[OpenAFS] Run file server without client?

[Steve Simmons]

On Mar 25, 2013, at 4:18 PM, Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu> wrote:

> david l goodrich <dlg@dsrw.org> writes:
>=20
>> Running your servers without the client is (at the last time I =
checked)
>> recommended.
>=20
> I don't know that I would go so far as to say recommended.  Not having =
the
> client installed does ensure that you don't have any accidental AFS
> dependencies, but as long as you know what you're doing and don't
> introduce any, having the AFS client running on the AFS servers is =
useful
> for exactly the same reason that having it running on any other server =
is
> useful.

Without meaning to insult the average system administrator, installing =
AFS client on the servers is a recipe for creeping disaster. It works =
fine for a year, then a new guy takes over who doesn't really understand =
AFS, and that person adds more AFS dependencies, lather, rinse, repeat. =
One day he reboots the file servers and they don't come up.

As one who has had to repair the disaster that ensued on such a cycle, =
no amount of work savings is worth the loss of user access to files that =
ensues. Not to mention the time and effort required to a) get the server =
back up and b) find and remove all the dependencies six generations of =
sysadmins introduced.=