[21073] in Hotline Meeting
[Glenn Moglen : Concerns on Converting]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jerry Burke)
Thu Feb 10 09:27:21 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 09:30:22
From: burke@MIT.EDU (Jerry Burke)
To: op@MIT.EDU, hotline@MIT.EDU
Cc: dcns-cluster@MIT.EDU
In case I didn't get to everyone, there have been a number of requests to
Athenize workstations. We need to work with ops to do that. If we receive a
request, make sure we email to hotline and copy the request to "op". I
believe this is the 3rd request within 7 days. There was one for SUN, but
we have not had discussion about Athenizing non-standard SUNS. According to
Kim we should say we cannot do SUNS at this time.
John Chase can you bring Athenizing up in an ops meeting, so we clarify
what we should be saying to clients.
I used Kims email message for this person, but I don't think its fair to
continue this unless ops and Kim agrees. In addition we may want to come up
with a process (what specific info.) does ops need, such as getting the
required information and the message we want to give to clients into hotdoc
and we e-mail it to clients (copy ops), so we are all saying the same
thing.
I have not responded to this message I will talk to Kim. I don't want this
person to believe we are system managers, so I want to state that clearly.
Lorraine has been heading up a team on Purchasable workstations, this may
be where we want to start.
Jerry
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 94 14:30:09 -0500
From: Glenn Moglen <moglen@storm.MIT.EDU>
To: burke@MIT.EDU
Subject: Concerns on Converting
Dear Jerry,
The information on the machine that we would like to convert is:
Machine Type and Model# DECstation 5000/200, Model PM36A-BC
Monitor Type and Model#: Digital Color Monitor, VR299
Serial # AB10200PLC
MITTag# MIT-0243155
Hostname: storm.mit.edu
IP Address: 18.84.0.28
- The workstation WAS purchased through the MIT Micro-Computer Center.
- There is currently NO maintenance agreement on the machine. (which is
the reason we wish to convert to Athena - we have lost our system
manager.)
We have enough RAM and harddisk space. I assume you will be using the
machine's internal disk for installing the software. If this is the case
I will need to backup what is on that disk. I am not familiar with working
with these machines at this level. For instance, I do not know how to tell
which files/partitions actually reside on the machines internal disk. We
also have about 1.2 Gigabytes of hard-disk on external disks which I assume
we would maintain ownership of after the conversion. My point is, I would
need someone to tell me which partitions would be lost by Athenaization so
I can determine what is there and what would be lost. The following is a
snapshot of the current partitions:
storm% df
Filesystem Total kbytes kbytes %
node kbytes used free used Mounted on
/dev/rz0a 15551 12454 1542 89% /
/dev/rz0g 271847 203216 41447 83% /usr
/dev/rz0h 271847 191311 53352 78% /usr/local
/dev/rz1c 622094 511404 48481 91% /usr/users
/dev/rz2a 30063 21363 5694 79% /var
/dev/rz2d 273870 204720 41763 83% /usr/data
iona:/usr/users 678014 645924 18530 97% /usr/iona
iona:/usr/skye 327591 287969 36347 89% /usr/skye
kyzylkum:/usr/people 781792 423662 358130 54% /usr/kyzylkum
Would the stuff on /dev/rz0a or some other device be lost?
You write:
>The installation fee does *not* cover any software beyond the basic
>Athena public workstation configuration. Specifically, it does not
>include software configuration necessary to configure the workstation
>for remote file service (such as NFS), the ability to attach a local
>printer, setup of an Xterminal, etc... Workstations with this type of
>configuration are typically called servers. This type of software
>configuration is the responsibility of the workstation manager.
I don't know whether the things NOT covered would be a problem. I know
that we will want to attach storm's existing external drives to this
workstationand that we will be hooked up to the same printer. I understand
that Athena does not want to be responsible for this configuration. Is
there documentation or can OLC help me in finishing this installation? I
cannot proceed with converting to Athena if after you've converted it I am
unable to configure it to be useful for my research group. My concern is
that it will be successfully converted, but we will be unable to attach
peripherals or manage the machine successfully as a PRIVATE Athena
workstation.
Enough said. I would like you to proceed with Athenaization so long as you
believe that it will be possible to re-attach the external harddrives
(whichare DEC equipment, by the way) and that the remaining configuration
will be something manageable by me (given that I do NOT have system manager
skills).
I would also need advanced warning concerning what partitions would be used
by Athena so I can back them up in advance. Thanks for your time.
- Glenn (x3-5483)
------- End of Forwarded Message
