Unix on a VAXCluster ??

[Kenneth Almquist]

Chris Torek asks:
	What exactly does using VMS cluster hardware buy you over using
	4BSD networking, aside from `well we already have it so we want
	to use it' [valid, but to me irrelevant]?

The cluster hardware allows you to share files between systems, which
the straight 4BSD networking sortware doesn't permit.  You can share
files using software packages such as NFS, but one of the disadvantages
of these packages is that every time you take down a machine, the files
on the disks which are physically connected to that machine become
inaccessible.  The VAXCluster hardware solves this problem by allowing
any machine to communicate with any disk.  The flip side of the coin is
that if the VAXCluster dies then all your systems become unusable, but
the VAXCluster hardware is pretty reliable.
				Kenneth Almquist
				ka at june.cs.washington.edu