A CRASH COURSE IN NJIT’S AFS

AFS Quick Tips

- Kashif Qazi

What is AFS

AFS stands for Andrew File SystemA way to have storage spaceDistributed file system lets you access your

data virtually anywhere, anytime

Distributed Computing

Defn: Users won’t know that the process or data is in some

other computer in the network

Advantages Availability Efficiency

What is AFS for ME in NJIT?

A way to have storage space on the college network

A place to store Web pages Course Material Research Material Course Assignments

Client/Server

• Server provides data and services to the client

• Client is accessed by the user and gets services and data from the server

AFS

File Server File Server File Server

Authentication Server

Client

(username, password)

Tokens

E.g. afsconnect1.njit.edu

Laptop

Remotely

Where is AFS

File Servers: In NJIT

Clients: afsconnect1.njit.edu and afsconnect2.njit.edu Any NJIT maintained MS Windows Workstation

(Library, Student Mall PC Labs, GITC 2302) Your own PC with OpenAFS Client installed

Each student has 125 MB of AFS disk space

Services Available by NJIT on AFS

Web Services (Apache Tomcat)Variety of open source and commercial

software (compilers like javac and gcc)MySQL Database

How to Use AFS

Three ways of accessing your 125 MB AFS space Secure Shell (Remote Login) OpenAFS Client for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris One of the AFS client machines in the labs

You need your UCID and AFS password

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

Download and install the SSH Secure Shell from http://ist.njit.edu

If downloading remotely, you need VPNRun SSHClick ‘Quick Connect

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

Enter afsconnect1.njit.edu or afsconnect2.njit.edu in ‘Host Name’

Enter UCID in User NameClick ‘Connect’

Step 1Step 2

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

Enter your AFS PasswordClick ‘OK’

Step 3

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

You are connected!!

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

Unix commands work in this environmentType in ls and press return to see the list of

files and directories in your root

How to Use AFS – Secure Shell

Unix commands work in this environmentType in cd directory_name to go to particular

directory

How to Use AFS – OpenAFS Client

Install and setup OpenAFS Client as per instructions at http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/AFS/windows.client/

After this, you should have a drive in ‘My Computer’ called H:

This is your AFS ‘drive’ which means your AFS space is directly accessible from ‘My Computer’

How to Setup Web Page

Your web-page’s address is: http://web.njit.edu/~ucid

The index.html file is located in public_html directory under root in your AFS space

For SSH you can type in cd public_html from root

For OpenAFS you can double click H: in ‘My Computer’ and then double click public_html directory

Modifying index.html modifies the web-page at the above address

How to Setup Web Page

You can now build your website in the public_html directory

Additionally NJIT’s AFS also provides for an Apache TomCat Web Server

You can also install CMSs like Drupal or CodeIgnitor

Backup

Backup is taken every day

Last backup of home directory will be in the home directory itself

Older backups up to one year available from tape

Backups of research directories are backed up every week in a tape and kept for 1 year!

Some Help with Unix Commands

cd <path/directory_name> : changed current directory to path/directory. E.g. cd public_html

ls : Lists all files and directories in current directory

cp <path1/file> <path2/file> : copies file from path1 to path2

cat file_name : displays the file on the screen. Useful for reading small files

Some Help with Unix Commands

rm file_name : removes the filemkdir dir_name : creates a new directoryrmdir dir_name : removes directoryfs sa ~/<path> ucid rl : gives ucid access to

path directory on your AFS

Killing a process?

If an application hangs?

Find the process id ps –u <username> | grep <processname>

Kill the process kill -9 <processid>

Moving Files from your Computer

SSH Includes SSH Secure File Transfer Run and connect same way as Secure Shell Client Drag and drop

OpenAFS Client H: is like any other drive Copy-Paste as usual

Connecting via Linux - I

Open up a terminal window in LinuxExecute the command

ssh –l ucid afsX.njit.edu

The first time you will see: The authenticity of host afsX.njit.edu' can't be

established.RSA key fingerprint is a long string of charactersAre you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Type in ‘yes’ and press return

Type in password and press return

Connecting via Linux - II

Install OpenAFS Client apt-get install openafs-client

Set “CELL” to cad.njit.eduOther values use defaultklog ucidcd /afs/cad.njit.edu/u/k/m/kmq2

Further References

For further information on NJIT’s AFS, visit http://ist.njit.edu http://web.njit.edu http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/one.stop/

The last link is useful to check your AFS Quota, Usage, Reset Password, etc.