Using OpenAFSThis chapter explains how to perform four basic AFS tasks: logging in and authenticating with AFS, ending an AFS session,
accessing the AFS filespace, and changing your password.Logging in and Authenticating with AFSTo access the AFS filespace as an authenticated user, you must both log into an AFS client machine's local (UNIX) file
system and authenticate with AFS. When you log in, you establish your local system identity. When you authenticate, you prove
your identity to AFS and obtain a token, which your Cache Manager uses to prove your authenticated status to the AFS server
processes it contacts on your behalf. Users who are not authenticated (who do not have a token) have limited access to AFS
directories and files.Logging Inlogging inlogin utilitycommandsloginOn machines that use AFS enabled PAM modules with their login utility, you log in and authenticate in one step. On machines that do not use
an AFS enabled PAM modules, you log in and authenticate in separate steps. To determine which type of login configuration your
machine uses, you can check for AFS tokens after logging in, or ask your system administrator, who can also tell you about any
differences between your login procedure and the two methods described here.To Log In Using an AFS enabled PAM moduleProvide your username at the login: prompt that appears when you establish a new
connection to a machine. Then provide your password at the Password: prompt as shown in the
following example. (Your password does not echo visibly on the screen.)
login: username
Password: passwordIf you are not sure which type of login utility is running on your machine, it is best to issue the tokens command to check if you are authenticated; for instructions, see To
Display Your Tokens. If you do not have tokens, issue the kinit/aklog command pair as described in
To Authenticate with AFS.To Log In Using a Two-Step Login ProcedureIf your machine does not use AFS enabled PAM modules, you must perform a two-step procedure:
Log in to your client machine's local file system by providing a user name and password at the login program's prompts.Issue the kinit command to authenticate with kerberos and
obtain a ticket granting ticket ( or TGT).
% kinit
Password: your_Kerberos_passwordIssue the aklog command to obtain an AFS token using your TGT.
% aklogOn systems with an AFS enabled kinit program, the kinit program can be configured to run the aklog
program for you by default, but running it again has no negative side effects.If your machine uses a two-step login procedure, you can choose to use different passwords for logging in and
authenticating.Authenticating with AFSTo work most effectively in the AFS filespace, you must authenticate with AFS. When you do, your Cache Manager is given
a token as proof of your authenticated status. It uses your token when requesting services from AFS servers, which accept the
token as proof of your authenticated status. If you do not have a token, AFS servers consider you to be the anonymous user and your access to AFS filespace is limited: you have only the ACL permissions granted
to the system:anyuser group. authenticationtokens as prooftokensas proof of authenticationCache Managertokens, use ofYou can obtain new tokens (reauthenticate) at any time, even after using an AFS enabled login utility, which logs you
in and authenticates you in one step. Issue the aklog command as described in To Authenticate with AFS. If your kerberos TGT has expired, you will also need to use the kinit command.Protecting Your Tokens with a PAGTo make your access to AFS as secure as possible, it is best to associate your tokens with a unique identification
number called a PAG (for process authentication group).
PAGprocess authentication group (PAG)setpag argument to klog command
AFS enabled login utilities automatically create a PAG and associate the new
token with it. To create a PAG when you use the two-step login procedure, include the aklog
command's -setpag flag. If you do not use this flag, your tokens are associated with your
UNIX UID number instead. This type of association has two potential drawbacks:
Anyone who can assume your local UNIX identity can use your tokens. The local superuser root can always use the UNIX su command to assume your UNIX UID,
even without knowing your password.In some environments, certain programs cannot use your tokens even when it is appropriate for them to do so. For
example, printing commands such as lp or lpr possibly
cannot access the files you want to print, because they cannot use your tokens.Obtaining Tokens For Foreign Cellsauthenticationin a foreign cellA token is valid only in one cell (the cell whose AFS authentication service issued it). The AFS server processes in
any other cell consider you to be the anonymous user unless you have an account in the cell
and authenticate with its AFS authentication service.To obtain tokens in a foreign cell, you must first obtain a kerberos TGT for the realm used to authenticate for that cell.
Unfortunately, while AFS tokens have support for multi-realm credentials, most kerberos implementations don't handle this as
gracefully. You can control where kerberos stores it's credentials by using the ENV variable KRB5CCNAME.
If you want to get a token for a foreign cell, without destroying the kerberos credentials of your current session, you
need to follow this sequence of commands.
env KRB5CCNAME=/tmp/test.ticket kinit user@REMOTE.REALM
env KRB5CCNAME=/tmp/test.ticket aklog -c remote.realm -k REMOTE.REALM
It's probably a good idea to remove the TGT from the remote realm after doing this. For kerberos implementations that don't use
file based ticket caches ( Mac OS X, Windows), you will need to use the graphic kerberos ticket manager included in the OS to
switch kerberos identities.
