I've looked at the CD-R possibility myself for our SPARCstation IPX.
Software is certainly available (Hy-CD and another whose name eludes me for
the moment, GEAR perhaps?), but was expensive last time I checked: ~$1000
-- much more than the actual cost of the hardware.
I'll be anxious to hear what you find out.
Pat W.
Isis Pharmaceuticals
I am considering a Yamaha cdr400TXPM for data archiving. We have zip and
dat also. But, I don't trust magnet media for long term (ie years)
storeage. Does anyone have cd-r experience? What brands do you like and is
software available for Sun systems? Cheers, Lew
Lew,
We have used CD-R for some time now, and find it quite convenient and
cheap. Our first drive was a Plasmon - which bit the dust, so we have a
Yamaha on order now. That's getting good reviews. (They're in short
supply in the UK).
You might consider these:
- create a ca. 1GB partition on a drive so you can write out and check
your "image" before burning a disc
- we bought a second external SCSI card for the Sun, and have the
CD-ROM and relevant disc drive on that. This _may_ be necessary to
ensure a steady stream of data to the recorder.
- for software, we've been pleased with K-Par's CDcreation (see
www.k-par.co.uk). It's not cheap, but no Unix s/w is! We tried Win95
packages with appropriate file type support, but were frustrated with
the OS mangling the case of letters in the directory and file names.
Hope this helps!
Cheers,
Mike
Michael Bernstein
Physical and Metabolic Sciences
Astra Charnwood
Bakewell Rd
Loughborough, Leics.
I have more or less the same question for a Bruker DRX system with a Silicon
Graphics computer. We have DAT (tape) for data archiving, but this is
rather slow. Does anyone know about about other devices for data archiving
compatible with Silicon Graphics?
Best regards, L.Pieters
We archive to CD-R via a Mac, as there is good cheap software (Toast)
available; irritating to have to transfer all the files, but it works well
and the CD's can be read (ISO format) on Mac, PC or Unix. Takes about an
hour in all, including tar'ing files, transfer to Mac, and burning the CD.
Software for Suns exists, but is a lot more expensive. I suspect you'd
have to go down to single user mode to be sure of keeping the CD writer fed
(the writing process requires an uninterrupted fast data stream, difficult
to achieve with a networked Unix box).
Best wishes
Gareth Morris
________________________________________________________________________________
Prof. G.A. Morris
g.a.morris@man.ac.uk
Dept. of Chemistry, University of Manchester,
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK (0) 161 275
4665
________________________________________________________________________________
Lew, We have currently gone to using a cd-r for archiving data. There is
software for cd-r's on unix system, however the cost was in the area of
$1700 to $2000. What our solution was involved using a PC with a 6 GB
hard drive running WindowsNT and the HP Sure Store cd-r system. It also
required purchasing "mastering software" for about $80 to $100. I'll
lookup were we ordered the mastering software and send you that
information. We've had very good luck with the HP cd-r. When we
particianed the PC's hard drive, we allowed 2 Gb's solely for the cd-r.
This way most of our archived data could be stored on the system and
directly written to the cd-r. I also went with 64 MB of memory on the
system so the computer would not be so bogged down when we started
archiving.
Kathy Motsegood
NMR Spectroscopist
Magnetic Resonance Engineering Lab
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois
For the past year we have been archiving our data (both AMX and
DRX) to a Pinnacle 4x4 CDR using Gear software. We use our NMR
workstation (an INDY with 256 M Memory, two SCSI lines and 6 M in
Hard Disks) to do the archive. Gear has just released a new
version which is required for IRIX 6.X.
It works well. The Gear interface is quite primitive relative to
what we are used to on SGI (Its Text based).
Because of our network speeds (10baseT) we can not use NFS
directly to the CDR (for writes) but rather copy to the local
disk and then to the CD. We tried direct writes but frequently
found data under flows.
The cost for our configuration including a second dedicated SCSI
line was less than $1500.
Hope it helps
George
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.-----.
