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Novonyx Product Overview: Netscape Enterprise, FastTrack, and Messaging Servers for NetWare

Articles and Tips: article

MARK E. McKELL
Editorial Intern
Novell Developer Information

01 May 1998


Wondering what's up with Novonyx and how their products fit into Novell's overall product strategy? Here's a brief overview that should answer most of your questions.

Introduction

In June 1997, when Novell and Netscape announced their partnership with the formation of Novonyx, the goal was to deliver open, standards-based products to allow organizations to build full-service intranets without replacing their existing infrastructure. With the combination of Netscape SuiteSpot and NetWare, customers can meet their unique intranet and Internet requirements with services such as integrated security, performance, and virtual private network technologies provided by Novell's border services.

In January 1998, Novell and Netscape jointly announced a restructuring of their joint subsidiary. Novonyx continues as a research and development and product management focused venture between Novell and Netscape to deliver the Netscape SuiteSpot servers on the NetWare platform. All marketing, sales, operations, support, and general administrative functions are now performed directly by Novell.

To help you decide which services best meet your needs, this AppNote looks at some of the Novonyx products, what services they provide, and the benefits they offer in a NetWare environment.

Netscape Enterprise Server for NetWare

Netscape Enterprise Server for NetWare provides content management, centralized administration, and crossware application services that allow organizations to leverage existing resources and integrate them into the network enterprise. Enterprise Server leverages Novell Directory Services (NDS) via the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, enabling simplified administration through NWAdmin.

The following list summarizes the key features of Netscape Enterprise Server for NetWare.

General Features

  • Remote desktop content management. Files and directories can be created, deleted, renamed, and moved over the Internet from any desktop. This capability increases publishing productivity by eliminating intermediate conversion and manual data transfer steps.

  • Content access control. Users control access to their documents using Access Control Lists (ACLs), in which they can specify who has read, write, search, execute, or delete permissions.This allows documents to be kept secure from public access, while also being shared and managed across the intranet or Internet.

  • Document revision control. Enterprise Server 3.0 supports version control for documents. Multiple users can share documents, which allows more effective collaboration. Documents are protected by check-in and check-out locking mechanisms while they are being modified.Users can check document versions or batch multiple documents for check-in or check-out.

  • Automated link management. The product includes an advanced tool to manage document links and check for link consistency and validation. When changes are made, links are automatically updated in all documents on the same server. When a user moves a document from within Web Publisher by dragging it from one directory to another, all links referencing that document are automatically updated on that server.

  • Web-based content view. Enterprise Server 3.0 employs web-based content storage and viewing. The directory and document structure visible to a web browser do not have to be mapped to the actual file locations or directories on the server's file system.

  • Open standards. The Netscape web publishing environment closely adheres to open Internet standards such as HTTP. This enables users to automatically check out documents, edit them, and check them back in to the server.

Search and Navigation

  • Full-text and metadata searching. Enterprise Server allows users to search the full text as well as the metadata of documents on their sites. Users can run searches on title, author, modification date, and other attributes. This allows powerful conditional searches, such as finding all documents modified by person X between date A and date B.

  • Custom views. Users can create dynamic pages that run queries against the server whenever they are accessed. Users can view all documents containing the word sales in the title, displaying the last modification date and author.

  • Extensible metadata. Document and directory metadata can be stored with the Enterprise Server. Users can extend the metadata to additional user-specified attributes, and to perform search and indexing functions on the extended metadata.

Agents

  • Agent capabilities. Users can be notified of content changes via e-mail and custom views (web pages). Agents are designed to bring information to users so they don't have to search for it. This is particularly effective in large or complex environments with tens or hundreds of web sites and large volumes of content, and in environments where timeliness of information is critical.

  • Automatically created agents. Enterprise Server comes with a set of predefined agents that can be set to perform frequently used operations automatically and be triggered by common events. Predefined agents provide such functionality as sending a specified user an e-mail when a specific document is updated or deleted, or sending a specified user the result of a specified search each day at a specified time.

Centralized Administration and Management

  • Centralized user and group management. This allows centralized management of all intranet or Internet users.