You can have tokens for your home cell and one or more foreign cells at the same
time.The One-Token-Per-Cell RuleYou can have only one token per cell for each PAG you have obtained on a client machine. If you already have a token
for a particular cell and issue the aklog command, the new token overwrites the existing
one. Getting a new token is useful if your current token is almost expired but you want to continue accessing AFS files. For
a discussion of token expiration, see Token Lifetime.To obtain a second token for the same cell, you need to run a process in a different PAG. OpenAFS provides the pagsh command to start a new shell in with a different PAG. You will then need to authenticate as described in To Authenticate with AFS.
Obtaining Tokens as Another Userauthenticationas another userYou can authenticate as another username if you know the associated password. (It is, of course, unethical to use
someone else's tokens without permission.) If you use the kinit and
aklog commands to authenticate as
another Kerberos username and obtain an AFS token, you retain your own local (UNIX) identity, but the AFS
server processes recognize you as the other user. The new token replaces any token you already have for the
relevant cell (for the reason described in The One-Token-Per-Cell Rule).Token Lifetimetokenslifetimelifetime of tokensTokens and Kerberos TGT's have a limited lifetime. To determine when your tokens expire, issue the tokens command as described in To Display Your Tokens. If you are ever
unable to access AFS in a way that you normally can, issuing the tokens command tells you
whether an expired token is a possible reason.Your cell's kerberos administrators set the default lifetime of your kerberos TGT. The AFS authentication service never grants a token
lifetime longer than the current TGT lifetime, but you can request a TGT with a shorter lifetime. See the kinit man page on your system to learn how to use
its -lifetime argument for this purpose.To Authenticate with AFSaklog commandkinit commandcommandsaklogcommandskinittokensgettingIf your machine is not using an AFS enabled login utility, you must authenticate after login by issuing the kinit command and then use aklog to obtain a token. You can also
issue these commands at any time to obtain a token with a later expiration
date than your current token.
% kinit [userid@KRB5.REALM]
Password: your_kerberos_passwordwhere
userid@KRB5.REALMis the kerberos userid and realm that you want to get a TGT from. If the machine is properly configured
for your local cell and realm, you should not need to specify the kerberos identity.Your password does not echo visibly appear on the screen. When the command shell prompt returns,
you have a kerberos TGT. You then need to use the aklog command to
obtain an AFS token.
% aklog [-cell afs.cell.name] [-k KRB5.REALM]
where
KRB5.REALMis the kerberos realm used to authenticate the AFS cell.afs.cell.nameis the AFS cell for which you want a token.You can use the tokens command to verify that you are authenticated,
as described in the following section.A Note on Kerberos Realms and AFS CellnamesThese are two things that are often the same, but each has it's own distinct rules.
By convention, kerberos realms are always in UPPER CASE and afs cellnames are in lower case.
Thus username@KRB5.REALM is the kerberos identity used for the AFS cell krb5.realm. There is
no restriction that the cell and realm names must match, but most sites are set up that way
to avoid confusion. In a well configured system you should never need worry about this until
you need to access remote realms/cells.To Display Your TokenscheckingtokenscommandstokenstokenscommandtokensdisplayingdisplayingtokensUse the tokens command to display your tokens.
% tokensThe following output indicates that you have no tokens:
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
--End of list--
If you have one or more tokens, the output looks something like the following example, in which the tokens for AFS UID
1022 in the example.com cell expire on August 3 at 2:35 p.m. The tokens for AFS UID 9554 in the
example.org cell expire on August 4 at 1:02 a.m.
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 1022) tokens for afs@example.com [Expires Aug 3 14:35]
User's (AFS ID 9554) tokens for afs@example.org [Expires Aug 4 1:02]
--End of list--
Example: Authenticating in the Local CellexamplesauthenticatingSuppose that user terry cannot save a file. He uses the tokens command and finds that his tokens have expired. He reauthenticates in his local cell under his
current identity by issuing the following commands:
% kinit
Password: terry's_password
% aklogThe he issues the tokens command to make sure he is authenticated.
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 4562) tokens for afs@example.com [Expires Jun 22 14:35]
--End of list--
Example: Authenticating as a Another Userexamplesauthenticating as another userNow terry authenticates in his local cell as another user, pat. The new token replaces terry's existing token, because the Cache
Manager can store only one token per cell per login session on a machine.
% kinit pat
Password: pat's_password
% aklog
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 4278) tokens for afs@example.com [Expires Jun 23 9:46]
--End of list--
Example: Authenticating in a Foreign Cellexamplesauthenticating in a foreign cellNow terry authenticates in the example.org cell where
his account is called ts09.