/ \-_-/ \
/_-_\ /_-_\
----- -----
\-_-/ \-_-/
\ /_-_\ /
`-----'
Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute
***********************************************************************
George B. Crull, Ph.D.
Senior Research Investigator
Bristol-Myers Squibb
(315) 432-4829 Fax (315)432-2948
Crull@BMS.com
***********************************************************************
I have more or less the same question for a Bruker DRX system with a Silicon
Graphics computer. We have DAT (tape) for data archiving, but this is
rather slow. Does anyone know about about other devices for data archiving
compatible with Silicon Graphics?
Best regards, L.Pieters
Lew
I just installed a Pennacle 4X4 CDR for data archiving. It is mounted on
an SGI. I have installed software called "gear" by Elektroson. So far I
have done only a test run of some ascii files. They are readable from the
CD. Go to www.electroson.com. They list CDR platforms they support. They
support SUN, SGI, PCs and Macs. Although TOAST is better for Mac. Hope
this helps.
Dr. Joseph Vaughn, NMR Facility Manager
Chemistry Department
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4390
Phone 850-644-3334
Fax 850-644-8281
Lew,
We employ a rewritable 2.6 gig optical drive From HP. It's hooked to our =
Sparc 20. You mount it as you normally would with any other external =
device, so you don't really need any other software. Formatting the =
optical disks is a little "fancy" but I've worked that out, it only =
takes ~ 3 minutes per disk. If you're interested I can supply you with =
more info and formating specifics.
Regards,
Rick Wintermute
Dexter Corp.
rdw@interaccess.com
We use SyJet 1.5 GB ($399 for drive w/ 1 disk, additional disk
@$89/disk) from SyQuest for backup. It works very well. I suppose
the new 2GB Jaz should also work. If you need format parameter for
SyJet on a Sun, drop me a line.
Yan
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yan XU
Assistant Professor
Anesthesiology and Pharmacology
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Fax (412) 648-9587
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lew,
I have a Phillips Omniwriter CDRW that has given excellent service for some
months now. I have written ISO 9600 CD's that read just fine on both Suns and
Macs. Just be advised that the transfer rate is about a factor of five to ten
slower than the magnetic media you are acustomed to.
I also have two Optima Technology units (CDR). The older one has worked fine
for more than a year, but the newer one has given lots of trouble that Optima
has been unable to correct. They use a Sony mechanism. We allow our students
to back up their own data using the older machine. So far I've had no
complaints of data loss.
Charlie
--Charles L. Mayne University of Utah Dept. of Chemistry 315 S. 1400 E. Rm Dock Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0850 Voice: (801)581-7413 FAX: (801)581-4763 or 8433 E-mail: mayne@chemistry.utah.edu http://www.chem.utah.edu/chemistry/facilities/nmr/nmr.html
Lew--
We have been using the Pinnacle Micro RCD with our Silicon Graphics systems on a Bruker DRX and AMX with good success. Problem is you have to pay an arm and a leg for the GEAR software to run on the SGI machine, plus Electroson(GEAR) does not support NFS mounted file systems. However, we like the backup a lot; hopefully, the DVDs are coming soon to these platforms. Good luck.
Dwaine.
Dwaine M. Thomas, Ph.D. Alcon Labs, Inc. M/S: R2-19 6201 South Freeway Fort Worth, Texas 76134 phone: 817-551-8003 fax: 817-551-4584 email: dwaine.thomas@alconlabs.com
A few months ago, Roger Harmston's column on Solaris in __SunServer__ {they can be reached at <http://www.pcinews.com/pci/sun/> and have a number of other features of general utility to anyone using any version of UNIX} discussed CD-r. His major points were as follows:
1. Main software: Cdrecord available from <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord/>. This application is advertised as unsophisticated, and you need to check the list of compatible drives maintained at this ftp site to make sure your CD-r is supported. Ancillary information and component software needed is listed below.
