Robert Nelson wrote: > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Erich Prinz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 10:15 AM >> To: Josh Fisher >> Cc: bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net (E-mail); Robert Nelson >> Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] Removable disk HOWTO? >> >> >> On Mar 22, 2007, at 11:55 AM, Josh Fisher wrote: >> >> >>> Erich Prinz wrote: >>> >>>> True, drives are assigned the next available drive letter. >>>> >>>> In many of the simple deployments I have, it is a simple two disk >>>> rotation. The USB drives always get the same drive mapping - which >>>> can easily get thrown out of whack with the introduction of another >>>> device by an end user. Hence why servers run headless and locked away >>>> in closets. >>>> >>>> Just thinking out loud, but Is it possible to use UNC versus drive >>>> mappings? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> The win32 Bacula SD probably uses fopen() and so would support UNC >>> paths. But I don't know if it is possible to symlink to a UNC path, >>> so I >>> don't know if UNC paths would work using the approach vchanger takes. >>> Also, that would not affect how USB drives are handled. >>> >> Hmmm.... isn't this the mechanism drive mapping uses >> essentially a >> symlink? >> >> > > UNC Paths are a network concept and don't apply to local disks unless they > have been shared and are accessed through the redirector. Unless you are > referring to names like \\??\C:\filename.ext, which look sort of like UNC > paths but aren't. They still require a drive letter. > > Drive letters are just NT object manager symlinks (not the same as NTFS > filesystem symlinks) to the device objects exposed by the disk device > drivers. Similarly all WIN32 "devices" are just NT object manager symlinks > to various device objects exposed by NT drivers. > > It should be possible to create a link between the USB disk device object > and a name that is accessible to WIN32 applications using a path such as > \\.\DriveName\filename.exe. I haven't tried this and I'm not sure that the > "c" runtime apis such as fopen() and open() wouldn't get confused. > > >>> Perhaps the best approach would be to force the use of a Windows 2k or >>> greater NTFS filesystem on the USB drives to be used. Then it would be >>> possible to mount the USB drive partition at a "reparse point" on the >>> directory tree of a fixed disk NTFS volume, rather than assigning it a >>> drive letter at all. A NTFS reparse point is essentially what the rest >>> of the world calls a mountpoint. The difference is that in *nix any >>> drive partition can be mounted at a given mountpoint, so we can >>> have all >>> of the drives associated with a virtual changer always be mounted >>> at the >>> same mountpoint and they don't even have to use the same >>> filesystem. I'm >>> not so sure how Windows determines which USB drive partitions get >>> mounted at a particular reparse point, so I'm not sure if it is >>> possible >>> to have one reparse point at which all associated USB drives will get >>> mounted. >>> >> I don't know either. >> >> > > Reparse points are more than mount points. They are also used to implement > symlinks, Distributed File System, Remote Storage Server, and numerous other > things where you need a file system object to contain meta data which > represents something else. > > In theory it shouldn't matter what fs is the target of a reparse point, > although the NTFS filesystem might enforce that it is NTFS so that > applications aren't confused by the filesystem characteristics changing in > the middle of the file tree. But I don't think this is case. The only > restriction I know of is that the filesystem that contains the reparse point > must support them (kind of obvious :-) > > The trick is preventing the mount manager from assigning a drive letter. It > uses information in the registry to specify which volume devices are > allocated drive letters and which ones should be mounted on a mount point. > I'm not sure if it is valid to have multiple volumes map to the same mount > point. > > It should be possible to create a utility that creates the appropriate > information so that the mount manager will mount the device automatically on > the mount point. But you would have to connect the USB device and then run > the utility. > > I'll see if I can whip something up tomorrow. > > >>> I am certain that the FAT32 filesystem could not be used >>> without drive letters. >>> > > I'm not so sure about that. > > >> Most USB drives ship with FAT32, however, it carries a 2GB >> limit on >> file size and that fact can cause issues. >> >> IMO on the WIN side of the world, NTFS would be the only >> format to >> use for more reasons than just the above. >> >> >>> However, reparse points would eliminate the drive >>> letter assignment problems and at least allow defining one reparse >>> point >>> per drive. >>> >> Robert Nelson would be an excellent resource on this >> > question. > >> I've >> cc'd him too. >> >> >> >>>> Erich >>>> >>>> On Mar 21, 2007, at 2:10 PM, Josh Fisher wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>>> Erich Prinz wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> Any chance of a Wintel version becoming available? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> In Windows, drives are mounted by drive letter. It is possible to >>>>> mount >>>>> a particular USB drive at a particular drive letter and make that >>>>> mapping permanent. However, as far as I know, it is not possible to >>>>> force multiple USB drives to be assigned the same drive letter. If >>>>> I am >>>>> wrong, and it is possible to permanently assign the same drive >>>>> letter to >>>>> more than one drive, then a win32 version would not be too hard. >>>>> >>>>> Another way might be to assign drives to virtual changers by drive >>>>> letter, where each drive letter would map to a particular >>>>> magazine and >>>>> the drive letters are reserved for those drives. That seems >>>>> feasible, >>>>> and I will investigate it. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> On Mar 20, 2007, at 2:04 PM, Josh Fisher wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> The latest version is 0.7.4 and was posted to the bacula-users >>>>>>> list >>>>>>> 2006-12-12. It currently isn't hosted anywhere that I know of, >>>>>>> and I don't think attachments are kept in the archives, so >>>>>>> here it >>>>>>> is again. Perhaps I should find somewhere to host it. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I don't know if anyone else is using this method for USB drives, >>>>>>> but I can say that I have been using it with bacula 2.0.x for >>>>>>> several months without any problems. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> --- Josh Fisher >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Hristo Benev wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Hi, >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> what is latest version of removable disk howto and where it could >>>>>>>> be accessed? >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Thanks >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Hristo Benev >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>> -- >>>>>>>> ---- >>>>>>>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>>>>>>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>>>>>>> share your >>>>>>>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn >>>>>>>> cash >>>>>>>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>>>>>>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV >>>>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>>>> Bacula-users mailing list >>>>>>>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> <BaculaRemovableDiskHowto-0.7.4.tgz> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> >>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------ >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> -- >>>>>>> --- >>>>>>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>>>>>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>>>>>> share your >>>>>>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn >>>>>>> cash >>>>>>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>>>>>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV____________________________ >>>>>>> __ >>>>>>> __ >>>>>>> _______________ >>>>>>> Bacula-users mailing list >>>>>>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>>> >>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>> -- >>>>>> ---- >>>>>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>>>>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>>>>> share your >>>>>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn >>>>>> cash >>>>>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>>>>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Bacula-users mailing list >>>>>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>> -- >>>>> --- >>>>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>>>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>>>> share your >>>>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash >>>>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>>>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> Bacula-users mailing list >>>>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>> ---- >>>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>>> share your >>>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash >>>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Bacula-users mailing list >>>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> --- >>> Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT >>> Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to >>> share your >>> opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash >>> http://www.techsay.com/default.php? >>> page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Bacula-users mailing list >>> Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >>> >>> > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT > Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your > opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash > http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users > Probably this could help:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205524 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
