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Introduction to Sharing Software
This chapter introduces software sharing and the components that make up
a software sharing environment. This chapter includes the following topics:
• Software sharing concepts, components, and benefits (Section 1.1)
• Describing the software sharing environment (Section 1.2)
• Identifying your CD-ROM drive’s device name (Section 1.3)
1.1 Overview
A server is a computer system that provides another computer system with
required or useful information or resources. The system that uses the
information or resources from the server is called a client. A given server
can serve one or many clients. Computers in a network can share disk space,
lists of names, software kits, processing services, and other entities.
For sharing software using Remote Installation Services (RIS) and Dataless
Management Services (DMS), the server supplies software, software kits,
and disk space for clients to use.
The RIS and DMS services let you share software in the following ways:
• RIS sets up a system where one or more installable software kits are
stored for installation across a local area network (LAN). With RIS, one
computer, the RIS server, stores the kit in a special area (called the RIS
area) on its disk. Other computers, called RIS clients, can install the
software onto their own disks by accessing it across the network instead
of from locally mounted distribution media (such as CD-ROM).
• DMS sets up a system where you can save disk space by sharing the
actual operating system software between computers. Without DMS,
each computer has a copy of its operating system software on its own
disk. With DMS, one computer, acting as a DMS server, stores the
software in a special area (called the DMS area) on its disk. Other
computers, called DMS clients, run by accessing the software across the
local area network (LAN) instead of from their local disks.
_____________________ Note _____________________
DMS is not supported in a clusters environment.
Introduction to Sharing Software 1–1