CD
Jukebox Application Note:
This application
note compares the jukebox, Archiving Appliances, CD Towers and Turbo
Servers.
Applications for jukeboxes
and libraries:
Note
the term jukebox and library are sometimes used interchangeably. We
usually use the term jukebox when we are talking about devices that
handle DVD and CD discs. The term Library is usually used when the device
handles optical media such as UDO or Blu-ray optical media.
A
jukebox or optical library is excellent for archiving data to optical
or DVD discs. There are three basic types
of media to consider - DVD, UDO and Blu-ray. DVD is the historic standard
(4GB/disc) while UDO and Blu-ray are new optical disc types. UDO provides
30GB/disc capacity, and
Blu-ray supports up to 50GB/disc.
The DVD jukeboxes
contain multifunction
writers that support a variety of formats
such as DVD-R, +R, DVD-RAM, etc. They hold from 100 to over 600 discs.
It is important to understand the difference between DVD-R/+R and DVD-RAM.
DVD-R/+R is permanent media; you can't erase or change the data once
it is written. DVD-RAM can be erased and rewritten.
The Plasmon UDO
jukeboxes contain special drives that support both Write Once Read Mostly
(WORM) and read/write UDO media, but do not support DVD, CD or Blu-ray
discs.
The Blu-ray drives in
the Disc NSM jukebox supports CD, DVD, and Blu-ray media but not UDO.
There are two types of jukeboxes available, one that includes DVD
multi-format drives and supports only CD and DVD type writeable
and Read-only discs, and the Blu-ray Library which includes the latest
Blu-ray optical drives and supports writing
and reading of Blu-ray, DVD and CD media.
Jukeboxes connect
to a Windows 2000/3 or Sun UNIX server using special
software. Users on the network can copy or drag and drop data
to the server which automatically transfers the data to a CD, DVD, UDO
or Blu-ray disc in the jukebox.
All the jukeboxes
work best when only a few users need to access the discs at the same
time. Small jukeboxes have only one or two CD, DVD, UDO or Blu-ray drives,
so only one or two users can share the jukebox at the same time. If
additional users want to use a new disc, they have to wait for the disc
to be swapped by the robotics in the jukebox. This
takes from 4 to 9 seconds. Larger
jukeboxes have six or more readers, so more users can simultaneously
access the different discs at the same time.
Archiving
Appliances
There are a number of
systems that take advantage of the same robotic mechanisms used in automatic
duplicators. With these systems you can archive email data or general
data to a stack of discs. This is a batch process where a set of blank
discs are placed on a spindle and written one-at-a-time and placed on
an output spindle. The discs are stored off-line and can be accessed
by reading them back in using the same mechanism.
Speeding up access
If you need to speed
up access to the data in the jukebox you can cache some data to your
computer's hard drive or use Network Attached Storage.
The following technology
is used for accessing CD or DVD discs:
 Towers
contain a number of individual CD/DVD-ROM drives. It can be used to
share a small number of discs, and can be used to load discs into your
computer's hard drive. The tower connects to the network (using a thin
server).
The CD/DVD
Server is the newest way of making CDs and DVDs available to network
users. These systems provide the most cost effective solution for between
20 and 1,000 CD or DVD discs. The TurboPlus tower uses built-in hard
drives to hold (or cache) the content of up to 1,000 CDs. You can choose
models with CD/DVD-ROM and CD/DVD Recorders.
The downside to a
CD/DVD Server is that it takes time to copy the discs to the hard drive.
It's very automatic, and easy to do, but still take about 2 minutes
to copy each CD. The CD/DVD Server provides an easy to install, multi-protocol
direct connection to your 10/100 Base Ethernet network. It attaches
to Macintosh, UNIX or MS network (Win NT/2000/2003/XP). The CD/DVD Servers
Can be accessed through a web browse or directly on the network.
Software
available to support CD, DVD and optical jukeboxes on a network:
Point Software connects many different jukebox
systems to Windows NT and 2000 servers.
CD and DVD recording is integrated to fulfill all archiving, mastering
and duplication requirements. The automated recording feature (EAR)
for CD-R simplifies the overall recording process dramatically. Due
to its multithreaded implementation PoINT Jukebox Manager allows multiple
users to access the jukebox simultaneously and to record different data
streams to different media in parallel. Disc caching to hard disk improves
performance dramatically.
QStar
software not only supports Windows servers, it also
supports Sun UNIX, Linux, SGI IRIS, HP-UX, IBM AIX and many other UNIX
operating systems. The CD/DVD
Master product works across the network allowing both System Administrators
and privileged clients to harness the power to manage more than just
the standalone CD/DVD-R writer. With QStar's CD/DVD Master product,
users get the ability to manage hundreds or thousands of CD/DVDs, with
ease, through an intuitive GUI and advanced management tools.
K-Par
software supports Sun UNIX or Windows servers. Not
only does it make it easy to share a jukebox on the network, it also
keeps track of media that's removed from the jukebox. This
functionality allows the archive to grow infinitely so that your oldest,
least accessed files can remain indexed but placed out of the jukebox
to allow room for new media.
Smart
Storage Sorry, No longer available.
 If
you need to add some more hard drive storage to your network, take a
look at the latest Network Attached Storage (NAS)
technology. This is the easiest way to increase hard drive capacity
without effecting your network server.
|
CD,
DVD, Blu-ray, UDO Optical Jukebox and Library
