1 OpenAFS for Windows 1.3.74 Installation Notes
2 ---------------------------------------------
4 The OpenAFS for Windows product was very poorly maintained throughout the
5 1.2.x release cycle. While the Unix version was being enhanced and its
6 quality was improving the Windows version stagnated. The IBM AFS 3.6 product
7 was not designed for the Windows 2000/XP/2003 operating system nor was it
8 architected with highly disconnected environments in mind.
10 The 1.3.x series of releases not only fixes a large number of bugs in the 1.2
11 series but also attempts to enhance the functionality of the product to better
12 fit the usage model of today's users. Several items standout.
15 1. The Kerberos 4 infrastructure on which the 1.2 series is reliant is no
16 longer secure. Cross-realm Kerberos is very important in the AFS context and
17 most sites have or are migrating to Kerberos 5 environments. The 1.3 series
18 integrates with the MIT Kerberos for Windows 2.6.x product to provide Kerberos
19 5 functionality including the ability to auto-renew credentials and obtain
20 single sign-on capabilities with the Microsoft Windows Kerberos Logon Service.
22 As of 1.3.65, the OpenAFS client will directly use Kerberos 5 tickets as tokens if
23 KFW is installed. The client requires that all of the AFS Servers with which it
24 communicates support the use of Kerberos 5 tickets as tokens (aka 2b tokens).
25 This means that all of the AFS servers must be running OpenAFS release 1.2.8 or
26 higher. Transarc servers do not support Kerberos 5 tickets as tokens.
28 When using a Microsoft Windows Active Directory as the KDC which issues the
29 service ticket for the AFS cell there are two things to consider. First, the
30 Kerberos 5 tickets issued by Active Directory can be quite large when compared
31 to tickets issued by a traditional KDC due to the incorporation of
32 authorization data in the PAC. If this is your situation you either must
33 modify your 1.2.x servers to support tokens larger than a few hundred bytes;
34 or install the 1.3.64 or higher release on your servers. Second, Windows 2003
35 Active Directory will issue service tickets utilizing the DES-CBC-MD5 enctype.
36 OpenAFS releases older than 1.3.64 will not properly support this enctype.
39 2. The AFS Client Service does not provide robust behavior in an environment
40 with a plug-n-play network environment. Changes to the number of network
41 adapters or the assigned IP addresses will cause the service to panic. The
42 recommended work around for this problem is to install the Microsoft Loopback
43 Adapter on the machine. When the MLA is installed with a static IP address
44 the AFS Client Service will bind only to the loopback and not be affected by
45 changes to state of other network adapters installed on the system.
47 Starting in the 1.3.65 release the installers provided by OpenAFS.org will
48 install the Microsoft Loopback Adapter for you with a name of "AFS" and a
49 pre-assigned IP address in the 10.x.x.x range.
51 One of the benefits of using the MLA is that the NETBIOS names used for the
52 AFS Client's SMB server do not have to be published on any adapter other than
53 the MLA. This means that the names no longer need to be unique. When the MLA
54 is in use, the NETBIOS name associated with the AFS Client Service is simply
55 "AFS". When the MLA is not in use the NETBIOS name is "MACHINE-AFS".
57 When the MLA is installed, UNC paths of the form \\AFS\cellname\path may be used.
59 The MLA is installed without binding the "Client for Microsoft Networks" or
60 "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks". If you bind these options
61 to the MLA there will be a conflict between the name "AFS" and the name of
62 the machine on the published IP Address. This may result in a failure to be
63 able to access files in AFS. The "NET VIEW" command will return a "System
64 Error 52" message when this conflict exists. To correct the problem:
66 * stop the AFS Client Service
67 * unbind the "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "File and Printer Sharing
68 for Microsoft Networks" from the MLA
69 * Disable and then Enable the MLA
70 * start the AFS Client Service
73 3. Traditionally, when the AFS Client Service starts it must be able to
74 access the "root.afs" volume of the default cell. The "root.afs" volume
75 contains a set of read-only and read-write mount points to the "root.cell"
76 volumes of various cells the administrator of the default cell believes
77 should be accessible. If the "root.afs" volume is
78 inaccessible when the client service is started, the service will panic.
