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Fermilab CD logo Complete Guide and Reference Manual for UPS, UPD and UPP v4

Chapter Contents

Chapter 13: Providing Access to AFS Products
  13.1 Overview
  13.2 Configuring a Local Database to Work With AFS
  13.3 Installing a Local Copy of CoreFUE
  13.4 Additional Steps for Unfamiliar Naming Conventions
  13.5 Updating /usr/local/bin to Access AFS Products

Chapter 13: Providing Access to AFS Products

This chapter describes how to provide access on your local machine to UPS products installed in AFS space.

13.1 Overview

Much of the information in this chapter is adapted from document number TN0091, Configuring a Local UPS Database (While Still Using the Centrally Supported AFS database), found on the Web at http://www.fnal.gov/docs/TN/tn0091.html.

To minimize duplicate effort in supporting software, a centrally-supported UPS database in AFS space is maintained by the product developers. Systems running AFS are encouraged to use the AFS UPS database for the majority of their software needs. However, there are cases where a local database is needed in addition to the AFS database (for locally maintained or developed software, different version requirements, and so on).

A system in AFS space does not need to run the bootstrap procedure documented in Chapter 14: Installing UPS and UPD from Bootstrap. UPS, UPD, and perl (these products together are referred to as CoreFUE) are already available to you via the UPS database in AFS space.

You can configure your system for a number of different options regarding AFS product availability:

Whether you want to maintain a local database or not, if you want access to the UPS products in AFS space, you need to update your /usr/local/bin area as shown in section 13.5 Updating /usr/local/bin to Access AFS Products.

For those of you who choose to maintain a local database, we recommend that you not install CoreFUE locally unless it is absolutely necessary. In most cases, the disadvantages (extra product maintenance responsibilities and a more complicated configuration) considerably outweigh the benefits (access to products when AFS is down and more flexibility in file naming conventions).

Note that the concepts discussed here are equally applicable to local UPS databases on machines in an NIS cluster with its own common NFS-mounted database. You must make suitable modification to the particular details, e.g., wherever you see /afs/fnal.gov/ups, replace it with the appropriate path to the NFS-mounted area, e.g., /fnal/ups.

13.2 Configuring a Local Database to Work With AFS

Please see document number TN0091, Configuring a Local UPS Database (While Still Using the Centrally Supported AFS database), found on the Web at http://www.fnal.gov/docs/TN/tn0091.html.

Here we describe how to configure your system to provide access both to locally installed products, declared in a local UPS database, and to products in the AFS-space UPS database.1 In this and following subsections, $PARENT_DIR refers to the local directory under which all the UPS database files and product files reside.

Note ahead of time that there are several local configurations preset in AFS space (i.e., the AFS $SETUP_DIR/upsdb_list file recognizes these locations). We recommend that you choose one of them. In fact, if the local database and products area are put in a non-preset location, then this scheme becomes much harder to implement without a local copy of UPS/UPD; see section 13.4 Additional Steps for Unfamiliar Naming Conventions. In general, the recommended directory under which all the UPS database files and product files reside ($PARENT_DIR) is:

/fnal/ups
the standard naming convention provided by several bootstrap configurations for product server nodes

Other preset configurations:

/local/ups
standard provided by the Fermi RedHat Linux bootstrap for satellite nodes
/usr/products
another popular naming convention
/usr/products/CMSUN1
standard for CMS local databases

13.3 Installing a Local Copy of CoreFUE

Recall that we discourage installing and maintaining CoreFUE locally when the machine is running AFS. The pros and cons are spelled out in document number TN0091, Configuring a Local UPS Database (While Still Using the Centrally Supported AFS database), found on the Web at http://www.fnal.gov/docs/TN/tn0091.html.

To install CoreFUE locally, first create and configure your local UPS database as outlined in section 13.2 Configuring a Local Database to Work With AFS. Use the AFS installation of UPD to install UPS, UPD and perl into the local database (yes, UPD can install itself elsewhere). Then, in your $SETUPS_DIR/upsdb_list file ($SETUPS_DIR is set in the dbconfig file), make sure that you include/activate the line:

/afs/fnal.gov/ups/db

A Note about Product Installation for this Configuration

Whenever you use UPD, set up the instance in the local database to ensure that it uses your local updconfig file by default. If you set up the AFS installation of UPD, you can use upd install -z /path/to/yourdb[:other-dbs] to make it use the local configuration.

13.4 Additional Steps for Unfamiliar Naming Conventions

Please see document number TN0091, Configuring a Local UPS Database (While Still Using the Centrally Supported AFS database), found on the Web at http://www.fnal.gov/docs/TN/tn0091.html.

13.5 Updating /usr/local/bin to Access AFS Products

Please see document number TN0091, Configuring a Local UPS Database (While Still Using the Centrally Supported AFS database), found on the Web at http://www.fnal.gov/docs/TN/tn0091.html.

1
The astute reader will notice that there are an infinite number of alternatives; the steps shown are, however, sufficient for most purposes.

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