[OpenAFS] Questions, vol 1.

[Derek Atkins]

Stephen Bosch <posting@vodacomm.ca> writes:

> 1. When AFS mounts volumes in a physical partition, what happens to
> the partition itself? I don't see any "files" that correspond in size
> to the data stored on the partition. Can I make, say, a partition
> image and still have the data, or do I have to use AFS native tools to
> do all the backups?

It's BEST if you can use the AFS tools, but a disk dump of your
partition should be sufficient in a worst-case scenario...

> Here's an example:
> sfbosch@wopr vicepa $ ls -li
> total 36
>    65537 drwx------    5 root     root         4096 Jan 20 20:47 AFSIDat
>    32769 drwx------    2 root     root         4096 Jan 19 21:11 Lock
>       12 -rw-------    1 root     root           76 Jan 19 21:12
> V0536870912.vol
>       13 -rw-------    1 root     root           76 Jan 20 16:57
> V0536870915.vol
>       14 -rw-------    1 root     root           76 Jan 20 20:16
> V0536870918.vol
>       11 drwx------    2 root     root        16384 Jan 18 23:00 lost+found
> sfbosch@wopr vicepa $
>
> There is data in those volumes (certainly more than 76 blocks
> worth). I presume the volume files are just metadata?

Yes, the .vol files are just volume headers.  The data is stored
separately.

> 2. Can other processes write files to the partition, or is that a bad
> idea (not that I'm planning to, but the answer will help me understand
> better)?

Yes and no..  Can something else write into the partition?  Yes.
Will an AFS client see it?  No.

> 3. Must the partition be called /vicepx(x), or can I name it whatever
> I like?

Yes, it must be named /vicep<x> for <x> == a, b, c, etc...

> Cheers,
>
> -Stephen-

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord@MIT.EDU                        PGP key available