Start the server portion of the Update Server (the upserver process), to distribute the contents of directories on this machine to other server machines in the cell. It becomes active when you configure the client portion of the Update Server on additional server machines.

Distributing the contents of its /usr/afs/etc directory makes this machine the cell's system control machine. The other server machines in the cell run the upclientetc process (an instance of the client portion of the Update Server) to retrieve the configuration files. Use the -crypt argument to the upserver initialization command to specify that the Update Server distributes the contents of the /usr/afs/etc directory only in encrypted form, as shown in the following instruction. Several of the files in the directory, particularly the KeyFile file, are crucial to cell security and so must never cross the network unencrypted.

(You can choose not to configure a system control machine, in which case you must update the configuration files in each server machine's /usr/afs/etc directory individually. The bos commands used for this purpose also encrypt data before sending it across the network.)

Distributing the contents of its /usr/afs/bin directory to other server machines of its system type makes this machine a binary distribution machine. The other server machines of its system type run the upclientbin process (an instance of the client portion of the Update Server) to retrieve the binaries. If your platform has a package management system, such as 'rpm' or 'apt', running the Update Server to distribute binaries may interfere with this system.

The binaries in the /usr/afs/bin directory are not sensitive, so it is not necessary to encrypt them before transfer across the network. Include the -clear argument to the upserver initialization command to specify that the Update Server distributes the contents of the /usr/afs/bin directory in unencrypted form unless an upclientbin process requests encrypted transfer.

Note that the server and client portions of the Update Server always mutually authenticate with one another, regardless of whether you use the -clear or -crypt arguments. This protects their communications from eavesdropping to some degree.

For more information on the upclient and upserver processes, see their reference pages in the OpenAFS Administration Reference. The commands appear on multiple lines here only for legibility.