# Release Notes

# AFS Client Release Notes

## Introduction

This section contains important information about the AFS Client component of AFS for Windows, version 3.6. The AFS Client provides direct access to the AFS filespace from a PC running Windows NT, enabling users to manage files and directories in AFS. The AFS Client includes the AFS Light Gateway, which enables AFS Light users to access the AFS filespace.

## AFS Client Installation Requirements

Your system must meet the following hardware, software, and administrative privilege requirements to install the AFS Client.

### Hardware

The hardware requirements for installing the AFS Client are:

- A PC using an 80486/66 MHz (or faster) microprocessor or a Pentium-based microprocessor

- At least 16 MB of RAM

- A hard disk with at least 4 MB of available disk space, plus enough additional disk space on the drive where the cache is located to accommodate the desired cache size. (By default, the cache is located on the drive where Windows is installed and the cache size is 20 MB.)

### Software

The software requirements for installing the AFS Client are:

- Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or Service Pack 5

### Administrative Privilege Requirement

You must be a member of the local Administrators group on your Windows system in order to install, configure, and start the AFS Client.

## Product Notes

This section highlights important general information about the AFS Client component of AFS for Windows, version 3.6. It includes descriptions of new features and enhancements made available in this release of the AFS Client.

### Additional Configuration Options Available Via the Client Interface

The AFS Client Configuration utility's Advanced tab now includes options for configuring logon parameters, diagnostic parameters, and other miscellaneous configuration parameters. From the Advanced tab, you can also configure global drive mappings. Many of these configuration options were formerly available to AFS Client users as registry settings.

The Advanced tab is accessed from the Windows Control Panel. To display the Advanced tab:

1. From the Start menu, choose Settings, then choose Control Panel.

2. Double-click the AFS Client Configuration icon to display the AFS Client Configuration utility.

3. Choose the Advanced tab.

### AFS Client Cache Location Is Now Configurable

The AFS Client Cache is stored in a file named AFSCache, rather than in the system paging file. By default, the cache is stored on the drive where Windows is installed. The size of the AFS Client Cache is limited by available free disk space. The cache size must be at least 1 MB. The default cache size is 20480 KB (20MB).

The location of the AFS Client Cache can now be changed. Changing the cache location is useful when there is not sufficient available free disk space on the drive where Windows is installed. To change the cache location, enter a valid, fully qualified filename in the Cache Path field on the AFS Client Configuration's Advanced tab.

### Mapping Global Drives to the AFS Filespace

The AFS Client's graphical user interface can now be used to map global drives to places in the AFS filespace. Global drives are mapped to the AFS filespace when the IBM AFS Client service starts; users are not required to be logged on. To map global drives to AFS:

1. From the Start menu, choose Settings, then choose Control Panel.

2. Double-click the AFS Client Configuration icon to display the AFS Client Configuration utility. Select the Advanced tab.

3. Click Add. The Map Global Drive dialog box appears. In the Drive Letter box, choose a network drive or accept the default. In the AFS Path box, type a path to the AFS filespace. If desired, enter a short name to be associated with the specified drive letter and AFS path in the Description box. Note that a drive letter description can have no more than 12 characters and cannot contain spaces or tabs.

4. Click OK to establish the connection. The drive letter and AFS path appear on the Global Drives dialog box. The drive letter now appears in your Windows NT Explorer.

### AFS Client Computer Name Must Correspond to the Name Service Host Name

The computer name of an AFS Client machine (as displayed in the Computer Name field on the Identification tab of the Network dialog box) must correspond to the host name assigned to the computer by the name service (normally the Domain Name Service, or DNS) used to map names to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. For example, if the machine on which the AFS Client is installed has the computer name afsclient1 and is in the yourcompany.com domain, the corresponding DNS entry for the machine must be afsclient1.yourcompany.com.

### AFS Command-Line Binaries

The AFS Client includes administration-oriented command suites such as bos, kas, vos, and pts. Execute the commands within these suites from the Windows Command Prompt.

### The AFS Client Must Be Installed in a Directory Whose Path Contains Only ANSI Characters

The AFS for Windows software must be installed in a directory whose path contains only ANSI characters, for example the default directory C:\Program Files.

### Disabling All but the Client Component of the AFS for Windows Setup Program

You have the option of altering the AFS for Windows setup program to disable all but the client component. Such a client-only setup program renders users unable to install any components other than the AFS Client. To perform a client-only installation, create the file setup.co in the same directory as the other installation files; the setup program then allows only the AFS Client to be installed. Note that the contents of the setup.co file are irrelevant. Follow the installation procedure described in IBM AFS for Windows Quick Beginnings regardless of the type of installation you are performing.

