NCSA: IRIX 6.X AFS Client Installation Guide

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NCSA IRIX 6.x AFS Client Installation Guide

This document is for installing the AFS client on machines running IRIX 6.X in the NCSA environment. Please read through these instructions once before installing AFS so you are familiar with some of the setup options. The commands shown below will need to be executed as "root". If there are any questions or problems with this document, or an installation, then please contact afs@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Loading client files onto the local disk
Loading AFS into the kernel
Setting up the cache
Setting up AFS binary paths
Starting the cache manager
Enabling AFS to start on boot
Other considerations

AFS binaries
Setting up /usr/ncsa
/etc/passwd entries
visual login

Notes for IRIX 6.4
Notes for IRIX 6.5

Loading client files onto the local disk

The first step in installing a client is to load AFS binaries onto the local disk - namely, the afsd binary and files needed to incorporate AFS using a dynamic kernel loader (ml). These files must reside on the local disk of every client machine.

Create the following directories for the local files:

  # mkdir -p /usr/vice/etc/sgiload
  # chmod 755 /usr/vice /usr/vice/etc
  # chmod 700 /usr/vice/etc/sgiload

Now

  # cd /usr/vice/etc

We need to determine what architecture type the machine is. If you do a

  # hinv -t cpu

it should tell you whether it is an R4000, R5000, R8000, or R10000 machine.

Now in the /usr/vice/etc directory, ftp to a machine where you can access AFS from. Once the ftp session is established then go to one of the following directories depending on the version of IRIX you are using:

For IRIX 6.2
```
  ftp> cd /afs/ncsa/sgi_62
```
For IRIX 6.3
```
  ftp> cd /afs/ncsa/sgi_63
```
For IRIX 6.4
```
  ftp> cd /afs/ncsa/sgi_64
```
For IRIX 6.5
Irix 6.5 currently cannot be dynamically loaded into the kernel, please take a look at the notes for IRIX 6.5.

Once you are in one of the above directories then

  ftp> cd usr/afsws/root.client/usr/vice/etc

Warning: Make sure you do not cd to /usr/afsws/root.client/usr/vice/etc above, (the / is in front of the usr) or else you could get the wrong versions of the binaries.

Now get the following files from this directory (make sure you are doing a binary transfer):

afsd
afsauthlib.so
afskauthlib.so

Then cd to the sgiload directory on both the local and remote machines to get the next set of files.

  ftp> cd sgiload

  ftp> lcd sgiload

If the machine you are installing AFS onto is a single processor machine, then get the following files:
- libafs.SP.Rxxxx*
If the machine you are installing AFS onto is a multi-processor machine, then get the following files:
- libafs.MP.Rxxxx*
Note: IRIX 6.4 uses the same library for single and multi processor machines so you need to get the following:
- libafs*

Get the afs startup script:

  ftp> cd /afs/ncsa/service/etc/rc 

  ftp> get sgi_afs.rc afs.rc

Now we need to get NCSA specific AFS configuration files. On the local machine go back to directory /usr/vice/etc.

  ftp> lcd ..

On the remote machine

  ftp> cd /afs/ncsa/service/etc

Then get the following files:

ThisCell
CellServDB

This is all the local files you are going to need to retrieve for the AFS client.

  ftp> quit

Permissions need to be set to the following:

   # chmod 644 /usr/vice/etc/CellServDB
   # chmod 644 /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell
   # chmod 755 /usr/vice/etc/afsd
   # chmod 755 /usr/vice/etc/afsauthlib.so
   # chmod 755 /usr/vice/etc/afskauthlib.so
   # chmod 744 /usr/vice/etc/sgiload/afs.rc
   # chmod 644 /usr/vice/etc/sgiload/lib*

Loading AFS into the kernel

In order for AFS to come up at system startup, two configuration flags need to be set:

  # /sbin/chkconfig -f afsclient on
  # /sbin/chkconfig -f afsml on

While we are at it, turn the visuallogin flag off since the visual login utility is not compatible with AFS:

  # /sbin/chkconfig visuallogin off

The afsclient flag tells the system to bring up AFS during system startup. The afsml flag tells the system that the appropriate libafs file should be loaded into the kernel with the ml utility as part of the AFS initialization process. You can verify that the appropriate file for your system has been put in place by executing the following commands:

  # /sbin/chkconfig afsclient off
  # /usr/vice/etc/sgiload/afs.rc start
  # /sbin/ml|grep afs

If the libafs file was properly loaded into the kernel you will see output similar to the following when the above /bin/ml command is executed:

   Id: 4015 File system: filename /usr/vice/etc/sgiload/libafs.SP.R5000.o

At this point, any other libafs files in /usr/vice/etc/sgiload other than the one referenced by the /bin/ml command can be removed. Just make sure you don't remove the one referenced by /bin/ml.