79 Since many users now use laptops or otherwise operate in disconnected
80 environments in which a VPN may be needed to access the cell's servers, it is
81 often the case that the "root.afs" volume for the default cell is not
82 reachable and the AFS Client Service will not successfully start.
84 The OpenAFS Client Service now supports a fake "root.afs" volume which is
85 dynamically constructed when the service starts. This mode is called
86 Freelance mode. Freelance mode is turned on by default.
88 The contents of the fake "root.afs" volume are constructed dynamically as
89 cells are accessed. When the fake "root.afs" volume is constructed it will
90 only contain two mount points: a read-only and read-write mount point used
91 to access the "root.cell" volume of the default AFS cell. Any attempt to
92 access a valid cell name will automatically result in a new mount point
93 being created in the fake "root.afs" volume. If the cellname begins with
94 a "." the mount point will be read-write; otherwise the mount point will
95 be read-only. These mount points are preserved in the registry at key:
97 HKLM\SOFTWARE\OpenAFS\Client\Freelance
99 Additional mount points may be manually created using the "fs mkmount"
100 command. Mount points may be removed using the "fs rmmount" command.
102 >fs mkmount \\AFS\all\athena.mit.edu root.cell athena.mit.edu
103 >fs mkmount \\AFS\all\.athena.mit.edu root.cell athena.mit.edu -rw
104 >fs rmmount \\AFS\all\athena.mit.edu
105 >fs rmmount \\AFS\all\.athena.mit.edu
107 Beginning in 1.3.74, the Freelance fake root.afs volume will support
108 the creation of symlinks.
110 >symlink make \\afs\all\link \\afs\all\athena.mit.edu\user\j\a\jaltman
112 >symlink list \\afs\all\link
113 '\\afs\all\link' is a symlink to 'athena.mit.edu\user\j\a\jaltman'
115 >symlink rm \\afs\all\link
117 The symlinks are stored in the registry at:
119 HKLM\SOFTWARE\OpenAFS\Client\Freelance\Symlinks
122 4. The OpenAFS for Windows client will use AFSDB DNS records to
123 discover cell information when it is not located in the local CellServDB file
124 (\Program Files\OpenAFS\Client\CellServDB).
127 5. OpenAFS for Windows 1.3.72 only supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
128 Windows 2003. Windows NT 4.0 and the entire Windows 9x/Me line are no
129 longer supported. Older releases of OpenAFS are available for download
130 if those operating systems must be supported. The last version with support
131 for Win9x is 1.2.2b. The last version with support for Windows NT 4.0 is
135 6. OpenAFS for Windows installs a WinLogon Network Provider to provide
136 Integrated Logon (Single Sign-on) functionality. Integrated Logon can be used
137 when the Windows username and password match the username and password
138 associated with the default cell's Kerberos realm. For example, if the
139 windows username is "jaltman" and the default cell is "athena.mit.edu", then
140 Integrated Logon can be successfully used if the windows password matches the
141 password used for the Kerberos principal "jaltman@ATHENA.MIT.EDU".
143 Integrated Logon is required if you desire the ability to store roaming user
144 profiles within the AFS file system. OpenAFS does not provide tools for
145 synchronizing the Windows and Kerberos user accounts and passwords.
147 If KFW is installed, the Integrated Logon will use Kerberos 5 to obtain
148 tokens. Otherwise, Kerberos 4 is used.
150 There is a High Security mode for use with Integrated Logon when multiple
151 users will share a single machine. There are known problems with this mode.
