HEPcustomized AFS Client for WNT Giuseppe'Palumbocaspur'it

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HEP-customized AFS Client for WNTGiuseppe.Palumbo
_at_caspur.it
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Background

• One of the goals of our GENTES project is to
  provide the common authentication and common
  filestore for UNIX and WNT workstations.
• AFS presents itself as an excellent means to
  fulfill this task.

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Existing solution for common authentication comes
from the University of Notre Dame

• The team led by Gary L. Dobbins substituted the
  standard WNT authentication with that of AFS.
• They have used the Microsoft login extension
  mechanism, MS_GINA.

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We were however missing certain things...

• In particular, we missed the home directory
  mapping to a predefined disk letter ("P" in our
  case).
• We also wanted to make sure that any
  customization the user does for standard MS tools
  during his session survives between sessions.
• And we needed a clean installation procedure

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Results

• So we have built an installable InstallShield
  binary, where we have mixed
• - Official Transarc AFS Client for WNT.
• - ND_GINA authentication extensions.
• - Our customization of user environment.

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More detail

• Once installed, our product allows for NT login
  of any user with valid AFS credentials.
• The user's home directory is mapped to the "P"
  disk
• P /afs/ltcellnamegt/user/ltone-letter-prefixgt/use
  rname
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER WNT registry key is saved to
  username/.ntprofile subdirectory, this allows to
  preserve user's preferences and applications'
  settings between sessions.

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Product availability

• 1. To be able to use this product, the site
  should legally possess a valid AFS/NT Client
  License.
• 2. On the top, as Prof. G. Dobbins asked us not
  to diffuse the ND_GINA technology outside CASPUR,
  the interested site should first contact him and
  get his distribution kit.
• Once a site is in conformity with both these
  requirements, we'll be happy to pass our
  customized client to them.

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References

• ND_gina
• http//www.nd.edu/dobbins/ntarch/nd_gina_doc.htm
  l
• Gary Dobbins ltdobbins_at_nd.edugt
• Director, Platforms
• University of Notre Dame
• Office of Information Technologies
• GENTES Home Page http//www.gentes.uniroma1.
  it/Info/info.html