Volume Pathnames on Novell Advanced NetWare Networks

Failure to get record locking when using the Advanced NetWare 2.1 Network Driver may be due to incorrectly specifying the pathname to the Advanced Revelation volume where the file containing the record to be locked is located.

The pathname for a volume is assigned by the Advanced Revelation commands SETVOLUME, ATTACH or SETFILE. The pathname to an Advanced Revelation volume located on a network file server must start with a drive letter. The drive letter must be mapped to a directory on a network server. Record locks will not be set if the volume pathname starts with a fileserver name.

For example, SERVER1/SYS:ADMIN\PAYROLL is a pathname that uses the NetWare server and volume name instead of a mapped driver letter. A drive letter can be used instead of the NetWare server and volume name. This is done by assigning a drive letter to the root directory of the NetWare volume SYS on the NetWare server SERVER1 with a NetWare command similar to the following:

MAP S:=SERVER1/SYS

The pathname can then be specified as:

S:ADMIN\PAYROLL

The reason for this requirement is that the Advanced NetWare 2.1 network driver checks to see if the second character of the pathname is a colon. Different action is taken depending on what the second character of the pathname is.

If the second character is a colon, it is assumed that the first character is a drive letter. If the drive letter is mapped to a network server, then lock requests are directed to that server. If the drive letter is mapped to a local drive then no locks will be set.

If the second character is not a colon, it is assumed that the volume is located on the same drive as the AREV.EXE file. If the AREV.EXE file is located on a network server drive, locks are directed to that server. If the AREV.EXE file is on a local drive, no locks will be set.

The pathnames defined for attached volumes can be displayed with the LISTVOLUMES command. If a pathname uses a network server name instead of a mapped drive letter, the VOC file record for the volume can be edited and the pathname for the volume changed so that it uses a drive letter. This drive letter must then be assigned to the desired network pathname using the NetWare MAP command. The MAP command can be issued either in a NetWare login script file or at the DOS prompt.

The following should be kept in mind when using the Advanced NetWare network driver with Advanced Revelation:

1. It is safest always to use a single-character drive designator (example: G:) when assigning a volume path.
2. If not using a single-character drive designator, the following apply:
   * the AREV.EXE being used must be on a network drive, or no locks will be set at all.
   * locks will only go to the current server; if the data is on a different server, there will be no coordination of locks between servers.