AFS is a distributed file system that enables co-operating hosts (clients and servers) to efficiently share file system resources across both local and wide area networks. AFS is provided and supported by The OpenAFS Community.
At Stanford, University IT uses AFS to provide and maintain a campus-wide distributed file system -- the ir.stanford.edu AFS cell. This cell currently consists of fifteen AFS servers, geographically distributed across campus, and 3 terabytes of usable disk space, which is backed up nightly.
Stanford uses this AFS cell to provide home directories for SUNet ID Accounts, many Stanford classes, student and research groups, many Stanford University departments and campus organizations.
Over a thousand machines on the Stanford campus run AFS client software, giving people local access to their SUNet ID Account home directories, all the software available in /usr/pubsw, and hundreds of other AFS cells worldwide.
For more information, see the Intro to AFS, more installation guide for administrators, and statistics about our AFS cell.