2. Want the file SCHILYfbk.sparc.tar.Z which is in pkgadd format to simulate a block device {see <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/unix/kernel/fbk/> for this program}.
3. Also want the formatting utility sformat-3.3.tar.gz to properly format the disk. The article says that along with the formatting utility, one needs a scsi driver like the sdg driver from Sun. The URL: <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/kernel/scg/> is listed at this point.
4. The next item listed is mkisofs which is listed as beint at <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/Linux/misc/cd/mkisofs-1.11.tar.gz>
5. Note that the cdrecord distribution contains a general scsi user transport library.
6. E-mail for the author of all this software is joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de
Now, I haven't tried any of this and cannot comment on how well it works. I would be interested in hearing how well it works myself.
Sincerely,
-- Bruce D. Ray bray@iupui.edu Operations Director NMR Center IUPUI Physics Dept. 402 N. Blackford St. Indianapolis, IN 46202-3273
I have two CD-R drives, one Yamaha CDR-100 (4x/4x) and a Matushita = (panasonic) CW-7502 4x/8x Write/Read drive. I have been using this technology to backup _all_ of our data = since mid-1995, and it has been the best move we've ever made. Previously, we used a Tahiti-III rewriteable = optical drive (which we still have), and it is great in terms of speed and reliability; however, the cartridges are = still around $90 each. I just bought 100 gold-recordable CDR disks for $3.00 each!! =20
I never investigated cdr software for my Suns because I have three = Windows-NT workstations which all have NFS connections to the Suns (I use Xlink's Omni-NFX/X for NT, which = provides complete NFS server/client support, in addition to a complete X-terminal package). As we stand, we = can mount our Sun filesystems on the PCs and vice-versa. Backing up the data on the Suns consists of = drag-and-drop from any of the Windows-NT systems. =20
For creating the CDs we had been using Adaptec's "Easy CD Creator = Deluxe" software, but it's kind of lame. We just purchased "GEAR" for Windows, which is rated as the best there = is for the Windows NT environment. It has tons of features, including track-by-track writing, so you can = add tracks to a single disk up to 99 times (so much for the old limitation for having to fill the entire disk at = once). This software was $195. The box says that they support Windows, = Macintosh, SunOS, SunSolaris, SGI-IRIX, DEC-OSF, HP-UX, so I think = you're set for whatever system you want to use. I think the UNIX versions are major = $$$, and I prefer using the PCs with NFS. Go to www.elektroson.com to get all of the info about the GEAR = products...it's fantastic!
Going to CD-R is the best decision I've made regarding data = storage/retrieval.
I hope this helps,
Rich Shoemaker ---- Richard Shoemaker, Ph.D. Phone--(402) 472-6255 Instrumentation Director, Chemistry FAX---- -6964 Research Associate Professor, Chemistry University of Nebraska-Lincoln =20 URL: http://www.chem.unl.edu/nmrlab.html =20
Hi, Lew:
I use HP CD-R on the PC. It is great! We use "tar" and compress the NMR data, then FTP to the PC.
I don't know Sun support the CD-R. If you get information on that please share with me. Thank you
Shaoxiong Wu, Ph.D. Director, NMR Center Emory University 404-727-6621
Lew - our decision was to use a HP CD-R on a pentium and copy the files over to the pentium for archiving. The CD's have a somewhat strange format in that all the directories become subdirectories of the first directory on the cd, but they can be read directly by any Sun or IBM computer and it minimizes the time required on the Sun's=
for data storage. At the time (a couple of years ago) it was also much cheaper than purchasing a cd-writer and software which would operate on a Sun and it could be set up by our IBM expert within the department.
