Optical Devices

Use this tab to view the properties of the optical devices on your managed system and to start optical device maintenance tasks. You can work with physical optical or virtual optical devices on the managed system. Physical optical devices are hardware devices that you can assign to a single partition only. You can add any number of virtual media files to the virtual optical repository and assign them to logical partitions as needed.

Physical Optical Devices

Use this area to view the properties of the physical optical devices on your managed system and to modify the partition assignments for physical optical devices.

The toolbar at the top of the Physical Optical Devices table contains tasks that you can perform. To perform most tasks, you must select one or more physical optical devices in the table before you select the task that you want to perform. You can select a physical optical device by clicking the Select option beside the physical optical device entry in the table.

The table includes the following information about each physical optical device:

Name

This column displays the name that the Virtual I/O Server assigned to each physical optical device.

Description

This column displays the type of physical optical device (for example, IDE DVD-ROM Drive).

Assigned Partition

This column displays the partition name and partition ID of the logical partition to which each physical optical device is assigned (if any).

Physical Location Code

This column displays the physical location code identifying the location of each physical optical device within the managed system.

You can sort this table by any of these categories by clicking the appropriate column heading.

Tasks

The following task is available from the button below the Physical Optical Devices table. To perform this task, you must select one or more physical optical devices in the table before you select the task. You can select a physical optical device by clicking the Select option beside the appropriate entry in the table.

• Modify partition assignment. Use this task to change the logical partition to which the selected physical optical devices are assigned or to set the physical optical devices so that they are not assigned to any logical partition.

Virtual Optical Media

Use this area to view the properties of the virtual optical media available on your managed system and to manage virtual optical media settings.

Media library size

A media library is space allocated by a VIOS from a storage pool into which optical disk images are copied. These images can then be assigned to partitions where they emulate a physical CD or DVD device.

This field displays the total size and the available size of the mounted media library in megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB). If there is no media library currently available, this field displays a value of None. You can use one of the following tasks to manage the media library:

Create Library

Click Create Library to define a media library. You can create a media library as part of an existing storage pool and define the media library size up to the available amount for the storage pool that you specify. This task is available only when the value is None for the Media library size field.

Extend Library

Click Extend Library to extend the size of the media library. You can extend the media library size up to the available amount for the storage pool of the media library. This task is available only when there is a currently defined media library.

Delete Library

Click Delete Library to delete the media library and the files within the library. Click OK on the Delete Media Library page to confirm and complete the deletion. This task is available only when there is a currently defined media library.

The toolbar at the top of the Virtual Optical Media table contains tasks that you can perform. To perform most tasks, you must select one or more virtual optical media entries in the table before you select the task that you want to perform. You can select a virtual optical media entry by clicking the Select option beside the appropriate entry in the table.

The table includes the following information about each file in the virtual optical media library:

Name

This column displays the name of a file in the media library.

Assigned Partition

This column displays the partition name of the logical partition to which each media library file is assigned (if any) and includes the name of the virtual optical device in which the media is mounted. The name is in the form of partition name (ID) - virtual optical device name.

Mount Type

This column displays the mount type for the media file. Possible values for the mount type are Read only and Read/Write.

Size

This column displays the size of the mounted media library file in megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or terabytes (TB).

You can sort this table by any of these categories by clicking the appropriate column heading.

Tasks

The following tasks are available from the toolbar at the top of the Virtual Optical Media table. To perform most tasks, you must select one or more virtual optical media entries in the table before you select the task that you want to perform. Some tasks allow you to perform actions on multiple virtual optical media entry while other tasks allow you to perform an action on a single entry only. You can select a virtual optical media entry by clicking the Select option beside the appropriate entry in the table.

• Add Media. Use this task to add an optical media file to the media library and make it available for assignment to a partition. You can upload an optical media file from the local workstation, add an existing file from your home directory, import a file from a physical optical device, or create a blank media file. You do not need to select a media file to perform this task.
• Modify partition assignment. Use this task to change the partition assignment for a media file by changing the virtual optical device to which a media file is assigned. You can assign Read only media files to more than one device.
• Delete media. Use this task to delete the selected media files from the media library. Click OK on the Delete Media page to confirm and complete the deletion.