Multiple Primary Namespace Servers

[delaney@xn.ll.mit.edu (John R. Delaney)]

All right, I give up! If it was an IQ test, I flunked. Now would
somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong...

I wanted to establish TWO primary namespace servers in our network of
Symbolics (and TI) LISP machines. The idea is to provide namespace
service at boot-up time to any non-namespace-server-machine even when
one of the primary servers was down. [Actually, each namespace server
will be on a separate subnet and the connection between the subnets may
be broken from time to time. We don't want the machines on one subnet to
be unable to boot without the inter-subnet connection being up].

We began with one primary namespace server (call it H) and one secondary
namespace server (call it A). I verified that with H disconnected from
our network, no other machine would boot correctly even if A was
connected. Then I changed the NAMESPACE object so that A was also a
primary server. Just to be thorough, I made new worlds for all the
machines so they would boot "knowing" A to be a primary namespace
server. Sure enough, the NETI:*NAMESPACE* object has both H and A on its
property list a primary namespace servers. Now, I can disconnect H from
our network and still boot up any machine.  Unfortunately, with the
exception of A, the newly booted machines claim that they have been
unable to contact any namespace server. If I boot up any machine when H
and A are both connected to the network and do
NETI:SHOW-NAMESPACE-SERVER-ACCESS-PATHS, all but A say H is the only
namespace server. Only A thinks it is a namespace server.

So how do I set things up so the !@#$%^& Symbolics machines will use A
or H as a primary namespace server, especially at boot time, depending
on which it can find up at the critical moment?

John