AMASS Overview
Local and
Network
Access
Local Access
Because AMASS is implemented at the virtual file system (VFS) layer of the server’s operating system, it is transparent to other software programs on the server. Consequently, AMASS as well as the file system mounted under AMASS can be accessed both locally and through a network. Both paths are discussed below.
AMASS appears as a local, single, logical device with a single file system encompassing the entire capacity of the library or volume set. Because AMASS is totally transparent to local application level software, clients can access the file system using the same system calls that they use for standard UNIX file systems.
Network Access | The system call transparency provided by AMASS’ VFS |
| implementation allows the UNIX server running AMASS to be |
| a server to an entire network of homogeneous or heterogeneous |
| systems. The networking software runs without modification on |
| top of AMASS so the server can run whatever networking |
| communication protocols and their utilities are available, |
| including |
| DECnet, or HYPERchannel. |
| Typical protocols are discussed below. |
Network File | NFS is a facility for sharing files, resident on other machines, in |
System (NFS) | a heterogeneous environment of machines, operating systems, |
| and networks. NFS has become the de facto standard for |
| distributed file systems and is available on a broad range of |
| operating systems including UNIX, VMS, and MVS. |
Accessing the Storage Network |