NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Network File System (Sun)

Network File System (NFS), a protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984 and defined in RFCs 1094, 1813, and 3530 (obsoletes 3010) as a distributed file system, allows a user on a client computer to access files over a network as easily as if attached to its local disks. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call system (ONC RPC). Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In internetworking and computer network engineering, Request for Comments (RFC) documents are a series of memoranda encompassing new research, innovations, and methodologies applicable to Internet technologies. ... // For the Microsoft distributed file system (DFS), see Distributed File System (Microsoft). ... A BlueGene supercomputer cabinet. ... RJ-45 patchcord of the type commonly used to connect network devices. ... ONC RPC - short for Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call, sometimes also called Sun RPC because it was originally developed by Sun Microsystems, is a widely deployed remote procedure call system. ...

Computer-people often use the term "network file system" as a generic term: see distributed file system for other examples. // For the Microsoft distributed file system (DFS), see Distributed File System (Microsoft). ...

Versions and variations

Sun Microsystems, Inc. used version 1 only for in-house experimental purposes, and did not release it to the public. Sun Microsystems Logo Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) is a Silicon Valley-based computer, semiconductor and software manufacturer. ...

Version 2 of the protocol (defined in RFC 1094, March 1989) originally operated entirely over UDP. Its designers meant to keep the protocol stateless, with locking (for example) implemented outside of the core protocol. People involved in the creation of NFS version 2 include Rusty Sandberg, Bob Lyon, Bill Joy, and Steve Kleiman. The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite. ... A stateless server is one that treats each request as an independent transaction, unrelated to any previous request. ... In software engineering, a lock is a mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution. ... Bill Joy (left) with Paul Saffo. ...

At the time of introduction of Version 3, vendor support for TCP as a transport-layer protocol began increasing. While several vendors had already added support for NFS Version 2 with TCP as a transport, Sun Microsystems added support for TCP as a transport for NFS at the same time it added support for Version 3. Using TCP as a transport made using NFS over a WAN more feasible. This article discusses a general notion of reference in computing. ... The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a virtual circuit protocol that is one of the core protocols of the Internet protocol suite, often simply referred to as TCP/IP. Using TCP, applications on networked hosts can create connections to one another, over which they can exchange streams of data. ... In computing and telecommunications, the transport layer is layer four of the seven layer OSI model. ... A wide area network or WAN is a computer network covering a broad geographical area. ...

Version 4 (RFC 3010, December 2000; revised in RFC 3530, April 2003), influenced by AFS and CIFS, includes performance improvements, mandates strong security, and introduces a stateful protocol. Version 4 became the first version developed with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) after Sun Microsystems handed over the development of the NFS protocols. The Andrew file system (AFS) is a distributed networked file system developed by Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Andrew Project. ... Server message block (SMB) is a network protocol mainly applied to share files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. ... In information processing, a state is the complete set of properties (for example, its energy level, etc. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is charged with developing and promoting Internet standards. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ...

WebNFS, an extension to Version 2 and Version 3, allows NFS to integrate more easily into Web-browsers and to enable operation through firewalls. It has been suggested that Traditional Unix be merged into this article or section. ...

Platforms

Though the use of NFS occurs most commonly with UNIX systems, other software platforms such as the classic Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Novell NetWare, and IBM AS/400 operating systems can also use the protocol. (Alternative remote file access protocols include the Server Message Block (SMB, also known as CIFS) protocol, Apple Filing Protocol (AFP), NetWare Core Protocol (NCP), and OS/400 File Server file system (QFileSvr.400). SMB and NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) occur more commonly than NFS on systems running Microsoft Windows; AFP occurs more commonly than NFS in Macintosh systems; and QFileSvr.400 occurs more commonly in AS/400 systems.) Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Microsoft Windows is the name of several families of proprietary operating systems by Microsoft. ... NetWare is a network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. ... i5 Model 570 (2006) The Application System/400 (also known as AS/400, iSeries (since 2000) and System i5 (since 2006)) is a type of minicomputer produced by IBM. It was first produced in 1988 and, as of 2006, is still in production. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-level network protocol mainly applied to shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. ... The Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) is a layer 6 (presentation layer) network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and Classic Mac OS. In Mac OS X, AFP is one of several file services supported including Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP... The NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is a network protocol used in some products from Novell, Inc. ... The NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) is a network protocol used in some products from Novell, Inc. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... i5 Model 570 (2006) The Application System/400 (also known as AS/400, iSeries (since 2000) and System i5 (since 2006)) is a type of minicomputer produced by IBM. It was first produced in 1988 and, as of 2006, is still in production. ...