152 In particular, if you are using this mode it is crucial that new AFS tokens
153 not be obtained after the logon session starts except via the AFS Systray tool
154 as started by the AFS Network Provider. If the AFS Systray tool is stopped
155 you must log off to obtain new tokens. Do not use external tools such as
156 "aklog.exe" if High Security mode is turned on. As of 1.3.70, OpenAFS supports
157 Authenticated SMB connections which removes the need for High Security mode.
160 What Integrated Logon does not do:
161 (a) Integrated Logon does not have the ability to obtain Kerberos 5
162 tickets for use during the Windows Session. At the current time there
163 is no mechanism by which a Kerberos 5 CCAPI credentials cache can
164 be constructed during the logon process such that it will exist in
165 the user's logon session.
166 (b) Integrated Logon does not have the ability to cache the user's
167 username and password for the purpose of obtaining tokens if the
168 Kerberos KDC is inaccessible at logon time.
171 7. The AFS Systray tool (afscreds.exe) supports several new command line
175 -M = renew drive maps
176 -N = ip address change detection
179 autoinit will result in automated attempts to acquire AFS tokens when
180 afscreds.exe is started. afscreds.exe will attempt to utilize tickets stored
181 in the MSLSA credentials cache; any existing CCAPI credentials cache; and
182 finally display an Obtain Tokens dialog to the user. When used in combination
183 with ip address change detection, afscreds.exe will attempt to acquire AFS
184 tokens whenever the IP address list changes and the Kerberos KDC is
187 The renew drive maps option is used to ensure that the user drive maps
188 constructed via the AFS tools (not NET USE) are re-constructed each time
189 afscreds.exe is started.
191 By default afscreds.exe is configured by the OpenAFS.org installers to use -A
192 -N -M -Q as startup options. Currently, there is no UI to change this selection
193 after install time although these options may be altered via the registry either
194 per machine or per user. See AfscredsShortcutParams in registry.txt.
197 8. As of 1.3.71, the OpenAFS for Windows client supports a local Windows
198 authorization group called "AFS Client Admins". This group is used in
199 place of the "Administrators" group to determine which users are allowed
200 to modify the AFS Client Service configuration via either afs_config.exe
201 or fs.exe. For example, the following fs.exe commands are now restricted
202 to members of the "AFS Client Admin" group:
204 - checkservers with a non-zero timer value
207 - sysname with a new sysname list
216 Setting the default sysname for a machine should be done via the registry and
217 not via "fs sysname".
219 The local "SYSTEM" account is always a member of the "AFS Client Admin" group.
221 The initial membership of the "AFS Client Admin" group when created by the
222 installer is equivalent to the local "Administrators" group.
225 9. The AFS Client should support UNC paths everywhere. Power users that make
226 extensive use of the command line shell, cmd.exe, might want to consider using
227 JP Software's 4NT command processor. Unlike cmd.exe, 4NT does fully support
228 UNC paths and can use a UNC path as the default device.
231 10. The AFS Client ships with its own version of aklog.exe which should be
232 used in preference to those obtained by third party sources. The OpenAFS
233 aklog.exe supports Kerberos 5 as well as the ability to auto-generate
234 pts IDs for user's obtaining tokens to foreign cells.
236 Usage: aklog [-d] [[-cell | -c] cell [-k krb_realm]]
237 [[-p | -path] pathname]
241 -d gives debugging information.
242 krb_realm is the kerberos realm of a cell.
243 pathname is the name of a directory to which you wish to authenticate.
244 -noprdb means don't try to determine AFS ID.
245 -5 or -4 selects whether to use Kerberos V or Kerberos IV.
246 (default is Kerberos V)
247 No commandline arguments means authenticate to the local cell.
250 11. The AFS Server functionality provided with OpenAFS 1.3.72 might work but
251 should be considered highly experimental. It has not been thoroughly tested.
252 Any data which would cause pain if lost should not be stored in an OpenAFS
255 A few notes on the usage of the AFS Client Service if it is going to be
256 used with the OpenAFS AFS Server:
258 (a) When the AFS Server is installed Freelance mode must be turned off.
