OpenAFS
| Company type | Non-profit organization |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | May 20, 2013 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | OpenAFS software |
| Website | www |
OpenAFS represents an open-source version of the Andrew File System (AFS), a distributed file system initially created at Carnegie Mellon University and later commercialized by Transarc, which was subsequently acquired by IBM. In August 2000, IBM declared its intention to make their commercial AFS product available under the IBM Public License, resulting in the formation of OpenAFS. This software is compatible with a wide variety of operating systems, such as AIX, Mac OS X, Darwin, HP-UX, Irix, Solaris, Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, and NetBSD.
Foundation
The OpenAFS Foundation, a non-profit entity founded on May 20, 2013, is dedicated to maintaining the reliability and fostering the advancement of OpenAFS.
Governance
The management structure of the project is split between a board of elders, who oversee strategic planning, and gatekeepers, who control access to the source code repository.
Licensing
Although no single organization possesses ownership over the OpenAFS source code, IBM retains copyright on numerous files. The majority of the codebase is distributed under the IPL, with certain files governed by university-specific licenses. Complete licensing details are available within the LICENSE file located in the source repository.
Development
In recent years, developers have improved both the AFS3 protocol and its implementation while preserving compatibility with releases from IBM/Transarc. Notable enhancements include support for 64-bit architectures and Windows 7, compatibility with Apple Mac OS X versions 10.4 through 10.9, as well as the integration of a demand attach fileserver.
Current development efforts focus on:
- Object storage-based fileserver back-end
- Enhancements to the rxtcp protocol
- Security upgrades via rxgk
- Implementation of rxk5 authentication
- Development of an instrumentation framework
- Support for byte-range locking
Deployment
AFS is utilized by a broad spectrum of users, ranging from small-scale single-server environments to large multinational networks across academia, private research institutions, government agencies, and commercial enterprises. A sample directory of deployed AFS cells can be found in the CellServDB file distributed with OpenAFS.