Typical implementation

Assuming a Unix-style scenario wherein one machine (the client) requires access to data stored on another machine (the NFS server): In computing, a client is a system that accesses a (remote) service on another computer by some kind of network. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Note that automation of the NFS mounting process may take place — perhaps using /etc/fstab and/or automounting facilities. In computing, a directory, catalog, or folder, is an entity in a file system which can contain a group of files and/or other directories. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... See Filing system for this term as it is used in libraries and offices In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...

Protocol development versus competing protocols

1980s

NFS and ONC figured prominently in the network-computing war between Sun Microsystems and Apollo Computer, and later the UNIX wars (ca 1987-1996) between AT&T and Sun on one side, and Digital Equipment, HP, and IBM on the other. Apollo Computer, Inc. ... The Unix wars were the struggles between vendors of the Unix computer operating system in the late 1980s and early 1990s to set the standard for Unix henceforth. ... This article describes the present AT&T Inc. ... Digital Equipment Corporation was a pioneering company in the American computer industry. ... ... Big Blue redirects here. ...

During the development of the ONC protocol (called SunRPC at the time), only Apollo's Network Computing System (NCS) offered comparable functionality. Two competing groups developed over fundamental differences in the two remote procedure call systems. Arguments focussed on the method for data-encoding — ONC's External Data Representation (XDR) always rendered integers in big-endian order, even if both peers of the connection had little-endian machine-architectures, whereas NCS's method attempted to avoid byte-swap whenever two peers shared a common endianness in their machine-architectures. An industry-group called the Network Computing Forum formed (March 1987) in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to reconcile the two network-computing environments. Network computing system. ... eXternal Data Representation (XDR) is an implementation of the presentation layer in the OSI model. ... When integers or any other data are represented with multiple bytes, there is no unique way of ordering of those bytes in memory or in a transmission over some medium, and so the order is subject to arbitrary convention. ... When integers or any other data are represented with multiple bytes, there is no unique way of ordering of those bytes in memory or in a transmission over some medium, and so the order is subject to arbitrary convention. ... In computing, endianness is the ordering used to represent some kind of data as a sequence of smaller units. ...

Later, Sun and AT&T announced that the two firms would jointly develop AT&T's next version of UNIX: System V Release 4. This caused many of AT&T's other licensees of UNIX System V to become concerned that this would put Sun in an advantaged position, and it ultimately led to Digital Equipment, HP, IBM, and others forming the Open Software Foundation (OSF) in 1988. Ironically, Sun and AT&T had previously competed over Sun's NFS versus AT&T's Remote File System (RFS), and the quick adoption of NFS over RFS by Digital Equipment, HP, IBM, and many other computer vendors tipped the majority of users in favor of NFS. The Open Software Foundation (OSF) was an organization founded in 1988 to create an open standard for an implementation of the Unix operating system. ... The Remote File System (RFS) was a file access protocol developed by AT&T in the 1980s. ...

OSF solicited the proposals for various technologies, including the remote procedure call (RPC) system and the remote file access protocol. In the end, proposals for these two requirements, called respectively, the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), and the Distributed File System (DFS) won over Sun's proposed ONC and NFS. DCE derived from a suite of technologies, including NCS and Kerberos. DFS used DCE as the RPC and derived from AFS. Remote procedure call (RPC) is a protocol that allows a computer program running on one computer to cause a subroutine on another computer to be executed without the programmer explicitly coding the details for this interaction. ... The Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) is a software system developed in the early 1990s by a consortium that included Apollo Computer (later part of Hewlett-Packard), IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, and others. ... The DCE Distributed File System (DCE/DFS) is the remote file access protocol used with the Distributed Computing Environment. ... Kerberos is a computer network authentication protocol which allows individuals communicating over an insecure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner. ...