  • Cross-platform user and group management. Enterprise Server for NetWare's management capabilities integrate with NDS. All users and groups in the Netscape server system can be managed through the NDS-based Directory interface to simplify and reduce the cost of managing an entire intranet.

  • Cluster management. Administrators can start or stop remote servers or update remote configuration files simultaneously. Administrators can more easily manage multiple remote servers by treating them as a cluster which can bring cost savings in administrative and maintenance overhead.

  • NDS and LDAP Integration. NDS information is stored via LDAP calls, providing the same open standards to LDAP and NDS.

  • NetWare Server Configuration Integration. Web-based server configuration allows NetWare servers to be maintained through the browser on any browser supported platform.

  • SNMP support. Enterprise Server bundles a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent, allowing the product to be managed by several industry-standard products, including ManageWise, Hewlett-Packard's OpenView, Tivoli/IBM's TME, BMC's Patrol, CA's UniCenter, and Sun Microsystem's Solstice.

Server Development Framework

  • Dynamic pages. Dynamic pages can be easily scripted on pages combining HTML with JavaScript. Much richer and more powerful interfaces than are possible over HTTP.

  • Perl 5 support. Enterprise Server for NetWare supports Perl 5 language to protect your existing investment in Perl. Applications written in Perl with the Novell Web Server will run on Enterprise Server.

  • NetBasic support. Enterprise Server for NetWare supports the NetBasic language to protect your existing investment in NetBasic. Applications written in NetBasic with the Novell Web Server will run on Enterprise Server.

  • JavaScript support. Enterprise Server for NetWare supports JavaScript language both on the client and the server. The use of Java, JavaScript, and plug-ins allows developers to extend the functionality of an application beyond the services provided by a standard web server.

Server Administration and Management

  • Oracle support. Enterprise Server for NetWare has native support for Oracle's industrial databases for high performance database access.

  • Sybase support. Enterprise Server has native access to Sybase databases. ODBX support. Any ODBX compliant database can be managed with Enterprise Server for NetWare.

  • JDBC support. Any ODBC compliant database can be managed with Enterprise Server for NetWare through the Java Environment.

System Requirements


CPU Architecture:

Operating System:

Memory:

Disk Space:

x486, PentiumNetWare 4.x32 MB minimum, 64 MB recommended200 MB available

Netscape FastTrack Server

Netscape FastTrack Sever for NetWare is designed for small to medium-sized businesses and therefore is easy to install and use. It allows organizations to create, publish, and distribute web documents quickly and efficiently over the intranet or Internet.

FastTrack Server includes all the same features as the Enterprise Server except the following:

  • Document revision control

  • Automated link management

  • Agent capabilities

  • Full-text searching and indexing

  • SNMP

  • Cluster management

When organizations experience growth and need all the advanced features of a larger server such as Netscape Enterprise Server, they can easily upgrade. Because FastTrack Server and Enterprise Server share the same architecture, core capabilities, and management interfaces, the transition is smooth and the user experience remains unaltered.

Netscape Messaging Server

Netscape Messaging Server for NetWare offers many features based on open-standards solutions at low cost. To create a single, manageable, low-cost messaging infrastructure for internal and external communications, it supports Internet standards such as:

  • TCP/IP

  • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

  • Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)

  • Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 revision 1 (IMAP4 rev1)

  • Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

  • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

  • HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

  • Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME)

  • Standard Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Many people wonder what the difference is between GroupWise and Netscape Messaging Server. The Netscape Messaging Server provides an option for customers who desire an e-mail only solution on the NetWare platform and is a low cost option for customers who do not desire a full collaboration product like GroupWise.

Netscape Messaging Server for NetWare is ideal for small businesses that want to install a new electronic mail system, corporations that need to provide SMTP messaging to interoperate with Internet-based mail systems, corporations that are migrating from proprietary, LAN-based mail systems to standards-based messaging, or companies that want to consolidate network and mail management through a single Directory (Novell Directory Services).

The following list presents the key features of Netscape Messaging Server for NetWare.