Best regards - Richard
Lew, Long time no see! How have you been? I just got a new machine in this year, a Bruker DPX 300, which will be replacing our QE 300. The QE gave us a lot of good years. Great little machine. I have a Bruker AMX 500 which is also fully automated. We have been very pleased with this instrument also. You are seeking info on CDRs? I am using a Yamaha CDR 4X6X for archiving our NMR data. The CDR is connected to my PC via a SCSI connection. Our UNIX machine, Indy,SGI, uses SAMBA software for mounting the unix disk on my PC. I am able to easily copy the NMR files from the unix machine to the CDR this way. Bottom line: It works! You may want to consider using a PC instead of the SUN for his. CDRs for unix machines are more $$$. Plus, you can use the CDR for other archiving as well. Good luck, Bill
For archiving data on our SGI's we use a Tahiti-III magneto-optical drive. The free-ware program "automopper" works reasonably well for allowing random users to mount/unmount optical disks without special privileges. (I use fx and mkfs from the root account to initialize new disks). The source code for automopper is available on the web:
http://models.cmb.nwu.edu/cgi-bin/wrap/chisholm/\ chisholm/usr2/software/automopper
Maxoptix 1.2 GB (512 byte/sector) media is now under $40/cartridge from Techbridge in New Hampshire (1-800-972-7405).
The optical drive is much faster than tape and very convenient. We are looking into r-CD's because of the media price and "permanance", but I expect the slower speed and other inconveniences will keep us from making a wholesale switch.
--Mike
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Strain strain@mango.uoregon.edu Institute of Molecular Biology desk/voice-mail: 541-346-4605 & Department of Chemistry FAX: 541-346-5891 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
It works very well on Solaris/Sparc, and I have used it for several years. It is under continuing development, and has many features. I did have some trouble using it on a FreeBSD/Intel machine, at least after I upgraded the OS the last time. I moved the CD-R back to a Sun machine and it goes fine. I have used a Yamaha CDR-102 (4x read, 2x record).
> 2. Want the file SCHILYfbk.sparc.tar.Z which > is in pkgadd format to simulate a block device > {see <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/unix/kernel/fbk/> > for this program}.
This is a special driver to allow mounting of the iso image created by mkisofs. It is completely unnecessary, and I'm a little uncertain what is would be used for.
> 3. Also want the formatting utility sformat-3.3.tar.gz > to properly format the disk. The article says that > along with the formatting utility, one needs a scsi > driver like the sdg driver from Sun. The URL: > <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/kernel/scg/> is > listed at this point.
sformat has nothing to do with CD-R at all; Joerg Schilling's version of disk formatting utility, supposedly does more things that Sun's format, but I've never tried it.
The scg driver IS needed, as that provides the means for sending commands to the scsi CD-R device without going through the Sun disk drivers.
There is one other component of interest, which is a replacement for the scsi driver, sd; this you need if you want to mount CD-ROMs using drives with sector size != 512 (2048 is the more normal setting). It must be carefully matched to the OS version, and is not needed if you only use the CD-R for writing CDs.
> 4. The next item listed is mkisofs which is listed as > beint at > <ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/Linux/misc/cd/mkisofs-1.11.tar.gz>
Essential, this creates the iso image that gets written to disk. Joerg keeps a copy of it along with patches at his site, but it is software developed elsewhere.
> 5. Note that the cdrecord distribution contains > a general scsi user transport library.
> 6. E-mail for the author of all this software is > joerg@schily.isdn.cs.tu-berlin.de
> Now, I haven't tried any of this and cannot comment > on how well it works. I would be interested in hearing > how well it works myself.
I've found it very reliable, at least on Solaris. When I started with CD-R it was after several failures with 3.5" OD drives (we abandoned DAT long ago for archiving), and it has not failed us yet. We save all old data centrally, and users no longer need to worry about it. The five most recent CDs are on-line, and if data is on an earlier one, users can request for it to be loaded. The software does not have the elegant interface that I assume some of the commercial products have, but those commercial products usually cost more than the CD-R drive itself, so I can learn to type in a long command line. I believe there is a graphical interface to mkisofs and cdrecord, but it may only be for Linux; I have never looked into it. Hope this helps.
-- Steve Philson philson@nmr.chem.umn.edu Director NMR Lab 612-626-0297 Chemistry Dept. University of Minnesota