% env KRB5CCNAME=/tmp/temp.tgt kinit ts09@EXAMPLE.ORG
Password: ts09's_password
% env KRB5CCNAME=/tmp/temp.tgt aklog ts09 -cell example.org
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 4562) tokens for afs@example.com [Expires Jun 22 14:35]
User's (AFS ID 8346) tokens for afs@example.org [Expires Jun 23 1:02]
--End of list--
Exiting an AFS Sessiontokensdestroyingunauthenticatingexiting an AFS sessionlogging outquitting an AFS sessionBecause logging in and authenticating with AFS are distinct operations, you must both logout and unauthenticate (issue the
unlog command to discard your tokens) when exiting an AFS session. Simply logging out does not
necessarily destroy your tokens.You can use the unlog command any time you want to unauthenticate, not just when logging
out. For instance, it is a good practice to unauthenticate before leaving your machine unattended, to prevent other users from
using your tokens during your absence. When you return to your machine, issue the aklog command
to reauthenticate, as described in To Authenticate with AFS.Do not issue the unlog command when you are running jobs that take a long time to
complete, even if you are logging out. Such processes must have a token during the entire time they need authenticated access to
AFS.If you have tokens from multiple cells and want to discard only some of them, include the unlog command's -cell argument.To Discard Tokenscommandsunlogunlog commandIssue the unlog command to discard your tokens:
% unlog -cell <cell name>+Omit the -cell argument to discard all of your tokens, or use it to name each cell for
which to discard tokens. It is best to provide the full name of each cell (such as example.org
or example.com).You can issue the tokens command to verify that your tokens were destroyed, as in the
following example.
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
--End of list--
Example: Unauthenticating from a Specific Cellexamplesunauthenticating from selected cellsIn the following example, a user has tokens in both the accounting and marketing cells at her company. She discards the token for the acctg.example.com cell but keeps the token for the mktg.example.com
cell.
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 35) tokens for afs@acctg.example.com [Expires Nov 10 22:30]
User's (AFS ID 674) tokens for afs@mktg.example.com [Expires Nov 10 18:44]
--End of list--
% unlog -cell acctg.example.com
% tokens
Tokens held by the Cache Manager:
User's (AFS ID 674) tokens for afs@mktg.example.com [Expires Nov 10 18:44]
--End of list--
To Log OutAfter you have unauthenticated, log out by issuing the command appropriate for your machine type, which is possibly one
of the following.
% logoutor
% exitor
% <Ctrl-d>
Accessing the AFS Filespacefilesaccessing AFSdirectoriesaccessing AFSWhile you are logged in and authenticated, you can access files in AFS just as you do in the UNIX file system. The only
difference is that you can access potentially many more files. Just as in the UNIX file system, you can only access those files
for which you have permission. AFS uses access control lists (ACLs) to control access, as described in Protecting Your Directories and Files.AFS PathnamespathnamesAFS pathnames look very similar to UNIX file system names. The main difference is that every AFS pathname begins with
the AFS root directory, which is called /afs by convention. Having /afs at the top of every AFS cell's filespace links together their filespaces into a global filespace.
AFSaccessing filespaceaccess to AFS filespaceformat of pathnamesafs (/afs) directoryas root of AFS filespaceformat of AFS pathnamesNote for Windows users: Windows uses a backslash ( \ ) rather than a forward slash ( / ) to separate the
elements in a pathname. Otherwise, your access to AFS filespace is much the same as for users working on UNIX machines.The second element in AFS pathnames is generally a cell's name. For example, the Example Corporation cell is called
example.com and the pathname of every file in its filespace begins with the string /afs/example.com. Some cells also create a directory at the second level with a shortened name (such as
example for example.com or testcell
for testcell.example.org), to reduce the amount of typing necessary. Your system administrator can tell
you if your cell's filespace includes shortened names like this. The rest of the pathname depends on how the cell's
administrators organized its filespace.To access directories and files in AFS you must both specify the correct pathname and have the required permissions on
the ACL that protects the directory and the files in it.Example: Displaying the Contents of Another User's DirectoryThe user terry wants to look for a file belonging to another user, pat. He issues the ls command on the appropriate pathname.
% ls /afs/example.com/usr/pat/public
doc/ directions/
guide/ jokes/
library/
Accessing Foreign Cellsforeign cellsaccessingsystem:anyuser groupcontrolling access by foreign usersYou can access files not only in your own cell, but in any AFS cell that you can reach via the network, regardless of
geographical location. There are two additional requirements:
Your Cache Manager's list of foreign cells must include the cell you want to access. Only the local superuser
root can edit the list of cells, but anyone can display it. See Determining Access to Foreign Cells.The ACL on the directory that houses the file, and on every parent directory in the pathname, must grant you the
necessary permissions. The simplest way for the directory's owner to extend permission to foreign users is to put an entry
for the system:anyuser group on the ACL.The alternative is for the foreign cell's administrator to create an account for you, essentially making you a local
user in the cell. The directory's owner creates an ACL entry for you as for any other local user. To authenticate in the
foreign cell, issue the aklog command with the -cell
argument.For further discussion of directory and file protection, see Protecting Your Directories and
Files.Changing Your PasswordIn cells that use an AFS and kerberos enabled login utility, the password is the same for both logging in and authenticating with AFS.
In this case, generally you use a single command, kpasswd, to change the password. But this may vary from system to system, if in doubt contact your local system administrator.If your machine does not use an AFS and kerberos enabled login utility, there are separate passwords for logging into the local file
system and authenticating with AFS. (The two passwords can be the same or different, at your discretion.) In this case, use the
kpasswd command to change your Kerberos password and the UNIX passwd command to change your UNIX password.