Windows NT

Novell NetWare

Windows NT Virtual Volumes

Creating and sharing a virtual volume in a Windows NT environment comprises three steps:

• Creating and formatting a volume set
• Sharing directories on the created "virtual volume"
• Connecting to the shared directory from client workstations

To create a volume set from multiple physical disks

(All these steps are accomplished using Windows NT Disk Administrator)

1. Select two or more areas of free space (on from 1 to 32 disks) by selecting the first area of free space, and then pressing CTRL and clicking each of the other areas.
2. On the Partition menu, click Create Volume Set. Disk Administrator displays the minimum and maximum sizes for the volume set.
3. Type the size of the volume set that you want to create, and then click OK.

If you choose to use less than the total available space, Disk Administrator uses an equal percentage of the free space on each disk to create a partition of the size you specified. A single drive letter is assigned to the collection of partitions that make up the volume set.

The changes make will not be saved until you either click Commit Changes Now or quit Disk Administrator . Operating systems, such as MS-DOS, that do not have volume-set functionality cannot recognize any volume sets that are created by Windows NT. Therefore, if you create a volume set on a dual-boot computer, those partitions become unusable by MS-DOS.

Also note that these volumes need to be formatted as FAT or NTFS file systems before they can be used by Windows NT.

To share a directory with other people

1. In My Computer, click the directory you want to share.
2. On the File menu, click Properties.
3. Click the Sharing tab, and then click Shared As.
4. To add a comment about the share, type the text in Comment.
5. To set a User Limit other than Maximum Allowed, click Allow, and specify a number of Users.
6. To set share permissions, click Permissions.

• If the Sharing tab is not visible, try using Services in Control Panel to start your Server service.
• You can use comments to help people locate information you have shared. To read these, click Details on the Network Neighborhood View menu, and look under Comment.
• You use the procedure described above to share disk.

1. In Network Neighborhood, double-click the computer that has the shared resource.
2. Right-click the shared folder and then click Map Network Drive.
3. To connect under a different user name, type the name in Connect As.
4. If you do not want to connect to the shared directory each time you log on, clear Reconnect at Logon.

Creating and mapping virtual volumes under Novell NetWare comprises several distinct steps: (Note -- these directions presume familarity with NetWare system administration.)

• Create NetWare partition
• Create NetWare volume
• Add additional partition segments to NetWare volume (optional)
• Assign user rights
• Mapping drive letters in login scripts

Create NetWare partition

Note: These directions are based on NetWare 3.X, however, NetWare 4.X uses a similar procedure to administer server volumes.

1. Load INSTALL.NLM

2. Select "Disk Options" from the "Installation Options" menu.

3. Select "Partition Tables" from the "Available Disk Options" menu.

4. Select the disk you need to partition from those listed on the "Available Disk Drives" menu. Note: If no partition table exists, you will see a message stating so. Press <Esc> to continue.

5. Select "Create NetWare Partition" from the "Partition Options" menu. NetWare automatically sets up the following configuration for the partition:

All "Free Space" is assigned to the NetWare partition.

The data area receives 98% of the available space.

The Hot Fix redirection area receives 2% of the available space.

Note: Some NetWare-Ready hard disks leave a little free space even though you accept the defaults for using the whole disk for a NetWare partition. NetWare cannot use this free space.

6. To reduce the partition size, enter the new size in the "Partition Size" field.

7. To change the size of the Data Area or the Hot Fix Redirection Area, press <Enter> or use the arrow keys to move to either field. Type the new number of blocks for that field and press <Enter>. NetWare automatically assigns any remaining space to the other field. Warning: If you change the size of the Hot Fix area after data is stored on the hard disk, all data is destroyed. Back up data before you change the size of the Hot Fix area.

8. Press <Esc> and answer "Yes."

9. Press <Esc> again.

If you need to create a partition on more than one hard disk, select the next hard disk from the "Available Disk Drives" list and repeat Steps 4 through 9.

Create NetWare Volume

You can create a new volume on any hard disk that has a NetWare v3.1x partition. Your file server can have up to 64 volumes. The needs of your users determines how many volumes you need on your file server; the operating system requires only one volume, SYS:, to function properly. Procedure

1 Load INSTALL.

2 Select "Volume Options" from the "Installation Options" menu.

3 When the "Volumes" list appears, press <Insert> .

• Multiple hard disks. If you have more than one hard disk with available disk space, a "Free Space Available for Volume Segments" list appears. Select the disk you want to create the volume on.
• One hard disk. If only one hard disk has available disk space, the "New Volume Information" form appears:

5 To name the volume, highlight the "Volume Name" field and enter the name of the new volume. (VOL1, VOL2, etc. is a common scheme).

