Coda File System

Re: Short Coda realms primer

From: Mark Phalan <loop_at_netsoc.tcd.ie>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 02:35:54 +0000
On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 12:38:01PM -0500, Jan Harkes wrote:
 
> The current CVS code adds something that is often called 'realms' or
> 'cells'. A realm is an administrative domain, so it allows a Coda client
> to connect to multiple independent server groups. For instance,
> coda.cs.cmu.edu and coda.cs.wwu.edu do not share users or volumes but I
> can access them both and authenticate to either realm. You're not
> supposed to be able to create files in the root of /coda, that directory
> is filled in on the fly as different realms are accessed.
> ...

Thanks for the info on realms - they sound great!

> You can set a default realm in /etc/coda/venus.conf. This is really only
> used by clog and cunlog. Without a default realm entry, you have to
> specify the realm to authenticate to as follows 'clog <username>@<realm>'.


> Hmm, that is actually a typical indication that venus is not accepting
> upcalls from the kernel module. It probably crashed and is running in an
> infinite loop waiting for a debugger, check /usr/coda/etc or
> /var/log/coda for venus.log and venus.err files. I'd be interested to
> know why it died. The most likely cause is that you started the new
> venus without reinitializing RVM, the old data structures have a
> different layout and as such venus will crash as soon as it tries to
> look at an object, but then it shouldn't have gotten to the point of
> mounting /coda...

Coda is now working perfectly for me - and kerberos auth works just fine
too!
I'm not 100% sure what the problem I had before was though. I had installed
the CVS version of Coda cleanly, wiped the old files and re-ran vice-setup
and venus-setup so I can't imagine that the problem was the RVM.
I had a poke around the venus.conf file and noticed that the default realm
was in inverted commas like "phalanm.sre.tcd.ie". I got rid of the commas -
thats the only thing I can remember changing. Anyway after that it worked
perfectly. In hindsight though it can't have been that as I tried to
reproduce the error by putting the inverted commas back in - but it still
works. I can't think of anything else I changed!

The problem was definitely venus crashing.  I had a look at
/etc/coda/console and it said that venus was indeed waiting for a debugger.
It also listed an assertion failure. Unfortunately I didn't note down the
error.

I also had a look in the krb5 code as it was asking for my kerberos
password each time I tried to use clog. It always called kinit even if I
had the TGT. I've attached a one line patch to fix this.

Thanks for the help,
Mark.

> 
> Jan
> 



Received on 2003-01-18 21:46:05