Loading and Creating Client Files
| Chapter 4. Installing Additional Client Machines |

## Loading and Creating Client Files

If you are using a non-packaged distribution (that is, one provided as a tarball) you should now copy files from the istribution to the /usr/vice/etc directory. On some platforms that use a dynamic loader program to incorporate AFS modifications into the kernel, you have already copied over some the files. Copying them again does no harm.

Every AFS client machine has a copy of the /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell file on its local disk to define the machine's cell membership for the AFS client programs that run on it. Among other functions, this file determines the following:

- The cell in which users authenticate when they log onto the machine, assuming it is using an AFS-modified login utility

- The cell in which users authenticate by default when they issue the aklog command

- The cell membership of the AFS server processes that the AFS command interpreters on this machine contact by default

Similarly, the /usr/vice/etc/CellServDB file on a client machine's local disk lists the database server machines in each cell that the local Cache Manager can contact. If there is no entry in the file for a cell, or the list of database server machines is wrong, then users working on this machine cannot access the cell. The chapter in the OpenAFS Administration Guide about administering client machines explains how to maintain the file after creating it. A version of the client CellServDB file was created during the installation of your cell's first machine (in Creating the Client CellServDB File). It is probably also appropriate for use on this machine.

Remember that the Cache Manager consults the /usr/vice/etc/CellServDB file only at reboot, when it copies the information into the kernel. For the Cache Manager to perform properly, the CellServDB file must be accurate at all times. Refer to the chapter in the OpenAFS Administration Guide about administering client machines for instructions on updating this file, with or without rebooting.

1. If you have not already done so, unpack the distribution tarball for this machine's system type into a suitable location on the filesystem, such as /tmp/afsdist. If you use a different location, substitue that in the examples that follow.

2. Copy files to the local /usr/vice/etc directory.

   This step places a copy of the AFS initialization script (and related files, if applicable) into the /usr/vice/etc directory. In the preceding instructions for incorporating AFS into the kernel, you copied the script directly to the operating system's conventional location for initialization files. When you incorporate AFS into the machine's startup sequence in a later step, you can choose to link the two files.

   On some system types that use a dynamic kernel loader program, you previously copied AFS library files into a subdirectory of the /usr/vice/etc directory. On other system types, you copied the appropriate AFS library file directly to the directory where the operating system accesses it. The following commands do not copy or recopy the AFS library files into the /usr/vice/etc directory, because on some system types the library files consume a large amount of space. If you want to copy them, add the -r flag to the first cp command and skip the second cp command.

          # cd /cdrom/sysname/root.client/usr/vice/etc
          # cp -p  *  /usr/vice/etc
          # cp -rp  C  /usr/vice/etc

3. Create the /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell file.

          # echo "cellname" > /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell

4. Create the /usr/vice/etc/CellServDB file. Use a network file transfer program such as sftp or scp to copy it from one of the following sources, which are listed in decreasing order of preference:

   - Your cell's central CellServDB source file (the conventional location is /afs/`cellname`/common/etc/CellServDB)

   - The global CellServDB file maintained at grand.central.org

   - An existing client machine in your cell

   - The CellServDB.sample file included in the `sysname`/root.client/usr/vice/etc directory of each OpenAFS distribution; add an entry for the local cell by following the instructions in Creating the Client CellServDB File

Getting Started on Solaris Systems |  | Configuring the Cache