[OpenAFS] Windows Client

[Rodney M Dyer]

Jeffrey,

At 05:56 PM 12/10/2003, Jeffrey Hartwigsen wrote:
>The client does not start when Windows starts,

Check the afsd_init.log in "c:\winnt\afsd_init.log".  See if there are any 
errors.

>  I'm guessing from some unknown network error.

True.  The MS Loopback adapter can help prevent those types of issues.  See...

http://grand.central.org/twiki/bin/view/AFSLore/WindowsLoopBackAdapter

Be careful with the adapter config.  At our site we had to modify the 
default settings because of some application licensing issues.

>Then, of course, if a restricted user logs on, they cannot start the 
>service manually.

True.

>  Admins can manually start the service with no problem, and then it works 
> fine until the next reboot, which as we all know with windows is usually 
> within 10 minutes. Does anyone have an Idea why the client may not be starting?

Not without more data.

>  If not, is there a way to enable unprivileged users to start the service 
> manually? (Already tried windows security template to no avail.)

If you have some programming experience you can create a service that 
accepts input from a global named pipe.  Sending a message through the pipe 
from an unprivileged user would cause such service to start the afs 
service.  That's the hard way.

An easier way would be to setup a system startup script (done through 
gpedit).  The workstation will execute the system startup script on 
reboot.  Inside the script, create a FOR loop that tries to start the AFS 
service for a few times, then wait for it to start.  Assuming it starts, 
wait for it to die, then try to start it again.  Not a great solution.

I believe you may be able to modify the security privileges of the services 
to allow unprivileged users to stop and restart services.  Check the 
following...

http://www.secadministrator.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=23963

The AFS service under Windows can be unstable at times.  At our site, we've 
got watchdog scripts that kick-off through the task scheduler that check to 
make sure the service is running.

Check my website for an example...

Rodney M. Dyer
Windows Systems Programmer
Mosaic Computing Group
William States Lee College of Engineering
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Email: rmdyer@uncc.edu
Web: http://www.coe.uncc.edu/~rmdyer
Phone (704)687-3518
Help Desk Line (704)687-3150
FAX (704)687-2352
Office  267 Smith Building