How to have a node-specific file ?

[Joe Smith]

In article <3796 at brchh104.bnr.ca> masa at hpsciz.sc.hp.com (Masayoshi Habu) writes:
>Please teach me how to have a node-specific file on a diskless Sun ?  I am
>porting a software product from HP to Sun. HP has a "cluster" to support
>diskless nodes. They have Context Dependent File (CDF) to have a
>node-specific file for each node. How does Sun support such an idea ?

If you're asking what I think you're asking, the answer is to put it
in /etc, /tmp or /var/tmp.  Each of these directories are host-specific.
(The rest of this discussion assumes that an HP "node" = a Sun "host".)

When a diskless Sun workstation boots up, it has two "partitions" at its
disposal: the root partition and the swap partition.  Since the /etc
directory is on the root partition, and each workstation has a different
root partition, files such as /etc/hostname.ie0 are specific to the "node".

For example, these files exist on the file server:
	/export/root/alpha		root partition for workstation alpha
	/export/root/alpha/etc/hostname.ie0	has alpha's host name
	/export/swap/alpha		NFS file use for alpha's swap space
	/export/{root,swap}/beta	files for workstation beta
	/export/root/beta/etc/hostname.ie0	has beta's host name
	/export/exec/sun3/sunos.4.1.1	/usr for Sun3 (Motrola 680x0) CPU's
	/export/exec/sun4/sunos.4.1.1	/usr for Sun4 (SPARC chip) CPU's
	/export/share/sunos.4.1.1	man pages, termcap, fonts, etc
	/home/servername		user's personal directories

The diskless workstation, however, sees only:
	/				root partition for this workstation
	(swap)				swap partition for this workstation
	/usr				/usr for this type of workstation
	/usr/share			common stuff for all workstations
	/home/servername		user's personal directories

>It seems to me that Sun makes heavy use of NFS and symbolic links. 
>What man pages do I need to read ?

Note: Symbolic links are not necessary, it's all done with NFS mounts.
The above information is from experience with installing diskless
workstations.  I looked in Sun's manuals, but could not find any
place where this information is presented.
	-Joe

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