[OpenAFS] OpenAFS for Windows IFS Status

[Ben Howell]

Will that "release" on/about Sep. 15 be a alpha/beta/dev release, or an 
actual public release?

  - Ben

On 9/3/11 1:44 PM, Jeffrey Altman wrote:
> On 9/3/2011 11:01 AM, Lars Schimmer wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> Due to the outstanding Windows 7 bug annoying us very deeply, we search
>> for a solution to this problem.
> The solution to the Windows 7 bug is the OpenAFS for Windows client with
> native installable file system driver which will be released as the
> 1.7.x development series.
>
> Now that 1.6.0 has finally been released work will begin on creating the
> openafs-devel-1_7_x branch from which the IFS windows client will be
> issued.  The first official release from OpenAFS.org will be 1.7.1.  I
> am hoping that we will be able to release on or around the 15th of Sept.
>
> The IFS client will bring some significant changes from the SMB client.
>
> No Loopback Adapter
> -------------------
>
> Now that a native IFS driver (afsredir.sys / afsredirlib.sys) is used,
> there is no need to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.  Sites that
> have experienced problems due to the 10.254.254.253 address registration
> on multiple machines will be able to remove or disable the adapter once
> and for all.
>
> No Delays After a Resume
> ------------------------
>
> Windows Vista and 7 shutdown the network stack when the machine is
> suspended.  This causes problems when the machine resumes because the
> network path to \\AFS is not immediately accessible.  This is no longer
> an issue with the IFS driver.
>
> No "AFS" server name collisions
> -------------------------------
>
> It is now possible to add a machine named "AFS" to domain or subnet
> without breaking the OpenAFS for Windows client.
>
> Performance Improvements
> ------------------------
>
> The transaction rate and throughput performance of the SMB client was
> limited by the "SMB client<->  loopback<->  SMB server" performance:
> 54MB/sec maximum on 32-bit systems and 63MB/sec on 64-bit systems.  The
> IFS client is capable of throughput rates to/from cache up to 800MB/sec
> depending on the system I/O bus and backing store capabilities.
>
> Symlinks to UNC Paths permit a cohesive name space
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> It has always been possible to create reparse points in MS DFS that
> refer to \\AFS paths.  It is now possible to create symlinks in AFS
> that refer to arbitrary UNC paths.  This permits the construction of
> a cohesive name space that spans across both AFS and DFS storage.
>
> Reparse Points
> --------------
>
> AFS Mount Points and Symlinks are exported by the file system
> as Windows reparse points with a Microsoft assigned tag value.
> Tools that are OpenAFS reparse point aware can create, query
> and remove AFS symlinks and mount points without requiring knowledge
> of AFS pioctls.  The explorer shell will be able to delete a mount
> point or symlink as part of a recursive directory tree removal without
> crossing into the reparse point target.
>
> AFS Volumes are Windows File Systems
> ------------------------------------
>
> Each AFS volume is represented in the Windows kernel as a distinct
> file system.  This will permit AFS volume quotas to viewed as
> Windows file system quotas.
>
>
> Authentication Groups
> ---------------------
>
> AFS Tokens are associated with Windows user names in the SMB client.
> With the IFS client, tokens are associated with Authentication Groups.
> By default, an authentication group is allocated for each User SID
> and Logon Session Id combination.  In addition, it is possible for
> processes to create additional Authentication Groups.  Each thread in
> a process can select an Authentication Group within the process as the
> active Authentication Group.  This will permit AFS aware IIS modules
> to associate AFS credentials with a particular incoming request.  An
> IIS implementation of File Drawers will be the preferred implementation
> once it is developed.
>
> One of the significant benefits of Authentication Groups within the
> Windows environment is that Windows services (svchost.exe, csrss.exe,
> etc.) which impersonate user processes will seamlessly gain access
> to the user's AFS credentials for the lifetime of the impersonation.
>
>
> Explorer Shell Integration
> --------------------------
>
> The AFS Explorer Shell integration will gain support for symlink
> and mount point overlay icons, tool tips, and Property dialog pages
> that replace many of the existing AFS Context Menu dialogs.
>
>
> Jeffrey Altman
>