Subject: [netatalk-admins] Using netatalk in a large, mission-critical environment

From: "Sean A. Snyder" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 11:13:39 -0400

Greetings!

I'm writing to find out if anyone on this list is using netatalk in a large
environment (larger than 300 users per server) that is 24x7, or nearly 24x7?

I'm in a situation where with a product similar to Netatalk where I find
myself limited to 127 appletalk connections to my file server.  Apparently,
this limitation is based upon the 8-bit socket identification number in older
versions of the Appletalk stack.  According to section 4-5 of Apple's "Inside
Appletalk" book (copywrite 1990), sockets 1-127 are reserved for
statically-assigned sockets (SAS's), leaving sockets 128-254 for use by our
AppleShare clients, hence we get errors when we try to make that 128th
connection to the server.

Does anyone know if Netatalk is also subject to this 8-bit
socket-identification number issue, or has a workaround been found or been
created in newer versions of Appletalk?  Will using the asun IP patches get me
around this limitation if it exists (i.e. unlimited number of IP connections)?

Lastly, in the readmes for the 1.4b2+asun2.0a18.2 version that I downloaded,
it mentions that the STREAMS module is buggy on Solaris, and that I'd want to
get a beta of the new STEAMS module from umich.  How would I go about
obtaining that for Solaris 2.6 (don't see it on the umich web site)?

Thanks!
Sean

--
Sean Snyder ([email-masked])| 
Systems and Network Engineer   |   Every new beginning comes from some
Campbell-Ewald Advertising and |         other beginning's end....
C-E Communications             |		
#include <std_disclaimer.h>    |

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From: Michael M Han <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 09:19:21 -0700

Previously...
>obtaining that for Solaris 2.6 (don't see it on the umich web site)?

Well, the version n-971027 has indeed disappeared. It was last seen at
the umich ftp server in /unix/n-971027.tar.gz... But I notice that
there's now /unix/netatalk/netatalk-980819.tar.gz which looks like it
supercedes 971027... Any comments, Wes? Oh, I notice its changlog also
indicates you've fixed the free-space calculations in this version.

In any event, you could also grab a pre-asun2.1.0 snapshot. I just
grabbed -9a yesterday and it seems to be okay so far. The pre-2.1.0
snapshots have the modified STREAMS module. And yes, the STREAMS
module is real important: I got a few kernel panics on an inactive
server w/o the module. With the module, /var/adm/messages has been
free of nasty little kernel panics...
_________
mike ([email-masked])
Goldfish don't bounce
 - The collected wisdom of Bart Simpson

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 17:26:53 -0400

> From:    Michael M Han <[email-masked]>
> To:      "Sean A. Snyder" <[email-masked]>

> indicates you've fixed the free-space calculations in this version.

ftp://terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu/pub/n-971027.tar.gz is still there.
There is a n-980819.tar.gz there as well, which I'd suggest people not
use just yet.  I'm currently cross-testing it.

> free of nasty little kernel panics...

The major difference between 1.4b2 and the various snap-shots, n-971027
being the one we've suggested people use for Solaris, is that the
STREAMS module was written by Sun in 1.4b2 and by me in n-971027.
Moreover, we run n-971027 in the UMich public computing sites, so you
might say it's heavily tested.

:wes