What is LinkRight for Lans?? LinkRight for Lans is based on the serial and parallel port version of LinkRight version 1.1E. It is quite similar to that product except that it uses a network rather than serial and parallel ports. The rest of this document will use the term "LinkRight" interchangably with "LinkRight for Lans" but will always mean LinkRight for Lans. The current version of LinkRight is 1.1F and the current version of LinkRight for Lans is 1.1F. LinkRight for Lans is network file transfer utility for OS/2. It includes a PM version and an OS/2 command line version. Version 1.1F can be used for cloning an entire OS/2 partition (including the OS/2 operating system) from one system to another (in accordance with your licensing agreement with IBM; no bootlegging please). LinkRight for Lans uses Netbios. TCP/IP may be supported in future releases so please let us know if you'd like support for TCP/IP. Netbios Multicasting is one possible mode of operation so you can clone one to many. This mode is slightly degraded so all options are not supported when multicasting. The reason for this is to keep things simple for minimal overhead. LinkRight handles EAs and HPFS easily. LinkRight is multithreaded, so while you are transferring files in the background, you can continue to queue more files for transfer, change directories on either machine, delete files, etc. LinkRight for Lans is not shareware. It is a commercial shrink wrapped product and version 1.1F is available at Indelible Blue and OS/2 Express. Street price is around $250 for 100 users and $1000 for 1000 users. Like Microsoft, we have no Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). Sales Information LinkRight is available from Indelible Blue (919) 834-7005 or (800) 776-8284, or OS/2 Express 1-800-672-5945. For quantity discounts, you should contact: Rightware Inc. Susan Tremble, Vice President of Marketing. Voice (maybe voice mail) (301)762-1151 Fax (301)762-1185. Differences Between LinkRight 1.1E and LinkRight for Lans 1.1F. Major differences include No Dos Version of LinkRight for Lans 1.1F. The ability to multicast files with LinkRight for Lans 1.1F. User version, Command Line version, and System Administrator version. Netbios LinkRight for Lans uses Netbios. TCP/IP may be supported in future releases so please let us know if you'd like support for TCP/IP. Netbios support is part of the standard OS/2 Lan Requester package. Look for the diskette lableled IBM Network Transport Services/2 (NTS/2) LAN Adapter and Protocol Support (LAPS). For reference information, look at the document titled Network Transport Services/2 Redirected Installation and Configuration Guide. This document has information on building OS/2 bootable floppies with LAN support. Ignore mentions of SRVIFS since this is not needed for LinkRight. System Administrator and User Versions Included with the package are 3 versions of LinkRight for LAN: LRLANADM.EXE, which is the system administrators version; LRLAN.EXE, which is the user version; and LRLANCMD.EXE, which is the command line version. The system administrator version includes cloning options and the ability to multicast. The user version does not include these features. Installation To install LinkRight, insert the LinkRight floppy into drive a: (or b:) and type a: (or b:). Then from the a:\> prompt (or b:\> prompt) type install. Naming Systems Every Token Ring and Ethernet card is equipped with a hardcoded 6 byte unique identifier. LinkRight for LANs reads that number and can use it as the name of a system. This is the default. Alternatively, you can assign a 16 byte or less name to a system. This name must be unique across the network. Quick Start When you first start LinkRight, you are given a choice of whether you want to make the machine the Local machine or the Remote machine. You should make one machine the Local, and the other Remote. You will control all file transfers from the Local machine. After making a machine the Remote machine, you should select Connect / Network on the Remote machine. That should be the last selection you make on the Remote machine. For the Local machine, you must also select which Remote system to connect with. For system administrators, selection of multiple Remote systems to connect to is allowed for multicast cloning. For normal users, only point to point connections are allowed. Navigating Directories The left side of your screen displays drives, directories, and files in the current working directory of the Local machine. The right side of your screen displays the same information for the Remote machine. The current working directory and drive for the Local and Remote machine is shown on the line above the list of drives, directories, and files. To change directories on either the Remote computer or the Local computer,double click on the directory you want to change to. The directory ".." is the parent directory. You can change the current working drive by double clicking