For my review of DiscPort Executive, Microtest supplied a CD-ROM
server system. Microtest offers this system as part of a turnkey DiscPort
Executive solution.
Logicraft manufactures this CD-ROM server, which impressed me the moment I
opened the shipping crate and looked inside. To begin with, the Logicraft system
does not look like a standard PC-tower system. The system features a hinged,
lockable door that limits access to the CD-ROM drive array. Additionally, all
the usual system connections (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.) are located on the
top of the unit hidden underneath a lift-off metal top. Once you configure the
unit, you can close it, put it in a convenient location, and ignore it.
As impressive as the cabinetry is, I was even more impressed when I opened
the front door and saw a hot-dockable 2GB SCSI disk drive and an array of 13
hot-dockable 12X SCSI CD-ROM drives. The system also includes a 166MHz Pentium
processor and 64MB of RAMa reasonable Windows NT Server system for a
network-sharing application. The system had NT Server and DiscPort Executive
preinstalled.
Why would you need a system with so many CD-ROM drives? One reason is to
handle a large volume of information: Thirteen CD-ROMs let you access more than
8GB of online data. Of course, you still must deal with how to partition your
data across multiple CD-ROMs, because you can't organize the data as if it were
one 8GB database. But once you master the data distribution problem, you have a
very economical solution for data delivery.
Another reason to implement a CD-ROM server is to control the location of
your CD-ROMs and to make sure that everyone can access them. For example, here
in the Lab, we continually misplace the CD-ROMs that contain NT Workstation, NT
Server, Service Pack 3, and other key BackOffice products. If the Lab
implemented a CD-ROM server, the Lab Guys could access CD-ROMs anytime over the
network.
DiscPort Executive's ability to mount foreign (non-NT) CD-ROM formats is also a key benefit in many networks. By offering NT, UNIX, and Mac CD-ROM volumes from a single server, you can centralize the CD-ROM access needs of the majority of your users. This alternative is far better than implementing a CD-ROM server system for each type of system in your network.
Of course, using DiscPort Executive to drive a CD-ROM server is only one way of deploying the software. DiscPort Executive is also capable of managing CD-ROMs distributed throughout your networkyou can have 13 systems with one CD-ROM drive instead of one system with 13 CD-ROM drives. But for most of us, centralization is good.
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