260 (b) The AFS Server and related tools only support the built in kaserver
261 (Kerberos IV). If the AFS Server is being used, MIT Kerberos for Windows
265 12. The OpenAFS for Windows installers now include Symbol information which
266 should be installed if you are experiencing problems and need to send crash
267 reports. This is true in both the release and the debug versions of the
268 installers. The differences between the release and debug versions are
269 whether or not the binaries were compiled with optimization; whether the
270 debug symbols are installed by default; and whether additional debug
271 statements were compiled into the binaries.
274 13. OpenAFS for Windows does not support files larger than 2GB.
277 14. Local RPC is used as the default RPC mechanism for setting
278 tokens. TCP RPC is required to be installed and is used for debugging
282 15. OpenAFS for Windows automatically open ports in the Windows
283 Internet Connection Firewall.
286 16. The OpenAFS for Windows installer by default activates a weak form of
287 encrypted data transfer between the AFS client and the AFS servers. This
288 is often referred to as "fcrypt" mode.
291 17. OpenAFS 1.3.71 adds support for authenticated SMB connections using
292 either NTLM or GSS SPNEGO (NTLM, Kerberos 5, ...). In previous versions
293 of OpenAFS the SMB connections were unauthenticated which left open the
294 door for several security holes which could be used to obtain access to
295 the use of other user's tokens on shared machines. With the introduction
296 of authenticated SMB connections the so called High Security mode should
299 When GSS SPNEGO results in a Kerberos 5 authentication, the Windows SMB
300 client will attempt to retrieve service tickets for "cifs/afs@REALM" (if
301 the loopback adapter is in use) or "cifs/machine-afs@REALM" (if the loopback
302 adapter is not being used). It is extremely important that this service
303 principal not exist in the KDC database. If the request for this ticket
304 fails, a subsequent request for "cifs/HOST$@REALM" will be issued. This
305 service principal should exist in the KDC database. The key associated
306 with this service principal must match the key assigned to
307 "host/machine@REALM". If the local machine is part of a Windows Domain
308 this will all be taken care of for you. If the local machine is using
309 a non-MS KDC for authentication, then your KDC administrator will have to
310 add these service principals to the list of principals to be maintained
314 18. As of 1.3.70, INI files are no longer used for the storage of AFS
315 configuration data. No longer are there any AFS related files stored in the
316 %WINDIR% directory. The CellServDB file is no longer called "afsdsbmt.ini"
317 and it is stored in the OpenAFS\Client directory. The afs_freelance.ini
318 and afsdsbmt.ini file data has been moved to the registry.
320 IMPORTANT: while the CellServDB file location and freelance mountpoint
321 data will be automatically migrated; there is no mechanism for automatic
322 migration of Submounts, Drive Mappings, Active Maps, and CSCPolicy data.
325 19. As of 1.3.70, the OpenAFS Client is compatible with Windows XP SP2
326 and Windows 2003 SP1. The Internet Connection Firewall will be
327 automatically adjusted to allow the receipt of incoming callback messages
328 from the AFS file server. In addition, the appropriate Back Connection
329 entries are added to the registry to allow SMB authentication to be
330 performed across the loopback connection.
333 20. As of 1.3.70, the OpenAFS Client Service supports the CIFS Remote
334 Admin Protocol which provides browsing of server and share information.
335 This significantly enhances the interoperability of AFS volumes within the
336 Explorer Shell and Microsoft Office applications.
339 21. OpenAFS will now automatically forget a user's tokens upon Logoff
340 unless the user's profile was loaded from an AFS volume. In this situation
341 there is no mechanism to determine when the profile has been successfully
342 written back to the network. It is therefore unsafe to release the user's
343 tokens. Whether or not the profile has been loaded from the registry can
344 be determined for Local Accounts, Active Directory accounts and NT4
348 22. Terminal Server installations.
349 When installing under Terminal Server, you must execute the NSIS installer
350 (.exe) from within the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel. Failure to do so
351 will result in AFS not running properly. The AFS Server should not
352 be installed on a machine with Terminal Server installed.