on one of the drives. Copying Files and Directories Use the Copy button to send files and directories from the Local computer to the Remote computer or to send files and directories from the Remote computer to the Local computer. First, mark files and directories by single clicking the primary (left) mouse button. Then, hit the Copy button. You can only mark files and directories on one side of the screen at a time for copying. Marking and copying a drive is not supported. To copy a complete drive, individually mark all files and directories in the root directory of the drive to be copied. Do not mark the files EA DATA. SF or WP ROOT. SF, since they will not be copied. The screen is not automatically refreshed after copying. Hit the Refresh Pushbutton to update the screen. Hot Keys F10 Moves focus to the Menu TAB Moves focus to the Local or Remote list of files Return Selects an entry Space marks an entry Arrow Keys move the cursor within a group Directory Synchronization To perform Directory Synchronization, select Newer Files Only from the Options Screen. Change directories on both the Local and Remote computer to the parent directory of the two directories you want to synchronize. Mark the directory on one side and hit the Copy pushbutton. Now mark the directory on the other side of the screen and hit the Copy pushbuttone. Note: the directories must have the same name. OS/2 Command Line Version LinkRight for Lans Command line version can be used from an OS/2 command line and can be used in the Remote mode. It uses command line parameters to select the name of the system and which lan adapter to use, either 0 or 1. Verify Failures Some files may not verify properly. This may or may not be a critical error. Some files that are in use, such as executables or .DLL files, will not be transferred. Batch Mode When you select Batch Mode On, you can mark files and hit the Copy pushbutton. No files are sent or received. Instead, file information is saved into a list of files. Later, you can send/receive the files by selecting Run Batch File. After selecting Batch Mode On and selecting files to send/receive, you should select Batch Mode Off to save the Batch file and return to Normal mode. After creating a Batch file, you can run it by selecting Run Batch File. The batch file is straight ASCII text. It can be edited with a text editor. Caution should be used when creating a batch file using a text editor. Spaces are significant. Connections You can initiate a network connection by selecting Connect / Network from the Connect menu. For the Remote system, this is all you have to do. For the Local system, you will have displayed a number of possible systems that you can connect to. Note that these systems that are displayed are all systems on the network that are running LinkRight for LANs in the Remote mode with Connect / Network already selected. Systems that are not currently running LinkRight or that are running LinkRight in the Local mode will not be displayed. For multicasting, which is only available only on the system administrator version, you can select multiple systems to connect to. For the user version, only one selection is allowed. You can save the list of systems that are available for connection. If you select this option, the file NETLIST.TXT in your LinkRight startup directory will be created with the list. This list could be usefull for system administrators who are multicasting to dozen or hundreds of systems and want to check to see if they have all systems listed so they know that no systems have problems. Log Options You can select options of append, overwrite, and disabled for the Logs. These options control handling of the Event Log, Error Log, and Retry file. Two kinds of logging take place. Event logging and Error logging. A Retry batch file is also created if there is a file transfer error. The Event log contains useful information for keeping track of what files have been transferred. You can view the Event log by selecting View\Event Log. The path and name of this file is where BASEDIR is where you installed LinkRight. The Error log contains useful information for keeping track of any LinkRight errors. You can view the Error log by selecting View\Error Log. The path and name of this file is where BASEDIR is where you installed LinkRight. System Options From the System Options menu, you can select some options. Copy Subdirectories If this box is marked, subdirectories are copied. If this box is not marked, only individually marked files are copied. Copy Newer Files Only If this box is marked, only newer files are copied. The date and time checked is the "Last Written" date and time. Force Copy If this box is marked, all files are copied regardless of flags or dates. Copy Archive Only If this box is marked, all files with the Archive bit set are copied. Other files are ignored. The Archive bit is reset for any files copied using this option. Autostart This option is no longer supported in LinkRight 1.1F. Verify Options There are a few Verify Options you can use. These options are an afterthought and are not well integrated. For internal testing before release, there was debug code to do a verify after every file transfer. It helped to find errors. When this was mentioned to one of the beta testers, he suggested that it be left in the released version. Verify performs a CRC check and Checksum test on a file by file basis. If you select "Transfer and Verify", it will transfer the file, do the check, and display the results. If you select "No Copy, Verify Only", it overrides the Force Copy options and does not transfer files, just does the Verify test. "No Verify" is self explanatory. Some files may not verify properly. This may or may not be a critical error. Executable and .DLL files that are in use will not be copied properly. Max Packet Size Max Packet Size affects thruput and system responsiveness. We recommend setting the packet size to the maximum for best performance. Turbomode Turbomode implements a sliding window for packets and should result in higher thruput. Retry Warning Delay Retry Warning Delay is the time that the Local system will wait for a reply from the Remote machine before displaying a Warning msg. If you are getting lots of warnings, set this value higher. Set this to the maximum value of 9 to disable this warning message. Pushbuttons Pushbuttons are used to initiate actions. Delete Pushbutton Use the Delete button to delete files and directories. Directories must be empty before they can be deleted. Mkdir Pushbutton Use the Mkdir button to create directories on either the Remote computer or the Local computer. Refresh Pushbutton The Refresh button will redisplay the file list for both the Local and Remote computer. LinkRight Utilities Included with LinkRight for LANs are some stand-alone utilities that you can use. These utilities do not require a network connection or PM so they can be used from bootable floppies or a system that does not have a network connection. Pack Partition PACKPART.EXE can be used to pack an entire partition into a single big file. To display parameters and options, enter PACKPART.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: PACKPART.EXE > OUTFILE Where X is the partition to pack (C&colon. drive, D&colon. drive, etc.) and OUTFILE is the big packed file that will be created. Show Packed File SHOWPACK.EXE can be used to display the files and directories in a packed file. To display parameters and options, enter SHOWPACK.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: SHOWPACK.EXE PACKEDFILE Where PACKEDFILE is the packed file to show. Recommended usage is to pipe the output to a file for comparison later. SHOWPACK.EXE PACKED.DAT > PACKED.LST Then you can view, edit, or print PACKED.LST. Show Partition SHOWPART.EXE can be used to display the files and directories in a partition. To display parameters and options, enter SHOWPART.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: SHOWPART.EXE X: Where X: is the partition to show (C:, D:, etc.). Recommended usage is to pipe the output to a file for comparison later. SHOWPART.EXE C: > PART.LST Then you can view, edit, or print PART.LST. LinkRight CRC LRCRC.EXE can be used to do a CRC and Checksum on a single file. To display parameters and options, enter LRCRC.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: LRCRC.EXE FILENAME Where FILENAME is the file to process. List Differences LISTDIFF.EXE can be used to compare two files that were created using SHOWPART.EXE or SHOWPACK.EXE. To display parameters and options, enter LISTDIFF.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: LISTDIFF.EXE ORIGINAL.LST CURRENT.LST Where ORIGINAL.LST is one list file and CURRENT.LST is another list file. An optional parameter is /I. If /I is used, files and directories that are listed in CURRENT.LST that are not in ORIGINAL.LST are ignored. You can use these utilities to verify a complete OS/2 installation. At a later time, after the system has been used for days, weeks, or months, you can compare the ORIGINAL.LST to the CURRENT.LST to see if any drivers, .dll's, or executables have been trashed. If the partition that contains the important OS/2 files is also used for data, this partition could have a large number of files in CURRENT.LST that do not exist in ORIGINAL.LST so you can use /I to ignore these user data files and only look for the files from ORIGINAL.LST. Recommended usage is to pipe the output to a file for comparison later. LISTDIFF.EXE ORIGINAL.LST CURRENT.LST > DIFF.LST Then you can view, edit, or print DIFF.LST. Some files will be different, but will not indicate an error. Desktop directories are sometimes created for various reasons (look for DESKTOP2, DESKTOP3, etc.) OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI will probably differ. Also, OS2.!!!, and EA DATA. SF might be different. This is not a complete list of possible differences that do not indicate an error, but it is enough to give you something to watch out for. Sort Packed File SORTPACK.EXE can be used to sort a packed file. If you created a packed file using PACKPART.EXE, the packed file will be automatically sorted. If you created a packed file by using the Administrator Version and packing received files on the fly, the packed file will not be sorted and you will need to run SORTPACK.EXE before using SHOWPACK.EXE. To display parameters and options, enter SORTPACK.EXE from an OS/2 command prompt with no parameters. To use, type: SORTPACK.EXE PACKED_FILE SORTED_PACKED_FILE Where PACKED_FILE is the file to sort and SORTED_PACKED_FILE is the created file. Cloning an OS/2 Partition LinkRight for Lans can be used to clone systems across the network. It uses Netbios Multicasting so you can send one to many. The basic procedure is to create your seed system, pack it into a single big file, and broadcast that file, and unpack it on the receiving end. I've tried to make it as easy and automated as possible. Alternatively, you can establish a point to point connection and transfer the packed file or all files (unpacked) directly from the seed machine to the receiving machine. If you are using a packed file, you can select to unpack on the fly or unpack after the entire file is received. If you select to unpack after receiving the complete file, you can choose to have the received file deleted after unpacking. Locked Files Some applications will lock files when run under OS/2. Comm Manager and DB2/2 definitely do this, some other applications might also. To get around this problem, it is recommended that you disable Comm Manger and others in the config.sys file before building the packed OS/2 partition. You can still have a perfect seed machine, even with these apps are disabled by editing the config.sys, rebooting the seed machine, then copying back the original config.sys to it's proper place. The seed system will appear to be set for running these disabled apps, but won't actually run them until you reboot the system. Initial Preparation To prepare to clone an entire OS/2 system, the first thing you should do is get LinkRight for Lans working between two systems that already have OS/2 installed. Consider it good practice. Doing this first will make sure that the drivers work on your machine. After you have successfully transferred a few files and small directories using LinkRight in PM mode, you can attempt to clone a system. The preferred method of getting up to speed using LinkRight for Lans to clone systems is to get 3 systems, 2 of which are identical and that you can reformat and repartition at will. These will be your target systems. The other system will be your source system. Partition and reformat 2 target systems with a good size C: and D: drive. Install OS/2 with boot manager on both the C: and D: drives on both systems. Now that you've done this, you can grab and pack partitions, reformat, send partitions, etc. With two bootable partitions on the target systems, you can boot C: and see what the D: partition looks like and vice versa. This way, you can always have OS/2 bootable while you are cloning partitions. Make sure that all files and directories go where you want them to go before doing a complete clone. Users have transferred hundreds of Megs only to find that they transferred the files to a subdirectory rather than the root directory. They had to start over and we don't want to see this happen to you. It's another good reason to practice for a while first with the PM version of LinkRight. A good command to know about is dir /n. This will show the files in a directory and the extended attributes associated with each file. Since cloning OS/2 doesn't work if EAs don't get transferred, you should make sure that EAs get transferred properly. Bootable OS/2 Floppies You will need to build OS/2 bootable floppies. You will have to make minor modifications to the first two OS/2 disks, plus you may need the first two original OS/2 disks, depending on your system. You have two possible ways to create these disks. If OS/2 is on CDROM, use LOADDSKF on the CDROM to create the Installation Diskette and Diskette 1. If you have OS/2 on diskettes, use DISKCOPY to duplicate the diskettes. DISKCOPY help can be found by typing "help diskcopy" at an OS/2 command prompt. Create the first two OS/2 diskettes in one of two different methods. If you have OS/2 on floppies, use diskcopy to make the diskettes. diskcopy a: a: If you have OS/2 on CD, use loaddskf to create the diskettes. From the F:\DISKIMGS\OS2\35 directory (where F: is the CDROM) run ..\..\loaddskf disk0.dsk a: and ..\..\loaddskf disk1.dsk a: Make an extra copy of these diskettes. One copy you will modify, one you will keep original. Be sure to keep both the unmodified and modified diskettes handy. You will need both. DO NOT USE THE ORIGINAL DISKS. THEY MUST BE MODIFIED. Thinlaps On The OS/2 Bootable Diskettes Modify disk 1 so you can get thinlaps on it by deleting some files to make space. You can delete sysinst2.exe, format.* and fdisk.*. From the seed system, run LAPSDISK (from a: on the IBM NTS/2 disk). This will create the laps image from which you will run thinlaps. lapsdisk a: c:\ibmcom\img Now from your c:\ibmcom directory run thinlaps. This will create the minimal network stuff on your a: diskette. This is the modified disk 1 that you created. The NIF file listed is for the SMC Microchannel network card. You will need a different nif for different cards. thinlaps c:\ibmcom\img a: macwdmc.nif When this is done, you can delete the directory c:\ibmcom\img from your seed system. Modifying the OS/2 Bootable Diskettes Copy the file SYSINSTX.COM from disk 0 to disk 1. Now modify the config.sys file on your modified disk 1. Look at the included sample configxx.sys for a config.sys that works for me. Notice that everything that is original is in lower case while all changes are in upper case. The major changes are to set up the swapper and to use cmd.exe as the os2 shell rather than sysinst2.exe. On the target system(s), you will need to create the directory for the swapper to use. If your systems will be using FAT, you can do this by booting from a DOS diskette and creating the TEMP directory. If your system is HPFS, you will need to boot from the unmodified OS/2 bootable floppies and hit ESC to cancel to bring you to an OS/2 prompt so you can create the directory. Preparing the Target System The target system must have a hard drive that is partitioned and formatted. If you have a virgin drive on the target system and wish to use HPFS, use the ORIGINAL OS/2 diskettes to boot, partition, and format the drive. If you have a virgin drive on the target system and wish to use FAT, you can probably boot from a DOS bootable diskette (faster than the ORIGINAL OS/2 diskettes) and partition and format the disk. The target machine needs a directory for the swapper file. THIS DIRECTORY SHOULD BE CALLED TEMP (to match what it says in the config.sys file). From an OS/2 command prompt type "md c:\temp". The target machine must have a few files placed in the TEMP directory. LRLANCMD.EXE must be in this directory. YOU MUST FINISH PREPPING THE TARGET MACHINE HARD DISK BEFORE BOOTING FROM THE MODIFIED OS/2 BOOTABLE FLOPPIES. The Bootable Floppies, with the CONFIG.SYS that comes with LinkRight will not boot unless the TEMP directory exitst for the swapper. Running LRLANCMD.EXE After you have booted the target machine from the modified bootable floppies, change the current working drive from A: to C:. Change directory to TEMP. Do a DIR command. You should see LRLANCMD.EXE. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOU BE LOCATED IN THE TEMP DIRECTORY WHEN YOU START LRLANCMD.EXE. The bootable floppy DISK 1 should remain in drive A: after booting. For the Target system, type: LRLANCMD You can add a couple of parameters to LRLANCMD.EXE if desired: LRLANCMD.EXE [NAME] [LAN ADAPTER NUMBER] To change LAN ADAPTER NUMBER, you also need to give it a NAME. In other words, the two optional parameters are position sensitive. When done transferring the files, do a disconnect from the local system and the target system(s) will do SYSINSTX, UNPACK, etc. Run the full PM version of LinkRight from the Source system. This machine should already be tested to run LinkRight, so the drivers, etc. are already installed and working. Make it the Local machine. Select Connect/Network and establish a connection between the Local machine and the other system(s). Packed Vs. Not Packed When Cloning, you can send all the files and directories directly to the other system, or you can pack and send a complete partition. We recommend packing and sending the complete partition because there will be less network overhead, you can easily send the packed file to other machines, and Multicast Cloning only works with packed files. Do not use *.zip files as packed. LinkRight packing and other methods of compressing are incompatible. Files To Copy For an Unpacked Cloning Select the files and directories that you want transferred. Do not transfer EA DATA. SF or WP ROOT. SF. You can transfer everything else. Allow about 20 seconds for the system to parse directories, more time if you have lots of subdirectories and files. Then they should start making directories and a little later start sending and receiving files. Have your Source machine use a different partition for the swapper. If OS/2 is on C:, have your swap file located on D:. When you clone your Source machine, your swap file (which could be 2 to 12 Meg) won't get copied. This file is not needed on the Target (remember setting your swap file to C:\TEMPSWAP ??), so you're just wasting time transferring this file. The Final Step If the Source machine is idle and it looks like all of the files have been done, the transfer has completed successfully. Select Connect/Disconnect from the Source machine. This should cause the Target machine to