Portlock Storage Manager and DVD Burners
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Novell, HP and Portlock have been working together to add support for the HP
DVD100i / DVD 200i DVD writer. DVDs can be a very effective storage medium for backups and
disaster recovery. DVD+RW media is less than $10, offers 2.5 MB / sec write
speeds and 5.0 MB / sec read speeds.
Portlock Storage Manager can write a 4.5 GB image in just 30 minutes. This is cheaper
and much faster than most tape drives under $2,000. Considering that the DVD200i
retails for $499, offers boot-ability and a very easy to understand and use
interface, media that lasts 30 -100 years, this should be a very successful product.
Rewritable DVD training video (Imaging NetWare
servers to DVD using Portlock Storage Manager)
Current Status
Current support for CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R,
DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM is in beta.
Support for DVD burners is very solid at this point. Just insert media into
the drive, execute the Image Command and an image will be written to the device.
Excellent choice for disaster recovery. Portlock Software installs all of its
test NetWare servers (DOS and the SYS volume) from DVD or CD-R, which is much
easier to work with than tape drives.
Supported Devices
This is the current list of devices that we are testing (more to be added):
- HP DVD100i (DVD+R, DVD+RW)
- HP DVD200i (DVD+R, DVD+RW)
- Panasonic LF-D311SC (DVD-RAM)
We also plan to add support for the following:
- Pioneer DVR-A03 / 103. This unit supports CD-R,
CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW.
- Pioneer DVR-A04 / 104. This unit supports CD-R,
CD-RW, DVD-R and DVD-RW.
- Sony DRU-120A. This units supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW.
- Toshiba SD-W2002. This unit support DVD-RAM.
When will production support for DVD burners be released?
Our goal is to release production support for the HP DVD100i / 200i during
July 2002.
How do I enable DVD support in Portlock Storage Manager?
Support for the HP DVD100i was added to Portlock Storage Manager version 2.06. Support for the Panasonic
LF-D311SC was added starting with version 2.08. To turn on this support, add the
command line option -DVD. For example: load sys:/stormgr/stormgr -dvd.
Support for CD-R and CD-RW
Yes, Portlock Storage Manager supports the creation of bootable CD-R and CD-RW using the HP
DVD100i / 200i. Support for other CD writers has not yet been determined.
Support for external DVD Rewriters
We have added support for the external IDE->SCSI converters (http://www.acard.com/eng/). Other SCSI
based DVDs will also be tested. Note: External SCSI DVDs are supported under DOS
using ASPI drivers.
Tips, Techniques & Notes
The DVD support is located in the Image, Restore and CD/DVD command menus.
Portlock Storage Manager supports formatting DVD+RW media in the background. To
monitor the status of a background format, select the Format Command with
the "Foreground Format" option. Portlock Storage Manager will detect the background
format and display the updated format status. - To cancel a DVD format and to restart at a later time, use the Portlock Storage
Manager "Eject CD/DVD" Command. This command will detect a format
in progress and issue a Close Session Command to stop the media format.
Portlock
Storage Manager can now read images from DVDs when running from DOS. Writing
to DVDs from DOS is not yet supported. Some functionality is not supported
when running from DOS.
You can mix different types of media when creating images with Portlock Storage
Manager. For each media type (CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM),
Portlock Storage Manager uses the appropriate format. For example, you could
use one DVD+RW and one CD-RW when you only need to image 5 GB of data.
Known problems
IMPORTANT: Unload IDECD.CDM and CDROM.CDM before inserting new blank media into the DVD. Currently,
there is a bug in the NetWare CDROM drivers that causes NetWare to hang. Novell
is working on a fix. Once the blank media has been formatted, then there are no
problems.
DVDs require formatting before use. A DVD format command has been added to
Portlock Storage
Manager. The Portlock Storage Manager DVD format feature will automatically detect new
DVD media and will automatically format the media during the image write saving
considerable time. You do not need to format a DVD+RW before
using the Portlock Storage Manager image command.
IMPORTANT: If a DVD+RW format has been started, do NOT restart or reboot
NetWare unless the format has completed or has been stopped using the
"Eject CD/DVD" Command. The drive tray is locked during the format
and until the IDECD bug is fixed by Novell, NetWare would hang upon reboot.
Current support for DVDs is limited to HAM drivers. The older DSK drivers are not supported.
Portlock
Storage Manager DVD Image Format. The current image written to DVD has not
been finalized. The current format is not bootable and does not represent the
standard file system format found on most CD or DVDs. This will be changed in a
future release.
Writing to DVD-R does not work at this time. This will be added soon. Formatting of DVD-RAM does not work at this time. This will be
corrected soon. There may be a compatibility problem with CD-RW discs written on the
DVD100i vs. the DVD200i. We are investigating. The IDE DVD support while executing under DOS is still very limited. Support for DVDs using the SCSI interface (ASPI drivers) is very
good.
Supporting Web Sites:
|
