(Make sure that there is enough space available).
Use the default installation options.
(It may seem to get "stuck" at one point, but don't worry -- it will continue.)
The Windows AFS client can be used to access your AFS files from your Windows PC. Since it accesses files on the AFS fileservers directly, it is safer and faster than using the Windows Network Neighborhood (or My Network Places), which go through the AFS client on Linux computers. Installation is fairly straightforward.
First exit all other programs. You will reboot the computer as part of the installation.
Also, make sure that the clock on your computer is fairly accurate. If it's off by a lot, AFS won't know which is more up-to-date, files on the server or copies of those in the AFS cache on your computer. In that case, it won't let you access AFS until you have adjusted your clock.
Copy the folder afs-client-win2k-xp to your desktop. It is located on the CABI Windows PC Alborg; you can copy it remotely via "My Network Places" in Windows. It's also in /afs/cabi/download/windows2000, on AFS (if you can figure out how to get there without the client). This folder contains the installer (OpenAFSforWindows-1-3-7100.exe in this example, but it will probably be a newer version) and our version of the file CellServDB (which contains the network addresses of the CABI AFS servers).
(Note: AFS is continually being improved. If you want to install the latest version of AFS, go to www.openafs.org. In the left column, click "Latest Release" under "Downloads", then go to the Windows section at the bottom of the page. Click on the first .exe file (installer) and choose Save or Save As... to save it to your PC. You will still need our version of CellServDB.)
| Double-click the installer icon and pick the language if asked | |
| The setup wizard starts; click next. | |
| Use the defaults for the components to install. Note: the defaults may change from those shown here. | |
| Choose the installation location -- the default is fine. (Make sure that there is enough space available). |
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| For the CellServDB configuration, choose "Select a file", click on the box with the ellipses (...), navigate to the folder afs-client-win2k-xp that you copied to your desktop, and select the CellServDB file. | |
| For the Client Cell Name Configuration, use cabi.rfmh.org. Use the default installation options. |
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| Use the default AFS Credentials Configuration. | |
| Click on Install. The installation may take several seconds or a few minutes or more. (It may seem to get "stuck" at one point, but don't worry -- it will continue.) |
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| Click "Finish" to reboot. | |
| After the computer has rebooted, log in. Open the AFS client by clicking on the padlock icon with the red cross in the taskbar (bottom right of screen). |  |
| The AFS client opens. |  |
| Click the "Drive Letters" tab to create the drive mappings that the AFS client will use. Typically we create two drive letters, one to your home directory in AFS and one to the /afs/cabi directory. Click "Add..." |  |
| For the home directory, we typically use drive letter U: (for "user"). Pick the drive letter, type in the AFS path to your home directory (see example), and for the submount type the name that you want to call the drive mapping (we typically use afs-home). Click OK. |  |
(Note that /afs/cabi is a link to /afs/cabi.rfmh.org, so using either one in the pathname is OK. Also using either the unix separator / or the Windows separator \ in the pathname should be fine.)
| For the /afs/cabi directory, we typically use drive letter Y: or Z:
(whichever is available). We typically use the submount name afs-cabi. |
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| The drive letter mapping should be similar to that shown here: |  |
| Click on the Advanced tab in the AFS client, and then click on "Configure AFS Client". |  |
| The cell name should be cabi.rfmh.org -- if not, change it now. Also, make sure that "Show the AFS Client icon in the taskbar" is checked. |  |
| Click on the Preferences tab. The three AFS servers, golem, balrog, and pogoron should be listed. It might also list megalon. (The ranks will probably be different than those listed here.) |  |
| Now click on the Advanced tab to choose the
cache size to use. Generally, the larger the cache the more it will help speed up file access, but the larger the cache the more of your disk space will be used. Last time I checked the maximum disk cache possible was about 1 GB. If you will use AFS a lot and you have enough disk space, 300-900MB should be fine. If you won't use AFS much or if you don't have much disk space, the default should be OK. You can increase the cache size later through the AFS client. After configuring the cache size, click OK. |
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Now you're ready to check that the AFS client is set up correctly. In Windows Explorer under My Computer check that the AFS drive mappings are listed, such as afs-home (U:) and afs-cabi (Z:). (If they aren't listed, open the AFS client, click on the Drive Mappings tab, and make sure that the drives listed have a check mark in the square next to them. If not, click in the squares to mount the drives.) Then try to access your files through the drive mappings you created.
If everything works you can delete the copy of the folder afs-client-win2k-xp from your PC.
Occasionally when I install the Windows AFS client I get an error trying to access a data volume: it says that the volume is not accessible. If that happens, just reboot -- that should fix it.
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This page was last updated on 8/30/2007. |