At 09:14 PM 9/1/2006, Jeffrey Altman wrote:
I feel compelled to point out the fact that I have seen zero bug reports
saying that OpenAFS would not install or that the service would not
start (except on Windows Vista and that is because of bugs in Vista.)
Please forgive my knee-jerking and I admit that the problem is not as
overblown as I make things out to be. After being hassled by help desk
support, my mood isn't always good. In the last month I have been
called out on as little as two issues that have appeared with the client.
1. Apparently there is some issue with having the Windows client
computername longer than a certain length.
2. Apparently with the latest build 1.4.2fc2 the client service will
crash on startup.
I did not have time to perform any analysis of these problems. I fixed
issue 1 just by making the computername shorter. Issue 2 was fixed
after installing 1.4.1 over 1.4.2fc2 - twice. The first install over
1.4.2fc2 was done by our help desk. I personally wouldn't have done it
that way, thinking that 1.4.1 installer shouldn't know how to uninstall
a later version. And in fact this causes an issue with the AFS client
service not being completely removed. So I needed to re-install 1.4.1
one more time, hoping this problem would clear it up, and it did.
What we know about issue 2 is that the machine never had AFS on it
before. The machine was a brand new laptop with Windows XP SP2 and all
patches. The user simply downloaded1.4.2fc2 and installed it. Upon
reboot the service crashes. I did not actually see the crash, but was
advised of the crash dump by Windows that occurred. When I got to the
computer, the help desk person had already tried to remove 1.4.2fc2 by
installing 1.4.1.
This year has been a very complicated and exhausting year for me. I'm a
very tired tech worker in the IT industry. I love AFS and do want to
continue to support the OpenAFS group with testing, however I have been
too busy with other things lately to help out. I found that it has just
been too time consuming to keep up with every release of OpenAFS. The
time I have allotted for AFS testing and debugging is very small, if any
at all.
I'm also a little bit nervous with the fact that as AFS has improved
(performance and features), it also still retains some visible
instabilities; apparently not only in the client, but in the server
too. We have/are seeing strange issues after moving to 1.4.1. Issues
like...
1. Users apparently can't add their own permissions back after removing
them from their home volume. This worked in the past. (I think because
the user was the owner of the volume). It no longer works.
2. Volume replications can sometimes stall, or take longer than normal
periods of time, even if the replication is on the same server.
3. Moving a users volume from one server to another apparently causes
some issue with some clients not being able to access the volume.
4. Other anomalies which we got patches for from the OpenAFS group
since we upgraded to 1.4.1.
I don't have any good data on these issues yet. I don't have good time
to diagnose these problems. I mention them only as anecdotal problems.
Even if I can't do anything more about getting more information to you I
feel you should at least know something is not right. I guess I could
just keep my mouth closed.
Btw, now that it is on my mind, there is also a small cosmetic issue
with the afscreds tool drive mapper. After drives are mapped, the drive
mapping listing doesn't refresh unless you click to another tab, then
back to the drive mapper (not a show stopper in any way).
I don't have any good advice for how to proceed with testing. I perform
many tests when I'm ready to roll out a new client. I haven't been
testing lately because we decided not to upgrade the client this
summer. I need to gear up this fall for the next roll out. So I will
probably increase my testing later this month. Again time is short.
I'm working so hard these days just to stay a float that I've been
thinking my service in the IT industry is almost over. Managing OSs,
applications, and new technologies is just too complex these days.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand how other people in IT keep
up. Microsoft I blame the most for all my problems. Microsoft has
created an almost unmanageable working environment (OS and
applications). The toll to keep the beast running is just too high.
I'm about to give up and jump ship.
Rodney
