[OpenAFS] Newbie question - AFS for windows - looking for AFS files locally

[Andrew Richardson]

Hi there guys -

I am trying to assess whether AFS is a suitable product for a situation I have:

My situation is as follows:
I have large files which reside on a windows system, but I want them to be 
visible in the unix world.
I intend to create an AFS server on the windows side, and have the file 
accessible to a unix AFS client (I am assuming that this is possible!).

My problem:
These large files are used in a windows executable which needs speedy 
read/write access.

I have read in the release notes for AFS for windows that file read/write 
access is very slow (100 times slower) for a file stored in the AFS system 
when compared to a local disk file in windows.

My question is, since I am using windows as the server, aren't these 
files  stored "locally" in some form? - is there some way that I can view 
these files "outside" of the afs system and bypass the slow afs client?  is 
there some way I can go "behind the scenes" to use these files with the 
native windows file access?

When AFS is up and running, I can see the afs drive in windows explorer, 
and have successfully created a test document and saved it.

This file is visible on the afs drive, but I am thinking that I should be 
able to find the same document somewhere on my C drive, am I correct? (I 
have tried but find it!)

So basically will this solution work:
My intended solution is that the AFS file is purely there for the unix 
system to be able to see it, but when reading the file in windows I can 
bypass the AFS system (which is slow) and use the local file instead?

Can anyone help me or point me in the right direction?

I could not really find the answer to this question in the documents, sorry 
if it has already been answered elsewhere!

thanks
AndrewR









Andrew Richardson
Database Administrator
Schlumberger Information Solutions
Houston , Texas
Tel. 713-689-1603
Fax. 713 689 2341