[OpenAFS-announce] OpenAFS 1.5.26 released. Production Version for Windows. Please test Demand Attach File Server.

[Jeffrey Altman]

1.5.26 is the recommended production ready release of OpenAFS for
Microsoft Windows users.  It supports all Microsoft Windows operating
systems from Windows 2000 through Windows Vista including both 32-bit
and 64-bit architectures.  The 1.5.26 release continues the recent
efforts at optimizing the performance of the Windows client and
improving its scalability.

For UNIX, Linux, and MacOS X the recommend production ready release of
OpenAFS continues to be 1.4.4 (although pre-release versions of 1.4.5
are available for testing.)  The 1.5.26 Windows client is fully
compatible with all AFS server versions.

Please visit http://www.openafs.org/windows.html for up to date
information on the status of the OpenAFS for Windows client.

Significant changes since 1.5.25 for all platforms:

 * several Demand Attach File Server bugs fixed

 * reduced the number of dns lookups performed by libadmin

The Demand Attach File Server is a compile time option that produces a
file server that supports several new and important features:

  * an enhanced volume management library that supports:
    . lock-less I/O
    . on-demand attachment of volumes
    . parallel shutdown of the file server
    . on-line salvaging of volumes
    . automatic detachment of inactive volumes

 * a new salvageserver daemon which can salvage volumes on-demand

 * a modified bos and bosserver
    . fileserver state saving and restoration
      - host state
      - callback state

With the DAFS, shutdown and startup of the file server is significantly
faster.  Instead of salvaging a partition at a time, individual volumes
are salvaged in the background while volumes that do not need salvaging
are served by the fileserver to clients.  Volumes are attached on-demand
and detached when no longer required.  This reduces the number of
volumes that may require salvaging upon a restart.

The DAFS requires significant testing before it can be put into a
production release.  If your organization is willing to assist the
gatekeepers with testing this functionality, please contact us at
gatekeepers@openafs.org.


For Microsoft Windows:

Since 1.5.25 there have been no new features.  This release only
fixes reported bugs one of which is considered critical.  Please
upgrade to this release.

 * CRITICAL: Attempts to rename a file or directory to a new
   name that differs only by case (e.g., "FOO" -> "foo") will
   result in premature termination of the AFS Client Service.

 * An uninitialized variable in the loopback adapter detection
   routines can randomly result in failures to communicate with
   the AFS Cache Manager.  The symptoms include "nbtstat -n" reporting
   that the client service published the NETBIOS name "%MACHINE%-AFS"
   instead of "AFS"; or commands such as "fs.exe", "symlink.exe",
   "tokens.exe", etc. being unable to communicate with the cache
   manager and pioctl debugging reports that connection attempts
   are being made to \\%MACHINE%-AFS\ALL instead of \\AFS\ALL.

 * Attempts to delete a symlink or mount point with the cmd.exe
   "DEL" command would leave the cache data in a corrupted state.
   The target of the symlink or mount point would be unreadable
   until that AFSCache file is deleted.

 * The "fs uuid" command does not require "AFS Client Administrator"
   group membership to display the current UUID.

 * "fs examine" now reports data associated with a symlink or
    mount point and not the target.

 * MIT Kerberos for Windows 3.2.2
   The new recommended version of Kerberos for Windows to use with
   OpenAFS is version 3.2.2.  KFW can be downloaded from MIT or
   Secure Endpoints.  64-bit Windows installers for KFW are only
   available from Secure Endpoints.
      http://www.secure-endpoints.com/index.html#kfw

 * Known issues in the Windows client:
    . Beta versions of the Network Identity Manager AFS plug-in must
      be uninstalled prior to the installation of OpenAFS 1.5.25
    . Windows Vista does not support the WinHelp file format used
      by afscreds.exe and afs_control.exe.  A download is available
      from Microsoft.
    . On Windows Vista, afscreds.exe is not User Account Control (UAC)
      compatible and must be "Run as Administrator" in order to
      start/stop the AFS client service.

For Solaris 10:

 * Remove use of private ILL network data structures permitting
   compilation of OpenAFS for update 4.

For Linux:

 * Support the 2.6.23 kernel

For Darwin:

 * Many modifications in support of MacOS X Leopard.
   (Use 1.4.5 instead.)

Please send reports of successful deployments to
openafs-info@openafs.org and report problems to openafs-bugs@openafs.org.

Jeffrey Altman
for the OpenAFS Gatekeepers