[OpenAFS] Small suggestion for RH spec file? (keeping CellServDB up-to-date on *nix clients)

[Paul Blackburn]

Derrick J Brashear wrote:

>On Mon, 30 Dec 2002, Paul Blackburn wrote:
>
>  
>
>>>>>For machines which aren't "actively maintained" it's the best option we
>>>>>have. 
>>>>>
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>Well, no. See that's the whole point of using a crontab process to 
>>>>synchronise a local CellServDB.
>>>>It's automagical robot-tastical.
>>>>It just works.
>>>>   
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>But, whose cell do I nominate you to have contact with? 
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>You don't. Why should you?
>>If I am looking after our site's /afs/@cell/common/CellServDB, then I am 
>>capable of defining the cell
>>a client belongs to (eg our local site cell).
>>    
>>
>
>And what if that file doesn't exist, or what if it isn't actively
>maintained?
>
That's easy. If that file does not exist. Nothing happens.
If the "master" file disappears then the local copy is the "last best 
good version".
If it is not actively maintained, then how well maintained is the cell?
Are the cell admins looking after the cell or not?.

>>>Basically, I can't
>>>ensure you'll put a copy in whatever canonical location in your own, or
>>>update it if it's there.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>You don't and I would not expect you to.
>>    
>>
>
>Then what am I misunderstanding? If you expect OpenAFS to include a cron
>job, we have to know where to pull from. If you don't, then you're
>proposing letting people solve an issue themselves and not addressed my
>comment that "they don't"
>  
>



In the simplest case, eg just install OpenAFS client on an Internet 
connected machine
that does not belong to any particular cell (so point it at 
grand.central.org). It could be OK
to just pull the "global" CellServDB.Internet from grand central and put 
it on that client.
Eg you might use "wget" to pull a URL referenced CellServDB.Internet 
from grand.central.
"wget" would be better than a static file included in the RPM because the
"global" CellServDB.Internet file may have changed between the time the RPM
was created and the time the RPM is installed.

In this case, you could even install a crontab job to keep the local 
CellServDB
in sync with a "master" copy on /afs/@cell/common/CellServDB.
(I think the install of any crontab job needs the agreement of the 
client machine administrator.)

This would also work in other cells where they have the /afs/@cell/ 
symbolic link
and their own site /afs/@cell/common/CellServDB file.

For non-Internet AFS cells then the CellServDB could still be "wget" via
an Intranet URL (or file:/// URL). For such non-Internet cells, you could
use the same /afs/@cell/common/CellServDB reference in a crontab job
to keep clients up-to-date.

Clearly for this to work, cell admins would need to maintain their
site "master" /afs/@cell/common/CellServDB file. It's not so hard to do
and provides a reference point for cell admins to do remote cell mounts
(in "root.othercells"  for a faster "ls /afs" but that's another issue).
--
cheers
paul                                        http://acm.org/~mpb