[OpenAFS] Does AFS need a partition?

[br@linuxfriendly.de]

On 11 Jan 2003, Derek Atkins wrote:

> Hi,
>
> "Jason C. Leach" <jleach@ocis.net> writes:
>
> > Does AFS need a partition mounted at some particular point, or
> > can I just specify a directory on some other partition to be AFS?
>
> Are you talking about the AFS client or AFS server?  For the AFS
> client there is no requirement that the cache live on its own
> partition.  The only requirements for the AFS Client Cache are that it
> live on an ext2/3 partition and that that partition never fill up.
>
> For a server, files must be stored under directories named /vicepX
> (where X == a, b, c, etc).  Each /vicepX should be on a different
> partition, but there is no requirement that /vicepX be the actual
> mountpoint.

It is especially a problem if you host ro-volumes on your host.
This is because you have no control what the rw-volume admin puts into his
volumes and when he does a vos relaese.
So your root partition might get out of space!!

Imho there`s a simple solution:
Linux Loopback Device
Just make a File ( size you want to reserve for afs vicepx) with dd and
mount it as /vicepX then Format as ext2 or 3 an dbe happy.

I know people (and some locations) even use a crypto-loopback for this purpose.

It`s all about your concepts.
For example:
Some people put all the space into 2 or 3 lvm volumes and then let grow
the fs on demand with e2resize (or similiar).
Special Shares/Mounts/Partiotions can then be created using loopback
device.

...
Benjamin