University Computing Systems

OpenAFS Client for MS Windows Installation

Document version 4.4, modified 22-Sep-2009. Copyright © 2009 New Jersey Institute of Technology

0: Table of Contents

1:What is this?
2:Requirements
3:Installation or Upgrade
4:Configuration
5:Troubleshooting
6:How to get help or more info

1: What is this?

This document shows how to install or update the OpenAFS client for MS Windows and how to connect your AFS disk space to MS Windows as your H: drive.

AFS is a distributed file system for use with Solaris, Linux, MS Windows, MacOS X, and many others. NJIT allocates AFS space to all our students, faculty, and staff. You can use this space for any NJIT-related activities including your website. See the help section below for more information.

Summary for advanced users:
  1. Confirm you have all the requirements listed below;
  2. Download and run the appropriate install EXE (32bit, 64bit, 64/32 bit);
  3. On "Client Cell Name" screen set "Cell Name" to "cad.njit.edu" (see step 3.7);
  4. Use your AFS login and password to connect (step 4.3);
  5. Map your home directory to H:\ (step 4.7);
Please disregard "advanced user" sidebars and tips in this document if you are not familar with OpenAFS.
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2: Requirements

All of the following are necessary to install and use AFS to connect to your NJIT-hosted disk space.
Accounts
NJIT faculty, staff, and students automatically get the correct access accounts with their UCID. This includes an NJIT AFS login to connect to your AFS space and an NJIT UCID to download the software from our servers. See http://ist.njit.edu/accounts for more information about NJIT computer accounts.
Passwords
You need to know your AFS password. AFS at NJIT works particularly well with MS WIndows if your NJIT Microsoft Domain account has the same password as your NJIT AFS account--you will only get prompted for a password once.

Visit http://afspassword.njit.edu to set your AFS and other passwords.

Admin
You must have administrative privileges on your PC in order to perform the installation. "Run as Administrator" on Vista 32/64 does not work quite right for this installation, please login as Administrator to install.
Network
A working network connection is necessary to install and use AFS:

Fixes
Last but hardly least, your PC should be up-to-date with the latest anti-virus updates and patches.
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3: Installation or Upgrade

Example images shown on the right side can be enlarged by clicking. Please disregard slight differences in version number and appearance in the example images.

WARNING: Do not upgrade while you have files hosted on AFS open. Close any files you are editing.

3.1:
Obtain the AFS client software package from the web
  1. Download from http://ist.njit.edu/software/download.php
  2. Take care to use the correct 32-bit (Vista or XP) or 64-bit (Vista) version for your computer
  3. Save to your desktop
  4. Double-click the downloaded file to begin installation
Advanced users tip: An alternative source for the download installation EXE file is from http://openafs.org/windows.html. More recent or alternate versions might be found here than on the IST website, although we would not have tested them in NJIT's environment. You are still welcome to try more recent versions and report problems via the procedures given in Help below.
Unpacked zip file
3.2:
Click "Next" on "Welcome" screen. 		Welcome
3.3:
Click "I Agree" on "License" screen. 		License
3.4:
Under "Choose Components", make sure "install AFS Client" and "MS Loopback Adapter" boxes are checked, then click "Next" 		Choose Components
3.5:
Accept default on "Choose Install Location", click "Next" 		Choose Install Location
3.6:
Click "Next" on "CellServDB Configuration" screen.

Either "Use existing CellServDB from a previous installation" or "Use packaged CellServDB file" will be selected.

Advanced users tip:This file is not needed to locate NJIT servers, is useful to locate non-NJIT AFS sites, such as CERN, MIT, Stanford, and many others. The master version is located at http://grand.centra.org/dl/cellservdb/CellServDB The client does not automatically update the CellServDB.
CellServDB Configuration
3.7:
At Client Cell Name Configuration screen
  1. Set "Cell Name" to cad.njit.edu
  2. Click "Next"
 Client Cell Name Configuration
3.8:
At AFS Credentials Configuration, click "Install" 		AFS Credentials Configuration
3.9:
Allow system to reboot by clicking "Finish". Proceed with "Configuration" as shown below when system restarts. 		Finish
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4: Configuration

