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When Will IBM Release OpenAFS?
sighup asks: "My company is in the need of a distributed file system for WAN use. I've looked around. CODA and InterMezzo aren't there yet. NFS is not going to work well in our instance. So, I went looking at AFS (having used it in college). I found that IBM had announced that they were opensourcing AFS. We were willing to pay for it, but this is soooo much better. The original announcement said that IBM would be releasing the source code in September. September has come and gone and October is almost gone. They've posted the docs, but nothing else. I've even mailed DeveloperWorks and got no response. So, when's OpenAFS -actually- going to be out?"
It was released several days ago... Oct 30th I believe.
http://slash dot.org /article.pl?sid=00/11/01/0313248&mode=thread
James
1. Have you tried calling them and getting someone on the phone (don't forget to take their name and their manager's name!) and asking them the same questions?
2. Why do you need a distributed file system for WAN use? A windows network isn't good enough? FTPing to some linux file server isn't good enough? Using thin clients doesn't work for you? PC Anywhere? Starcraft? (ok, that last one was silly, but really, I'm curious...)
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This is somewhat off topic, but this seems like the best place for a discussion...
Notice how the story submitter says "October is almost over"... meaning they submitted the story before November. It is now the 4th. Is the slashdot story backlog really 5 days, or is this an isolated incident? If it is, this seems like a good argument for K5-style story modding..... (I make no claims as to how that would change this site.)
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Reading down the info page a bit on IBM's website turned this up. Enjoy
---Most Definitely not a Karma Whore---
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensou rce/afs/
This story was on slashdot three days ago!
Looks like the source code has been posted at: http:// oss .software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/afs/do wnloads.html
"The OpenAFS source code is currently available on the following platforms: AIX 4.2, Digital/Compaq UNIX 4.0, Red Hat Linux 6.2, Solaris 2.6 and 2.7, and Windows NT 4.0. "
So what's the problem?
Cliff, you gotta stop letting these things sit on your desk for a week before posting, or this sort of embarassing stuff happens.
Or maybe as other people pointed out, it's already been released.
Dosen't seem much like vapor to me.
OPEN SOURCE != FREE
In other words, just because a product is open source does not necessarily make it free any more than a product that is free is necessarily open source.
IBM announced that they will give out the source code for AFS. They didn't say that they will give AFS away for free IIRC. The definition of open source is, if you get the software by license (be it GPL or proprietary), you are entitled to the source code.
Maybe it IS free, I don't know. Just don't mention "they sait it will be open source which is great, because I didn't want to pay for it". One does not equal the other. Sorry about the
Okay... Linux only distributions are already out. I just picked one up and compiled it yesterday night. Let me know if you need to get your hands on it (plus it has a simplified make file).
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensou rce/afs/downloads.html
To get the latest scoop, subscribe to the list! Send a request to linux-afs-request (at) mit.edu and a human will subscribe you.
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reading this slashdot article from 3 days ago, one finds that IBM posted not only the documentation, but the 11MB of source code. please, look a little closer before posting an Ask Slashdot topic.
Ok look, slashdot obviously has quite a big submission bin, it isn't this guys fault that Cliff hasn't read slashdot for a few days. Notice he says "October is almost over" When OpenAFS was released on November 1st. I propose that everyone that has made any sort of stupid comment about this guy not looking hard enough just shut up and look at a calender, then at this question, then at that OpenAFS release on November 1st. Then slap yourself and say sorry.
I've got a question for Ask Slashdot: When will Cliff get a clue? sighup obviously sent this in before the OpenAFS release was announced on Slashdot a few days ago. So why was this question posted when it has already been answered? Does Cliff even read Slashdot?
I think the guys running /. owe this guy an apology. I'm assuming that after a /. guy OKs a story, it doesn't take 3 days for that story to appear on the main page. Thus, AFS must have already been released when this story was OK'ed. Thus, the guys running Slashdot were out to lunch on this case. That caused the /. crowd to think this guy was an idiot, hence the need for an apology from the guys running /.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Check out The Global File System, it's the heat! GFS is *the* open source filesystem that has the backing of the big storage manufacturers, like EMC Corporation. It blows away AFS, try it for yourself and you will see.
If you follow the link provided in the article... it takes you to a page that says "The source code is available in the downloa d section"
-rt-
-rt-
** Evil Canadians are taking over the world. Learn about the conspiracy
So IBM open sources AFS, and suddenly noone buys it anymore. Thoughts? Rants?
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
You might wanna take a look at GFS.
