filePro on SuSe 9.0 Linux NFS mounts - problem with NO LOCKS AVAILABLE

[Nancy Palmquist]

> What "I" don't understand yet is how filePro could deal with two 
> different machines trying to update records in the same file. While I 
> can see each machine properly not overwriting each others records, how 
> do (would) the indexes get updated properly?
Walter,

The locking is handled by the NFS server.  It can tell two machines that 
  a chunk is busy.  That is why the record locking worked correctly.

All we will do it drop records in this file and run reports (with -u) 
the lockfile will not be an issue.  No direct data entry is expected.

I even tried this with a Windows version and a Unix version of filePro 
pointing to the same NFS share and both were able to add records, the 
record locking worked, indexes were updated correctly.  (Both must be 
intel platform so the data structure is right.  I don't expect this 
would work on any system that requires HIGH/LOW byte swapping to work.

I had this set up so that the map/prcs/screens/outs/edits etc were on 
the first mounted drive and were O/S appropriate.  On the second mount I 
put the key/data/index* and that is all that each system shared.  This 
is very important because the data formats are the same but the setup 
files have O/S differences - (I think that should be corrected but alas 
it is our legacy.)

If you move the indexes to the mount, filePro will keep them there from 
then on and not try to move them back to the first mount.

As you can expect, it would not be prudent to shuffle the files -that 
are shared in this way.  NEVER NEVER do that.

My plan - as yet untested - is to have them share the lockfile.  But 
each O/S wants the lockfile in the first mount part of the system, so I 
was planning to link that one to a version on the MOUNT so each would 
see the changes made by the other.  I expect if I can get the LINK set 
correctly, it will work, but I have not tested it yet.

This will allow us to move a Netware system to Linux and still keep the 
fpODBC part of the programming working.  But put all other stuff on the 
Linux system.

We currently use our Linux servers as speedy processesors when we have 
large and time processing to run.  It will rebuild indexes and run 
archive processes in a fraction of the time a Netware server can manage.

It will even fix freechains and stuff better.  We copy the key to the 
linux server, run the stuff we need - indexes and stuff, then move the 
key and indexes back to Netware.  Much faster - big reason to get this 
customer to Linux for the normal daily work.  We are working on that - 
but it is a huge change for a company that can not afford to be down for 
more than a few hours.

Nancy
-- 
Nancy Palmquist
Virtual Software Systems
PHONE: (412) 835-9417			Web site:  http://www.vss3.com