Originally posted by: dkcc

Hi,
Does any one know if it is possible to conncet a
DVD/CD R/W drive to the USB port on a pSeries 520 and
read and write to the drive using cdrecord?
Does any one know if the standard IBM/AIX drivers
are able to read DVD/CD on this drive?
If the drive can be attached to the USB port. Does
anyone know if it can be used as the boot device?

Thanks,
Dwight

Originally posted by: cd3lgado

Hi

Test we have done has been unsuccesfull. In fact we connected one single USB Memory Key to a USB port assigned to a Suse Linux for PPC LPAR and complete p570 crashed.

Problem is that AIX does not have very good support for USB devices, and manufacturers of such devices does not want to create drivers for AIX. So you cannot easily connect USB to AIX.

Hope this helps

Originally posted by: dkcc

Thank you for the information.

It is interesting to note that a system comes with a feature
that is not supported by the manufacturer. I suppose IBM
can say they put it there in case some one would like to
create a driver for their product; but one would have hopped
that they would have at least provided drivers for such
common product and disk, DVD, CD and tape devices. Especially
since IBM does not sell DVD or CD drives for the pSeries systems.

The reason for my question is that it is VERY difficult to find
SCSI or even SAS DVD/CD W/R devices these days.

I guess vendors of these products would rather create products
for markets where they can sell millions of units instead of
a market place where they would be luck to sell 100,000 units.

Of course this does not help people like me who are trying to
build backup DVD or CD. Or even do a makesysb to a DVD or CD
device.

Supposedly cdrecord will create a bootable DVD or CD if one can
find a SCSI or SAS DVD or CD R/W drive.

Thanks again for the input!
Dwight

Originally posted by: HajoEhlers

Its looks like that with AIX 5.3 TL9 and AIX 6.1 TL2 USB flash drives and optical devices are supported.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg1IZ20527

Soory but i do not have any further info

cheers
Hajo

Originally posted by: dkcc

Hi Hajo,
Thank you for the information.
I will do some more checking.

Bye,
Dwight

Originally posted by: dkcc

Hi,
I found out today that IBM has/will be making a change to the
8203-E4A system (pSeries 520) that might offer a way to
solve this problem.
It is my understanding that the two option bays in the front
of the box will now be SATA slots. That is; the slimline slot
will support a DVD-ROM or RAM SATA device and the 1/2 high
option bay will support a SATA tape drive.
One might be able to use the 1/2 high option bay to install
a SATA CD/DVD R/W drive. (I know that Sony, Pioneer and Plextor
make CD/DVD R/W SATA drivs!)

Bye,
Dwight

Originally posted by: dkcc

Hi,
My pSeries 520 arrived. Model 8302-E4A with the 8308 media backplane (SATA).
All my attempts to find out exactly what kind of device controller supports
the half high bay have failed.
The only answer I get back is that I can install a IBM SAS tape drive in
that slot. This would seem to indicate that the controller is a SAS controller.
Seems odd that a SAS controller would be installed here just to control a
tape drive.
The slimline bay hold a SATA DVD-ROM/DVD-RAM drive.

Originally posted by: SystemAdmin

I have the same problem for USB DVD-RW support on AIX and VIOS. I try with ASUS DVD-RAM without succes, but USB box + LG COMBO device work very well on aix and vios.

Originally posted by: dkcc

Hi tasaged,
Are you saying that AIX on a pSeries system recognizes "LG COMBO device" attached
to a USB port?
What specific "LG COMBO device" drive works?

Thanks for the information!