  • NDS or LDAP user account management. Users are managed via NWAdmin for NDS or via a browser for an LDAP-based directory service. This allows customers to centrally manage users from NDS or any LDAP-compliant directory service.

  • Client certificate support. X.509 v3 certificates authenticate users logging in to Messaging Server. This lets organizations assign client certificates to users so they can log on just once and have their authentication extend to any server they wish to access.

  • SNMP Support. Messaging Server supports Simple Network Management Protocol version 1. This allows the product to be integrated with SNMP-based network management environments such as Hewlett-Packard's OpenView or IBM's Tivoli.

  • IMAP4 over SSL. Messages are downloaded from server to client via SSL technology. The entire communication can be encrypted when connecting to the server to retrieve e-mail or when connecting from remote locations, reassuring the customer of secure communications.

  • Authenticated SMTP. Users are authenticated before sending e-mail to other users. This prevents users from "mail spoofing" the server (sending messages as if they were other users).

  • IMAP4 rev1 (RFC 2060). Support for Internet Message Access Protocol revision 1 allows customers to take advantage of the latest revisions to the IMAP4 protocols, most of which include optimizations of client-to-server communications.

  • Remote Messaging. Support for remote and connected users through the IMAP4 specification (RFC 2060) standard makes it easy for mobile users to access their in-boxes away from the office. Remote users can perform all routine e-mail functions, such as creating, deleting, and renaming in-boxes, checking for new messages, removing or searching for messages, and selectively retrieving all or portions of messages, such as headers or contents while working offline.

  • Message quotas for IMAP4 and POP3. Message quotas determine the maximum storage area any individual user may use in the message store. This allows IS administrators to limit user space on the server disk and control message store growth on the server.

  • Client-server API. The product's application programming interface allows programmers to create custom mail-enabled applications such as simple workflow.

  • Server transport API. Messaging Server provides an application programming interface that allows programmers to access messages at multiple points during server processing. Programmers can create server-side applications to provide for tools such as document conversion utilities between languages or build enterprise-specific server filters on messages.

  • Extensibility, Scalability, and Coexistence. Messaging Server for NetWare has unique capabilities not found in messaging servers for other platforms. Messaging Server 3.5 for NetWare supports the Novonyx Messaging Access Protocol (NMAP), which provides the ability to distribute message stores throughout the network rather than centralizing all message stores on a single server. In addition, NMAP also makes it possible to use other messaging systems message stores and message delivery mechanisms to facilitate coexistence and migration.

  • Delivery status notification. Messaging Server for NetWare notifies the sender of an e-mail message's status when it is delivered to the recipient. This informs users if messages were received, not received, or forwarded.

  • Anti-Spam. You can create sophisticated rules to filter out mail containing unwanted words. Messaging Server's anti-spam feature also supports the building of blackout lists of undesirable domains. Mail from those domains will not be accepted. This reduces mailbox clutter by eliminating unwanted and unsolicited messages.

  • Anti-Virus. Messaging Server decodes and scans e-mail attachments and eliminates detected viruses. This eliminates or reduces problems with the client or server related to virus-infected files.

  • Internationalization of server administration. Server administration and end user HTML forms that assist in localization to non-English languages. Provides for better usability of Messaging Server in countries where IS administrative staff and users are not native to English-language software.

System Requirements


CPU Architecture:

Operating System:

Memory:

Disk Space:

E-mail Client:

x486, PentiumNetWare 4.x16MB minimum200 KB plus 10 MB per user recommendedAny POP3 or IMAP4 client may be used with Messaging Server, such as Netscape Navigator, Netscape Communicator, Outlook, Eudora, Pegasus Mail, and others

Summary

Netscape's Enterprise, FastTrack, and Messaging Servers offer more options to NetWare users who want to improve their organization's existing Internet and intranet infrastructures. Although the joint venture named Novonyx has been absorbed into Novell, Novell and Netscape will continue to deliver the Netscape SuiteSpot servers on the NetWare platform. These products will enhance NetWare and better position NetWare as the best Internet platform available.

To learn more about Novell and Netscape's line of products for NetWare, visit http://www.novell.com/intranetware/products/netscape_servers/

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

Disclaimer

The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.

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