VOS

Section: AFS Command Reference (1)
Updated: OpenAFS
Index

NAME

vos - Introduction to the vos command suite

DESCRIPTION

The commands in the vos command suite are the administrative interfaceto the Volume Server and Volume Location (VL) Server. Systemadministrators use vos commands to create, move, delete, replicate,back up and examine volumes, among other operations. The VL Serverautomatically records in the Volume Location Database (VLDB) changes involume status and location that result from vos commands.

The operations invoked by most vos commands are idempotent, meaningthat if an operation is interrupted by a network, server machine, orprocess outage, then a subsequent attempt at the same operation continuesfrom the interruption point, rather than starting over at the beginning ofthe operation. Before executing a command, the Volume and VL Servers checkthe current state of the volumes and VLDB records to be altered by thecommand. If they are already in the desired end state (or a consistentintermediate state), there is no need to repeat the internal steps thatbrought them there. Idempotency does not apply if the command issuerexplicitly interrupts the operation with the Ctrl-C command or anotherinterrupt signal. In that case, the volume is left locked and theadministrator must use the vos unlock command to unlock it beforeproceeding.

It is important that the VLDB accurately indicate the status of thevolumes on file server machines at all times. the vldb.DB0(5) manpage andthe afs_volume_header(5) manpage describe the information recorded in the VLDB andvolume headers, respectively. If a vos command changes volume status,it automatically records the change in the corresponding VLDB entry. Themost common cause of discrepancies between the VLDB and volume status onfile 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, vosbackupsys, vos changeloc, vos create, vos move, and vosrename.
*: Commands to remove VLDB volume records or volumes or both: vosdelentry, vos remove, and vos zap.
*: Commands to edit or display VLDB server entries: vos changeaddr andvos listaddrs.
*: Commands to create, size, and restore dump files: vos dump, vosrestore, 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: voslistpart and vos partinfo.
*: Commands to restore consistency between the VLDB and volume headers: vossyncserv and vos syncvldb.
*: Commands to lock and unlock VLDB entries: vos lock, vos unlock, andvos unlockvldb.
*: A command to report Volume Server status: vos status.
*: Commands to obtain help: vos apropos and vos help.

OPTIONS

The following arguments and flags are available on many commands in thebos suite. The reference page for each command also lists them, butthey are described here in greater detail.

-cell <cell name>

Names the cell in which to run the command. It is acceptable to abbreviatethe cell name to the shortest form that distinguishes it from the otherentries in the /usr/vice/etc/CellServDB file on the local machine. Ifthe -cell argument is omitted, the command interpreter determines thename of the local cell by reading the following in order:

*

The value of the AFSCELL environment variable.

*

The local /usr/vice/etc/ThisCell file.

Do not combine the -cell and -localauth options. A command on whichthe -localauth flag is included always runs in the local cell (asdefined in the server machine's local /usr/afs/etc/ThisCell file),whereas a command on which the -cell argument is included runs in thespecified foreign cell.

-help

Prints a command's online help message on the standard output stream. Donot combine this flag with any of the command's other options; when it isprovided, the command interpreter ignores all other options, and onlyprints the help message.

-localauth

Constructs a server ticket using the server encryption key with thehighest key version number in the local /usr/afs/etc/KeyFile file. Thevos command interpreter presents the ticket, which never expires, tothe Volume Server and VL Server during mutual authentication.

Use this flag only when issuing a command on a server machine; clientmachines do not usually have a /usr/afs/etc/KeyFile file. The issuerof a command that includes this flag must be logged on to the servermachine as the local superuser root. The flag is useful for commandsinvoked by an unattended application program, such as a process controlledby the UNIX cron utility or by a cron entry in the machine's/usr/afs/local/BosConfig file. It is also useful if an administrator isunable to authenticate to AFS but is logged in as the local superuserroot.

-noauth

Establishes an unauthenticated connection to the Volume Server and VLServer, in which the servers treat the issuer as the unprivileged useranonymous. It is useful only when authorization checking is disabled onthe server machine (during the installation of a file server machine orwhen the bos setauth command has been used during other unusualcircumstances). In normal circumstances, the servers allow only privilegedusers 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 isprovided. 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 listinformation. The vos command interpreter accepts any of the followingfour 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 movecommand also accept this notation.

-server <machine name>

Identifies the file server machine that houses, or is to house, thevolumes or AFS server partitions of interest. Provide the machine's IPaddress in dotted decimal format, its fully qualified host name (forexample, fs1.abc.com), or the shortest abbreviated form of its hostname that distinguishes it from other machines. Successful use of anabbreviated form depends on the availability of a name resolution service(such as the Domain Name Service or a local host table) at the time thecommand is issued.

The -fromserver and -toserver arguments to the vos move commandalso accept these name formats.

-verbose

Produces on the standard output stream a detailed trace of the command'sexecution. If this argument is omitted, only warnings and error messagesappear.

PRIVILEGE REQUIRED

To issue most vos commands, the issuer must be listed in the/usr/afs/etc/UserList file on each server machine that houses or is tohouse an affected volume, and on each database server machine. The mostpredictable performance results if all database server and file servermachines in the cell share a common UserList file. Alternatively, ifthe -localauth flag is included, the issuer must be logged on to aserver machine as the local superuser root.

To issue a vos command that only displays information, no privilege isrequired.

COPYRIGHT

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It wasconverted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and RussAllbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

This document was created byman2html,using the manual pages.