355 23. AFS is a Unix native file system. As such the OpenAFS client attempts
356 to treat the files stored in AFS as they would be on Unix. File and directory
357 names beginning with a "." are automatically given the Hidden attribute so
358 they will not normally be displayed.
361 24. Some organizations which have AFS cell names and Kerberos realm names
362 which differ by more then just lower and upper case rely on a modification
363 to krb524d which maps a Kerberos 5 ticket from realm FOO to a Kerberos 4
364 ticket in realm BAR. This allows user@FOO to appear to be user@bar for
365 the purposes of accessing the AFS cell. As of OpenAFS 1.2.8, support was
366 added to allow the immediate use of Kerberos 5 tickets as AFS (2b) tokens.
367 This is the first building block necessary to break away from the
368 limitations of Kerberos 4 with AFS. By using Kerberos 5 directly we
369 avoid the security holes inherent in Kerberos 4 cross-realm. We also
370 gain access to cryptographically stronger algorithms for authentication
373 Another reason for using Kerberos 5 directly is because the krb524 service
374 runs on a port (4444) which has become increasingly blocked by ISPs. The
375 port was used to spread a worm which attacked Microsoft Windows in the
376 summer of 2003. When the port is blocked users find that they are unable
379 Replacing the Kerberos 4 ticket with a Kerberos 5 ticket is a win in all
380 situations except when the cell name does not match the realm name and
381 the principal names placed into the ACLs are not the principal names from
382 the Kerberos 5 ticket. To support this transition, OpenAFS for Windows
383 in 1.3.72 adds a new registry value to force the use of krb524d. However,
384 the availability of this option should only be used by individuals until
385 such time as their organizations can provide a more permanent solution.
388 25. The Status Cache (AFS Config Control Panel: Advanced Page) is defined
389 to have a maximum number of entries. Each entry represents a single file
390 or directory entry accessed within the AFS file system. When the maximum
391 number of entries are allocated, entries will begin to be reused according
392 to a least recently used (LRU) algorithm. If the number of files or
393 directories being accessed repeatedly by your applications is greater then
394 the maximum number of entries, your host will begin to experience thrashing
395 of the Status Cache and all requests will result in network operations.
397 If you are experiencing poor performance you might want to increase the
398 maximum number of Status Cache entries. Each entry requires 164K. Only
399 those entries which are used are allocated.
402 26. "Netbios over TCP/IP" must be active on the machine in order for
403 communication with the AFS Client Service to succeed. If "Netbios over
404 TCP/IP" is disabled on the machine, then communication with the AFS Client
405 Service will be impossible.
408 27. The AFS Client Service and related binaries are digitally signed by
409 "Secure Endpoints Inc." beginning with the 1.3.7400 release of OpenAFS
410 for Windows. Starting in the 1.3.7500 release, the AFS Client Service
411 will perform a run-time verification check to ensure that all AFS related
412 DLLs loaded by the service match the same file version number and were
413 signed by the same entity. This check has been added to prevent the
414 stability problems caused by more then one version of AFS being installed
415 on a machine at the same time. Many hours of support time have been wasted
416 tracking down problems caused by the mixture of files from different
419 The registry.txt file documents the "VerifyServiceSignature" registry
420 value which can be used to disable the signature check. The file version
421 check cannot be disabled.
424 28. The maximum cache size is approximately 1.3GB. This is the largest
425 contiguous block of memory in the 2GB process address space which can be
426 used for the memory mapped file. Due to fragmentation of the process
427 spaced caused by the digital signature verification code, any attempt to
428 specify a cache size greater then 700MB will result in the automatic
429 disabling of the signature check.
