[OpenAFS] Installation and set up guide for Scientific Linux-7.5

[Benjamin Kaduk]

On Thu, Nov 15, 2018 at 03:32:03PM -0500, Adam Jensen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to explore OpenAFS. Does anyone know of an up-to-date
> installation and set up guide for SL-7.5? The software seems to be
> available:
> 
> [hanzer@moria ~]$ yum list openafs\*
> Available Packages
> openafs-1.6-sl.x86_64                   1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-authlibs.x86_64          1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-authlibs-devel.x86_64    1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-client.x86_64            1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-compat.x86_64            1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-devel.x86_64             1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-kernel-source.x86_64     1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-kpasswd.x86_64           1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-krb5.x86_64              1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-module-tools.x86_64      1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-plumbing-tools.x86_64    1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> openafs-1.6-sl-server.x86_64            1.6.23-289.sl7    sl-security
> 
> But I haven't been able to find an accessible set of instructions that
> don't require an extensive investment in research, study and translation
> to a modern environment. Perhaps if those of you with some experience of
> the technology could guide me through an installation and basic
> configuration then my notes could be shaped into a guide.

I think that http://docs.openafs.org/QuickStartUnix/index.html is the most
current "official" documentation; the source is in git at (e.g.)
http://git.openafs.org/?p=openafs.git;a=tree;f=doc/xml/QuickStartUnix;h=9e4fbd3f23b81696d98b1fcb68519364fe365d3f;hb=HEAD
if you were interested in supplying patches.  (Contributions in other
forms, including what you describe below would also be welcome, of course!)

> I have an SL-7.5 server with LVM partitions /vicep{a..f} that are
> currently 100GB each but there is plenty of storage space available to
> expand the capacity of these partitions. I have an SL-7.5 laptop that
> can act as a client. I also have two Ubuntu-18.04 machines that could be
> clients, and I have a FreeBSD machine but OpenAFS doesn't seem to be
> available in its ports system.

net/openafs exists, but is on a somewhat older version of openafs that
doesn't build on the most current versions of FreeBSD.  1.8.2 should build
okay from source, though, IIRC.

> Given this basis, it might be possible to experiment with several
> desirable scenarios and record a straightforward set of installation,
> configuration, and administration instructions for each that would
> enable people to assess the technology in a tractable, cost-effective way.
> 
> If this seems reasonable, I would love to get started.

That seems reasonable to me.  It might be best to work on the initial
versions in the wiki (e.g., under https://wiki.openafs.org/admin/index/).

Thanks for the offer!

-Ben