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CVMFS is a FUSE module which implements an HTTP read-only filesystem.

CVMFS server setup

To get an cvmfs server system working you will need the following steps.

Kernel with aufs options enabled

The sys-kernel/aufs-sources contains Linux Kernel with the aufs support module. First, you must install this package:

root #emerge -av sys-kernel/aufs-sources

Note that in order to use genkernel to generate Linux kernel and initramfs, with aufs-sources-3.10.25 as an example, you must:

root # eselect kernel set linux-3.10.25-aufs

root # genkernel --menuconfig all

Note
linux is a symbolic link to the real kernel source.

KERNEL

File systems  --->
      [*] FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) support
      [*] miscellaneous filesystems  --->
       [*]   Aufs (Advanced multi layered unification filesystem) support
       [*]     Detect direct branch access (bypassing aufs)
       [*]     NFS-exportable aufs
       [*]     Readdir in userspace
       [*]     Show whiteouts
       [*]     Ramfs (initramfs/rootfs) as an aufs branch
       [*]     Fuse fs as aufs branch
       [ ]     Debug aufs

Apache server configuration

The cvmfs server utility will use /srv/cvmfs as storage location. Therefore, the DocumentRoot should be config to the /srv.

FILE /etc/apache2/vhosts.d/default_vhost.include

DocumentRoot "/srv"

<Directory "/srv">
    ....
</Directory>

root #/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Create CVMFS repository

1. Build and install cvmfs

Download cvmfs code from github cvmfs.

The cvmfs build system uses cmake. In order to compile and install, run from the source directory.

root # mkdir -p build

root # cd build

root # cmake ../

root # make

root # make install

2. Create the two directories and ensure adequate space.

• /cvmfs
• /srv

3. Create a new cvmfs server "file system" and repository structure:

root #cvmfs_server mkfs my.test.repo

If there is an error in creation, remove the repository:

root #cvmfs_server rmfs my.test.repo

Repository update

In cvmfs server, switch repo to a copy-on-write enabled cvmfs volume.

root #cvmfs_server tansaction

Then, make the necessary changes to the repository.

Run cvmfs_server publish to finalize your new repository revision, or run cvmfs_server abort to clear all changes and start over again.

root #cvmfs_server publish

CVMFS client setup

Installation

Install the cvmfs package from cvmfs. See the above section.

Install the AutoFS. Typically, mounting of cvmfs repositories is handled by AutoFS. For Gentoo, you must both install autofs utility and open kernel option.

Check the /etc/auto.master has contains /cvmfs /etc/auto.cvmfs. Then, do the base setup:

root #cvmfs_config setup

Create /etc/cvmfs/default.local to set base options of cvmfs client:

FILE /etc/cvmfs/default.localminimal sample of config

CVMFS_REPOSITORIES=your.cvmfs.repo
CVMFS_CACHE_BASE = /path/to/your/cache
CVMFS_RELOAD_SOCKETS = /path/to/your/cache
CVMFS_SERVER_URL = http://cvmfs-stratum-one.cern.ch/cvmfs/your.cvmfs.repo
CVMFS_HTTP_PROXY = DIRECT

Then, use the cvmfs2 command line to mount cvmfs to local for example:

root #cvmfs2 -o config=/etc/cvmfs/default.local your.cvmfs.repo path/to/mount/cvmfs

At last, check if cvmfs mounts correctly.

root #cvmfs_config probe

Reload the updated repository

Internally cvmfs checks for file system updates once per hour by default. You can certainly configure a lower update interval. In order to force frequent catalog updates, you can set the configuration variable CVMFS_MAX_TTL to a value in seconds. But be warned, that a very short TTL might result in high load on your server infrastructure.

if you want to invest a bit of scripting, you can also use cvmfs_talk remount or cvmfs_config reload to trigger a reload of the newest snapshot (without service interruption).