# Administration Reference

## ThisCell (server version)

Purpose

Defines server machine's cell membership

Description

The server version of the ThisCell file defines the complete Internet domain-style name (for example, abc.com) of the cell to which the server machine belongs. It must reside in the /usr/afs/etc directory on every AFS server machine.

The file is in ASCII format and contains a character string on a single line. The initial version of the file is created with the bos setcellname command during the installation of the cell's first file server machine, and the IBM AFS Quick Beginnings includes instructions for copying it over to additional server machine during their installation.

The only reason to edit the file is as part of changing the cell's name, which is strongly discouraged because of the large number of configuration changes involved. In particular, changing the cell name requires rebuilding the entire Authentication Database, because the Authentication Server combines the cell name it finds in this file with each user and server password and converts the combination into an encryption key before recording it in the Database.

The server version of the ThisCell file is distinct from the client version, which resides in the /usr/vice/etc directory on each AFS client machine. If a server machine also runs as a client, it is acceptable for the server and client versions of the file on the same machine to name different cells. However, the behavior that results from this configuration can be more confusing than useful.

Related Information

ThisCell (client version)

bos setcellname

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