The commands in the vos command suite are the administrative interface
to the Volume Server and Volume Location (VL) Server. System
administrators use vos commands to create, move, delete, replicate,
back up and examine volumes, among other operations. The VL Server
automatically records in the Volume Location Database (VLDB) changes in
volume status and location that result from vos commands.
The operations invoked by most vos commands are idempotent, meaning
that if an operation is interrupted by a network, server machine, or
process outage, then a subsequent attempt at the same operation continues
from the interruption point, rather than starting over at the beginning of
the operation. Before executing a command, the Volume and VL Servers check
the current state of the volumes and VLDB records to be altered by the
command. If they are already in the desired end state (or a consistent
intermediate state), there is no need to repeat the internal steps that
brought them there. Idempotency does not apply if the command issuer
explicitly interrupts the operation with the Ctrl-C command or another
interrupt signal. In that case, the volume is left locked and the
administrator must use the vos unlock command to unlock it before
proceeding.
It is important that the VLDB accurately indicate the status of the
volumes on file server machines at all times. vldb.DB0(5) and
afs_volume_header(5) describe the information recorded in the VLDB and
volume headers, respectively. If a vos command changes volume status,
it automatically records the change in the corresponding VLDB entry. The
most common cause of discrepancies between the VLDB and volume status on
file server machines is interrupted operations; to restore consistency,
use the vos syncserv and vos syncvldb commands.
There are several categories of commands in the vos command suite:
•
Commands to create, move, and rename volumes: vos backup, vos
backupsys, vos changeloc, vos create, vos move, and vos
rename.
•
Commands to remove VLDB volume records or volumes or both: vos
delentry, vos remove, and vos zap.
•
Commands to edit or display VLDB server entries: vos changeaddr and
vos listaddrs.
•
Commands to create, size, and restore dump files: vos dump, vos
restore, and vos size.
•
Commands to administer replicated volumes: vos addsite, vos release,
and vos remsite.
•
Commands to display VLDB records, volume headers, or both: vos examine,
vos listvldb, and vos listvol.
•
Commands to display information about partitions that house volumes: vos
listpart and vos partinfo.
•
Commands to restore consistency between the VLDB and volume headers: vos
syncserv and vos syncvldb.
•
Commands to lock and unlock VLDB entries: vos lock, vos unlock, and
vos unlockvldb.
•
A command to report Volume Server status: vos status.
•
A command to change volume fields: vos setfields.
•
Commands to obtain help: vos apropos and vos help.
CAUTIONS
Currently, the maximum size of a volume is 2 terabytes (2^31 bytes)
and the maximum size of a /vicepX partition on a fileserver is also 2
terabytes. The fileserver will not report an error when it has access
to a partition larger than 2 terabytes, but it will probably fail if
the administrator attempts to use more than 2 terabytes of space. In
addition, there are reports of erroneous disk usage numbers when
vos partinfo or other OpenAFS disk reporting tools are used with
partitions larger than 2 terabytes.
OPTIONS
The following arguments and flags are available on many commands in the
bos suite. The reference page for each command also lists them, but
they are described here in greater detail.
-cell <cell name>
Names the cell in which to run the command. It is acceptable to abbreviate
the cell name to the shortest form that distinguishes it from the other
entries in the /etc/openafs/CellServDB file on the local machine. If
the -cell argument is omitted, the command interpreter determines the
name of the local cell by reading the following in order:
•
The value of the AFSCELL environment variable.
•
The local /etc/openafs/ThisCell file.
Do not combine the -cell and -localauth options. A command on which
the -localauth flag is included always runs in the local cell (as
defined in the server machine's local /etc/openafs/server/ThisCell file),
whereas a command on which the -cell argument is included runs in the
specified foreign cell.
-help
Prints a command's online help message on the standard output stream. Do
not combine this flag with any of the command's other options; when it is
provided, the command interpreter ignores all other options, and only
prints the help message.
-localauth
Constructs a server ticket using the server encryption key with the
highest key version number in the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. The
vos command interpreter presents the ticket, which never expires, to
the Volume Server and VL Server during mutual authentication.
Use this flag only when issuing a command on a server machine; client
machines do not usually have a /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. The issuer
of a command that includes this flag must be logged on to the server
machine as the local superuser "root". The flag is useful for commands
invoked by an unattended application program, such as a process controlled
by the UNIX cron utility or by a cron entry in the machine's
/etc/openafs/BosConfig file. It is also useful if an administrator is
unable to authenticate to AFS but is logged in as the local superuser
root.
Do not combine the -cell and -localauth options. A command on which
the -localauth flag is included always runs in the local cell (as
defined in the server machine's local /etc/openafs/server/ThisCell file),
whereas a command on which the -cell argument is included runs in the
specified foreign cell. Also, do not combine the -localauth and
-noauth flags.
-noauth
Establishes an unauthenticated connection to the Volume Server and VL
Server, in which the servers treat the issuer as the unprivileged user
"anonymous". It is useful only when authorization checking is disabled on
the server machine (during the installation of a file server machine or
when the bos setauth command has been used during other unusual
circumstances). In normal circumstances, the servers allow only privileged
users to issue commands that change the status of a volume or VLDB record,
and refuses to perform such an action even if the -noauth flag is
provided. Do not combine the -noauth and -localauth flags.
-partition <partition name>
Identifies the AFS server partition on a file server machine that houses,
or is to house, the volumes of interest, or about which to list
information. The vos command interpreter accepts any of the following
four name formats:
/vicepa = vicepa = a = 0
/vicepb = vicepb = b = 1
After /vicepz (for which the index is 25) comes
/vicepaa = vicepaa = aa = 26
/vicepab = vicepab = ab = 27
and so on through
/vicepiv = vicepiv = iv = 255
The -frompartition and -topartition arguments to the vos move
command also accept this notation.
-server <machine name>
Identifies the file server machine that houses, or is to house, the
volumes or AFS server partitions of interest. Provide the machine's IP
address in dotted decimal format, its fully qualified host name (for
example, "fs1.abc.com"), or the shortest abbreviated form of its host
name that distinguishes it from other machines. Successful use of an
abbreviated form depends on the availability of a name resolution service
(such as the Domain Name Service or a local host table) at the time the
command is issued.
The -fromserver and -toserver arguments to the vos move command
also accept these name formats.
-noresolve
Shows all servers as IP addresses instead of the DNS name. This is very
useful when the server address is registered as 127.0.0.1 or when dealing
with multi-homed servers. The -noresolve option is available in OpenAFS
versions 1.4.8 or later and 1.5.35 or later.
-verbose
Produces on the standard output stream a detailed trace of the command's
execution. If this argument is omitted, only warnings and error messages
appear.
PRIVILEGE REQUIRED
To issue most vos commands, the issuer must be listed in the
/etc/openafs/server/UserList file on each server machine that houses or is to
house an affected volume, and on each database server machine. The most
predictable performance results if all database server and file server
machines in the cell share a common UserList file. Alternatively, if
the -localauth flag is included, the issuer must be logged on to a
server machine as the local superuser "root".
To issue a vos command that only displays information, no privilege is
required.
This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was
converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ
Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.