OpenAFS for Mac OS X

Connecting to HCoop with AFS on Mac OS X requires setting up the OpenAFS client as well as Kerberos for authentication. On a Mac OS X 10.8 machine, the following steps have been proven to connect to HCoop with just a few minutes of configuration work.

Install and Configure OpenAFS

Download the latest OpenAFS client (1.6.5 as of 2014-03-13) from http://www.openafs.org/macos.html. Install this package and reboot.

The installer will set up the afs configuration files in /var/db/openafs and it will set your machine to start AFS on boot.

Install and Configure Kerberos

For Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)

Warning May cause some issues with hanging on shutdown, or beachballing while login. Still attempting to suss those out. Can be fixed by removing afs from /Library/LaunchDaemons using Single-User Mode.

The Kerberos Extras package for previous versions of Mac OS X is no longer maintained for Mac OS 10.6. Instead, Apple has included the "Ticket Viewer" feature within Keychain Access.

To configure Kerberos on Snow Leopard, open Applications -> Utilities -> Keychain Access. Under the Keychain Access (app) menu, select Ticket Viewer. Select "Add Identity." For identity, enter your HCoop username followed by @HCOOP.NET (the all-caps realm is necessary). Then enter your HCoop password. It will automatically obtain a ticket upon setting up the identity. After ten hours, the ticket expires and you'll need to select Obtain Ticket.

Now open a terminal window (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and type "aklog". This should initiate your AFS session. To test, browse to the path /afs/hcoop.net/user/, then follow the directories with letters that begin your HCoop username. You should be able to create and edit files on HCoop.

For Mac OS X 10.5 and below

Install the Kerberos Extras package provided by MIT, available from http://web.mit.edu/macdev/www/osx-kerberos-extras.html.

Once you've installed this package, run the Kerberos configuration application by clicking on Applications -> Utilities -> Kerberos. Once this application loads, click on the "New" button in the toolbar to create a new ticket. Change the Realm to HCOOP.NET (realms generally seem to be entirely capitalized). Type your HCoop username and password when prompted.

You should see a ticket appear in the window which is valid for 10 hours.

Now open a terminal window (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and type "aklog". This should initiate your AFS session. To test, browse to the path /afs/hcoop.net/user/, then follow the directories with letters that begin your HCoop username. You should be able to create and edit files on HCoop.

To refresh your Kerberos tokens and your AFS ticket, the two standard Unix commands can be used from the console: kinit username@HCOOP.NET followed by aklog. To avoid having to type the HCOOP.NET part of the kinit command, set a Kerberos "Default Realm" for your machine. This is done by changing the default_realm line in the file /Library/Preferences/edu.mit.Kerberos to the following:

default_realm = HCOOP.NET

That's it! You should be able to edit and save files on your HCoop account through AFS.