Last Modified: Thursday, 07-Apr-2005 10:59:19 EDT
IEEE1394 FireWire Disks: CSB Guide for Synchrotrons
Return to top of page.
- Make sure you have all the disks you will need.
- Find out what facilities your beamline has.
- Does the beamline have IEEE 1394 FireWire capability? If
so, does it use a Windows or Linux computer? What format do
they reccomend for the disk?
- Will you need the CSB Core laptop, which has its own
FireWire interface? If so, see our
laptop
documentation. Make sure the beamline has facilities for
connecting our laptop to their network.
- Make sure your disks are properly formatted, and free of old
data.
- vfat (aka FAT32) format can be used on Windows or Linux computers.
We reccomend using it for synchrotron trips,
if your disk is less than 120 GB. If you use a single FAT32 partition
on a larger disk, you risk losing data. vfat does not
support unix-style file ownership and access controls.
- ext3 format can only be used on linux.
It supports unix-style file ownership and access controls.
- NTFS format can be (reliably) used only on Windows
computers. This format is necessary when
taking larger-than-120GB disks to synchrotrons that use Windows
computers (e.g., Berkeley).
See the CSB staff for formatting disks.
- Make sure you have the appropriate tape media for making archives
at the synchrotron or back at the Core.
Return to top of page.
Be careful!
Return to top of page.
The procedure will vary with the synchrotron and beamline. If you are
using the CSB Core laptop to download data to the FireWire disks, see our
laptop documentation.
Some
general suggestions:
- Consider saving the files in uncompressed format -- i.e., do
not zip or gzip them. You will save time at both ends,
even if you have to use an extra disk.
- If you are in a large group, consider using a large (e.g., 160GB)
disk to store everyone's data. Also use smaller (60GB or 80GB) disks
to store a few datasets each. That will give each project more
flexibility on this end, while providing a backup copy for the whole
trip.
- If possible, save your frames as individual files, rather than as tar
or WinZip archives. WinZip particularly will cause
additional work when you return to the CSB.
Return to top of page.
At this writing (22 March 2004), you can connect FireWire disks to
the following computers in the CSB Core:
| Computer | OS | notes
|
| Emperor | Linux |
|
| Pelican | Linux |
|
| Puffin | Linux |
|
| Coot | Linux |
|
| Loon | Linux |
|
| Excavator | W2K |
|
| Rigger | W2K |
|
| Xanthippe | Linux | Laptop
|
| Glaucon | Linux | Laptop
|
When using one of the Core synchrotron laptops to transfer data to the
FireWire disks, or when visiting Brookhaven, the FireWire disks can store
the data in a Linux-readable format. In this case, an optimal strategy
would be to connect your disk to one of the Linux machines, and process it
directly from the FireWire disk, directing the reduced output to a
subdirectory in /srv/frames or /csb/[group].
Likewise, you can archive your raw data to tape from emperor, directing
output to the DLT tape drive on, for example,
bao2.core:/dev/rmt/tps1d3v.7000c or to 8mm on
to one of the tape drives on beetle. This avoids copying your raw
data from the FireWire disk to one of the CSB Core disks. See
here for
more information.
Connecting the FireWire disk to a Linux computer
(click for windows)
If you are using the laptop to upload data, use the procedure
in the
laptop documentation.
- Read this entire procedure before starting.
- Log on to the linux workstation (e.g., emperor).
- Plug the power cord into your FireWire disk, then into a power
outlet. Once you have applied power, avoid moving the disk if at all
possible.
- Connect the FireWire data cable between the disk and the
computer:
- On emperor, there is a thin door on the right side of
the front panel, about 3 inches from the top. Open the door.
Connect one end of the cable to the FireWire port inside, the
other to either port on the back of your disk.
- On puffin or pelican,
there should already be a silver FireWire
cable connected to the back of the computer. Simply plug its
free end into your disk.
- On loon or coot, the FireWire connections are
in the back of the computer.
- USB connections are available front and back on loon,
coot and emperor.
- In a window on the workstation, type, dmesg | grep
ieee1394. The last line from the output should be similar
to:
ieee1394: Device added: node 0:1023, GUID
0010b90101408a16
- Mount the disk readonly:
mount -v -r /local/fire. (If you need
write access to the disk, leave out the -r flag.)
You should get a reply similar to:
/dev/sdb1 on /local/fire type vfat (ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=perlo)
You can now access your data on /local/fire.
If this does not work, reboot the computer and try again:
- Log off
- In the login box, select Shutdown on the lower
right. Click Reboot. Click OK.
- It will take about 3 minutes to reboot. Log in again, then
start with step 6.
-
When you are finished, unmount your disk:
umount -v /local/fire.
- Disconnect the data cable. On emperor, loon, or coot,
disconnect the cable from the computer. On pelican or puffin,
disconnect the cable from the disk, leaving the other end
connected to the computer.
- Unplug the power cord from the disk and from the socket.
Connecting the FireWire disk to a Windows computer
- Read this entire procedure before starting.
- Log on to the windows workstation (e.g., mason).
- Plug the power cord into your FireWire disk, then into a power
outlet. Once you have applied power, avoid moving the disk if at all
possible.
- Connect the FireWire data cable between the disk and the
computer: On mason, there should already be a silver FireWire
cable connected to the back of the computer. Simply plug its
free end into your disk.
- After a few seconds, a window should pop up showing the contents
of the disk. This will likely appear as Drive E or higher. If the
disk was labeled on formatting, it should also appear by name.
- You can now access your files as any other windows files. If you
want to upload them, pay careful attention when using drag-and-drop
in the Network Neighborhood. I/O errors are common, as are even
more incomprehensible ones. Alternatively,
you can use sftp to a UNIX host, which is slow but more reliable.
- When you are finished,
click on the eject icon in the lower right corner of the
screen. This is a small square icon with a green
arrow pointing to the left. A box will pop up; select the
line stop [brandname] disk, or whatever is most similar.
- Disconnect the data cable from the disk, leaving the other end
connected to the computer.
- Unplug the power cord from the disk and from the socket.
Return to top of page.
Last Modified: Thursday, 07-Apr-2005 10:59:19 EDT