Now turn the afsclient flag back on:

  # /sbin/chkconfig afsclient on

Note that turning the afsclient flag off in the sequence above results in the libafs file getting loaded into the kernel, but stops short of starting the afsclient on the machine. Be sure to turn the afsclient flag back on after you have verified that the mod load was successful. Otherwise, the afs client will not be started during a system reboot.

Setting up the cache

Every AFS client must have a cache in which to store local copies of files brought over from file server machines. The cache manager is set up on local disk. When setting up the local cache you need to figure out how much cache do I need, and how much local disk space do I have for the cache? A typical cache size for a normal user is 100MB.

Note:
The afs cache can now reside on an efs or xfs file system. Also, do NOT run the File System Reorganizer (fsr) on the /usr/vice/cache directory. Running fsr on these partitions can cause AFS corruption or data loss.

First create the cache directory and set the correct permissions:

  # mkdir /usr/vice/cache
  # chmod 700 /usr/vice/cache

Now create the cache configuration file:

  # echo "/afs:/usr/vice/cache:90000" > /usr/vice/etc/cacheinfo
  # chmod 644 /usr/vice/etc/cacheinfo

The above is the standard mount location, /afs, and the standard cache location, /usr/vice/cache. It also is setting a cache size of 90MB. This can be increased or decreased as needed. The best method for setting up the cache area is to create a separate efs partition on a local disk and to mount it at /usr/vice/cache.

If you are having problems then contact us at afs@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Setting up AFS binary paths

Now you need to set up the path to access all of the afs binaries.

  # ln -s /afs/ncsa/sgi_6(os level)/usr/afsws /usr/afsws

Replace (os level) with the operating system level of the machine. This can be determined by using the uname -r command. (ie. /afs/ncsa/sgi_62/usr/afsws for IRIX 6.2).

Starting the cache manager

We are now going to start the cache manager which will initialize the cache files in /usr/vice/cache and mount /afs.

First create the mount point for AFS:

  # mkdir /afs
  # chmod 777 /afs

Now make sure the cache manager mode bits are set correctly and invoke the cache manager:

  # chmod 755 /usr/vice/etc/afsd
  # /usr/vice/etc/afsd -verbose

You should now see it creating all the cache files. This may take awhile depending on the size of your cache.

Enabling AFS to start on boot

Put the standard IRIX startup file in the /etc/init.d directory as afs. You can copy this from the following location:

  # cp /afs/ncsa/service/etc/rc/sgi_afs.rc /etc/init.d/afs

Then set the permissions:

  # chmod 755 /etc/init.d/afs

Now set the following links for proper startup and shutdown:

  # ln -s /etc/init.d/afs /etc/rc2.d/S35afs
  # ln -s /etc/init.d/afs /etc/rc0.d/K35afs

Other considerations

At this point the AFS client should be running and it should start up and shut down properly on reboot. There are a few more items that may need to be configured to have access to other resources in the NCSA environment.

AFS binaries

If you want access to the AFS binaries then make sure that /usr/afsws/bin and /usr/afsws/lib are in your PATH environment variable.

Setting up /usr/ncsa

In order to have access to other binaries we make available in AFS create the following links:

  # ln -s /afs/ncsa/packages/.link/IRIX_6.2 /usr/ncsa
  # ln -s /afs/ncsa/packages/.link/IRIX_5.2 /usr/ncsa_5.2

(There are many binaries under the IRIX_5.2 subdirectory which will run under IRX 6.X, but have not yet been ported to the IRIX_6.2 subdirectory. Most of these will work fine under IRIX 6.X. Make sure that /usr/ncsa/bin, /usr/ncsa/lib, /usr/ncsa_5.2/bin, and /usr/ncsa_5.2/lib are in your path environment variables and that /usr/ncsa/bin and /usr/ncsa/lib appear first. This ensures that if a package has been ported to the IRIX_6.2 subdirectory, it will be found there rather than under IRIX_5.2.

/etc/passwd entries

If you need to add user entries to the local /etc/passwd file then you can find most users in the following file:

/afs/ncsa/common/etc/passwd

Grep for the user in the above file and copy the line to the local passwd file. If your system uses the /etc/shadow file then you will need to run /sbin/pwconv after adding the users to the /etc/passwd file.

Visual Login

The visual login utility is not compatible with AFS. Make sure you turn it off with the following command:

  # /sbin/chkconfig visuallogin off

Notes for IRIX 6.4

In order to run AFS 3.4a, you MUST be running the February 1997 version of the IRIX 6.4 operating system for Origin, Onyx2, and OCTANE. The container of the distribution CD shows the following designation below the words "All Rights Reserved": 812-0616-002, 02/97.

To determine whether you are running the correct version of IRIX 6.4, issue the following command:

   # uname -R

The output must show the following: 6.4 S2MP+OCTANE

Notes for IRIX 6.5

The IRIX 6.5 AFS client is currently a beta client. The beta release of AFS for the sgi_65 platform does not support dynamic loading of AFS into the kernel. So use Transarc's installation instructions for building the AFS client into the kernel.

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