From:   "Jeff Merkey" <jmerkey@timpanogas.com>
To:     <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>,
Subject: FENRIS Final Release for NwFs 1.4.X
Date:   Fri, 6 Aug 1999 16:47:47 -0600


Linux Kernel Community,

We appreciate the patience of the Linux community with this project.  We 
are happy to announce that we are now feature complete on the FENRIS 
NwFs Source Base and all of the final regression tests have been 
completed in all areas for the FENRIS Core.  We will post release 1.4.6 
officially next week at ftp site 207.109.151.240.  This release contains 
Volume Suballocation, RapidFATs, Extended Directory Support for OS2 and 
MAC, full Mirroring, Re-Mirroring, Read and Write Hotfixing, NetWare 
Directory Services Support (Databases), Striping, and Fault Tolerant 
Failover for mirror/duplex failures. 

This release still runs on Linux Stock Kernel 2.0.37, however, it is a 
feature complete NetWare file system.  We have also completed the ports 
to the Linux 2.2/2.3 VFS Architecture.  The 2.2 version is in system 
testing with (langus@timpanogas.com) for the next several weeks.  Anyone 
needing a status on when stuff will be posted should contact Larry.  He 
runs the release schedule (we will serve no wine before It's time).  
When these regression tests have run to completion, we will post this 
code base.  We have deliberately withheld the utilities that create and 
manage NetWare file systems on Linux.  This has been intentional.  We 
have numerous licensees of FENRIS for projects other than Linux who have 
come to us with issues about our release of these utilities to the 
public.  Most of the folks who license from us use the core file system 
library for SAN switches, disk-cloning products, etc.  These licensees 
have voiced their concern that were we to open source the utilities that 
create and manage Netware file systems, that this would harm their 
businesses because it would allow other folks to get access to the 
technology without going through us for a license.  TRG has NO 
contractural prohibition that would prevent us from open sourcing these 
tools.  As such, we have decided that we will open source the tools, but 
will do so when the FENRIS project has been fully completed and 
integrated into the Linux core.  This means that if Linus Torvalds and 
Alan Cox choose to roll NwFs into the Linux Core proper, then we will 
Open Source the tools for everyone to use.  If they do not roll NwFs 
into the Linux Core, then we will provide everyone access to binary 
versions of the tools, but will not publish the source code. 

The performance numbers for FENRIS on Linux are **POOR** in comparison 
to this IDENTICAL code base running under Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 
2000.  Both run circles around Linux, even on Linux 2.3 by a factor of 
about 55%.  We are attempting to figure out why.  Ingo's Page Cache does 
really help get the performance up to the same levels as Windows NT in 
some scenarios, however, when the buffer cache get's heavily loaded, 
Linux seems to get into some serious trouble vs. NT and Netware.  We are 
attempting to figure out why.  The performance of FENRIS on Linux vs. 
Native Netware from our tests show that Netware is about 240% faster 
than Linux running this identical code base.  We created a VSWITCH 
plug-in (Novell's equivalent of an IFS) of FENRIS on Netware to compare 
our identical code base running unde Netware 4.x vs. Linux.  Netware 
**KICKS** Linux's butt.  Logic analysis with a bus analyzer shows that 
Linus's heavy use of trap gates for system calls and TLB flushing during 
process context switches is a serious factor.  Both NT and Netware use 
page level protection, however, these two OS's perform some 
optimizations that are absent in Linux.  There are also some severe 
parallelism issues with the Linux code base proper and the way shared 
synchronization is done (or rather isn't done) that reduces the 
parallelsim of Linux and the file systems. 

We will be locking down final code for 2.0.37 next week.  2.2/2.3 will 
post in about three to four weeks.  We may post earlier versions if 
Larry Angus gives us a green light on these code bases. 

We are also pleased to let everyone know our next Open Source Linux 
project in Novell's Netware Directory Services on Linux as an Open 
Source Intiative.  We are about 60% complete on an Open Source NDS for 
Linux.

We want to thank Alan Cox, Linus(x), Al Viro, Steve Spicer, and all the 
wonderul Linux folks who really helped out with this project and helped 
us get it tested and out the door.  Special thanks to Ray Noorda, 
founder and former CEO of Novell who funded this Open Source project for 
the benefit of the Linux Community then asked us to Open Source the File 
System portion for all to use and enjoy. 

This isn't the last time you'll hear from us, stay tuned, NDS is next 
for Linux from us.  We will post an announcement next week during the 
Linux show.

Very Truly Yours,

Jeff Merkey and Darren Major
TRG, Inc.