The Installable File System for Windows XP
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Contents |
The Installable File System for Windows XP is targeted at bringing users closer to the grid by providing a transparent filesystem interface. Users already familiar with the traditional filesystem interface provided in Windows XP will have little trouble adjusting to the IFS. Specifically, the IFS can be mounted as a Network Drive (say G:) and files can be created, moved, copied in and out, read and written to with user programs. In addition, one can use Windows Explorer and DOS to explore the directory structure of the filesystem using one's credentials.
Current Status
Installation
Installation is integrated into Genesis Installer (except for Shortcuts and Environment Variables)
Functionality
Complete
- Creates work with all modes, security is handled by Genesis mechanisms
- Reads work correctly with both binary and ASCII data
- Write works
- Get information variants work correctly for files and directories
- Copy works intra IFS and between the host system and the IFS
- Move works from the host system to the IFS. Move not correct the other way around because it can not delete files (yet)
Incomplete
- Delete
- Correct Caching
Notes
- Caching is a little weird, so you will see a delay (between 0 - 5 seconds) before you see meta-information changes propagate to the IFS. For example, if you copy hot.jpg to the IFS, the file will appear it is there with 0KB copied. However, this is just a delay in the propagation of Genesis reporting back to the IFS that the file is in fact the correct size (!= 0KB).
- While not seen in testing, like any kernel driver, the IFS may BSOD the host system
Installation
This section lists the installation instructions for the IFS. Note that this wiki refers to your installation directory in many places. This is the installation directory where you installed Genesis II (by default: C:\Program Files\GenesisII). Also, please, make a backup copy of your hard drive BEFORE you do this. This application comes with no warranty and is provided AS-IS.
- Obtain the Installable for Genesis available online at [1]
- Run the installer (double click on the installer). Note that this requires you have a version of Java installed.
- On which packages to install, make sure you click on IFS for Windows ... note this option is only available if you are running Windows.
- Choose to install shortcuts when prompted.
Running IFS
This section details how to run the IFS. In order to run the IFS, you must first have your Genesis Client connected to some Grid. You can select the "Connect Client" to connect to the VCGR Grid, otherwise, you may connect to a grid with a context / root file (which is discussed elsewhere) and through the Genesis shell interface.
- In order to run the IFS, first double-click on the shortcut that was created in your Start Menu. If you chose not to install shortcuts, go to the installation folder and run the ifs batch file (ifs.bat). It will prompt you for your credentials (it looks for credential in the default Windows store). If you do not enter credentials, IFS will quit.
- The IFS is now running, in order to mount it to a Network Drive perform the following:
- Open up My Computer. Goto Tools->Map Network Drive. Enter the Drive Letter you would like (I like G:), and enter the following path: \\GenesisDrive\share. Also, make sure to unselect reconnect at restart (just in case something "bad" happens). After you enter this information, press Finish.
- Cross your fingers and have fun Note that to kill the IFS, you must restart your machine.
Contact
Please contact sosa at virginia dot edu with any problems.
