If you are experienced with network administration (NT and UNIX) have good
knowledge of ClearCase and TAS, hopefully you can shed some light on our
situation.
I would like to briefly describe our particuar ClearCase environment. We
have been told that our setup will not work and that it is not supported by
Rational. As a general rule for them to say this to their customers, I would
agree and it makes sense if you have NT VOBs, but I would like more of an
explanation as to why it should not work, even a few test cases to try a
bring the problems to the surface. We have been using this setup for a few
weeks now and have not experienced any problems.
I would like to have a better understanding as to how ClearCase (or
ClearCase and TAS) works (in respect to the issues regarding our setup) and
from that understanding, be able to create test cases to show that problems
do exist in our environment. This is the purpose of this message. Attached
should be a powerpoint document showing our setup.
We have ClearCase 3.2.1 with the latest patches installed on our UNIX
machines. Our UNIX machines are running Solaris 2.6. ALL VOBs reside on 2
UNIX machines called vob1 and vob2. vob1 is the license server and the
registry server. vob2 is the backup registry server. vob2 is also a UNIX
view server. The group staff is what users must be in to use the VOBs. All
VOBs are in msdostext mode.
We have ClearCase 3.2.1 with the latest patches installed on our NT
machines. We have NT 4.0 SP5 and 4.0 SP6 machines. Users on NT use NT views
that reside on their NT machines. All NT views are in msdostext mode.
We have TAS 5.4.1 on vob1 and vob2 exporting the vobstorage directory
structure.
Sounds okay so far, right? Now here's the issue, we have 2 NT account
domains that need to access the same VOBs.
* There is no trust between the two NT domains
* Any given NT box is in one domain _OR_ the other domain. At NO time
does any user have the ability to choose which domain to log into, on any
given NT box.
* NT accounts in either domain have an equivalent account on UNIX (for
NT account mobrien, there is a UNIX account mobrien) (In fact, the same
account names exist in both domains and on UNIX)
* TAS exports to a resource domain that both account domains can
access
* Both of the domains have their own domain level clearcase_albd
account, clearcase group, and a staff group that users belong to
* The clearcase_albd NT account has administrative privileges on the
NT boxes
* All machines, UNIX/NT, are on the same network and subnet (ping,
telnet, TAS web browser all work from any given machine)
* TAS (on the two VOB machines) is set up to have only one file
service to export the volume (vobstorage structure) to the network.
* TAS is setup to use proxy authentication. The PDC from each of the
NT account domains is listed in the proxy list for the file service (I've
tested this an TAS does know the domain the machine you are on and uses the
correct PDC)
* TAS has one username map, that is to map the NT clearcase_albd
account to an ordinary UNIX user account that can access the VOBs.
Possible problems:
* Users in one domain may try to start a view from the other domain on
their box. Have not tried this, but with different albd accounts, different
clearcase and staff groups trying to access each other, I would expect
problems if this is attempted.
* Wink-ins: I think this may be okay, Although I haven't tested it
yet. If a compile is done in a view in domain ONE, and someone has compiled
the same thing in a view in domain TWO, I believe the VOB server will copy
the d.o. from the view in domain TWO, back into the VOB, then wink it into
the view in domain ONE.
Again, I would like to have a better understanding as to how ClearCase ( or
ClearCase and TAS) works (in respect to the issues regarding our setup) and
if possible, from that understanding, be able to create test cases or
situations to show that problems do exist in our environment.
All I have received from consultants and support folks on these tools is
that it won't work, but no one could really explain why it won't work beyond
stating that it has something to do with the two domains and permissions. If
you can provide any explanation, or test cases, this would be greatly
appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
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