9.2 iXOS-JUKEMAN Server

I connected a new jukebox to my PC and new drive letters appeared. Why did this happen?
At startup time, NT inspects the hardware for devices which could represent file systems. For instance a normal (internal) CD drive fits perfectly well in this scheme. For SCSI devices, the type (according to the SCSI standard) is checked in this process, but unfortunately some devices don't respond properly to this request (for instance the Yamaha CDR 100 pretends to be a WORM drive). In the absence of jukeman, all devices capable of containing a file system would be displayed for instance in the file manager.
Since using a CD drive directly as well as through jukeman might yield unexpected results in some rare circumstances, and some customers would moreover like to connect a larger number of drives than can be covered by drive letters, jukeman can override this standard behavior described in the preceding paragraph in two ways.
1. If you chose to attach the corresponding device automatically on server startup (in server.cfg either by direct editing or via the GUI), then the JUKEMAN server does the necessary changes in the NT system to hide the drive letters during the next reboot. Please note that this takes effect only after a second reboot, since only then this changes get visible to the operating system!
In case that you change the startup mode again, or if the server isn't able to connect to the devices (which might be switched off for instance), the so called claim established by the automatic attach will disappear again after the second reboot.
2. If you want to get rid of the direct access by drive letters permanently, you have the choice to use the registry editor regedt32.
In
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
|
--SYSTEM
|
--CurrentControlSet
|
--Services
genscsi
claims
you may add entries for each drive you want to get rid of.
Say for instance that (after rebooting with the connected devices) our command scsidevs yields among others an output line like
0000008 \\.\p2b0t2,0 is TOSHIBA's CD-drive "CD-ROM XM-3501TA"
and you want to hide this drive.
Then choose "Add value..." from the Edit menu and input as value the target id, where the first four characters are skipped, i.e. p2b0t2,0 in our example.
Data type should be REG_DWORD and the corresponding value, which must be supplied after OK should be 2 (with hex radix, which is the default).
You should then see an entry like
p2b0t2,0:REG_DWORD:0x2
in the right part of the window afterwards.
Please note:Using this option is a very powerful and thus dangerous action. You will most probably forget what you did in some weeks time, and this will give you (not to mention other users) a very hard time if you try to connect another device, say a hard disk, to the claimed address, since you won't be able to use it until you remove the claim.
So you should very carefully consider what your intents are, and at least leave a note and inform your friendly local system administrator, if you choose to use this option.
Why can't my jukebox distinguish between bad CDs and empty slots?
Why are empty CD recordables labelled as bad CDs or not even recognized?
Most unfortunately some jukeboxes and/or their drives are not capable of distinguishing between empty slots and bad CDs, hence iXOS jukeman can't either there. In other words: This is a problem of your hardware, not of our software.
Likewise, the treatment of an empty CD recordable depends on the type of CD drive or writer you are using. Some drives label them as bad CD, some don't even acknowledge that there is a CD.
What does the logfile message 'CANNOT GET FH: 13 - Permission denied' mean?
This message occurs if the directory, which is created to mount on the client computers, is not exported. This means, in fact, that you didn't read the manual carefully enough. Please refer to section 'Setup file system views' in the manual for further details.
NFS mount on Solaris 2.5 or Dec UNIX
To mount the iXOS-JUKEMAN file system on Solaris 2.5, IRIX 6.* or Dec UNIX workstations an additional option is useful. The option is
vers=2
Example:
mount -F nfs -o port=4027,soft,retrans=14,timeo=99,vers=2 machine_name:/views/rr /mount_point
The reason is that the NFS daemon of iXOS-JUKEMAN uses NFS protocol version 2, not the newer NFS protocol version 3 on these operating systems. Please note, that omitting this option will lead to negotiations between the NFS client and our server resulting in version 2 anyway.
Why do I get weird SCSI errors, in particular data transfer overrun messages with reference to a command "[0x8 ...]" on the console of Solaris workstations?
Why do I get I/O Errors when I try to read a non root directory of a CD on Solaris?
Both errors are due to problems with the Solaris Volume Management daemon, vold. It is by default configured to control all CD drives, including those which are controlled by iXOS-JUKEMAN.
When, upon a file system request, the jukebox inserts a CD into the drive, vold detects the change and tries to automatically mount the CD - not a bad idea. Unfortunately, Sun thinks all discs containing file systems, including CDs, have 512 Byte blocks, and therefore computes too many blocks for read commands (0x8 is the hexadecimal operation code of a SCSI read command).
