Jeffrey Altman will be presenting at Unigroup this coming Thursday.   Here is a copy of the announcement e-mail from Unigroup.  There is a $20 fee for non-Unigroup members.

      Time:  6:15 PM - 6:30 PM  Registration



             6:30 PM - 6:45 PM  Ask the Wizard, Questions,



                                Answers and Current Events



             6:45 PM - 7:00 PM  Unigroup Business and Announcements



             7:00 PM - 9:30 PM  Main Presentation







      Cost:  See the Meeting+Membership Fee Schedule Below.

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   MAIN PRESENTATION



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   Topic:  OpenAFS & The Andrew File System Distributed Storage Model







   Introduction & Description of Talk:



   -----------------------------------







   This month Jeffrey Altman will return to Unigroup for his Nth talk over



   the last twenty years.  Always thought provoking and never boring, Jeff



   will provide his insights into the Andrew File System (AFS) distributed



   storage model with an eye towards scaling performance for modern day systems.







   Detailed Outline:



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   The Andrew File System (AFS) is a distributed file system originally



   developed by Carnegie Mellon University and IBM in the early 1980s.  It



   was commercialized by Transarc and IBM in the 1990s and the OpenAFS open



   source project was born on 1 Nov 2000.  Unlike other distributed file



   systems, AFS is unique in that it supported a globally accessible name



   space, federated authentication, fine grained access control and a data



   publishing and replication mechanism a decade before the world wide web.







   AFS is currently deployed at hundreds (perhaps thousands) of



   organizations around the globe providing centrally managed storage for



   home directories, departmental and project storage,



   software/documentation/configuration distribution, and web site hosting.



   For more details on the history of AFS and OpenAFS please watch the



   presentations given at CERN earlier this year.







   Your File System Inc. (YFS) was founded in October 2007 with the goal of



   building a globally distributed storage system for the masses using the



   AFS distributed storage model.  There was only one small problem: AFS



   was designed in the 1980s and the computing, storage network



   architectures of 21st century system are very different from the



   assumptions that AFS was built on.  For the last four years, YFS has



   worked to update OpenAFS to match the scalability needs of today's



   heterogeneous systems.







   This talk will:







   - Explain the AFS distribute storage model.



   - Provide an overview of the AFS RX remote procedure call protocol.



   - Describe in detail the AFS data coherency model.



   - Highlight a number of the 1980s assumptions that no longer hold true.



   - Examine in detail three or four specific scalability issues and how



     they can be avoided when designing modern systems.







   References & Web Resources:



   ---------------------------







   OpenAFS Web Site



     
http://www.openafs.org







   A History of the Andrew File System (Derrick Brashear at CERN)



     
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=126258







   The Future of the Andrew File System (Jeffrey Altman at CERN)



     
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=126259







   -------------------------------------------------------------------







   Speaker Biography:



   ------------------







   Jeffrey Altman is a computer scientist and entrepreneur with a



   long history of contributing to open source projects including:



   Kermit, OpenSSL, MIT Kerberos, OpenAFS, and Heimdal among others.



   He is the founder of Secure Endpoints, Inc. and Your File System,



   Inc.







   A frequent speaker at Unigroup, Jeffrey is known for his



   informative talks that keep attendees at the meeting long past



   the running of the last train home.







   -------------------------------------------------------------------







   Company Biography:



   ------------------







   Your File System, Inc. is a four year old startup in the



   distributed storage space which just completed a U.S. Department



   of Energy SBIR Phase II grant to produce a 21st Century successor



   to AFS.







   -------------------------------------------------------------------







   Giveaways:



   ----------







   Addison-Wesley Professional/Prentice Hall PTR, and O'Reilly have



   been kind enough to provide us with review copies of some of their



   books, which we will continue to raffle off as giveaways at our



   meetings.  The publishers always ask that the persons receiving



   the books provide a review and/or feedback about their books.







   Unigroup would like to thank both companies for the support



   provided by their User Group programs.







   As always, all of the books will be available for review at the



   start of the meeting.







   We have some Solaris Related CD-ROMs from our friends at the



   local NYC Oracle/Sun Office.







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   Fee Schedule:



   -------------







   Unigroup is a Professional Technical Organization and User Group,



   and its members pay a yearly membership fee.  For Unigroup members,



   there is usually no additional charges (ie. no meeting fees) during



   their membership year.  Non-members who wish to attend Unigroup



   meetings are usually required to pay a "Single Meeting Fee".







       Yearly Membership (includes all meetings):      $ 50.00



       Student Yearly Membership (with current! ID):   $ 25.00



       Non-Member Single Meeting Fee:                  $ 20.00



       Non-Member Student Single Meeting (with! ID):   $  5.00







     * Payment Methods: Cash, Check, American Express.







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   NOTE: Simply receiving Unigroup Email Announcements does



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   Members: Remember to bring your Unigroup membership card with



            you to the meeting, to confirm your yearly renewal date!







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   Food:



   -----







   Complimentary Food and Refreshments will be served.  This



   includes "wraps" such as turkey, roast beef, chicken, tuna



   and grilled vegetables as well as assorted salads (potato,



   tossed, pasta, etc), cookies, brownies, bottled water and



   assorted SOFT beverages.







   -------------------------------------------------------------------







   Directions:



   -----------







     The Cooper Union  
<http://www.cooper.edu>



     School of Engineering  (*** New Building ***)



     41 Cooper Square (3rd Avenue @ 7th St, between 6th & 7th Streets)



     East Village, Manhattan



     New York City, 10003



     Meeting Room: ** (See Above, Room Changes Month-to-Month)







   Located on the East side of Cooper Square.  Look for the



   new building with the non-traditional appearance.



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   Building lobby sign-in is required at the guard's desk.



   Enter the building, check in with the guard at the lobby for



     directions to Unigroup (the room varies from month-to-month).







   Nearest mass transit stations are:



     '6'           to Astor Place (stops right at The Cooper Union),



                   then walk 1 block East and 1 block South.



     'R'           to 8th Street, then walk about 2 blocks East



                   then 1 block South.



     '4/5/6/R/N/Q' to Union Square, then walk South and East.



     'B/D/F/V'     to Broadway-Lafayette, then walk North and East.







   Free street parking in the area becomes available at 6pm.







   There are also parking lots on Broadway, at (or just south of)



     Astor Place (8th Street).







   -----







   Please mark this meeting on your calendar and join us!



   Please tell your friends about Unigroup!