How to get physical disk information on Netware server?

Hi guys,

I am trying to inventory a Netware machine. Does anybody knows how to get 
disk drive information such as vendor, model, size, type, partitions in NLM? 
However, I can find APIs for volume information only in documentation but 
nothing important for physical disks.

Thanks in advanced,

-Mike 

You would need to use the storage API's for that - and they are not 
particularly friendly.   Grab a copy of the NWPA and Media Manager SDK / 
Docs.

Basically you use MM_FindObjectType() to enumerate the various storage 
objects.  Once you have an OBID for the device, like a disk, you call 
MM_ReturnObjectSpecificInfo() to get a table which includes all the fun 
bits like number of sectors and so on.

It looks pretty overwhealming at first, but the parts of the API you 
need to use are very simple.   So should be easy to get what you want.

Caveat: I've never tried / needed to do this from a LibC app... so no 
experience with it from that that perspective.

-- Bob

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
       Robert Charles Mahar
Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
    http://www.TrafficShaper.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Michael Chen wrote:
> Hi guys,
> 
> I am trying to inventory a Netware machine. Does anybody knows how to get 
> disk drive information such as vendor, model, size, type, partitions in
NLM? 
> However, I can find APIs for volume information only in documentation but 
> nothing important for physical disks.
> 
> Thanks in advanced,
> 
> -Mike 
> 

Let me back-peddle / qualify "not particularly friendly" - because
that 
sounds sort of insulting to the storage developer(s) at Novell.

They are actually really nice, compared to similar API's on some other 
platforms.

However they are rarely used by us lay-folk.   The sample code and 
documentation are not necessarily as copious or robust as, say, the rest 
of the CLIB / LibC documentation.   And there is not nearly as large a 
community that can provide peer support.

That is all.  Transmission ends.   Beep!

-- Bob

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
       Robert Charles Mahar
Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
    http://www.TrafficShaper.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Robert Charles Mahar wrote:
> You would need to use the storage API's for that - and they are not 
> particularly friendly.   Grab a copy of the NWPA and Media Manager SDK / 
> Docs.
> 
> Basically you use MM_FindObjectType() to enumerate the various storage 
> objects.  Once you have an OBID for the device, like a disk, you call 
> MM_ReturnObjectSpecificInfo() to get a table which includes all the fun 
> bits like number of sectors and so on.
> 
> It looks pretty overwhealming at first, but the parts of the API you 
> need to use are very simple.   So should be easy to get what you want.
> 
> Caveat: I've never tried / needed to do this from a LibC app... so no 
> experience with it from that that perspective.
> 
> -- Bob
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>       Robert Charles Mahar
> Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
>    http://www.TrafficShaper.com
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 
> 
> Michael Chen wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I am trying to inventory a Netware machine. Does anybody knows how to 
>> get disk drive information such as vendor, model, size, type, 
>> partitions in NLM? However, I can find APIs for volume information 
>> only in documentation but nothing important for physical disks.
>>
>> Thanks in advanced,
>>
>> -Mike

I wouldn't be too worried about using these APIs from a LibC application.
AFAIK the storage APIs are not related to or dependant on either Clib or
LibC, so they should work equally well from either.

Jeff Lawson
NetWare Core OS
LibC Engineering.

>>> On 11/16/2007 at 3:56 PM, in message
<jep%i.825$L42.514@kovat.provo.novell.com>, Robert Charles
Mahar<info@trafficshaper.com> wrote:
> Let me back-peddle / qualify "not particularly friendly" -
because that 
> sounds sort of insulting to the storage developer(s) at Novell.
> 
> They are actually really nice, compared to similar API's on some other 
> platforms.
> 
> However they are rarely used by us lay-folk.   The sample code and 
> documentation are not necessarily as copious or robust as, say, the rest 
> 
> of the CLIB / LibC documentation.   And there is not nearly as large a 
> community that can provide peer support.
> 
> That is all.  Transmission ends.   Beep!
> 
> -- Bob
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>        Robert Charles Mahar
> Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
>     http://www.TrafficShaper.com 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 
> 
> Robert Charles Mahar wrote:
>> You would need to use the storage API's for that - and they are not 
>> particularly friendly.   Grab a copy of the NWPA and Media Manager SDK
/

> 
>> Docs.
>> 
>> Basically you use MM_FindObjectType() to enumerate the various storage

>> objects.  Once you have an OBID for the device, like a disk, you call 
>> MM_ReturnObjectSpecificInfo() to get a table which includes all the fun

>> bits like number of sectors and so on.
>> 
>> It looks pretty overwhealming at first, but the parts of the API you 
>> need to use are very simple.   So should be easy to get what you want.
>> 
>> Caveat: I've never tried / needed to do this from a LibC app... so no 
>> experience with it from that that perspective.
>> 
>> -- Bob
>> 
>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>       Robert Charles Mahar
>> Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
>>    http://www.TrafficShaper.com 
>> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>> 
>> 
>> Michael Chen wrote:
>>> Hi guys,
>>>
>>> I am trying to inventory a Netware machine. Does anybody knows how
to 
>>> get disk drive information such as vendor, model, size, type, 
>>> partitions in NLM? However, I can find APIs for volume information

>>> only in documentation but nothing important for physical disks.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advanced,
>>>
>>> -Mike

Hi Bob,

Thank you for your information. I downloaded and installed NWPA and Media 
Manager SDK. I found the protype of MM_FindObjectType() is defined inside 
MMPUBLIC.H. However, I kept getting compile errors like 
"c:/novell/ndk/SAS/NW_5.x\MMPUBLIC.H(29): Error! E1022: Missing or 
misspelled data type near 'LONG'". It seems that some header files of data

type declaration are missing. Do you have any ideas about it?  By the way, 
could you tell me if the NWPA and Media Manager SDK can work for Netware 6.x 
for I notice that there is content inside NW_5.x folder only. Thanks in 
advance.

Regards,

-Michael

"Robert Charles Mahar" <info@trafficshaper.com> wrote in message

news:J5p%i.815$L42.337@kovat.provo.novell.com...
> You would need to use the storage API's for that - and they are not 
> particularly friendly.   Grab a copy of the NWPA and Media Manager SDK / 
> Docs.
>
> Basically you use MM_FindObjectType() to enumerate the various storage 
> objects.  Once you have an OBID for the device, like a disk, you call 
> MM_ReturnObjectSpecificInfo() to get a table which includes all the fun 
> bits like number of sectors and so on.
>
> It looks pretty overwhealming at first, but the parts of the API you need 
> to use are very simple.   So should be easy to get what you want.
>
> Caveat: I've never tried / needed to do this from a LibC app... so no 
> experience with it from that that perspective.
>
> -- Bob
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>       Robert Charles Mahar
> Traffic Shaping Engine for NetWare
>    http://www.TrafficShaper.com
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>
> Michael Chen wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I am trying to inventory a Netware machine. Does anybody knows how to
get 
>> disk drive information such as vendor, model, size, type, partitions in

>> NLM? However, I can find APIs for volume information only in 
>> documentation but nothing important for physical disks.
>>
>> Thanks in advanced,
>>
>> -Mike