I'm not quite sure if it's designed for a WAN environment, but it is a Storage Area Network which can support multiple clients. It's cool even if it won't work for what you want.
While I wait for CODA or some other project to become stable, I've been using rsync to replicate video files between multiple geographically different video servers. Rsync is great, because if a large file is still being uploaded, it will transfer as much as it can to the other servers, and when it runs 1 minute later, it will start where it left off. I whacked up a little script that won't start rsync if a copy is already running, otherwise you'll end up with a whole bunch of copies of rsync running.
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Will IBM make OpenAFS available for Linux?
Currently they have only made it available for Red Hat Linux 6.2
This kind of things make me sick.
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I'm now certain that the majority of the people editing Slashdot don't even read the site.
I, like others, was very keen to get my hands on AFS and was getting frustrated with the delay. So I emailed the sales contact address with a query. This was just before it actually was released (a couple of days or so).
I get into work one morning and the sales guy has left an email telling me its just come out and giving the URL etc.
A little later I notice the "you have voicemail waiting" light on my phone is flashing. I check it and it's the same guy who has, from the US, called me in *New Zealand* to tell me the same thing! Above and beyond...
Well, I've been working on a beowulf cluster for my university (UT Dallas) and I have a bunch of Sparc 5 nodes. The problem being - they have no hard drives. Even the kernel is loaded over the network, ie tftp. The root filesystem is mounted via NFS (NFSv2, the v3 support in 2.4 might work, but the version of mount in the latest util-linux does not (at least in sparc architecture)). I need another network filesystem with support for mounting the root filesystem. Is OpenAFS going to be my answer? Or are there any other network filesystems I can use? NFSv2 dies after a day or two of uptime, nodes start dropping off like flies. I suspect it is due to NFSv2's usage of UDP, a vital file doesn't get transfered properly, then the kernel panics. Becayse it can't write to the filesystem, there are no logs. Next step-serial port debugging. But let me know if there are any network filesystems with the ability to mount root filesystem on boot.
David
AFS's motto is one world, one file system. AFS literally allows you to export your file system securely across the net. TO as many people or anonymous users as you want. AFS has a great caching mechanism. Which means unlike NFS, it works great over WANS. It uses Kerberos for security. So the security model is proven. Microsoft sunk 20 million into MIT to enhance kerberos, and develop the implementation for Win 2000. We have MS's endorsement of a Unix compatible authentication mechanism. Along with Sun, Red Hat, and others are making noise about Kerberos support. This AFS thing could be huge. Imagine a potential for sharing information potential ten times what Napsters is. Imagine this, you cd to /afs and their are hundreds of file systems and with information at your finger tips. Like having a copy of various ftp distribution sites mounted as file systems on your machine.
Other features include: Mount read only snap shots for redundancy, universal name space, and enhanced ACL's.
Nothing else out their touch's it. Not Coda, or Arla. Both of which are not stable enough for production use.
With AFS finally open source, we should see lots of enhancements. And use by GPL-pro, and pro-bsd entities alike.
One world one file system.
Cheers,
Tomas
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Try SFS the self-certifying filesystem. Here's a link. Its definately better than AFS.
This particular question wasn't specifically addressed in IBM's FAQ, although it answered some related questions.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Yes, it does compile.
Yes, it does work.
Next?
(Hint - I have it working on my Sol 7 system right next to me.)
People should not be afraid of their governments - Governments should be afraid of their people.
This post and others have readers asking you what the heck is going on there. Please give us some kind of thoughtful response, even if it's a "we goofed" or "there is a five day backlog" or whatever. Your loyal readers and commentators, want to know why this is happening and I think they deserve a response. -Don
It was released several days ago... Oct 30th I believe.
If you'll take a look at the original post you'll see this:
Looks to me like the the post was submitted a few days before the release, worked it's way through the Slashdot queue, and hit the board a couple days after.
"Crossed in the mail" as they say.
I don't fault anybody here: The poster did check his info, the post-approvers have too much to do already to dig on the net when they're publishing a question (and the question serves as an informative conversation starter even if it IS slightly outdated) and it's easy for the responder to miss the verbal cueue and the mechanism "behind the curtain" at slashdot.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
How is this offtopic?
Probably somebody with moderator points hit the wrong menu item by mistake. It also got two "informative"s and two "interesting"s, so I wouldn't complain.
Who knows? The original moderator might have given you some of his remaining points to make an appology. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Here's a link to download IBM's AFS for linux. http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensou rce/afs/downloads.html