Overview of the ConsoleOne Utility

Articles and Tips: article

01 Mar 2002

Kevin Burnett
Senior Research Engineer
Novell AppNotes

This month's column (as well as the next several months) are going to cover Novell's ConsoleOne utility. This month will cover the ConsoleOne shell, which is the heart of the program. In the ensuing months, we will cover the administration of various snap-ins, which give ConsoleOne much of its versatility and power.

A Brief History of ConsoleOne

When Novell first introduced NetWare back in the early 1980s, a utility called SYSCON shipped with the new network operating system (OS). This text-based utility worked on DOS-based workstations and provided a way to manage users, groups, directory, and application access on the NetWare OS. With the introduction and improvement of Microsoft Windows, Novell introduced a GUI administration tool called NWAdmin. NWAdmin held its own for a few years, but then limitations were realized as the size of directories and networks continued to skyrocket.

ConsoleOne was introduced and it utilized the, new Java programming language. Although a little slow to begin with, ConsoleOne has evolved with the Java programming language into a quick administration tool for NetWare. Novell eventually stopped enhancing NWAdmin, leaving ConsoleOne as the administration tool of choice.

What Is ConsoleOne?

ConsoleOne is a Java-based tool for managing your network and its resources. Some of its core functionality includes managing Novell eDirectory objects, schema, partitions, and replicas. In addition, complete NetWare server management is readily available, such as managing users, groups, printing, directory and application access, as well as accessing other NetWare services.

With the additions of snap-ins, several other Novell products can also be managed including DirXML, NDS Authentication Services, NFS, Native File Access, Novell Cluster Services, NSS, GroupWise Server, OnDemand, ZENworks, iChain, and many more. Starting next month, we'll look at some of these snap-ins.

ConsoleOne Requirements

In order to run ConsoleOne, you will need to meet the following requirements:

Software and Hardware Requirements
Operating System	Windows 95 with Novell Client v3.1 Service Pack 2 minimum Windows NT with Novell Client v4.6 Service Pack 2 minimum NetWare 5 server with Support Pack 3 minimum
RAM	Minimum: 64MB Recommended: 128MB (Adding more RAM will improve performance, especially on large networks.)
Processor	200MHz or faster
Disk Space Requirements	37MB
Screen Resolution	Minimum: 800 x 600

The ConsoleOne Shell

Typically if you are running the Novell Client on your workstation and you are a network administrator, you probably have a ConsoleOne icon on your Windows desktop already. The reason is that when you install the Novell Client from the shipping CD-ROM, you are given the option to install the ConsoleOne utility. Optionally, you can go to the following URL http://download.novell.com/sdMain.jsp and download the latest version of ConsoleOne.

Make sure you are connected to your NetWare network and double-click the ConsoleOne icon on your Windows desktop. You will soon see the ConsoleOne shell, as displayed in Figure 1.

ConsoleOne Shell

The ConsoleOne shell is made up of several components that give it an uncluttered appearance. Let's look at each of these features.

ConsoleOne Drop-Down Menu Bar.

The ConsoleOne Drop-Down Menu contains typical options that you would find in most Windows-based programs. The following table explains these options:

Option	Description	Functionality
File Menu	The File menu contains commands that are global to all objects of the selected namespace, such as New, Delete, Move and Rename. Commands that are global to all namespaces, such as Print and Exit are located here also.	The New option allows the creations of new objects. The Print option allows you to print the current screen. The Exit option quits ConsoleOne. Other options may be available, depending on which snap-ins you have loaded.
Edit Menu	The Edit menu contains general purpose editing commands typically used to manipulate data and objects using the clipboard.	The Undo option reverses the last action. The Cut option moves selected data to the clipboard, removing the data from the current window. The Copy option copies selected data to the clipboard. The Paste option inserts data into the current control or window from the clipboard. Other options may be available, or some of the above options may be disabled, depending on which snap-ins you have loaded.
View Menu	The View menu provides the ability to enable or disable interface components of the shell, change the active view for the selected namespace, or change the way information is presented in the current window.	The View menu can be tailored very specifically through the use of snap-ins. When you have the default directory browser window open, the following options are available: Console View --indicates the current window that is open. Set As Root , Go Up One Level and Show My World-- aids in traversing your directory tree. Show View Title --opens a menu bar to display the name of the current screen's title. Refresh --updates the information on the current screen.
Tools Menu	The Tools menu provides the ability to activate or launch tools or utilities from the shell.	On a stock installation of ConsoleOne, the Tools menu will be inactive, hence it will appear grayed out. If you have any utility-type snap-ins, like Remote Debugger, they will be listed here.
Help Menu	This menu provides access to the ConsoleOne help system.	The Help menu is somewhat typical of other Windows help menus. The ConsoleOne Help menu contains the following: Contents --contains the actual ConsoleOne help program. Novell on the Web --contains Web links to Novell Documentation, Support and Home Web sites. About Snap-ins --lists the registered snap-ins you currently have loaded. Clicking on any of these listings brings up that snap-ins' copyright and version information. About ConsoleOne --displays ConsoleOne version, copyright and URL information.

ConsoleOne Task Bar

. The ConsoleOne Task Bar makes executing common tasks a one-click operation. Upon executing ConsoleOne, the Task Bar contains seven icons. They are as follows, from left to right:

Icon	Functionality
Exit ConsoleOne	Terminates your current session with ConsoleOne.
Find	This is currently grayed out and will be discussed later.
Set As Root	Sets your current location in the Novell eDirectory Tree as the root of the ConsoleOne tree view. (You can press the up arrow to return the root to the true Novell eDirectory tree root whenever you wish.)
Show My World	This is currently grayed out and will be discussed later.
Stop	This is currently grayed out and will be discussed later.
Refresh	Updates the current screen.
Help Contents	Takes you to the ConsoleOne Help Program.

ConsoleOne Program Bar.

The program bar displays the name of the Windows program that you are running. In this case, it is Novell ConsoleOne.

ConsoleOne View Title.

This provides you with the current screen's name. In this case, it is Console View.

ConsoleOne Tree View.

This window shows the current Novell eDirectory Trees that your workstation can see. To the left of the tree names is a "+" sign, which allows you to click and expand the tree. In this example, clicking on NDS expands into two sub-trees called NOVELL_INC and DNU_TREE. Expanding DNU_TREE causes the following icons to appear, as shown in Figure 2.

ConsoleOne Tree View Expanded

Note: The containers in the DNU_TREE are shown in the ConsoleOne Tree View window. In the Tree View Window, the Accounting container in the VerySmallCompany Organizational Unit (OU) is highlighted, thus showing all of the objects in the Accounting container as seen in the ConsoleOne Container View window.

ConsoleOne Container View.

The ConsoleOne Container View shows all of the objects that are stored in the associated container and are highlighted in the ConsoleOne Tree View window.

ConsoleOne Total Object Count.

Locate directly under the ConsoleOne Container View window, the ConsoleOne Total Object Count displays the total number of objects that are displayed in the ConsoleOne Container View window.

Conclusion

This concludes a basic introduction to the Novell ConsoleOne Shell. Next month we'll look at how to complete common administration tasks in ConsoleOne. (Information for this article has been provided by the Novell ConsoleOne Development Team, as well as information from the Novell Documentation Team.)

* 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.