AFS Group Directory

AFS Group Directory

Every CSAIL research group is entitled to group space in the CSAIL AFS cell. Everyone is strongly encouraged to store shared files in their group space rather than in their home directory, so that when they leave and their home directory is archived off, remaining group members will not be left in the lurch.

Group directories are mounted at /afs/csail.mit.edu/group/GROUPNAME. By default, each group which requests a directory gets a single AFS volume with a 100-GB quota. If this is not sufficient, we will ask the group to define a subtree of their directory which can be moved to a separate volume; for various reasons we do not want to expand individual AFS volumes beyond 100 GB. For example, a group with multiple PIs might have a separate volume, mounted under the main group directory, for each PI’s projects. A large, read-only data set might also be split off to another volume (and depending on research needs, might be on a limited backup schedule as well).

Groups which wish to have Web pages should create a www/data directory at the top level of their group directory. The content in this directory will be served by the CSAIL Web servers at http://groups.csail.mit.edu/GROUPNAME. (A secure server is also available at the same location.) This directory should have at least rl permissions for the www group in its ACL.

Every group is initially set up with two AFS protection groups. The GROUPNAME group is intended to contain all of the members of the group. The GROUPNAME-admin group is configured to be the owner of the GROUPNAME group, and has a more limited membership (by default it’s only the person requesting the directory) but is self-administered. Use the pts command to examine and manage membership in these groups. Typically, the top-level group directory will be configured with full privileges for the -admin group and everything but “administer” privileges for the GROUPNAME group.