I am sure many AFS System Administrators, in preparation for Y2K, have
backed up their AFS data (either using AFS backups or another backup
product). I want to also recommend saving the AFS UBIK databases as a
standard backup practice: bdb.DB0, kaserver.DB0, prdb.DB0, and vldb.DB0.
The UBIK databases are replicated across a cell's database servers
making the loss of all databases extremely rare (of which I have never
known a case in the 8 years I have been at Transarc). I presented a talk
at 1998 Decorum titled "AFS Disaster Recovery" and would like to draw
your attention to it again.
Appended below is the UBIK database disaster recovery recommendations
that has recently been added to our web site. The page also contains a
pointer to the "AFS Disaster Recovery" paper.
- John Morin.
Advanced Member of Technical Staff
IBM Transarc
** Standard Disclaimer **
Transarc's Y2K page:
http://www.transarc.com/Support/afs/y2k.html
Transarc's disaster recovery procedures (shown below):
http://www.transarc.com/Support/afs/disaster.html
-------------------------------------------------
PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A GENERAL RECOMMENDATION FOR ANY DISASTER RECOVERY
PLAN, NOT SPECIFIC TO Y2K.
The UBIK databases (the heart of an AFS cell) should be saved along with
any backups of the cell's data. Saving the UBIK databases requires an
administrator to shut down the database servers on a single database
machine (preferably one that is not the sync site), copy the raw
database files on that machine "/usr/afs/db/*.DB0", start the database
servers, and then store/save (tar) the copied databases along with the
"/usr/afs/etc/" directory to tape.
Note that the information in these files contain security information,
especially the kaserver.DB0 file and KeyFile. All this information is
not used in a disaster/recovery scenario but it can be helpful.
How often you save the databases is up to the administrator (at least 2
or 3 times a week is recommended). For instance, saving the kaserver
once a week will mean that any users added, removed, or password/
attributes changed since the last save will be lost. The same is true
for the other databases.
