Test iridium, the new shell server

Users who have shell accounts at MV Communications are invited to test the new shell server, iridium, for a brief period before it replaces the current shell server. The new server has been in internal use for some months and will be put into place on December 13, 1999. Before we make the switchover, we hope that some of you will try the new server. Read on to find how how and why.

Why a new shell server?

The main reason for moving to a new shell server is simply to run a more recent operating system than the current one is running while at the same time moving away from the hardware platform being used. The level of the OS (the UNIX Operating System) is less important to shell users than are the utilities available, and so we are still running a fairly old version of BSD/OS on the current system. However, there are a few things that only an OS upgrade can accomplish. Some significant things:

Availability of the latest Y2K attention by the OS vendor;
Availability of some software such as the "ssh" tools that are difficult to support without this upgrade;
Improvements in NFS security and performance;

Getting to the new shell server

For those of you who are telnetting into the shell server, instead of telnetting to mv.mv.com, telnet to iridium.mv.net instead.

For those who are dialing into the shell server directly, instead of typing what you normally type at the "Command:" prompt (usually "mv" but alternatively "granite" or "dover" or "pboro" or "concord" or "jade" or "gold"), type "mvnew" instead.

Using the new shell server

As of 22:00 November 26, 1999, all shell logins on mv.mv.com have been duplicated on iridium.mv.net . This means that you can log in to iridium with the same username/password combination that you used on mv.mv.com as of that date. (If you change your password on either system, the change will not be made on the other.)

Your home directory is NFS mounted from mv.mv.com -- that is, when you access your files on iridium you will still be accessing the disk on mv.mv.com . Because of this, DO NOT do anything that will simultaneously update a file from both mv.mv.com and iridium.mv.net .

When you send mail from your test account on iridium, your From: address will be something@iridium.mv.net instead of something@mv.mv.com . (However, if your From: address is currently mapped to a domain name, that mapping will still occur.) Mail to your mv.mv.com mail address will still be delivered to the current shell system (mv.mv.com) and NOT to iridium. (See below for a little more about mail addresses and forwarding.) Note that your incoming mailbox on iridium is not shared with your incoming mailbox on mv.mv.com -- they are separate incoming mailboxes.

You may find minor differences between the two systems due to the fact that some things simply change between versions of software. These things should be minor.

Your logins on iridium will not be charged to your account during this period.

Please send any problem reports or other feedback to mem@mv.mv.com .

When the test ends

We intend to close this test phase and move all shell accounts to iridium on Dec 13. When we make the move, all account passwords will again be copied from mv.mv.com to iridium, and any mail files on iridium will be merged into the mail from mv.mv.com. At this point we will also begin charging shell logins on iridium to your account.

If you access some remote service from your shell account, and that remote service depends on you coming from a particular IP address (in particular, mv.mv.com's 192.80.84.1 IP address), you will need to make sure that it's OK for you to come in from the new IP address of iridium.mv.net (199.125.85.17). This is true whether or not you participate in the test, since the shell system will be changed on December 13.

Mail forwarding, if you must

As stated above, your incoming mailbox on iridium is separate from your incoming mailbox on mv.mv.com; and unless your From: address is mapped to a domain name, your email address is temporarily different as well (being user@iridium.mv.net instead of user@mv.mv.com).

Mail that is sent to you at your current shell address (whether that is user@mv.mv.com or user@other-domain-name mapped to your mv.mv.com account) will still go to the current mv.mv.com system. It's probably best if you don't forward mail from mv.mv.com to iridium.mv.net, but if you must, here are a couple of notes about that:

Remember that your .forward file is the exact same file on both systems (because your home directory is shared between mv.mv.com and iridium.mv.net). So if you change this file on mv.mv.com it will also change on iridium! Don't change it to anything that will create a forwarding loop. Using the complete domain name will work, e.g. if you put into your .forward file:

user@iridium.mv.net

then your mail will be forwarded to iridium.mv.net .

If you use procmail, remember that your .procmailrc file is also shared between systems! Don't do anything that will create mail loops.