(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.
You need to get the installer file for the Windows AFS client and also our CellServDB file. There are 2 options [March 2009 Note: During the current transition of the CABI computer infrastructure, Alborg is not available. So you should get the installer from the OpenAFS website as described in the 2nd paragraph]:
Local copies of installation files: 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 having the client on your PC). 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).
Latest version of the AFS installer from openafs.org: AFS is continually being improved. If you want to install the latest version of AFS, go to www.openafs.org. In the left column, under "Downloads", click "1.5.x Features Release" and then go to the Windows section at the bottom of the page. Click on the first .exe file (installer) and choose Save Link As... or Save Target As... to save it to your PC. You will still need our version of the CellServDB file. You can download the CellServDB file to your desktop to use it (right-click, Save Link As...).
| 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.
Starting with OpenAFS 1.5.66, the Windows client GUI just has the Tokens tab. In order to get to the configuration options that were in the Advanced tab, use the "AFS Client Configuration" in the Control Panel. In order to map an AFS directory to a drive letter, use Windows Explorer. These changes were implemented because of changes in Windows Vista and beyond.
How to map an AFS directory to a drive letter: Open Windows Explorer or double-click My Computer. Choose Map Network Drive from the Tools menu. Choose the drive letter from the drop-down menu. (We usually use letters at the end of the alphabet for AFS drive mappings, such as U: for the home directory.) For Folder, type the pathname of the AFS directory that you want to map. For example, if your username is smith and you want to map your AFS home directory to the U: drive, type
\\afs\cabi.rfmh.org\usr\smith
for the "folder" and then click Finish.
Instead of mapping an AFS drive to a drive letter, you can have an AFS directory show up as a folder under "My Network Places". Double-click the "My Network Places" icon on the desktop, double-click "Add Network Place", and use the wizard. Use "Choose another network location". For "Internet or network address", use the pathname of the AFS directory as above.
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This page was last updated on 3/20/2009. |