1.5.25 is the recommended production ready release of OpenAFS for
Microsoft Windows users.  It supports all Microsoft Windows operating
systems from Windows 2000 through Windows Vista including both 32-bit
and 64-bit architectures.  The 1.5.24 release continues the recent
efforts at optimizing the performance of the Windows client and
improving its scalability.

For UNIX, Linux, and MacOS X the recommend production ready release of
OpenAFS continues to be 1.4.4.  The 1.5.25 Windows client is fully
compatible with all AFS server versions.

Please visit http://www.openafs.org/windows.html for up to date
information on the status of the OpenAFS for Windows client.

Significant changes since 1.5.24 for all platforms:

 * several Demand Attach File Server bugs fixed

 * namei fileserver performs consistency checks on underlying metadata

 * namei fileserver performs fsync in the background

The Demand Attach File Server is a compile time option that produces a
file server that supports several new and important features:

  * an enhanced volume management library that supports:
    . lock-less I/O
    . on-demand attachment of volumes
    . parallel shutdown of the file server
    . on-line salvaging of volumes
    . automatic detachment of inactive volumes

 * a new salvageserver daemon which can salvage volumes on-demand

 * a modified bos and bosserver
    . fileserver state saving and restoration
      - host state
      - callback state

With the DAFS, shutdown and startup of the file server is significantly
faster.  Instead of salvaging a partition at a time, individual volumes
are salvaged in the background while volumes that do not need salvaging
are served by the fileserver to clients.  Volumes are attached on-demand
and detached when no longer required.  This reduces the number of
volumes that may require salvaging upon a restart.

The DAFS requires significant testing before it can be put into a
production release.  If your organization is willing to assist the
gatekeepers with testing this functionality, please contact us at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


For Microsoft Windows:

The 1.5.21 release was the last release that proved stable.  This
release has undergone new testing to ensure to the best of our ability
that all of the known issues have been addressed.

Since 1.5.21 there have been major improvements in a number of areas:

 * Up to 1MB of data can be transfered per remote procedure call
   instead of 128KB

 * Only dirty bytes are written to the file server instead of the
   entire dirty buffer.

 * Directory search improvements:
   - Changes to directories due to create, rename, or delete for
     files or directories are now locally stored.  This reduces
     the frequency with which directory information must be obtained
     from the file server.
   - When directories are searched, an in-memory B+ tree is
     constructed for the directory which can be used to perform
     directory lookups (both positive and negative) in less than
     1/1000th the time it takes to search the native AFS3 directory
     buffers.
   - Negative directory searches can be completed in the same time
     as positive hits.  No longer must the entire AFS3 directory
     be enumerated for each directory search that fails.
   For applications such as compilers or Java which have search paths
   that include AFS directories, this will be a major time savings.

 * Volumes callbacks no longer expire if the server that issued it
   is unreachable (RW) or if all servers with clones are unreachable
   (RO).  This permits applications executed from AFS to continue
   working after the network access has been dropped provided that
   all of the files the application requires are already in the cache.

 * AFS component names greater than 255 characters no longer cause
   the OAFW client service to crash.

 * PTS SuperGroups are now supported

 * The AFS Server Manager no longer crashes at random times

 * The 64-bit releases will support a 64-bit version of Kerberos for
   Windows when it is available.  (Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   if you wish to alpha test a 64-bit KFW build.)

 * For Vista, the AFS control Panel will now require Administrator
   privileges if executed under User Account Control restrictions.

 * Many issues related to files being deleted on the file server
   while they are actively in use by the OAFW client service have
   been fixed.

 * Improvements in the behavior of the AFS client after resuming
   from a suspend operation.


Known issues in the Windows client:
 * Beta versions of the Network Identity Manager AFS plug-in must
   be uninstalled prior to the installation of OpenAFS 1.5.25
 * Windows Vista does not support the old WinHelp file format used
   by afscreds.exe and afs_control.exe.
 * On Windows Vista, afscreds.exe is not User Account Control (UAC)
   compatible and must be "Run as Administrator" in order to
   start/stop the AFS client service.

Please send reports of successful deployments to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] and report problems to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Jeffrey Altman
for the OpenAFS Gatekeepers


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