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?"

Comments

may i bother you with two questions?

[Lord Omlette]

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...)
--
Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057

Re:may i bother you with two questions?

[TRyanC]

There is a command line scp client for Windows available from the same source as PuTTY, at http://www.chiark.gre ene nd.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

As for the parent post, ftp, if you use Kerberized ftp clients and servers, uses secure authentication, and can optionally encrypt the data. UNIX and Mac ftp clients are available, as well as UNIX ftp daemons. Recent RedHat distributions even come with MIT Kerberos V.

Check out http://web.mit.edu/kerberos/www

We use all these programs at my company (i'm the sysadmin), and they work very well.

-Ryan

editorial comment

[jbridge21]

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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Re:editorial comment

[PeterM from Berkeley]

I would like to see this tried. It seems like the moderation and meta-moderation infrastructure is already largely here.

At the very least, a much-rejected story should be referred to the editors for review.

Re:editorial comment

[mattdm]

The backlog for Ask Slashdot seems to be around a week or so. It's worse than the main page.

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Isn't this a released IBM afs?

[PeterM from Berkeley]

http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensou rce/afs/
This story was on slashdot three days ago!

Re:Jeez, check your info first...

[jimmy927]

OpenAFS is released, yes.
But it does not compile on ANY plattform yet ...

the following FREE AFS-implementation does compile: http://www.stacken.kth.se/projekt/arla/

It contains an well working AFS-client, and an experimental/alpha AFS-server.

Cliff the procrastinator

[IvyMike]

Cliff, you gotta stop letting these things sit on your desk for a week before posting, or this sort of embarassing stuff happens.

OpenAFS is out!

[Doodhwala]

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).

It's out!

[strredwolf]

This was sent out to the Linux-AFS list on Nov 1st:

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.

--
WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

Stop bagging on this guy

[fliplap]

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 think this guy is owed an apology.

[be-fan]

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 /.

Re:I think this guy is owed an apology.

[be-fan]

I'm not saying that "just because an OS [you] choose to use comes out late to, does not mean [you] cannot comment on latency of delivery." I'm saying that you use Linux, and most likely agree with Linus's idea that "it's done when it's done." The same thing with BeOS. It will be released when it is finished. (If, however, you don't agree with that concept, then I can understand you being angry at Be.)

PS> Linux 2.4.0-testX exists as does BeOS beta OpenGL and beta BONE. Betips.net is running BONE, LCI runs BONE, and somebody at BeNews has a beta copy of OpenGL. Just because one is a open beta and the other is a closed beta doesn't mean that one has any more chance of release than the other.

PS2> Sorry if I sound inflamatory, but I get so many random "BeOS SUCKZ, GL will never come out, the IA thing killed Be!" comments without any justification that it is kind of hard to filter things. For my defense, all of your comments WERE said without justification. Its not my job to read your real feelings about topics. Make sure your posts accurately reflect what you want to come of as. In this case you came of as one of the 10 zillion BeOS-hating Slashdot trolls.

GFS

[austad]

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.

Don't the editors read the site?

[g_mcbay]

I've mentioned this before, on a story that was essentially reposted two days in a row on Slashdot..but this clinches it.

I'm now certain that the majority of the people editing Slashdot don't even read the site.

Impressed with at least *one* support person...

[Colitis]

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...

Jeez, read the post!

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Jeez, check your info first...

It was released several days ago... Oct 30th I believe.

If you'll take a look at the original post you'll see this:

... October is almost gone.

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.

Moderators typo too.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

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-)