Example images shown on the right side can be enlarged by clicking. Please disregard slight differences in version number and appearance in the example images.
4.1:
Setup AFS Authentication, "Start → All Programs → OpenAFS → Client → Authentication" 		Setup AFS Authentication
4.2:
The AFS client icon should show up in the system tray (lower right part of taskbar, next to time). 		Client task icon
4.3:
Double-click on the icon, then click on "Obtain New Tokens" 		Obtain New Tokens
4.4:
Type in your UCID and your AFS password, then click "OK" 		Enter login and password
4.5:
Note the "tokens expire yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss" message, which indicates you are correctly logged in and when you must re-authenticate your login. Successful login results in your PC receiving an AFS "token" required to access files. 		Successful authentication
4.6:
Click "Drive Letters" and "Add" to configure your AFS space as a drive letter under Windows. 		Drive Letters
4.7:
Map Drive Letter.
  1. Click "Drive Letter" pull down and select H:. If H: is not available, then use a different letter and use that instead for the rest of these instructions
  2. Click in "AFS Path" and type in your full AFS home directory path.

    Your home directory path contains the first and second letters of your UCID, like this:
        \afs\cad.njit.edu\u\1st\2nd\UCID
    For example, if your UCID is xyz23, then your AFS home directory will be:
        \afs\cad.njit.edu\u\x\y\xyz23
  3. Close the AFS Client window by clicking "X" at upper right. Notice that the AFS task client seen in 4.3 remains in the system tray.
Advanced users tips: NJIT-installed computers have J:\ mapped to \afs\cad.njit.edu\ so software and project directories can be quickly accessed. You can add additional drive letters for specially allocated "project" directories, or for other users directories or subdirectories (provided they grant you access with the "fs" command).

You can even add file systems from other universities and instititions. A partal list of these is at http://web.njit.edu/all_topics/AFS/CellServDB.

You can also add short-cuts without using drive letters, for example, (on desktop) New→Shortcut→ \\afs\cad.njit.edu\u\x\y\xyz23 could be a shortcut named "xyz23 home".

 Map Drive Letter
4.8:
Verify correct installation.
  1. Wait 30 seconds or so and then click Windows "Start" and then "My Computer" (or "My Computer" on your desktop)
  2. Find your H: drive and double-click it
  3. You should see your files, including your "public_html" directory.
Advanced users tip: Double-click on your H:\public_html and then double click the index.html file to modify your NJIT webpage. This file is shown at http://web.njit.edu/~ucid (so if your ucid is xyz23, that would be http://web.njit.edu/~xyz23).
images/pic15_T.jpg
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5: Troubleshooting

Example images shown on the right side can be enlarged by clicking. Please disregard slight differences in version number and appearance in the example images.
5.1:
The most common cause of not being able to access your files is that your token has expired or your AFS password is not the same as your Windows password. To renew your token or enter an AFS password:
  1. Click on the AFS Client icon in the system tray
  2. Enter your UCID and your AFS password
  3. Click "OK".
    4. See 4.4 above for more detail.
AFS Client icon
5.2:
If the AFS client doesn't show in the system tray, then:
  1. Click Windows "Start" → "All Programs" → "Client" → "Authentication"
  2. Click "Advanced" tab
  3. Verify a checkmark for "Start the AFS Client Service whenever this computer starts"
  4. Verify a checkmark for "Always show the AFS Client icon in the taskbar"
 AFS Client, Advanced
5.3:
Checking your Client Configuration
  1. After 5.2, click "Configure AFS Client"
  2. Verify "Cell Name" contains cad.njit.edu
  3. Verify a checkmark for "Obtain AFS tokens when logging into Windows"
  4. Click "OK"
 AFS Client Configuration, General
5.4:
In some rare cases, restarting client fixes some problems. To stop the client:
  1. Click on the AFS Client icon in the system tray
  2. Click "Advanced"
  3. Click "Stop Service". If it is not clickable as shown in the image here, then the client is not running.
  4. Wait a few seconds, then press "Start Service"
  5. Close the AFS Client window by clicking the "X" at upper right.
 Stop Service
5.5:
Starting or restarting the client:
  1. Click on the AFS Client icon in the system tray
  2. Click "Advanced"
  3. If "Start Service" is clickable, then click it. If it is not clickable as shown in the image here, then the client is already running.
  4. Close the AFS Client window by clicking the "X" at upper right.
 Start Service
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6: How to get help or more info

Please make sure the problem you are encountering is not already described in the troubleshooting section above.

Your primary contact, especially if you have problems installing, is the NJIT Helpdesk.

If you encounter problems after installing, you can contact the helpdesk or email help@afs.njit.edu.

For more information about AFS, see the NJIT AFS Intro. It contains links to other sources of information about AFS. You can also find NJIT-specific descriptions of common tasks at http://web.njit.edu under the AFS tab.

Please report problems with this document to help@afs.njit.edu.

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