Phi H. Truong writes:
> Couldn't you create a proxy service to perform various AFS admin service? For
> example a client, johndoe, issue:
>
> % release gnu.gcc
>
> which queries an afsadmind (proxy daemon) for "vos rel gnu.gcc". afsadmind
> then lookup its database (dbm, msql, ...) to check whether johndoe has the
> admin right to volume gnu.gcc and takes appropriate actions. afsadmind could
> fire-up a shell script to do vos rel and such (the machine IP, where afsadmind
> resided, should be in administrator group). This way you don't have to deal
> with the various AFS libraries and versions. The database should be ro for
> everyone and rw for cell admin. Anyway, that's the general idea.
That's what both ADM & sysctl do. Both are actually more programmable
than that. Instead of actually distributing out services piecemeal,
and expecting administrators to use it right, it's generally more
convenient to package up activites, such as "find a fileserver with sufficient
free space, create a volume, make an associated mount point, set acls and
a quota on the volume, & record ownership/billing information", so that
administrators can think merely in terms of "making a volume" and not
need to get all the details right (or have the chance to get it wrong.)
ADM is programmable in scheme, a lisp dialect. It probably
performs better, but with some penalty in terms of stability.
sysctl (if I remember right) instead uses shell scripts.
It would probably work just fine with perl & such as well.
That's obviously a convenience in terms of development.
-Marcus Watts
UM ITD PD&D Umich Systems Group
