[AFS3-std] Re: rxgk-afs tokens for ptservers, etc.

[Jeffrey Hutzelman]

On Wed, 2013-02-13 at 14:31 -0600, Andrew Deason wrote:

> > > No, butc is not a component that runs on fileservers.  It's the tape
> > > controller, and runs in places that have tape drives, or whatever
> > > passes for them.  Volume dumps are obtained from fileservers via the
> > > volume dump mechanism.  To my recollection, butc is also actually
> > > not really a server.  It gets run by an admin, with admin
> > > credentials.

> I believe it is a server; isn't it what handles the TC_* RPCs? It's been
> a long time since I ran a buserver-based backup thing, but I thought the
> "port offsets" you specify point you to a specific machine and port,
> which is where a butc process is running. I thought the only reason it's
> not run from e.g. bosserver is that it needs to be in the foreground,
> since for some configurations an operator needs to be there to hit
> 'enter' when changing a tape or something.

It's a server, but it's not a fileserver component; you run it where you
happen to have a tape drive (for example, in your office).  It also only
supports rxnull, so it's irrelevant for the purpose of this thread.



> I recognize that is an operational question and not really a protocol
> spec, but it seems like the place for offering guidance to implementors
> and operators.

I agree.