AFS servers and filespace structure

From Syscore

AFS is a distributed network filesystem in use at UMBC. For more information on AFS, including more documentation than you can shake a stick at, please visit the [OpenAFS Website].

AFS has been in use at UMBC since 1999.

Contents

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Servers

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Database

AFS Database Servers are the core glue that holds AFS together. The database services include:

  • volserver
    Provides the current location and volume IDs of AFS volumes to clients.
  • ptserver
    Serves AFS "protection" data to fileservers and clients. Protection data includes are user ID/username mappings as well as group memberships.
  • buserver
    Servers AFS backup database information.
  • kaserver
    We forward RX-ka style requests (used by klog, and other AFS utilities) to our Kerberos server with the krb-forwarder process.
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Servers

The machines that provide the AFS database services at UMBC are three Netra X1-style systems:

  • db1.afs.umbc.edu
  • db2.afs.umbc.edu
  • db3.afs.umbc.edu
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Infrastructure

Our AFS "infrastructure" file services include the base infrastructure for /afs, software distributions, and configuration information. All volumes included on the ifs fileservers are replicated to the others for reliability and uptime. Currently, there are two ifs fileservers:

  • ifs1.afs.umbc.edu
  • ifs2.afs.umbc.edu
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User File Services

Our "User" file services hold all of our AFS Home Directories. There are currently 5 AFS home directory servers:

  • hfs1.afs.umbc.edu
  • hfs2.afs.umbc.edu
  • hfs10.afs.umbc.edu
  • hfs11.afs.umbc.edu
  • hfs12.afs.umbc.edu

These servers are Sun V20z Dual Opteron systems running Solaris 10 x86. They are connected to our storage fabric with Qlogic dual-ported HBAs, utilizing Sun's built-in multipathed storage capabilities. Each server is assigned a little over a half terabyte of storage, split between 4 /vice partitions. The storage is mirrored utilizing Solaris' Volume Manager between two units.


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Filespace

This is an overview of how we have organized the filespace in our AFS cell. General layout and certain key directories are highlighted below.

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/afs/umbc.edu/

This is the root of our AFS cell (its volume name is root.cell)

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admin/

A bunch of administrative stuff

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afsadmin/

A bunch of scripts used to administer various things in our AFS cell

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afs-agus/

Old files for AFS account creation

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template/

The new-account template, including .cshrc files and such

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bussys/

Files used by our business systems group, particularly their cfengine tree

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cfengine/

Syscore's cfengine tree

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www/

Web server instance datafiles, binaries, and configurations

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common/

Architecture-independent configuration and data files

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depts/

Departmental data space

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public/

Data directories which are typically world readable

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ftp/

UMBC's anonymous FTP space, also accessible via ftp on mirrors.umbc.edu.

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linuxdist/

Linux distributions, for installs and such

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www/

Usually publicly-readable web pages for departments and such

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software/

Licensed software distributions (only readable from UMBC addresses and authenticated users)

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system/

EMT-managed software collections (/usr/local stuff)

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users/

User home volumes; the structure of a user's home volume is:

  • <BASE>/Mail/ - contains email-related files
  • <BASE>/home/ - UNIX style home directory
  • <BASE>/pub/ - publicly readable files
    • <BASE>/pub/www/ - files to be served from userpages.umbc.edu/~<username>
  • <BASE>/backup/ - previous night's backup snapshot of the home volume
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winnt/

Stuff to support our old NT4-based windows lab image (deprecated)

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