Problem by Installing a PVMCluster (rsh Problem ?) (fwd)

[Robert G. Brown]

On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, Bob Glamm wrote:

> You need to put a list of machines and your usernames on those machines
> in your ~/.rhosts file.  For example, to run on naomi, birch, poplar,
> and pine, and your username on those machines is "wollny", this is
> what your .rhosts file should look like:
> 
> naomi wollny
> birch wollny
> poplar wollny
> pine wollny
> 
> Otherwise rsh will ask pvm for a password every time (and since pvmd 
> can't supply it, you get the message you see above).
> 
> (BTW - I *think* that's the format for a .rhosts.  Someone correct
> me if I'm wrong).

It's a bit safer to use, e.g. -- 

naomi                   wollny
naomi.whatever.edu      wollny

However, the main reason I'm writing is to note that you have it
backwards.  To run FROM naomi TO all the other hosts in the system you
would put

naomi      wollny

in the ~/.rhosts file on all the OTHER hosts.  You don't need one for
naomi on naomi, or one for birch to run on naomi from birch.  .rhosts
contains "trusted machines" in conjuction with "trusted usernames".

BTW, if you are in a single domain, it is usually better/easier to
enable rsh (or better yet, ssh) via netgroup or wildcard enabled entries
in the /etc/hosts.* files -- that way internal rsh's (or ssh's) are
"automatically" permitted in a trusted internal domain.  Use caution, of
course -- I'm assuming that the system is competently managed, and
.rhosts or hosts.equiv access is awfully easy to abuse if nobody is
watching.

   rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu