Optical volumes

Start of change All optical data is stored on a unit that is called a volume regardless of the type of media, the type of optical storage device, and the way the storage device connects to your system. End of change

Start of change A single CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disk contains one volume. WORM and erasable optical cartridges are two sided and contain two volumes per cartridge (one per side). DVD-RAM can be either one sided or two sided. Virtual optical media contains one volume. End of change

Each volume has its own name that is chosen by the person who initializes the volume. The name chosen must be unique from the names of all other volumes on the system. Two volumes with the same name cannot be active at the same time. The volume name typically never changes after the volume is generated, although volume renaming is supported. The creator of the CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs chooses the names, and the names cannot be changed.

The hierarchical file system (HFS), the integrated file system, and the save and restore functions all use volume names to access or create data on the volume.

You can display and manage the optical volumes from the IBM® i operating system by using the Work with Optical Volumes (WRKOPTVOL) command. The hierarchical file system and integrated file system include the volume name in their path name to select which volume to use. A typical optical path looks like the following:

/QOPT/VOLUMENAME/MYDIR/MYFILE.EXT

Where:

/QOPT is the name of the optical file system.
/VOLUMENAME is the volume name that is chosen for the volume.
/MYDIR is the name of a directory on the volume.
/MYFILE.EXT is the name of a file in the directory.