432 29. OpenAFS for Windows implements an SMB server which is used as a
433 gateway to the AFS filesystem. Because of the use of SMB, Windows
434 stores all files into AFS using the OEM code pages such as CP437 (United
435 States) or CP850 (Western Europe). These code pages are incompatible
436 with the ISO Latin-1 character set typically used as a default on Unix
437 systems in both the United States and Western Europe. Filenames stored
438 by OpenAFS for Windows are therefore unreadable on Unix systems if they
439 include any of the following characters:
441 [Ç] 128 08/00 200 80 C cedilla
442 [ü] 129 08/01 201 81 u diaeresis
443 [é] 130 08/02 202 82 e acute
444 [â] 131 08/03 203 83 a circumflex
445 [ä] 132 08/04 204 84 a diaeresis
446 [à] 133 08/05 205 85 a grave
447 [å] 134 08/06 206 86 a ring
448 [ç] 135 08/07 207 87 c cedilla
449 [ê] 136 08/08 210 88 e circumflex
450 [ë] 137 08/09 211 89 e diaeresis
451 [è] 138 08/10 212 8A e grave
452 [ï] 139 08/11 213 8B i diaeresis
453 [î] 140 08/12 214 8C i circumflex
454 [ì] 141 08/13 215 8D i grave
455 [Ä] 142 08/14 216 8E A diaeresis
456 [Å] 143 08/15 217 8F A ring
457 [É] 144 09/00 220 90 E acute
458 [æ] 145 09/01 221 91 ae diphthong
459 [Æ] 146 09/02 222 92 AE diphthong
460 [ô] 147 09/03 223 93 o circumflex
461 [ö] 148 09/04 224 94 o diaeresis
462 [ò] 149 09/05 225 95 o grave
463 [û] 150 09/06 226 96 u circumflex
464 [ù] 151 09/07 227 97 u grave
465 [ÿ] 152 09/08 230 98 y diaeresis
466 [Ö] 153 09/09 231 99 O diaeresis
467 [Ü] 154 09/10 232 9A U diaeresis
468 [ø] 155 09/11 233 9B o slash
469 [£] 156 09/12 234 9C Pound sterling sign
470 [Ø] 157 09/13 235 9D O slash
471 [×] 158 09/14 236 9E Multiplication sign
472 [] 159 09/15 237 9F Florin sign
474 As of 1.3.75, a new registry value, HKLM\SOFTWARE\OpenAFS\Client
475 "StoreAnsiFilenames" can be set to instruct OpenAFS for Windows to store
476 filenames using the ANSI Code Page instead of the OEM Code Page. The ANSI
477 Code Page is a compatible superset of Latin-1. This setting is not the
478 default setting because making this change would prevent OpenAFS for Windows
479 from being able to access filenames containing the above characters which
480 were created without this setting.
483 30. There is a known issue with storing Windows Roaming Profiles when
484 the profile contains either directories or files with names which cannot
485 be represented in the local OEM character set. In this case, attempts
486 to write the profile back to AFS will fail. OpenAFS for Windows does
487 not currently support UNICODE. To avoid this problem some sites run
488 logoff scripts (assigned by group policy) which rename all files to use
489 only the supported characters for the locale.
493 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
497 Bug reports should be sent to openafs-bugs@openafs.org. Please include as
498 much information as possible about the issue. If you are reporting a crash,
499 please install the debugging symbols by re-running the installer. If a dump
500 file is available for the problem include it along with the AFS Client Trace
501 file %WINDIR%\TEMP\afsd.log. The AFS Client startup log is
502 %WINDIR%\TEMP\afsd_init.log. Send the last continuous block of log
503 information from this file.
505 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
507 How to Contribute to the Development of OpenAFS for Windows:
509 Contributions to the development of OpenAFS for Windows are needed.
510 Contributions may take many forms including cash donations, support contracts,
511 donated developer time, and even donated tech writer time.
513 If you wish to be involved in OpenAFS for Windows development please join the
514 openafs-win32-devel@openafs.org mailing list.
516 https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-win32-devel
518 User questions should be sent to the openafs-info@openafs.org mailing list.
520 https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-info
522 You must join mailing lists if you wish to post to the list without incurring