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(14) Installing AFS clients

Installing AFS clients

The installers and source code for all supported platforms are at OpenAFS.org. Unfortunately the documentation available largely dates from the IBM/Transarc AFS 3.6 release and is out of date in many respects.

Common to all platforms are the need to configure the following items for each client

Default cell (traditionally /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell; must be set)
CellServDB file (may be optional on some platforms now)
AFS mount point (traditionally /afs)
Client cache details (size and location, may be left at default values)
Optional client daemon parameters to improve performance

Traditional Unix platforms

The traditional Unix platforms (Solaris, Irix, AIX etc.) use compressed tar files for the installation mechanism. When unpacked, they create the following directories: bin, etc, include, lib - to be installing via copying or linking below /usr/afsws. Also root.client, root.server which contain the client modules and configuration (/usr/vice) and server software (/usr/afs). The various daemons and kernel modules are loaded through startup scripts in the standard ways (/etc/init.d/afs). Default cell, client cache manager configuration and CellServDB files must be edited after installation.

Linux

For Linux, the software was broken into modules and repackaged as RPM files. Which RPMs are needed depends on whether you want to install client, server, or both, and whether you need to be able to build from source. The naming scheme is generally openafs-susbsystem-vers-distrib-arch.rpm

Mac OS-X

The installer for Mac OS 10.1 and later is a native OS-X package format which installs with no special information required from the user (admin priviledges are required). The software is installed into /var/db/openafs (cache and configuration) and /Library/OpenAFS/Tools (all user tools and libraries). The user tools in /Library/OpenAFS/Tools/bin are symlinked to /usr/bin, but the administrator tools in /Library/OpenAFS/Tools/etc are not in the $PATH by default.

Microsoft Windows

The windows (NT-based, Win2k and newer) installer is a single .exe file which prompts for user input about which components to install. In general only the client is needed. The optional extended documentation is the same as available at OpenAFS.org and is out of date. The client software is installed into C:\Program Files\OpenAFS, along with many additions to the registry. An uninstaller in also provided. Command line tools are also made available in the %PATH% after installation. A client tool is provided to create Windows drive mappings to AFS pathnames, e.g.


 F: -> \afs
 G: -> \afs\northstar.dartmouth.edu\ufac\afsusername

www.dartmouth.edu/comp/support/library/research/unix/files/afs/clients.html has local notes on installing AFS on various platforms (also out of date in many places).

installing.src last modified Jun 20, 2005

Introduction

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