NFS Gateway for NetWare 6

1.0 Overview

The information in this Readme file pertains to the NFS* Gateway for NetWare^® 6.

The NFS Gateway provides connectivity between NetWare and UNIX* file systems.

The NFS Gateway enables NetWare servers to mount exported paths (typically from UNIX servers) over the NFS protocol and expose them as NetWare NSS volumes. Using the NFS Gateway, NetWare clients can transparently access files and directories on any NFS server system on the network.

1.1 What's New

This release of the NFS Gateway has the following new features:

• The NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 has been completely redesigned for better performance and reliability.
• It has better scalability than the NFS Gateway on NetWare 5.1.
• It has a new install that provides several improvements:
  • It prompts to accept the product license.
  • File backup
  • It extends the Novell^® eDirectory^TM schema

• The uninstall provides for file restoration.
• It incorporates the changes in the LSS interface for NSS 3.0.
• It is now SMP enabled.
• It provides dynamic mounting and unmounting of gateway volumes over UDP protocol.
• Volumes can be accessed through CIFS clients.
• It provides interoperability with different flavors of NFS Servers that are widely used in the various user environments.
• NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 is cluster-enabled for high availability and load balancing.
• File I/O error handling is improved. All file I/O errors are now reported to the users connected through NCP^TM.
• Symbolic and hard links are now supported.
• Unicode* character support is enabled.
• The logging feature enables viewing errors, information on the current operation, and warning messages.

  The log messages specific to each volumes are saved as shadowVolume/gateway/volumename.log, where the shadowVolume is the volume used to store the shadow files and volumename is the volume specified in the gymount.

  The general log messages for NFS Gateway are saved as shadowVolume/gateway/system.log, where the shadowVolume is the volume specified in the -shadowVolume of nfsgy.

1.2 What's Not Supported

• NFS Gateway does not support NFS and mount protocols over TCP.
• NFS Gateway volumes cannot be used to access/store database files.
• SUID is not supported.

  For example, if the SUID bit is set for the executable file, then the files/directories created using this executable will not have the UID of the executable; they will have the UID of the user who executes the executable file.

2.0 System Requirements

Meet the following requirements before installing NFS Gateway for NetWare 6:

• Change the bind order on the NetWare Server to support NFS Gateway functionality.

  To do this, follow the instructions from TID 10070570 available at Novell Support Web site.

• Install NetWare 6 Support Pack 3, available at Novell Support Web site.
• Install post SP3 NSS modules for NetWare 6, available as nw6nss3c.exe from the Novell Support Web site.
• Have a minimum of 32 MB RAM to load with default parameter values.
• Make sure that there is adequate free space on the volume where the shadow files are to be stored.

  To determine free space requirements, refer to Setting Up the NFS Gateway in NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 Administration Guide at the root directory of the product.

• For listing large directories, typically with more than 30,000 entries, increase the value of shadowCacheSize parameter.

  For more information, refer to Setting the NFS Gateway Parameters in Setting Up the NFS Gateway, Setting Up the NFS Gateway in NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 Administration Guide at the root directory of the product.

3.0 Documentation

The following sources provide additional information about NFS Gateway for NetWare 6:

• For the NFS Gateway install FAQs, refer to install.txt in the product installation directory.
• For information on installing, and configuring NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 for the first time, refer to the Setting Up the NFS Gateway in NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 Administration Guide at the root directory of the product.
• For NFS Gateway FAQs, refer to NFS Gateway FAQs in NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 Administration Guide at the root directory of the product.

4.0 Known Issues

This section describes known issues that have not been resolved for this release of NFS Gateway for NetWare 6.

4.1 Install

Install NetWare 6 Support Pack 3 before installing NFS Gateway, because the NFS Gateway install does not check for the existence of NetWare 6 Support Pack 3 on the server.

4.2 Uninstall

Do not remove Native File Access for UNIX from the server if it is installed, or NFS Gateway for NetWare 6 will not function.

If you do remove Native File Access for UNIX, then reinstall NFS Gateway for NetWare 6.

4.3 Loading / Mounting

• While mounting Gateway volumes, use IP address instead of DNS names.
• The NetWare Server hangs if the value for the Largest UDP Packet Size parameter value is less than 4608.
• The gymount takes 10 - 30 minutes if you give the IP address of an NFS Server that is down. During this time, if you attempt ti execute gystop or gyumount, then the system console will hang.
• Do not use the mounted Gateway volumes as the ShadowVolume when you mount another volume (using gymount).

  For example, if vol1 is a mounted NFS Gateway volume, do not execute the following:

  gymount vol2 -shadowvolume vol1 

4.4 Usage

• If the NFS server you are using is slow and is using NFS version 2, then the server might take a while to respond to write requests from the NFS server.

  To improve the response time for NFS writes, use NFS version 3.

• If you move directory entries between symbolic links, where both symbolic links point to the same target directory, you cannot view the contents in both directories. This is because both directories point to the same target directory.

  For example:

  dira directory contains file1 and file2

  lndir1 and lndir2 are symbolic links to dira.

  If you move file1 from lndir1 to lndir2, then you cannot view the contents for file1 in lndir1, lndir2, or dira.

• When a directory is renamed, the symbolic link for that directory continues to display the initial target directory contents.

• Invalid and cyclic symbolic links, such as symbolic link pointing to itself or a symbolic link pointing to another symbolic link which in turn points to the first one, are not supported.

• If the group membership or UNIX profile of an eDirectory user is changed, the NFS Gateway might not get the modified group membership or UNIX profile until the NFS Gateway and NDSILIB are reloaded.

5.0 Legal Notices

Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this documentation, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to revise this publication and to make changes to its content, at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.

Further, Novell, Inc. makes no representations or warranties with respect to any software, and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Further, Novell, Inc. reserves the right to make changes to any and all parts of Novell software, at any time, without any obligation to notify any person or entity of such changes.

You may not export or re-export this product in violation of any applicable laws or regulations including, without limitation, U.S. export regulations or the laws of the country in which you reside.

Copyright © 2003 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, photocopied, stored on a retrieval system, or transmitted without the express written consent of the publisher.

Novell, NetWare, and ConsoleOne are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

eDirectory, NCP, and Novell Storage Services are trademarks of Novell, Inc.

All third-party products are the property of their respective owners.