[503] in Info-AFS_Redistribution
Req for improvement of AFS 3
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sven Tafvelin)
Fri Dec 20 13:36:08 1991
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 91 16:34:14 GMT
From: Sven Tafvelin <tafvelin@ce.chalmers.se>
To: Info-AFS@transarc.com
Cc: bernerus@utc.chalmers.se, ostholm@ce.chalmers.se, tafvelin@ce.chalmers.se,
REQUEST FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN AFS 3
Background:
At Chalmers University of Technology we have been using AFS already for
some years. We have been using AFS-3 since September 1990 and we have
been running a small number of cells.
We have had a cell for testing purposes with a host undis-o.cs.chalmers.se
(129.16.2.22) as fileserver. The cell was eliminated in November, AFSinfo
was informed and even the machine itself was reassigned a new name
and a new IP number.
Problem:
The elimination of the cell is reflected in the current valid CellServDB
but there are still a number of machines out there trying to reach the
cell at the old IP number. The estimate is that we are still (one month later)
getting a few thousand of attempts each hour.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
We believe that there are at least two problems:
1) AFS is storing the IP numbers internally with no aging och replacement
mechanism.
2) There are too many AFS machines which don't replace their CellServDB
and take appropriate action on the changes reflected there.
As far as we can understand we have no method of getting rid of the
completely unneccessary traffic on our network. This is causing us
embarrassement.
Proposed solution:
All these problems are already addressed and solved by the ordinary Domain
Name Service mechanism. Why not introduce the cell info into the DNS and
let the AFS machines find the servers that way obeying the usual
Time-To-Live rules for the info.
This makes changes to propagate in an orderly fashion throughout the
world and AFS machines to forget and refetch cell info and that way
learning about changes.
I need this change in AFS as soon as possible.
Sven Tafvelin
