Pathworks / Advanced Server / Samba ?

[Arvid Elstrodt]

Hi,

Maybe not directly a VAMP-issue, but nonetheless one that I'm sure other people have already dealt with, so here it goes ...

I'm still working on replacing my Linux box completely.
One of the functions of my current Linux box is serving files via Samba to a mixture of Windows and Linux clients.

From what I've read about the current possibilities for this with openVMS I understand the following:

- Advanced Server is the successor of PathWorks,
- Samba for OpenVMS is being developed but currently not suited for "production".

I have access to both PathWorks and Advanced Server binaries, which, from the documentation, will fit my AS1200 server running OpenVMS 8.2.
However, I fear that I need additional licenses for those, as I do not see them listed in the Hobbyist PAK's.

My questions are:
- Do I indeed need additional licenses for PathWorks / Advanced Server and do they cost money ?
- What would be the best way to go for me ?

I need to serve some 100Gb of files of various types, and they need to be available via Windows network shares.

Any help is greatly appreciated !

[issinoho]

Advanced Server & Pathworks (I'll refer to both as Pathworks for simplicity) are both licensable, usually on a concurrent per seat basis, i.e. if you buy 10 licences then 10 clients may access the server at any one time. The licensing is (or was) unpleasantly complex and - for hobbyists at least - fairly expensive. Neither license is (or ever has been) available under the hobbyist scheme (something to do with code portions owened by other companies I think) so you will need to pay for this I'm afraid.

Samba (on VMS) does work but in my experience can be a fiddle to set up, doesn't play awfully well with Windows security (especially domains), is difficult to manage, etc, etc. It is however completely free and very well supported in the open source community under its more common Linux variant.

Horses for courses then. Pathworks is a dream to use, works out the box and plays well with Windows. But it costs. Samba is none of these but is free and will work if you put the hours in.

Perhaps someone can comment on (a) Cost of Pathworks licences, and (b) Samba scalability, performance and interoperability with Windows domains.