pacific.eng.sun.com) wrote:
: I (Mike Eisler) am posting this on behalf of David Robinson.
:
: The simple fix to make applications like Word work is to go into the
: configuration manager and turn off network sharing for the filesystem.
: The only consequence is that MS Word will no longer detect two
: users attempting to modify the same file, a very rare occurence with Wabi.
I thought of this after I posted my original article. It does work,
other than MS Word complaining that it can't register the file.
: Wabi's support of file reservations has been a kludge since day #1. We knew
: of this problem long before 2.5 shipped. The choice was if we should
: "port" the kludge to support V3 or to solve the problem correctly in a
: protocol/files system independant manner. Since there is a trivial workaround
: that solves 99+% of the users by turning off sharing, we decided to opt
: for the correct solution. Wabi 2.2 supports the new correct mechanism that
: will be supported in Solaris 2.6. Unfortunately it is too complex to
: make a patch out of.
Thanks for the explanation. Had my local Sun rep, or even Sun service
told me of this work around 6 weeks ago, I would be a much happier camper
than I am today.
: The decision was to do a kludge fix or require a reasonable workaround.
: If the workaround does not solve your particular situation let me
: know.
This work around is a lot more acceptable than having to live with
mounting everything V2. I assume this work around will be required even
with Wabi 2.2 on Solaris 2.5? And then it won't be with 2.6?
Thanks for the response. I'm glad the Sun engineers are here to give
real answers to problems. However, it does piss me off that the company
pays 100K+/year on Sun Service support to wait 6 weeks for a non-answer,
when I can post to the Net and get an answer from an engineer who knows
what's really going on, in 48 hours.
My next question is, how come this problem isn't in the WABI faq, or in
SunSolve?
Charles
R. Stewart Ellis (el...@nova.gmi.edu) wrote:
: c...@dobbs.eng.sun.com (Charles Stephens) writes:
:
: >>>>>> "C" == Charles <cha...@backfire.mn.org> writes:
: ...
:
: >The quick solution is to grab WABI v2.2 beta update and install that.
: >It is quite stable and works well with NFS v3.
:
: Where can one grab it?
I just found it. Go to www.sun.com into the pc-products/wabi area, and
there's a link to it. Sorry I don't have the actual URL.
Richard L. Hamilton
David Robinson
In article <4nkj6e$g...@gremlin.backfire.mn.org>,
Charles <cha...@backfire.mn.org> wrote:
>This work around is a lot more acceptable than having to live with
>mounting everything V2. I assume this work around will be required even
>with Wabi 2.2 on Solaris 2.5? And then it won't be with 2.6?
for Wabi 2.1 or before.
>Thanks for the response. I'm glad the Sun engineers are here to give
>real answers to problems. However, it does piss me off that the company
>pays 100K+/year on Sun Service support to wait 6 weeks for a non-answer,
>when I can post to the Net and get an answer from an engineer who knows
>what's really going on, in 48 hours.
>
>My next question is, how come this problem isn't in the WABI faq, or in
>SunSolve?
It is in at least one FAQ I have seen, I don't recall where though.
-David