How to Write Data to removable media:

CD

There are a number of CD writers installed by the CFG which are available for data archiving.  Any user with login access to these systems can use these writers. CD writers may be found at :
 
Machine Location System Operating system
intdrpc INT Control Room PC Linux
scorpio WHT Terminal area. SPARC Solaris
lepus JKT Control Room. SPARC Solaris
whtdrpc1 WHT Terminal control room i386 Linux
whtdrpc2 WHT Terminal control room i386 Linux
cfgpc7 WHT Terminal area
 i386 Linux

The available space on each blank CD is about 650 MBytes, so the data to be saved shouldn't exceed this size. Check the examples below on how to write the CDs. Note that the whole line uses two commands joined by a 'pipe', and that the writing command differs depending on the kind of platform being used.

In this case the contents of that directory shouldn't be more than 650 MB

    SPARC:    mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307 | cdrw -i
    i386:          mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307 | /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -

To check the size of the data use the du command (eg: du -ks /obsdata/intf/20010307)

 All the flags used with the Unix commands should be used with the first command in the pipe (mkisofs)

    Same as before:

    SPARC:    mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/* | cdrw -i
    i386:          mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/* |  /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -

    To save files with a particular file extension (for example, FITS files):

    SPARC:    mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/*.fit | cdrw -i
    i386:          mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/*.fit | /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -

    To save images from r250760.fit to r250769.fit:

    SPARC:    mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076?.fit | cdrw -i
                      mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076[0-9].fit | cdrw -i

    i386:          mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076?.fit | /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -
                      mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076[0-9].fit | /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -

    To save images from r250740.fit to r250769.fit:

    SPARC:    mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r2507[4-6]?.fit | cdrw -i
    i386:          mkisofs -r /obsdata/intf/20010307/r2507[4-6]?.fit | /usr/local/bin/cdrecord -v dev=0,0,0 -

DVD

There are a number of DVD writers installed by the CFG which are available for data archiving.  Any user with login access to these systems can use these writers. DVD writers may be found at :
 
Machine Location System Operating system
intdrpc INT Control Room PC Linux
whtdrpc1 WHT Terminal control room i386 Linux
whtdrpc2 WHT Terminal control room i386 Linux
cfgpc7 WHT Terminal area
 i386 Linux

The available space on each blank DVD is about 4.7 GBytes but this depends on the make and some other factors. The only restriction when writing a DVD is that although the final DVD image can be up to the maximum size of the media, none of the original files can be bigger then 2GBytes or it will be ignored and not saved.
The application used to burn a DVD needs an 'activation code' defined in an environment variable. How to define this variable depends on the shell used, but the value is the same in any case. The code below is for the tcsh shell.

setenv CDR_SECURITY 8:dvd,clone:sparc-sun-solaris2,i386-pc-solaris2,i586-pc-linux,powerpc-apple,hppa,powerpc-ibm-aix,i386-unknown-freebsd,i386-unknown-openbsd,i386-unknown-netbsd,powerpc-apple-netbsd,i386-pc-bsdi,mips-sgi-irix,i386-pc-sco:1.11::1093000000:::private/research/educational_non-commercial_use:9vl2T2kP6w6O4h.bXuet8hP1Z3H5erm3qWmxhbcr.fHvuN8ZJbhQUWBzjAc
The examples are quite similar to the CD case.

To save a whole directory
In this case the contents of that directory shouldn't be more than 4.7 GB

    i386:          mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307 | /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -

To check the size of the data use the du command (eg: du -ks /obsdata/intf/20010307)

 All the flags used with the Unix commands should be used with the first command in the pipe (mkisofs)

    Same as before:

    i386:          mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307/* |  /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -

    To save files with a particular file extension (for example, FITS files):

    i386:          mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307/*.fit | /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -

    To save images from r250760.fit to r250769.fit:

    i386:          mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076?.fit | /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -
                      mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307/r25076[0-9].fit | /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -

    To save images from r250740.fit to r250769.fit:

    i386:          mkisofs -udf /obsdata/intf/20010307/r2507[4-6]?.fit | /usr/local/bin/dvdrecord -v dev=0,1,0 -

* A blank CD needs to be inserted before any of these commands can be performed.  The ING does not provide blank CDs and thus users should provide their own.

** When using a Linux box to burn either CD or DVD's a driver must be provided in the dev option of the burning command. To find the drivers present in a given computer, use the command 'cdrecord -scanbus'. The output should be something like:

[root@cfgpc7 tmp]# cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord 2.0 (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2002 J?rg Schilling
Linux sg driver version: 3.1.24
Using libscg version 'schily-0.7'
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.75-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c        1.75 02/10/21 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
scsibus0:
        0,0,0     0) 'SONY    ' 'CD-RW  CRX185E1 ' 'XYS2' Removable CD-ROM
        0,1,0     1) 'PIONEER ' 'DVD-RW  DVR-104 ' '1.20' Removable CD-ROM
        0,2,0     2) *
        0,3,0     3) *
        0,4,0     4) *
        0,5,0     5) *
        0,6,0     6) *
        0,7,0     7) *

Usually only one driver is present and is identified by the three digits separated by commas, like 0,0,0. In this example, a CD writer and a DVD writer are present.


Last Updated: 26th March 2006
By: Don Carlos Abrams