Advantis CD Server

[edie209]

I was going through old pci cards that have been stored in a big box since before I took on this position and I found an old Avantis CD Server Card. Now I remember opening a server up a long time ago and I think if I remember correctly this one card is all the server had in it and the rest was done remotley with their software.

 

Firstly I'm wondering if I am right in what I remember, and secondy can I rebuild this server?

 

Because if the school has this card it tells me they must have once owned a Avantis CD Server, and someone along the wayhas dismantled it.

 

Does anyone have any knowledge of Avantis and do you have any idea how to set one up from scratch ( of course if this is allowed)

[ajbritton]

I thought an Avantis CD Server was just a PC with some custom OS. What does the server card do? What connections does it have? Is it the network card? If the CD server is old, then it's probably worthless. Easier these days to just stick ISO images on a server and use DaemonTools.

[edie209]

you are probably right but you know what its like if its there you just to have a go to see if you can do it

[ajbritton]

OK, well, you configure the things using a utility called CDCON, which connects via a serial cable. They run in either 'operational' or 'configuration' modes. Once in 'configuration' mode you can set the IP address, upload new software and enter the license key codes to make it work. Unfortunately, you can't just download the software from the Avantis web site. You can probably get them to send you a disk, or maybe you know someone else who has a disk which you could use to test if the thing still works before shelling out any cash.

[ajbritton]

If all that fails you could always turn it into a Linux based Virtual CD-ROM Jukebox.