For example, if Solaris wants to read 64 KBytes from CD, a normal CD drive with 2048 Byte blocks must deliver 32 blocks. Sun computes that 64 KBytes are 128 Blocks and asks for them. The drive replies by sending 128 Blocks - which are 256 KBytes. Of course they do not fit into the 64 KByte buffer - therefore the error message is quite reasonable. Having detected that the CD is not mountable, vold tries to get rid of it and instructs the drive to eject the CD. The drive does it, and iXOS-JUKEMAN can no longer access the CD. Typically it was able to read the root directory (because this was faster than the failed mount), but then the CD is ejected, and iXOS-JUKEMAN cannot read anymore.
The solution depends on how brute you are. These are your options:
1. Kill vold (most brute, works immediately)
2. Delete /etc/vold.conf (prohibits that vold starts during boot)
3. Delete the line describing all CD drives from /etc/vold.conf (this is the line starting with "use cdrom...", normally placed just after the comment line "# Devices to use"
4. Edit this line so that it does not describe CDs in jukeboxes.
The last option requires that you look closely to the device names
and pathes and detect which device represents which CD drive.
Windows95 clients and slow jukeboxes
If you have lots of Windows95 clients clients competing for CDs in a slow jukebox, the LanManager Client may time out.
You can increase the client time-out by increasing the registry value
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\
SERVICES\LANMANWORKSTATION\PARAMETERS\SessTimeOut
for each client.
The default is 45 (seconds). 300 is reasonable for slow jukeboxes.
How to restrict access to the JUKEMAN filesystem for certain hosts?
The restriction of the access to the JUKEMAN filesystem can be done with an option at the export of the filesystem. Such an option defines a list of hosts, which can mount the exported filesystem. But it is necessary to include the 'localhost' in the hosts list.
Example for Solaris 2.4:
The file /etc/dfs/dfstab can contain the following line:
share -F nfs -o rw=localhost:host2:host3:host4 /views/pc
License codes: unlimited and limited
Without a license code the iXOS-JUKEMAN server runs in demo mode, which means that after 2 hours the jukebox daemon has to be restarted and only the first 5 CD slots in a jukebox can be seen in the JUKEMAN filesystem.
The demo mode of the writer software allows you to burn 128MB on CD-Rs. Copying disks to hard disk images is not restricted.
To have no such restrictions you need a license code, which consists of 8 lower case letters.
There are two possibilities:
- Test license code, which expires on a certain date
- Full license code (see the software distributor list for ordering)
On UNIX platforms the license code is bound to the hostid. On Windows NT the license code is either bound to the IP address or to the network adapater card address.
Solaris: /usr/ucb/hostid
AIX: /bin/uname -m
HP-UX: /bin/uname -i
IRIX: /sbin/sysinfo -s
DEC UNIX: /sbin/ifconfig ln0
NT: Either the IP address in the result of ipconfig or the network adapter address, which can be determined by the last entry of the "Workstation active on" line of the result of 'net config workstation'
The host identifier(s) appear as well at the top of the logfile logfile.txt
in lines with the format "Your key for a licence order:".
For testing purposes, temporary licenses for a reasonable number of CDs
may be obtained by contacting support@usa.jukeman.com or directly from www.jukeman.com.
A server license is also bound to a certain amount of CDs one server controls. Also, one iXOS-JUKEMAN server installation can control several jukeboxes at once and so the total amount of CDs in all jukeboxes can be taken for licensing.
For the server software the license code has to be inserted in the file 'server.lic'. Example:
version=2
volumes=700
license=abcdefgh
If you got a test license code, the file 'server.lic' must also contain the expiration date. Example:
version=2
volumes=360
timeout=1996/09/30
license=abcdefgh
A license code for the writer software has to be inserted in file 'writer.lic'.
