Contains the administrative list for the Fileset Location (FL) Server
Description
The admin.fl file is an administrative list of all users and groups that can use the Fileset Location (FL) Server to modify the Fileset Location Database
(FLDB). A master copy of the FLDB resides on one server machine; other server machines (usually two) house replicated copies of the database. Any machine that houses a copy of the FLDB is referred
to as a Fileset Database machine. The FL Server, or flserver process, must run on all Fileset Database machines.
An admin.fl file must reside on each Fileset Database machine. For the most part, the admin.fl file contains the UUIDs of users and groups. However, it must also contain the abbreviated DFS server principals of all Fileset Database machines in the local cell to allow the synchronization site for the FLDB to distribute changes to the secondary sites. The server principals can be present as members of a group included in the list.
Each time the Fileset Location Server is started on any machine, it automatically creates the dcelocal/var/dfs/admin.fl file if the file does not already exist. You can also create the file by including the -createlist option with the bos addadmin command. Once the admin.fl file exists, principals and groups can be added to it with the bos addadmin command, and they can be removed from it with the bos rmadmin command. The bos lsadmin command can be used to list the principals and groups currently in the file. Because administrative lists are stored as binary files, you must use these commands to modify them; you cannot edit them directly.
The admin.fl file should be stored in the directory named dcelocal/var/dfs on each Fileset Database machine. If it is stored in a different directory, the full pathname of the file must be specified when the FL Server is started. Do not create multiple copies of the admin.fl file and store them in different directories on the same machine; unauthorized users may be able to use the extraneous copies to access the FLDB.
A single version of the admin.fl file should be created and maintained on a System Control machine. The upclient processes running on the cell's Fileset Database machines can then update their local copies of the file via the upserver process running on the System Control machine.
Independent versions of the admin.fl file should not be maintained on each Fileset Database machine in a cell. Because the FLDB is a Ubik database, any of the secondary sites may be obliged to assume the role of synchronization site for the FLDB at any time. A system administrator listed in the admin.fl file on the machine housing the former synchronization site may not be listed in the admin.fl file on the machine housing the new synchronization site. The administrator, who could issue commands that affect the FLDB on the former machine, may not be able to issue commands that affect the database on the new machine, or vice versa.
Related Information
Commands: bos addadmin(8dfs)