NFS Fileserver Juno Has Failed

What happened

On July 19, 1999 the NFS fileserver Juno started failing. It was diagnosed with multiple SCSI bus failures and disk failures. Two disks could not be revived and were restored from backup. Juno then stayed up overnight but then crashed again the next morning and could not be brought up again.

Juno is one of the oldest UNIX machines at SLAC, and SCS has been trying to phase it out for the past year. All system directories had already been moved off, and we were working on the home and group directories that remained.

It became clear that it would take an extraordinary effort to revive Juno, possibly requiring the purchase of expensive out-of-stock replacement parts. The decision was made to move all data off of Juno to a temporary holding place on another server to give users the opportunity to move their files to a permanent storage location.

We considered moving all home directories to AFS, but on examination there were too many cases such as filename collisions with files already in AFS to make this practical. We instead are providing a temporary repository and a command to move the files yourself so that you can resolve any conflicts during the move.

Files will remain on the temporary repository until September 30, 1999. After that time they will be moved to a morgue; they will still be accessible, but not as easily restored as they will be until then.

What you need to do for home directories

You need to log in to a central UNIX server (such as vesta or flora) and issue the command movetoafs. This command will establish an AFS account for you if required, move your files, fix any permission problems, and then change your home directory to point to the new AFS location. If you already have an AFS home directory but still had files on Juno, you can use this command to copy the remaining files into your AFS directory. If you don't have sufficient AFS space to copy all of your files, fill out the AFS request form to get some additional space added.

Your temporary home directory is read-only, so it is only useful to log in long enough to do the movetoafs command. We did place a copy of your .forward file there to allow the continued receipt of mail.

What you need to do for POP accounts

In all likelihood, nothing. If you have a true POP-only account, it already had a home directory in AFS, and was only affected by the mail congestion caused by the people who had home directories on Juno. If you have a full UNIX account but only use it for POP mail (e.g., Eudora, Netscape mail), you do not need to move your account to AFS. If the only activity we see between now and September 30 is POP, we will automatically convert your account to a POP-only account.

What you need to do for group directories

If you are the owner of a group directory that was on Juno, send email to unix-admin to make arrangements for sufficient disk space to move the files.

Where is the data?

There are cases where you do not want the processing that movetoafs does for you and you want to select data to copy yourself. You may find the repository by substituting 'junodata' for 'juno' in the path you used to get to the data. For instance, /nfs/juno/u8/sf/boeheim became /nfs/junodata/u8/sf/boeheim. Do not depend on this data remaining in this location. It will be removed from there on September 30. Anything that you need should be copied to a new location before that date. If you need to find the old path to your home directory, search for your userid in the file /afs/slac/common/etc/oldhomes/homes.

Check back for updates

We will update this page with additional details and with any Frequently Asked Questions that crop up during the move, so check back here from time to time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I can log in, but I can't get movetoafs to accept my password

A: There are two passwords that you can use: one will let you log into UNIX and will let you use NFS space, the other will do that plus let you use your AFS space. The former is variously called your UNIX password, your YP or NIS password, or (incorrectly) your NFS password; the later is called your AFS password. If these two passwords are different for you, or you cannot remember what your AFS password was set to, you can log in but not use AFS, including movetoafs. You will need to go in person to the SCS Help Desk with picture ID to get your password reset. If you are not on site, call the Help Desk at 650-926-HELP for instructions.

Q: I can't get logged in from my NCD terminal

A: You could have someone else login, and then from one of their terminal windows use ssh or telnet to connect as yourself.

   ssh -l myname flora

Then you can run movetoafs from that window. Another method on an NCD is to press the Setup key to get the Console menu, and select "New Telnet" from the "Terminals" menu. From there you will get a linemode login.

Q: I can't get logged in on X Windows from NT

A: X Windows won't work with the temporary home directory. From the Windows Start Menu choose Start->Programs->Accessories->Telnet then use the Connect menu item. From there you can do a linemode login to do the movetoafs command.

Q: I can't get logged in from a CDE login screen

A: From the login window, select the Options button, which will drop down a menu. Select Line Mode Login from that menu. You should then be able to login on the console and run movetoafs. After an hour or so to allow the change to propagate through the system you will be able to log in using the CDE desktop.

Chuck Boeheim
SCS Systems Group
21 July 1999