### Temporary Files

The AFS Client for Windows occasionally creates temporary files. To control where such files are created, set your environment variable (TMP or TEMP) to the fully qualified path of the preferred temporary directory. If you do not specify a temporary directory, then any temporary files are created in the current working directory of the process that creates the files.

### National Language Support for the AFS Client

AFS provides national language support for the AFS Client graphical user interface (GUI) tools and documentation, including support for bidirectional scripts (Hebrew, Arabic, etc.). The language strings installed are determined by your machine's system default locale, as specified in the Control Panel's Regional Settings Properties dialog box. If no language strings exist for the current locale, then English language strings are installed by default.

Note: | The system default locale for a machine can be different than the user locale (specified by a user) on the machine. However, the language strings installed with AFS for Windows are always determined by the system default locale.

### The kpwvalid Password Strength Checker Is Not Used on Windows Systems

When an AFS user password is changed from a Windows system, the kpwvalid program is not used to check the quality of the new password. (On UNIX systems, if a kpwvalid program exists in the same directory as the kpasswd program, the kpwvalid program checks the quality of every new user password.)

### Configurable LAN Adapter Number

The LAN Adapter (LANA) number used by the AFS Client service must match the LANA number setting on your Windows system. By default, the AFS Client service is configured to use LANA number 0 (zero).

You can now use the AFS Client's graphical user interface tools to modify the value of the LANA number used by the AFS Client service. To change the LANA number, enter a new value in the Lan Adapter Number field on the AFS Client Configuration's Advanced tab. You must restart the AFS Client service after modifying this parameter.

Alternatively, if you do not want to change the default LANA number used by the AFS Client service to match the NetBIOS Configuration of your Windows NT machine, you can instead modify your system's LANA number setting to match the AFS default setting (0). Access the Services tab on the Control Panel's Network application. Choose NetBIOS Interface, and select the Properties button. Enter 0 (zero) in the Lana Number field. You must restart your machine after making changes to this Windows setting.

### WinLogon Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) Modules and AFS Authentication

The AFS Client includes the header files and libraries required to build a WinLogon Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) module that obtains AFS tokens. These header files and libraries are installed in the <AFS for Windows Installation Directory>\afs\client\program directory. In addition, a sample program with compiling and linking instructions is provided in <AFS for Windows Installation Directory>\afs\client\program\sample\token.c.

### Cell Database Is Maintained During Upgrade

When the AFS Client software is upgraded, the AFS Client cell database file (afsdcell.ini) located in the Windows directory is not replaced, in order to preserve local cell configuration information. However, a copy of the cell database as distributed by the vendor is installed in the AFS Client program directory.

## Limitations and Restrictions

This section briefly describes the known limitations and restrictions in the AFS Client component of AFS for Windows, version 3.6.

### Symbolic Links to AFS Files and Directories

Symbolic links to directories are treated as directories, and symbolic links to files appear as files in Windows NT systems. Neither appear as links.

Currently, you cannot use the Windows interface (the Windows NT Explorer, for example) to delete symbolic links or create symbolic links in the AFS filespace. If you attempt to delete a directory that is a symbolic link using the Windows interface, the directory's contents are deleted. The directory itself is not deleted. If you attempt to delete a file that is a symbolic link using the Windows interface, the link is removed, rather than the target file.

To create and delete symbolic links to AFS files and directories, use the symlink.exe program that is provided with AFS for Windows, version 3.6. Execute symlink commands from your Windows NT Command Prompt.

### AFS Client Can Fail to Load When Network Drives Are in the Application Path

When loading an application (such as the AFS Client), Windows NT searches for the application's dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). One of the places that Windows searches for an application's DLLs is in each directory specified in the Path environment variable. In the Path environment variable, if a network path is defined before the path that contains a DLL, the application can possible fail to load.

Most services (such as the AFS Client) do not have security access to network drives specified in the Path environment variable. When a network drive is encountered in the path and the application does not have the permission to access the network, Windows fails to distinguish between an Access Denied error caused by a process which cannot access a file and a process which cannot access the network drive that contains the file. Because this distinction cannot be made, the operating system assumes that the file exists but cannot be accessed by the process. This error causes the system to discontinue the search for the DLLs and assume that a DLL cannot be accessed. Since Windows believes that a DLL is inaccessible, it fails to load the application.

In order to avoid this problem, ensure that the directory to an application's DLLs comes before any network drives in the path.

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