[Charlug] AFS

[Jason Edgecombe]

Jason Edgecombe wrote:
> Lawrence Teo wrote:
>> Hi Jason,
>>
>> I've also been hanging around on the list but have yet to be able to 
>> attend a meeting.. I do recognize your name from the UNCCLUG list. :)
>>
>> I have two questions about AFS which I would really appreciate if you 
>> could answer..
>>
>> 1. How is the Arla project related to the OpenAFS project?
>>
>> 2. My company's a multi-platform shop.. we run Ubuntu, OpenBSD, Macs, 
>> Windows XP and Vista. Can OpenAFS be used to set up a file server 
>> that all these systems can access? If yes, what kind of setup is 
>> required on the client side?
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Lawrence
> Hi Lawrence,
>
> I recognize you from the UNCCLUG list as well.
>
> 1. AFS is a network filesystem protocol. Both OpenAFS and Arla are 
> implementations of the AFS protocol. Arla was started because some 
> folks didn't like the IBM Public license under which OpenAFS is 
> licensed. I think Arla is under a BSD/MIT-like license. As I recall 
> Arla has a working client, but I don't know if they have a working 
> fileserver. Arla, OpenAFS, and IBM/Transarc AFS are interoperable . 
> OpenAFS the heir apparent of IBM/Trancsarc AFS and so it tends to be 
> the protocol standard setters as well.
>
> 2. Absolutely! In my opinion, OpenAFS' support for different platforms 
> is second only to NFS and SMB/CIFS. You need an AFS client, 
> OpenAFS/Arla, installed on each client machine. There is an AFS client 
> all of the platforms that you mention. Arla has better BSD support 
> than OpenAFS, but all other platforms have good OpenAFS clients, BSD 
> servers run well, though. Check on the Openafs-info list or 
> irc://freenode/openafs about BSD support.
>
> AFS is a global filesystem, you can setup a client on your existing 
> machines to browse other AFS cells/site without needing to set up a 
> fileserver. Obviously, you will need your own fileserver to host your 
> own files, but you can try out the client without a fileserver. When 
> you set up your own cell, you have to add the IP addresses of your 
> cell/DB server(s) to a config file on each client or add some special 
> DNS entries. Before you set up a  new cell and fileserver, you will 
> need to set up Kerberos 5.
>
> Since you are on the UNCCLUG list, are you a College of Engineering 
> student or have a Mosaic account? If so, you can set up an AFS client 
> and save files into your Mosaic AFS account.
>
> I would be happy to answer any other questions that you or anyone else 
> has about AFS. Also, there are lots of helpful people on the IRC 
> channel irc://freenode/openafs and the openafs-info mailing list at 
> https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-info (self-signed 
> SSL cert)
Sorry, I forgot to mention an important note. For windows, be sure to 
use the 1.5.x version of the client. 1.4.x is the recommended version 
for non-windows platforms.

That said, we welcome beta testers of 1.5 on non-windows platforms.

Jason