OpenAFS for Windows 1.3.65 Installation Notes --------------------------------------------- The OpenAFS for Windows product was very poorly maintained throughout the 1.2.x release cycle. While the Unix version was being enhanced and its quality was improving the Windows version stagnated. The IBM AFS 3.6 product was not designed for the Windows 2000/XP/2003 operating system nor was it constructed with highly disconnected environments in mind. The 1.3.x series of releases not only fixes a large number of bugs in the 1.2 series but also attempts to enhance the functionality of the product to better fit the usage model of today's users. Several items standout. 1. The Kerberos 4 infrastructure on which the 1.2 series is reliant is no longer secure. Cross-realm Kerberos is very important in the AFS context and most sites have or are migrating to Kerberos 5 environments. The 1.3 series integrates with the MIT Kerberos for Windows 2.6.x product to provide Kerberos 5 functionality including the ability to auto-renew credentials and obtain single sign-on capabilities with the Microsoft Windows Kerberos Logon Service. The 1.3.65 OpenAFS client will directly use Kerberos 5 tickets as tokens if KFW is installed. It requires that all of the AFS Servers which it communicates support Kerberos 5 tickets. For OpenAFS this is any release 1.2.8 or higher. When using a Microsoft Windows Active Directory as your KDC for the AFS cell extremely large tickets may be issued. If this is your situation you either must modify your 1.2.x servers to support tokens larger than a few hundred bytes; or install the 1.3.64 or higher release on your servers. 2. The AFS Client Service does not provide robust behavior in an environment with a plug-n-play network environment. Changes to the number of network adapters or the assigned IP addresses will cause the client to panic. The recommended work around for this problem is to install on the machine the Microsoft Loopback Adapter. When the MLA is installed with a static IP address the AFS Client Service will bind only to the loopback and not be affected by changes to state of other network adapters installed on the system. Starting in the 1.3.65 release the installers provided by OpenAFS.org will install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter for you with a name of "AFS" and a pre-assigned IP address in the 10.x.x.x range. One of the benefits of using the MLA is that the NETBIOS names used for the AFS Client's SMB server do not have to be published on any adapter other than the MLA. This means that the names no longer need to be unique. When the MLA is in use, the NETBIOS name associated with the AFS Client Service is simply "AFS". When the MLA is not in use the NETBIOS name is "MACHINE-AFS". With the MLA installed, UNC paths of the form \\AFS\cellname\path may be used. 3. When the AFS Client Service starts it must be able to contact the root.afs volume of the default cell. If the root.afs volume is not accessible when the client service is started, the service will panic. Since many users now use laptops or otherwise operate in disconnected environments in which a VPN may be needed to access the cell's servers, it is often the case that the root.afs volume for the default cell will not be reachable and the client service cannot successfully start. In the 1.3.65 release there is support for a fake root.afs volume which is dynamically constructed when the afs client service starts. This is called Freelance mode. Freelance mode is turned on by default in the OpenAFS.org installers. A couple of notes about Freelance mode. First, since the fake root.afs volume is constructed on the fly, when it is first used there will be no entries in the volume. Do not be concerned. Any attempt to access a valid cell name will automatically result in a new read-only mount point being created in the fake root.afs volume. These mount points are preserved between service starts in the %WINDIR%\afs_freelance.ini file. Unfortunately, at the current time it is not possible to create read-write mount points in the fake root.afs cell. This is a limitation which will be addressed in a future release. 4. The OpenAFS for Windows client will make use of AFSDB DNS records to discover cell information when it is not located in the local CellServDB file (%WINDIR%\afsdcell.ini). 5. OpenAFS for Windows 1.3.65 only supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003. Windows NT 4.0 and the entire Windows 9x/Me line are not supported. If OpenAFS for Windows runs on those platforms it is by sheer luck. 6. OpenAFS for Windows installs a Network Provider for use in supporting an Integrated Logon (Single Sign-on) functionality. Integrated Logon can be used when the Windows username and password match the username and password associated with the default cell's Kerberos realm. For example, if the windows username is "jaltman" and the default cell is "athena.mit.edu", then Integrated Logon can be successfully used if the windows password matches the password used for the Kerberos principal "jaltman@ATHENA.MIT.EDU". Integrated Logon is required if you desire the ability to store roaming user profiles within the AFS file system. OpenAFS