Re: Multiple Primary Namespace Servers

[miller@SOL.CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller)]

    Date: Thu, 3 Jan 91  15:47:21 EST
    From: delaney@xn.ll.mit.edu (John R. Delaney)

You aren't doing anything wrong. Long arguments with customer support and
careful examination of the namespace code caused me to conclude the
following:

1) multiple primary namespace servers for a particular namespace aren't
supported, whatever the documentation or namespace editor may make you want
to believe. The code just isn't there to keep >1 namespace server consistant
with each-other, nor correctly handle >1 disk copy of the namespace. (if
they only have 1 copy the "other" primary server doesn't lock it, so the two
collide).

2) Secondary servers aren't as useful as you might want them to be.
Basically, during boot, a machine will use a secondary server for some
things, but they have to time out on the primary first. Other things (like
(SCT:RELOAD-LOGICAL-PATHNAMES-TRANSLATION-FILES), it will cheerfully force
you to wait until the primary is available, since it needs to get to
sys:site;

2) can only really be solved by moving more things into the namespace, and
the current implementation is probably already over-burdened (statice,
anyone?). solving 1) requires a small matter of programming, and not an
insignificant one IMHO.
----
 Brad Miller		U. Rochester Comp Sci Dept.
 miller@cs.rochester.edu {...allegra!rochester!miller}