| 1 | Moira is a database and primary information repository for: |
| 2 | |
| 3 | * Workstation cluster information |
| 4 | * Locker filsys entries, quotas, and server locations |
| 5 | * Lists, which compasses mailing lists and filesystem access |
| 6 | groups |
| 7 | * Host and network configuration |
| 8 | * Kerberized NFS server configuration |
| 9 | * Printer configurations |
| 10 | * User information |
| 11 | * Zephyr ACLs |
| 12 | * "Generic ACLs" which can be used by any service which can |
| 13 | be made to understand the ACL file format |
| 14 | |
| 15 | and probably a few other things. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Production systems never (at least, ideally) retrieve information from |
| 18 | moira as part of regular operation; instead, a periodic process called |
| 19 | a DCM (Data Control Manager) pushes out new versions of information |
| 20 | from the Moira database to the affected servers. For instance, the |
| 21 | Hesiod DNS servers are periodically updated with a new zone file |
| 22 | containing new cluster, filsys, printer, and user information. |
| 23 | Currently, the DCM runs several times a day. A few kinds of changes |
| 24 | to the Moira database are propagated immediately to the affected |
| 25 | servers via incremental update; an example is changes to AFS groups |
| 26 | resulting from changes to Moira list membership. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | The Moira server is implemented as an Oracle database with a |
| 29 | surrounding layer of C code. The Moira clients for Unix live in the |
| 30 | moira locker (the Athena release contains scripts which attach the |
| 31 | moira locker and run the actual programs), and use Kerberos 4 to |
| 32 | authenticate to the Moira server. |