[Shu-cdromlan] Re: CD-ROM on UNIX/Solaris?

[Mark Goatley]

Why don't you just keep using your Novell server, use Novell's
ZENWorks product to manage any software installations to the
workstation, do the software licensing, software and hardware
auditing and control of the workstation including imaging and rollout
and then your all done.  We manage all our workstations with this
product and we can install applications locally if we need to, plus
control access to resources.

ZENWorks can run from a W2k server too if you wish and the NDS can
run on both W2k and Solaris.

Regards
Mark


>Hi, everyone:
>
>I am considering changing a Novell server running CD-ROM databases to
>UNIX/Solaris 8. Does anyone have any experience running cd rom
>databases from a
>Solaris machine? I need some input as to how it works. Thanks.
>
>Sharon Yang
>Rider University
>
>Martin Sapsed wrote:
>
>>  Hi all,
>>
>>  I've copied this to cd-rom-networking@jiscmail.ac.uk since the question was
>>  asked there too...
>>
>>  Jon Knight wrote:
>>  > On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Preston,A wrote:
>>  > > In order to run a networked version of FAME CD-ROM (from Bureau van
>>  > > Dijk) all users need write access to the server where the CD is
>>  > > installed.  For obvious reasons we are not happy to proceed on this
>>  > > basis and this is not the first CD-ROM I have encountered which will
>>  > > only work in this way
>>  > >
>>  > > I wonder if anyone out there has found a clever fix or 'over-ride' to
>>  > > get round this problem?  Any replies to me will be treated in strict
>>  > > confidence!
>>  >
>>  > One trick I've used with our Ultra*Net CD-ROM server in the past
>>  > (including for FAME I think before we moved to the Web version) is to
>>  > install the product on my clean test workstation in somewhere like
>>  > C:\temp\productname using InCtrl3 (available from
>>  > <URL:ftp://ftp.zdnet.com/acq/downloads/pub/zd/PCMag/pcminctr.zip>) to
>>  > check what it installs and what registry changes it makes.
>>
>>  I used to use InCtrl - i think there's a V4 now too - but found the
>>  registry information only half usable. I now prefer InstallRite - a free
>>  download from
>>  http://www.epsilonsquared.com/installrite.htm - which gives you usable .reg
>>  files for the registry alterations.
>>
>>  >                                                            Move any DLLs
>>  > that a naughty installer tries to put in somewhere silly like C:\windows
>>  > or C:\windows\system back into C:\temp\productname.  Then check it works
>>  > OK on the test workstation.  Keep tweaking until you've got all the
>>  > naughty new files in the one place and it works.  Basically I'm doing a
>>  > local product install but the CD-ROM image just happens to be on an N:
>>  > drive delivered over the LAN from the Ultra*Net server.
>>  >
>>  > Next make a self extracting ZIP archive of the installation in
>>  > C:\temp\productname and put that on our Ultra*Net server.  Now in the
>>  > Ultra*Net launch script for this product I download the self-extracting
>>  > ZIP, make the C:\temp\productname directory on the client PC (if it
>>  > doesn't already exist), unpack the s/e ZIP (ie run it), add in any
>>  > required registry entries (which we know about because InCtrl3 tells us
>>  > about them) and then run the c:\temp\productname\superprogram.exe product
>>  > executable.  The Ultra*Net script waits for the product's main window to
>>  > disappear and then tidies away all the cruft in c:\temp.  Bingo - one
>>  > working product usually!  You might need to salt to taste for products
>>  > that look for host based keys and the like but experience has shewn that
>>  > they tend to be pretty grotty anyway and soon get ditched by the
>>  > users/librarians (at least round here.  If CD-ROM vendors make things too
>>  > painful folk will now just go elsewhere and their products will either be
>>  > dropped by us or consigned to the single standalone CD-ROM workstation.
>>  > "Hurrah!" for the Internet and the WWW! :-) ).
>  >
>>  Similar to my initial thoughts but I didn't think of zipping it...
>>
>>  > Bit of a pain in the bottom but it does mean that I can run (for example)
>>  > Bowker's Global Books In Print and the new GBIP Archive off the Ultra*Net
>>  > server without writing to the server's filestore _and_ have it put into a
>>  > writable space on what in some cases are fairly locked down NT
>>  > workstations in labs.
>>
>>  I have all of GBIP on a server apart from the ini file bits. A few
>>  alterations to the glbipw.mnu file means you can have them elsewhere. All I
>>  have to do on the server is update the t01 file for each CD. I wouldn't
>>  fancy heaving that around!
>>
>>  > Works for me.  YMMV. :-)
>>
>>  Sounds like you've got a similar opinion of many software writers to me...!
>>
>>  Cheers,
>>
>>  Martin
>>
>>  --
>>  Martin Sapsed                           To have no errors
>>  Information Services                    Would be life without meaning
>>  University of Wales, Bangor, LL57 2UX   No struggle, no joy.
>>  Fax: +44 (0)1248 383826


--
_________________________
Mark Goatley
Systems Engineer

Technical Services,
Information Technology Services
University of Otago

Dunedin
New Zealand

Ph: 643 4798532
Fax: 643 4795080
Cell: 027 2206095