Example:
version=2
writer
license=ijklmnop
Example for test license:
version=2
writer
timeout=1996/09/30
license=ijklmnop
NFS server plus iXOS-JUKEMAN (NT)
In iXOS-JUKEMAN a NFS server is integrated. To use another NFS server for exporting filesystems on harddisk and the jukeman filesystem, some configuration has to be done, because both compete for several ressources:
- port 2049 (default for NFS services)
- port 111 for the portmapper
- anouncement as NFS service
To tell iXOS-JUKEMAN not to start the own NFS service, the file 'server.cfg' has to contain the following parameters:
parameters {
portno=4027
waitpm=300
nonfsd=1
}
portno=4027 sets an alternative port for the internal communication of iXOS-JUKEMAN. nonfsd=1 causes iXOS-JUKEMAN not to register itself as NFS service.
waitpm=300 causes iXOS-JUKEMAN to try 5 minutes an inquiry for another portmapper at port 111.
PC-NFS and mount of iXOS-JUKEMAN (UNIX) filesystem
PC-NFS Pro Version 1.0 and 2.0 does not have the possibility to mount a filesystem over a different port than default (2049). If iXOS-JUKEMAN is installed on a UNIX server, per default port 4027 is used to distinguish NFS requests for the UNIX mount daemon and for iXOS-JUKEMAN.
Because it is not possible to set the port number with PC-NFS Pro, the only way to mount the jukebox filesystem is to set the port 2049 for iXOS-JUKEMAN NFS as parameter in file 'server.cfg'. But then the UNIX mount daemon cannot be used furthermore.
PC-NFS 5.1 for Windows 3.1 and WfW 3.11 has a port number option and therefore it can be used to mount the jukeman filesystem over port 4027, for instance.
command:
net use y: hostname:/views/pc /port=4027 /ro
JUKEMAN does not work properly. What shall I do?
As a general rule, you should first check this manual and the manual of your jukebox to ensure that your setup is o.k.
A good starting point for your investigations is to reboot the host jukeman runs on, while the jukebox(es) you plan to use are properly connected and powered up. At least you should restart the server.
The most useful mean for troubleshooting is the log file, logfile.txt, which you will find in the installation directory, or, more precisely, in the directory where the cdnfsd program resides. Check it out when an error occurs. Refer to section "Log messages" in the manual for details on reading the logfile.
Roughly one can distinguish three types of problems:
1. The server does not start up correctly
2. A device can not be attached
3. You can't access a CD.
Startup problems
Make sure that you don't attach any devices automatically by editing the server.cfg file either directly or via the GUI.
Check by means of the control panel that the services iXOS Admin Server and iXOS Jukebox Daemon as well as the devices iXOS generic SCSI driver and iXOS Jukebox File System have been installed and started. Another means of information might be the event log, in particular for hardware problems. If our command scsidevs does not show any SCS devices, you most probably encounter hardware problems.
You should check by an appropriate ps (ps -aux or ps -efl should do), that no cdnfsd is already running. Note that cdnfsd must either be started by root or must be suid.
Attaching problems
Attaching problems are almost always due to an incorrect device file. Check first that you chose the right device type. For each SCSI id listed as drive you should verify by our command inquiry that you can actually reach it. A typical output should be anything like
inquiry \\.\p2b0t2,0
0000002 \\.\p2b0t2,0 is TOSHIBA's CD-drive "CD-ROM XM-3501TA"
0000003 ProRevL 1875, Firmware 07/06/95
If you encounter a "Can't open" error, you should use our command scsidevs to get a list of all known SCSI devices.
inquiry /dev/iXOS_SCSI0/4,0
0000002 /dev/iXOS_SCSI0/4,0 is TOSHIBA's CD-drive "CD-ROM XM-3501TA"
0000003 ProRevL 1875, Firmware 07/06/95
If you encounter a "Bad file number" error, you should check for known devices by
inquiry /dev/iXOS_SCSI?/*
Alternatively you may try to attach a drive in a jukebox as a single device to check if this drive is alright.
The same procedure as for drives applies to SCSI changers/robots as well, except that you can't use them as single drives of course.
If your jukebox has a changer which is adressed by a serial line, you should check for logfile errors of type either
tty_open(xxx) - No such file or directory
or in case of NSM jukeboxes
nsm_recv(): got 0 bytes garbage:
which are caused by an incorrect robot line in the device file.
Please make as well sure for NSM jukeboxes that the robid is correct - check their manual for the details.
You should check the manual of your jukebox as well to ensure that the order of drives in the device file corresponds exactly to the ordering which the changer has in mind. This is a common cause of problem, and sometimes the manual are not very valuable in this respect.
If you changed CDs in the jukebox manually or nothing else helps, you should stop the server, delete the save file of the corresponding jukebox and start the server again. This will cause the jukebox to rescan all slots.