[OpenAFS] OpenAFS for Windows IFS Status

[Christof Hanke]

Thanks a million, Jeffrey.
Installed it already on my laptop.
It survived network-outage, has no loopback-adapter anymore and
I get about /Mbytes/sec on a 100MBit/s line.
That's great!

Only oddity I have seen so far, is that a token survives a reboot,=20
whereas the Krb-Ticket (using KfW) does not. But that might be because=20
of a wrong configuration.

Many thanks again,

Christof

Am 16.09.2011 06:55, schrieb Jeffrey Altman:
> The 1.7.1 release for Windows has been posted to the openafs.org web
> site.  A formal release announcement will be issued morning EDT.
>
> Jeffrey Altman
>
>
> On 9/6/2011 9:53 PM, Jeffrey Altman wrote:
>> The release will be issued from openafs.org.
>>
>> The release will be an official release from the openafs-devel-1_7_x b=
ranch.
>>
>> I'm not going to qualify it as beta any more than Apple qualifies a ne=
w
>> major release as beta.  The code has been heavily tested and implement=
s
>> just about everything an application can ask of a Windows file system.
>> It is better integrated with Windows than all of the previous SMB base=
d
>> clients.  Will it work perfectly for all applications ever developed?
>> Probably not.  There are bound to be some use cases that the code has
>> simply never been exposed to.  Will the code work better than the SMB
>> based client for most users?  Absolutely, especially if they are on
>> Windows 7.   Are there still things that can be done to improve it?
>> Definitely.
>>
>> I will discuss the future as part of the release announcement.
>>
>> Jeffrey Altman
>>
>>
>>
>> On 9/6/2011 1:14 PM, Ben Howell wrote:
>>> 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 se=
arch
>>>>> 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 S=
ept.
>>>>
>>>> The IFS client will bring some significant changes from the SMB clie=
nt.
>>>>
>>>> No Loopback Adapter
>>>> -------------------
>>>>
>>>> Now that a native IFS driver (afsredir.sys / afsredirlib.sys) is use=
d,
>>>> there is no need to install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.  Sites t=
hat
>>>> have experienced problems due to the 10.254.254.253 address registra=
tion
>>>> on multiple machines will be able to remove or disable the adapter o=
nce
>>>> 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 th=
e
>>>> network path to \\AFS is not immediately accessible.  This is no lon=
ger
>>>> 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 wa=
s
>>>> limited by the "SMB client<->   loopback<->   SMB server" performanc=
e:
>>>> 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 witho=
ut
>>>> 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 Group=
s.
>>>> 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 i=
n
>>>> a process can select an Authentication Group within the process as t=
he
>>>> 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 implementat=
ion
>>>> 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
>>>>
>>
>

--=20
The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition to be born
in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where
it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.
   -- G'Quan
Let's update the servers!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Christof Hanke                 		e-mail hanke@rzg.mpg.de
RZG (Rechenzentrum Garching)		phone +49-89-3299-1041
Computing Center of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) and the
Institut f=C3=BCr Plasmaphysik (IPP)