Heterogeneous Systems Integration with NFS
Multi-Platform Solutions
The availability of multi-platform solutions is of the utmost importance to those responsible for integrating heterogenous systems on enterprise networks. Because NFS has been licensed to over 300 organizations including IBM, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Novell to name only a few, NFS implementations are available today on every major operating system and hardware platform such as PCs, midrange systems, high end multiprocessor servers and mainframes. NFS software products exist for MS-DOS®, Unix®, VMS®, MacOSTM, and MVS® and can be obtained from vendors such as TGV, FTP Software, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Digital, as well as from SunSoft. For a sample list of available products and vendors, see "Appendix B: Multi-Vendor NFS Products.
Connectathon [15])
To help ensure that NFS products from different vendors are compatible and can interoperate with each other, SunSoft regularly sponsors an event called Connectathon. The purpose of this event is to gather vendors together and let them test the interoperability of their products. At Connectathon, vendors are free to debug their NFS implementations with complete confidentiality, knowing that the results of the tests are not made public unless permission is specifically granted. Vendor participants at Connectathon have also inspired changes and improvements to NFS such as the NFS Version 3 work.
PC Network Integration
PC LANs are continuing to experience explosive growth in the 90s. Recent IDC figures predict that TCP/IP shipments will grow to 15.5 million units by 1998, which represents a compound annual growth rate (starting from 1993) of approximately 50%! A plethora of products exist from a variety of vendors that enable PC to enterprise integration with NFS as a primary component. For example, SunSoft's Solstice offers a complete package that supports all aspects of PC networking including administration tools, connectivity to NFS and TCP networks, X Windows TM integration, and access to application servers. Other vendors with NFS products for PC platforms include FTP Software, Frontier Technology, and NetManage. (See "Appendix B: Multi-Vendor NFS Products)
Connecting to Novell NetwareTM Environments
Environments supporting both Netware and NFS can be seamlessly integrated using a product from Novell called Netware NFS. This product allows NFS users to mount file systems on Netware servers and access Netware files as if they were NFS files. Support for authentication, authorization, and file locking is also included. For more information, contact Novell.
Coexistence with DCE
Recognizing the importance of integrating NFS with DCE DFS environments, DCE 1.1 from the Open Software Foundation (OSF) includes software implementing an NFS-DFS gateway. This gateway feature translates between NFS and DFS protocols, giving NFS users access to DFS files as if they were mounted under NFS. For more information, contact OSF.
In addition, SunSoft is committed to making sure NFS can be fully operational in a DCE environment. In the future NFS and DCE will both support the same security mechanisms by virtue of support for Kerberos version 5. Also, because DCE 1.2 will include XFN, both DCE and NFS will support the same naming facilities.
Footnote 15
The WWW URL for Connectathon is: http://www.sun.com/software/connectathon
