Configuring the Cache Manager

By convention, the Cache Manager mounts the AFS filespace on the local /afs directory. In this section you create that directory.

The afsd program sets several cache configuration parameters as it initializes the Cache Manager, and starts daemons that improve performance. You can use the afsd command's arguments to override the parameters' default values and to change the number of some of the daemons. Depending on the machine's cache size, its amount of RAM, and how many people work on it, you can sometimes improve Cache Manager performance by overriding the default values. For a discussion of all of the afsd command's arguments, see its reference page in the OpenAFS Administration Reference.

On platforms using the standard 'afs' initialisation script (this does not apply to Fedora or RHEL based distributions), the afsd command line in the AFS initialization script on each system type includes an OPTIONS variable. You can use it to set nondefault values for the command's arguments, in one of the following ways:

Note

If you are running on a Fedora or RHEL based system, the openafs-client initialization script behaves differently from that described above. It sources /etc/sysconfig/openafs, in which the AFSD_ARGS variable may be set to contain any, or all, of the afsd options detailed. Note that this script does not support setting an OPTIONS variable, or the SMALL, MEDIUM and LARGE methods of defining cache size

  1. Create the local directory on which to mount the AFS filespace, by convention /afs. If the directory already exists, verify that it is empty.

       # mkdir /afs
    
  2. On non-package based Linux systems, copy the afsd options file from the /usr/vice/etc directory to the /etc/sysconfig directory, removing the .conf extension as you do so.

       # cp /usr/vice/etc/afs.conf /etc/sysconfig/afs
    
  3. Edit the machine's AFS initialization script or afsd options file to set appropriate values for afsd command parameters. The script resides in the indicated location on each system type:

    • On Fedora and RHEL systems, /etc/sysconfg/openafs

    • On non-package based Linux systems, /etc/sysconfig/afs (the afsd options file)

    • On Solaris systems, /etc/init.d/afs

    Use one of the methods described in the introduction to this section to add the following flags to the afsd command line. If you intend for the machine to remain an AFS client, also set any performance-related arguments you wish.

    • Add the -memcache flag if the machine is to use a memory cache.

    • Add the -verbose flag to display a trace of the Cache Manager's initialization on the standard output stream.

Note

In order to successfully complete the instructions in the remainder of this guide, it is important that the machine does not have a synthetic root (as discussed in Enabling Access to Foreign Cells). As some distributions ship with this enabled, it may be necessary to remove any occurences of the -dynroot and -afsdb options from both the AFS initialisation script and options file. If this functionality is required it may be renabled as detailed in Enabling Access to Foreign Cells.