[Charlug] Self-reintroduction

[Lawrence Teo]

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)
>
> Sincerely,
> Jason

Jason,

Thank you for your detailed response -- that's very helpful! I *was* a 
College of IT student who used to have a Mosaic account back in the old 
days when COIT (now COCI) was using College of Engineering's systems. :) 
So I have some experience using AFS but not administering it.

The reason why AFS appeals to me over SMB and NFS is because it 
preserves the UNIX permissions, whereas SMB does not. And AFS seems to 
be Window-friendly, whereas NFS is less so. (But I may be wrong, I have 
limited experience with networked filesystems..)

Thanks,
Lawrence