Andrew File System (AFS)

[Loren Buchanan]

Here is my response document in regards to my AFS questions from last 
week.  With the exception of some minor editing to remove some noise
here are the responses:


From: zebr360 at ut-emx.uucp (Jerry Heyman)

In article <337 at ra.nrl-cmf.UUCP> buck at caligula.nrl.navy.mil (Loren Buchanan) writes:
>We are in the processes of planning for the installation of a large file
>server that will be be running AFS, and was wondering about using AFS on
>the Cray, SGI, Sun, VAX, IBM, Stardent, and other computers.  
>
>Are there particular headaches that can be avoided by knowing of past mistakes?

Make sure that you do backups on a periodic basis.  Even though AFS does its
own nightly backups, one would hope that you would still do your own - for
disaster recovery purposes.

>Is there public domain versions of the software available, or should we tell 
>management to come up with the money to buy it.  

If you're asking about PD versions of AFS, the answer is that you need to get
your management to purchase the necessary software from Transarc (they're
located in Pittsburgh).  Since AFS runs in the client-server model, you might
want to consider which machines to make servers and which machines to make
clients...  There is a different cost for which software you use (if I remember
correctly).

>
>Are there third party vendors, and if so who are they?

3rd party vendors of what?  Realize that AFS 3.1 (I believe) is the current
level and that the AFS filesystem technology is to be included in OSF's DCE
offering, meaning that LOTS of companies will be selling it then...

>
>Any parting shots...er...comments?
>

We run with it daily.  Using IBM RISC System/6000's as both clients and 
servers, and IBM RT's as clients...

jerry
-- 
Jerry Heyman                  by day: IBM PSP, AIX Development
zebr360 at emx.utexas.edu        by nite: Adjunct Lecturer at St. Edward's Univ.

*All comments are my own and should not be construed to represent any one else


From: Mark Verber <verber at pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu>

I don't believe anyone has ported AFS to the Cray yet... and I doubt
that it is running on Stardents.  The company that is selling AFS now
is called Transarc.  [Transarc was founded and is run by Al Spector --
the creator of AFS, Camalot, and many other goodies from CMU.]  You
can get phone, address, email from the whois server on nic.ddn.mil:
my info from them is at work right now.

I don't know if CMU is distributed sources to AFS anymore.  There
might be an exclusive agreement between them and Transarc.  If you
have the money (and it is a lot) I would pay money to Transarc for the
support.  There are some things that really need to be improved in AFS
that Transarc is working on (like being able to restore a single file
rather than a whole volume.)

--mark


Thanks for the information.  Daniel S. Nydick of the Pittsburgh 
Supercomputing Center is working on AFS for Unicos Crays.  I do not
know if this port will be made available to others.

B Cing U

Buck

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