# Release Notes

# AFS Server Release Notes

## Introduction

This section contains important information about the AFS Server component of AFS for Windows, version 3.6. The AFS Server runs AFS server processes on a Windows NT machine. An AFS Server on a Windows NT machine can be configured as one or more of the following: an AFS File Server, an AFS Database Server, an AFS Backup Server, and an AFS System Control Server.

## AFS Server Installation Requirements

Your system must meet the following hardware, software, and administrative privilege requirements to install the AFS Server component of AFS for Windows.

### Hardware

The hardware requirements for installing the AFS Server are:

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

  Recommended: A PC using a Pentium or higher microprocessor

- At least 16 MB of RAM

  Recommended: 32 MB of RAM or more

- A hard disk with at least 20 MB of available disk space

- At least one NTFS disk volume to hold the AFS file system data. The NTFS volume must not contain any data or files other than that of a Windows NT Recycle Bin to be eligible for configuration as an AFS partition.

### Software

The software requirements for installing the AFS Server 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 Server.

## Product Notes

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

### Support for Volumes That Are Greater Than 2 GB

An AFS volume is a collection of related files that are organized into a single, easily managed unit and that can be easily moved between File Server machines to facilitate load balancing across the network. Each AFS volume has a specific quota associated with it. A volume's quota specifies the maximum amount of disk space the information in the volume can occupy. Quota is set on a per volume basis, so it can be increased for volumes that contain more data and decreased for volumes that do not need the additional space. AFS for Windows, version 3.6 now supports volumes with quotas greater than 2 GB.

### Encryption Routines Used by the System Control Server Are Included with All Versions of AFS for Windows

Encryption routines used by the Update Service on the System Control Server machine are now being included with all versions of AFS for Windows due to the relaxation of United States government export regulations. Previously, government regulations prohibited the export of these encryption routines. Thus, sites that were not running the United States distribution of AFS were not able to use a System Control Server to distribute configuration files, because doing so permitted sensitive system information to be transmitted unencrypted. Now, all sites can use a System Control Server machine to distribute new versions of AFS Server configuration information to all AFS File Server machines.

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

The computer name of an AFS Server 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 Server is installed has the computer name afsserver1 and is in the yourcompany.com domain, the corresponding DNS entry for the machine must be afsserver1.yourcompany.com.

### Time Clock Synchronization

To support security and database replication protocols, the time clocks on all machines running AFS servers must be synchronized. Time synchronization software can be obtained from numerous sources; for example, Microsoft distributes the timeserv time synchronization service with the Windows NT Server Resource Kit.

### Securing AFS Server Machines

If the machine on which the AFS Server software is installed is not secure (that is, if nonadministrative personnel are able to log into the machine), then it is strongly recommended that the AFS Server software directories and all AFS partitions on the machine be secured as appropriate for the environment and file system type. However, when securing AFS Server machines, ensure that the Windows NT local SYSTEM principal has full access to the AFS software and all AFS partitions; otherwise AFS processes will not be able to run.

### Shutting Down AFS File Server Machines

Before shutting down a Windows NT machine that is running as an AFS File Server, always stop the AFS File Server on the machine.

When the AFS File Server is started on a machine, the process creates a salvage file. When the File Server is stopped manually, this salvage file is removed. However, if a Windows NT machine is shut down while the AFS File Server is still running, this salvage file is not removed. When the machine is subsequently restarted, the File Server starts automatically and, upon noticing the presence of the salvage file, executes the Salvager. Because running the Salvager can be very time consuming, it is always preferable to stop the AFS File Server on a machine before shutting the machine down to avoid unnecessarily executing the Salvager process.

Use one of the following procedures to shut down the AFS File Server on a Windows NT machine.

- From the Windows NT Control Panel:

  1. Double-click the Services icon. The Services dialog box opens.

  2. In the Service list, select the IBM AFS Server service.

  3. Choose the Stop button. A message box appears, prompting you to confirm that you want to stop the service. Choose the Yes button.

     The AFS File Server on the machine is stopped.

- From the Windows NT Command Prompt:

  1. Enter the following command:

         bos shutdown -server machine_name -wait

     where machine_name is the name of the Windows NT machine on which the AFS File Server is running.

  2. Press <Enter> to execute the command.

Note: | In general, machines that are running as AFS File Servers are shut down only to perform preventative maintenance.

### Obtaining Crash Dump Files in the Event of Server Problems

It is recommended that you configure all AFS Server machines to create a crash dump file in the event of a server failure. This information is important for technical support personnel to use in order to diagnose a server problem. Consult your Microsoft Windows NT documentation for information on how to configure the Dr. Watson utility to generate a binary crash dump file automatically when an application error occurs.

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

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

### Temporary Files

The AFS Server 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 Server

AFS provides national language support for the AFS Server 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.)

### Configuring a Server into a Cell with pre-3.5 Database Servers Requires the Principal Password

If you configure the AFS Server for Windows, version 3.6, into an AFS cell in which the Database Servers are running a version of AFS older than version 3.5, during the configuration process a dialog box prompts you to provide the AFS principal password.

Note: | If for some reason the AFS principal password is unknown, you can instead enter the 24-character string of octal digits representing the AFS principal's key. To obtain the octal key, issue either the kas examine command or boslistkeys command on an AFS Database Server machine. Note, the server must be running in noauth mode in order to display the AFS principal's octal key.

## Limitations and Restrictions

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

### AFS bosserver Process Does Not Execute the Notifier Program When a Process Terminates

The AFS bosserver process does not currently execute the registered notifier command (if one is specified) when a process under its control terminates.

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