Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Systems and Workgroups
Types of System
Chapter 146
Types of System
Single-User versus Multiuser
For the purposes of this document, we’ll be distinguishing between two
ways for people to use a given system:
•asasingle-user workstation, usually on someone’s desk and used
mainly or exclusively by that person;
• as a multiuser system, often kept in a computer room, with which
individual users communicate by means of a terminal, or
terminal-emulator on a desktop system connected by a LAN or
modem.
The power of stand-alone systems to handle more and more users (as
well as many other network functions) has grown dramatically.
For this reason, if you plan to set up a standalone machine as a
multiuser system, refer to the information regarding On-Line
Addition and Replacement in the Configuring HP-UX for Peripherals
book. This material can help you to plan your system set-up so that
in the event of certain hardware failure, you can replace the
hardware with little impact to the users.
Server versus Client
Broadly speaking, a server supplies some kind of computing resource
(applications, files, compute cycles, printing and spooling...) and a client
uses that resource.
In this document, we’ll use the terms server and client most commonly,
although not exclusively, in the context of NFS (Networked File System)
services, and we’ll make that context clear wherever necessary by using
the terms NFS server and NFS client.
Under NFS, and in most other contexts, the same system can function as
both a server and a client. For example, a system may import one file
system (NFS-mounting it from another system’s disks) while exporting
another (allowing other systems to NFS-mount the file system from its
own disks). As an importer of one or more file systems, the system acts as
an NFS client; as an exporter, it acts as a an NFS server.