exit LRLANCMD and run SYSINSTX, unpack, etc. Potential Cloning Problems Make sure you read this manual and carefully follow the instructions listed here. If your modified bootable floppies don't boot, read the instructions and try again. The bootable floppy DISK 1 should remain in drive A: after booting. If the machines are not identical, you could have problems. You've probably already noticed that ISA/EISA machines install PRINT01.SYS while Micro Channel machines use PRINT02.SYS. There are HUNDREDS more incompatibilities between Micro Channel and ISA, so don't even try cloning one to the other. And there are lots of other potential incompatibilities. SCSI vs. IDE, different video cards, CDROMs, sound cards, etc. My recommendations are to have the Source machine running VGA. After the system is cloned, you can add upgraded video drivers. Optional features like sound cards and CDROMs should also be added after cloning using selective install. Multicasting Limitations There are lots of limitations when doing multicasting. The reason for this is that each feature has very little overhead when implemented for point to point connections, but setting up dozens or hundreds of systems for lots of features is very time consuming and difficult. Therefore, minimal flexibilty is available when multicasting. Too many options and it would quickly approach the speed of a point to point connection, which would eliminate the advantage of multicasting. You can't delete files, view Remote directories, change Remote directories, make directories, or send directories and subdirectories. What you can do is send a single file, either packed or unpacked. If you select to have the entire file received (no unpack on the fly) it will be named LRMULTI.DAT in the LinkRight startup directory of the target systems. Hints and Tips Be sure to read the file README.TXT for late breaking bugs, tips, workarounds, etc. DOS and Windows file transfer utilities are single task oriented. You start a transfer, then stare at a status report until it is done. You can do the same thing with LinkRight by starting a transfer, then selecting File / Status. Or you can do multitasking with LinkRight. Start a transfer, and while the transfer is going on in the background, change directories, delete files, queue more files for transfer, etc. For higher thruput and easier use, you should make the faster of the two computers the Local computer, if possible. The appearance of LinkRight can be easily customized. Open OS/2 System / System Setup / Color Pallette and drag a color to a portion of the LinkRight screen. The new color will be preserved between sessions of LinkRight. You can use the Scheme Palette and Font Palette to do similar customization. LinkRight stores all configuration information in the file LINKRGHT.CFG. If you want to start LinkRight with it's default parameters, delete this file and the next time you start LinkRight, it will start with the default parameters. LINKRGHT.CFG is also stored on the Remote machine, so you can also delete that. LinkRight for the Remote computer uses the Options from the Local machine. The only exceptions to this rule is the Name and Lan Adapter Number, which is unique for each system. It gets these options once, at connection time, so be sure to set the options BEFORE establishing a connection. Bugs and Missing Features LinkRight must be started from a subdirectory, not from the root directory. Transferring a file from HPFS to FAT causes the filename to be truncated to 8.3 (XXXXXXXX.XXX). Transferring the file back to HPFS you will get the truncated name. You should select Connect / Disconnect from the Local machine to disconnect before exiting LinkRight. If you find any other bugs, please let us know so we can fix them. Technical Support For technical support, please contact Jeff Tremble, Chief Developer of LinkRight. Compuserve: 71033,3517, OS2AVEN/Other Vendors, or OS2USER/App quest Internet: 71033.3517@compuserve.com Bug fixes and new releases will be put in the usual places including ftp.cdrom.com, Compuserve forum OS2AVEN lib 1, and OS/2 Shareware BBS (703) 385 4325. Voice answering machine (301)762-1151, Fax (301)762-1185. Bug fixes are top priority. It is easy and simple to create a patch and distribute it via CIS and BBSs. Any bug fixes will probably be distributed like this. If you find bugs that have an easy workaround, we'll make them low priority. If you find bugs that we can duplicate (big IF there, since we do NOT have every type of computer ever made) and there is no easy workaround, we'll fix them as quickly as possible and post a patch. Phone technical support will be minimal. We prefer a Compuserve msg or FAX with a written description of the problem, please include the following information: Type of machines; speed of machines; Version of OS/2; Version of LinkRight; circumstances of the error; actual error and any error messages displayed. We'll try to get you up and running as soon as possible.