does not provide tools for synchronizing the Windows and Kerberos user accounts and passwords. If KFW is installed, the Integrated Logon will use Kerberos 5 to obtain tokens. Otherwise, Kerberos 4 is used. There is a High Security mode for use with Integrated Logon when multiple users will share a single machine. There are known problems with this mode. In particular, if you are using this mode it is crucial that new AFS tokens not be obtained after the logon session starts except via the AFS Systray tool as started by the AFS Network Provider. If the AFS Systray tool is stopped you must log off to obtain new tokens. Do not use external tools such as "aklog.exe" if High Security mode is turned on. 7. The AFS Systray tool (afscreds.exe) supports several new command line options: -A = autoinit -M = renew drive maps -N = ip address change detection -Z = unmap drives autoinit will result in automated attempts to acquire AFS tokens when afscreds.exe is started. When used in combination with ip address change detection, afscreds.exe will attempt to acquire AFS tokens whenever a new IP address is added to the system. The renew drive maps option is used to ensure that the user drive maps constructs via the AFS tools (not NET USE) are re-constructed at afscreds.exe start time. By default afscreds.exe is configured by the OpenAFS.org installers to use -A -N -M as startup options. Currently, there is no UI to change this selection after install time although these options may be set via the registry either per machine or per user. 8. Some attempts in the 1.3.65 release have been made to restrict the behavior of users with regards to their ability to alter the state of the AFS Client Service. For example, the following fs.exe commands are now restricted to Administrator: - checkservers with a non-zero timer value - setcachesize - newcell - sysname with a new sysname list - exportafs - setcell - setserverprefs - storebehind - setcrypt - cscpolicy - trace setting the default sysname for a machine should be done via the registry and not via "fs sysname". Some of the AFS Client Configuration Control Panel options are also restricted to use by the "Administrator" account. 9. As of 1.3.65, the AFS Client should support UNC paths everywhere. 10. The AFS Client ships with its own version of aklog.exe which should be used in preference to those obtained by third party sources. Usage: aklog [-d] [[-cell | -c] cell [-k krb_realm]] [[-p | -path] pathname] [-noprdb] [-force] [-5 | -4] -d gives debugging information. krb_realm is the kerberos realm of a cell. pathname is the name of a directory to which you wish to authenticate. -noprdb means don't try to determine AFS ID. -5 or -4 selects whether to use Kerberos V or Kerberos IV. (default is Kerberos V) No commandline arguments means authenticate to the local cell. 11. The AFS Server functionality provided with OpenAFS 1.3.65 does work but should be considered experimental. It has not been thoroughly tested. 12. The OpenAFS for Windows installers now include Symbol information which should be installed if you are experiencing problems and need to send crash reports. 13. OpenAFS for Windows does not support files larger than 2GB. 14. There are documented problems running the AFS Client on Hyperthreaded Pentium 4 machines. At the current time it is recommended that hyper- threading be disabled in the machine configuration. 15. OpenAFS for Windows currently requires the use of TCP based RPC. If the machine is restricted to Local RPC only, you will be unable to store tokens. 16. OpenAFS for Windows does not automatically open ports in the Windows Internet Connection Firewall. You must manually open port 7001 to allow for incoming callback messages to be received by AFS file servers. 17. The OpenAFS for Windows installer by default activates a weak form of encrypted data transfer between the AFS client and the AFS servers. This is often referred to as "crypt" mode. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reporting Bugs: Bug reports should be sent to openafs-bugs@openafs.org. Please include as much information as possible about the issue. If you are reporting a crash, please install the debugging symbols by re-running the installer. If a dump file is available for the problem include it along with the AFS Client Trace file %WINDIR%\TEMP\afsd.log. The AFS Client startup log is %WINDIR%\TEMP\afsd_init.log. Send the last continuous block of log information from this file. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to Contribute to the Development of OpenAFS for Windows: Contributions to the development of OpenAFS for Windows are needed. Contributions may take many forms including cash donations, support contracts, donated developer time, and even donated tech writer time. If you wish to be involved in OpenAFS for Windows development please join the openafs-win32-devel@openafs.org mailing list. https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-win32-devel User questions should be sent to the openafs-info@openafs.org mailing list. https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-info You must join mailing lists if you wish to post to the list without incurring a moderation delay.