1990s

Sun Microsystems and the Internet Society (ISOC) reached an agreement to cede "change control" of ONC RPC so that ISOC's engineering-standards body, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), could publish standards documents (RFCs) documenting the ONC RPC protocols and could extend ONC RPC. OSF attempted to make DCE RPC an IETF standard, but ultimately proved unwilling to give up change-control. Later, the IETF chose to extend ONC RPC by adding a new authentication flavor, RPCSEC_GSS, in order to meet IETF's requirements that protocol standards have adequate security. The Internet Society or ISOC is an international organization that promotes Internet use and access. ... The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is charged with developing and promoting Internet standards. ...

Later, Sun and ISOC reached a similar agreement to give ISOC change control over NFS, although writing the contract carefully to exclude NFS version 2 and version 3. Instead, ISOC gained the right to add new versions to the NFS protocol, which resulted in IETF specifying NFS version 4 in 2003.

2000s

By the 21st century, neither DFS nor AFS had achieved any major commercial success as compared to CIFS or NFS. IBM, which had previously acquired the primary commercial vendor of DFS and AFS, Transarc, announced it would cease selling or supporting DFS or AFS, and donated the source code of the AFS client to the free software community. The OpenAFS project lives on. An editor has expressed a concern that the subject of the article does not satisfy the notability guideline or one of the following guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. ... // The free software community is also called the open source community or the Linux community. ... OpenAFS is an open source implementation of the Andrew file system (AFS). ...

See also

In computing, a shared resource is a device or piece of information on a computer that is accessed from another computer via a network, as if it were a local resource. ... TCP Wrapper is a host-based network ACL system written by Dr. Wietse Venema, used to filter otherwise (yet) unauthenticated network access to Internet protocol services run on (Unix-like) operating systems such as Linux or BSD. Allowing host or subnetwork IP adresses, names and/or ident query replys, to... Kerberos is a computer network authentication protocol, which allows individuals communicating over an insecure network to prove their identity to one another in a secure manner. ... The Network Information Service or NIS is Sun Microsystems Yellow Pages (YP) client-server directory service protocol for distributing system configuration data such as user and host names between computers on a computer network. ... AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Computer for computer networking. ... The Remote File System (RFS) was a file access protocol developed by AT&T in the 1980s. ... Samba logo. ... Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-level network protocol mainly applied to shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. ... The Andrew file system (AFS) is a distributed networked file system developed by Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Andrew Project. ... SSHFS (Secure SHell FileSystem) is a file system for Linux capable of operating on files on a remote computer using just a secure shell login on the remote computer. ... // For the Microsoft distributed file system (DFS), see Distributed File System (Microsoft). ...

External links

Categories: Network file systems | Network-related software | Unix software | Application layer protocols A how-to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ... StarOffice is Sun Microsystems commercial office suite software package. ... OpenOffice. ... JDS screenshot. ... Java refers to a number of computer software products and specifications from Sun Microsystems (the Javaâ„¢ technology) that together provide a system for developing and deploying cross-platform applications. ... Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by James Gosling and colleagues at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. ... A Java Virtual Machine (JVM), originally developed by Sun Microsystems, is a virtual machine that executes Java bytecode. ... The Java platform is the name for a computing environment, or platform, from Sun Microsystems which can run applications developed using the Java programming language and set of development tools. ... This page may meet Wikipediaâ€™s criteria for speedy deletion. ... Sun SPARCstation 1+ pizzabox, 25mhz RISC processor, early 1990s SPARCstation was the name given to a series of SPARC-based computer workstations developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... The Sun Ultra series is the name given to a series of UltraSPARC-based computer workstations and servers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... The Sun Enterprise is a series of servers by Sun Microsystems that already is or is fast nearing obsolescence. ... The Sun Blade series was a computer workstation line developed and sold by Sun Microsystems from 2000 to 2006. ... The Sun Fire series is the name given to a a series of UltraSPARC-based computer servers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems. ... Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename Niagara , is a multithreading, multicore CPU. Designed to lower the energy consumption of server computers, the CPU uses typically 72 W of power at 1. ... Sun UltraSPARC II Microprocessor Sun UltraSPARC T1 (Niagara 8 Core) SPARC (Scalable Processor ARChitecture) is a pure big-endian RISC microprocessor instruction set architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ... The JavaStation is a Network Computer (NC), that has been developed by Sun Microsystems between 1996 and 2000. ... The Sun Ray was introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1999 as a thin-client solution aimed at corporate environments. ... Sun Certified Professional (SCP) is a professional certification program by Sun Microsystems. ...

Contents

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