[BLAST_ANAWARE] Procedure for DVD writing

From: Taylan Akdogan (akdogan@MIT.EDU)
Date: Wed Apr 28 2004 - 13:22:28 EDT


GENERAL INFORMATION
--------------------------------------------------------

 o The following bud nodes have DVD writer (RW).

       bud01 , bud02 , bud07 , bud08
       bud13 , bud14 , bud19 , bud20

 o A DVD media can hold 4.7 GB of data

 o The DVD writers are 4x writers; which means
    it can write the whole DVD in "about" 1hr / 4 = 15 mins

 o The necessary DVD writing utilities are installed on bud01.
    Ernie will copy the utilities to the rest of the buds that
    have DVD writers.

 o The utilities are installed in /usr/local/bin,man
    directories. If "/usr/local/bin" is not in your current
    search path list, you need to add this. In most cases it
    is in the default list. Refer to your favorite shells
    man-page if you need it (or ask me.)

DVD UTILITIES
--------------------------------------------------------
Currently there is one script which simplifies the writing
process, and works as a command line program.

DVDs, like CDs - unlike DVD-RAMs, can be written limited number
of times; their TOCs (table of contents), cannot be modified
"many" times. Some writers/utilities can add new tracks to the
disks, so one can write in several steps. Nevertheless, it is
NOT a media similar to hard-disks/floppy-disks; you cannot put
the disk into drive and copy the files as you desire thousands of
times.

The proper way to create an DVD is creating its image
--bit-by-bit the data to be written on the media which includes
the file-system and data files-- first, than "burning" this image
on the disk.

Thus, in order to create a DVD you need to put the files that
will be written on the disk in a directory, and tell the script
that you need to write the content of this directory. Off course,
the best place to create such a directory is the scratch area of
the buds: "/scratch/local"

 o I highly recommend everyone who uses buds for writing DVDs
    that you create a directory in /scratch/local with your
    username. For example my scratch are is
    "/scratch/local/akdogan"

 o Absolutely, DO NOT USE your home directory for this purpose.
    You may fill the "blast" partition quickly!!!

A script is written to simplify the DVD creation process which is
called "dvdcreate".

PROCEDURE TO CREATE A DVD
--------------------------------------------------------

 o Create the temporary directory in the scratch area.

 o Copy the files you wish to write on DVD into this directory.

 o Give "dvdcreate <directory name>" command. (<directory name>
    is the name of directory you just created)

"dvdcreate" script does the rest:
--------------------------------------------------------

 o Checks the total size of the files. The current limit is
    set to 4500MB. File system needs some more space which
    requires an image closer to 4.7 GB. If the size of the
    files greater than 4500 MB, the script will warn you and
    quit. Than, you can try to split your data into several
    discs.

 o Creates an iso9660 image in the scratch area.

 o Burns the image on to disc.

 o Mounts the disc.

 o Verifies the integrity of the data.

 o Unmounts the disc.

 o Deletes the temporary image from the scratch area. However, it
    does not delete your temporary directory. It is your
    responsibility to clean after yourself, IF it is not
    going to be used later.

 o Eject the disc.

EXAMPLE
--------------------------------------------------------
(akdogan@bud17) ~ [9] $ ssh bud01
(akdogan@bud01) ~ [1] > mkdir /scratch/local/akdogan
(akdogan@bud01) ~ [2] > mkdir /scratch/local/akdogan/dvd-cosmic
(akdogan@bud01) ~ [3] > cp /net/data/4/Analysis/pro2004/dst-63[0-6]?.root \
? /scratch/local/akdogan/dvd-cosmic
(akdogan@bud01) ~ [4] > dvdcreate /scratch/local/akdogan/dvd-cosmic

# after this step it takes about 45 minutes to create the image,
# to burn and to verify.

(akdogan@bud01) ~ [5] > rm -rf /scratch/local/akdogan/dvd-cosmic

MISCELLANEOUS
--------------------------------------------------------
 o The DVDs we have are type DVD+R. The front end utility for
   burning the data, called cdrecord, on this type of media is
   written by Joerg Schilling, who doesn't release its source
   code. And nobody in the Linux community is actively developing
   an open source one (at least to my knowledge) assuming that
   there is already one "exists."

   Normally, we can live with that. But, the binary code I got
   from his page is time limited (valid until August). He says
   it is free ("free of charge") for academic use. But, I
   personally, don't like the idea of "expiration" in software.
   We have time until August to found a permanent solution for
   this. Meanwhile, we can ask him to provide a permanent key
   for this (he calls it cdrecord-ProDVD). If anyone knows an
   alternative utility, please let me know.

 o Another script is underway, which can be used to backup a
   range of crunched root files (dst,lr,flr). It won't require
   you to move the files in a temporary directory.

 o Other utilities exist which may (or may not) speed up the
   whole process at some degree (like growing a ISO fs image,
   instead of creating at once) with an expense of automation.
   I am open to suggestions.

 o Now we have the underlying frontend, if people prefers a GUI,
   there are also GUIs (both kde and gnome based) for this
   standardized frontend. We may attempt to install it, if users
   prefer a GUI instead of a command line utility. They require
   basically the same steps: defining a directory (through its
   preferences), moving the files my drag-and-drop, instead of
   "cp" command, and clicking a button, which does what
   "dvdcreate" command does.

-- 
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Taylan Akdogan              Massachusetts Institute of Technology
akdogan@mit.edu                             Department of Physics
Phn:+1-617-258-0801                Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Fax:+1-617-258-5440                                  Room 26-402b
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