[OpenAFS] software for windows start out of OpenAFS Filespace?

[Rodney M Dyer]

At 07:27 AM 2/17/2007, Lars Schimmer wrote:
>Has anyone started a list (in a wiki or for only his own usage) of 
>software for windows (workstations) which runs out of OpenAFS filespace?

Throughout our history here at the University of North Carolina at 
Charlotte, the College of Engineering's Mosaic Computing group has had 
quite a bit of success running applications out of AFS.  Most applications 
will run out of AFS without problems, but there are quite a number of 
issues that doing so will cause.

Rewind and let us look at history...

1.  DOS applications could run almost anywhere because all of the 
application was basically in one place.

2.  Windows 3.x applications began the problem of...
      a.  An application folder.
      b.  Application INI settings in "c:\windows\file.ini"
      c.  Application DLLs in "c:\windows\systemxx"

3.  Windows 9x and WinNT 4.0, Win2k...
      a.  An application folder.
      b.  Application INI settings in "c:\windows\file.ini"
      c.  Application registry settings in both the global and user registries.
      d.  Application DLLs in "c:\windows\systemxx"
      e.  User data stored in a profile space.

4.  WinXP and beyond...
      a.  An application folder.
      b.  Application INI settings in "c:\windows\file.ini" (now deprecated)
      c.  Application registry settings in both the global and user registries.
      d.  Application DLLs in "c:\windows\systemxx"
      e.  User data stored in a profile space.
      f.  User data stored in "Application Data" which might be redirected.
      g.  Applications are installed and managed by the Windows Installer 
database services.  These run as both the user and SYSTEM (guess 
what...  The SYSTEM user doesn't have user token).

In short Microsoft, due to their own negligence and incompetence, allowed 
this "mess" to happen.  Then they tried to clean it up later, only making a 
complex problem even worse.  Finally, we are here with Vista and the UAC 
environment.  That's why any Microsoft Windows client total cost of 
ownership is so high.  Recent numbers I've seen are around 5000 (American 
dollars) per client.

The problem was made worse in the 90's when most vendors started ignoring 
the network shares as an install and run resource.  You had vendor thoughts 
like "oh, users have tons of space on their C: drives now".  So where in 
the past you could upgrade one or two share (mount) points and suddenly all 
the users would be upgraded to the new software versions virtually "over 
night", now you've got N clients, at N locations, in N different 
configurations to manage.  It's complete and total madness.  I could 
continue to drone on and on about this messy problem but it would come to 
nothing.

Recently we've given up on installing most applications in AFS.  It is just 
too complex to do so.  We are now using AFS as an application distribution 
resource.  By in large, most applications are installed and run 
locally.  The applications start faster, but take up more space on the 
users hard drive.  Mostly this is due to the fact that most software 
vendors really have poor software architects and programmers.  The nice 
applications that can live in AFS, basically don't use the registry at all, 
install few DLLs, and the whole application lives in AFS, just like the DOS 
days.

Incoherent ramblings aside, take it from someone who has worked in the 
trenches.  DON'T do it.  You are setting yourself up for more pain than 
gain by trying to screw an application into running from a network (on 
Windows).  With 'nix environments it is virtually painless.

Rodney

Rodney M. Dyer
Operations and Systems (Specialist)
Mosaic Computing Group
William States Lee College of Engineering
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Email: rmdyer@uncc.edu
Web: http://www.coe.uncc.edu/~rmdyer
Phone: (704)687-3518
Help Desk Line: (704)687-3150
FAX: (704)687-2352
Office:  Cameron Hall, Room 232