6 Press <Enter> to move to the next field; then enter the block size .Consider the following points as you decide which block size is best:

• The default block size is 4 KB.
• Block size must be the same on all segments of a volume. Once a block size has been selected, it cannot be changed for additional segments.
• Small block sizes require more file server memory to track the File Allocation and Directory Entry Tables. Large block sizes use more disk space because small files must be assigned at least one block.
• Larger block sizes are best for large database records.
• DOS utilities may calculate the amount of free disk space incorrectly if you select large block sizes (32 KB or 64 KB).

7 Press the Down-arrow key to move to the "Initial Segment Size" field.

8 Complete one of the following:

• To assign the entire available segment to the volume, skip to Step 12.
• To calculate the number of blocks to assign to the volume, continue with Step 9.

9 Divide the size of a megabyte (1024) by the selected block size.

• 1024/4 = 256 blocks per megabyte
• 1024/8 = 128 blocks per megabyte

10 Multiply the number of blocks per megabyte by the number of megabytes you want to allocate.

• 256 x 25MB = 6400
• 128 x 25MB = 3200

11 Enter the number calculated in Step 9 in the "Initial Segment Size" field.

12 To create the volume with the configuration entered in the "New Volume Information" form, press <Esc> and answer "Yes" to the prompt to create the volume.

13 With the new volume name highlighted, press <Enter> to return to the "Volume Information" screen.

14 Highlight the "Status" field and press <Enter> .

15 Select "Mount Volume."

Add Segments to Existing Volume

A volume can have multiple segments spanning multiple hard disks. This allows you to add a hard disk when you need to expand a given volume. (We presume you have already created the volume).

Keep the following requirements in mind as you expand volumes:

• The maximum number of segments in a volume is 32.
• The maximum number of segments you can create on one hard disk is 8.
• The maximum number of volumes is 64.
• You can add segments to a volume without destroying data, but you cannot remove the segments without destroying data.

You can increase the size of a volume in two ways:

• Add a new volume segment on the same hard disk as the volume.
• Add a new volume segment by adding a segment from a new hard disk.

1 Load INSTALL.NLM

2 Select "Volume Options" from the "Installation Options" menu.

3 From the "Volumes" list, select the volume you want to add the segment to.

4 Select the "Volume Segments" field. A list of the current segments in the selected volume appears.

5 Press <Insert>. One of the following happens:

If more than one free area exists, a list of disks with free areas appears. Select the hard disk from the list. Then continue with Step 6.

If only one disk has a free area, the disk is selected for you. Continue with Step 6.

If no free areas exist, nothing happens. A hard disk needs to be added to the file server and a NetWare partition created on the disk before you can select a segment.

6. Type the number of blocks you want in the new volume segment and press <Enter> . The default number is the whole area. We recommend that you leave an unassigned segment of at least 6 MB on one hard disk.

7 Answer "Yes" at the prompt to add a new segment to the volume.

This is a part of routine system administration, usually accomplished with SYSCON (NetWare 3.X) or NWADMIN (NetWare 4.X). At a minimum, users need Read and File Scan access to content ordinarily stored on a CD-ROM.

Drive mappings are usually accomplished via user, system or container login scripts in a NetWare environment. Connections to shared directories can also be accomplished from Windows-based workstations just as they were in a Windows NT environment.

Generally, the syntax for MAP is:

MAP x: = \\server\volume:directory

• where x is the new drive letter

• server is the NetWare server name

• volume is the NetWare volume name

• dir is the subdirectory of the volume being mapped to the drive letter

Subdirectory mappings can also be made as "fake roots", using the command:

MAP [ROOT] drive:= [drive:| path]

• Replace drive with the drive letter mapped to the directory you want to work with.

• Replace path with the directory path you want to work with.

• Include ROOT to map a drive to a fake root directory.

Some software applications write files to and read files from the root directory only. Because users do not have rights in the root directory, they cannot retrieve or write to files they create in those applications. NetWare allows users to map a drive to a fake root directory where they have the rights they need.

You can save drive mappings---including fake root mappings---in your login script if you want them to be invoked each time you log in.