NetWare 4.2: Expanding Your Choices
Articles and Tips:
01 Feb 1999
In September 1998, Novell released NetWare 5, which expectant reporters and Novell customers met favorably. (You can download articles and reviews about NetWare 5 from http://www.novell.com/netware5/press.html.) Only three months after the well-received NetWare 5 release, Novell released NetWare 4.2 to replace and enhance NetWare 4.11 and intraNetWare. The release of NetWare 4.2 might strike you as odd. After all, why would Novell continue to enhance its NetWare 4 product line when NetWare 5 is on the shelves and is, according to Novell, the best operating system available today for directory-enabled networking and high-level Internet integration?
The answer to that question is simple and relates directly to Novell's understanding of its customers' needs. Novell has a history of remaining loyal to its customers, as its continued support for NetWare 3 customers illustrates. Nearly five years ago, Novell made a radical shift from the server-centric paradigm characteristic of NetWare 3 to the network-centric, directory-enabled paradigm that sets NetWare 4 and now NetWare 5 apart. Novell encouraged, but did not force, its customers to make the same shift.
In fact, rather than force its customers to abandon their current investments in favor of a new operating system, Novell continues to offer and improve its NetWare 3 product line. Novell released the most recent enhancement, NetWare 3.2, just one year ago in January 1998. By continuing to offer and improve upon an existing product line when a new product line is available, Novell enables its customers to choose the operating system that best suits their needs and to upgrade at a manageable pace.
Like NetWare 3.2, NetWare 4.2 demonstrates Novell's commitment to customers who are not ready to upgrade to NetWare 5 immediately. "Novell believes that NetWare 5 provides the benefits customers want," says Novell's NetWare 4.2 product marketing manager, Sean Sanders, "and we recommend that they look at NetWare 5 as the best option for realizing the value of directory-enabled networking coupled with the highest level of Internet-enabled integration in a server operating system. However, we also realize that many Novell customers have valid business issues that prevent them from upgrading and implementing NetWare 5 in their environment today."
Generally, companies upgrade their network infrastructure every two to five years and want to be able to manage the rate of change in their environment. For example, many customers want to preserve their existing network investments in hardware, software, and training and cannot afford to upgrade their networks every time a new solution is made available. Some companies prefer to upgrade their network in phases. Novell's awareness of these customers' needs "prompted us to put together the NetWare 4.2 offering," Sanders explains. To help companies evaluate NetWare 5, however, a three-user version of NetWare 5 is included in the NetWare 4.2 box. (For more information, see "NetWare 5 or NetWare 4.2--Which Is Best for Your Company?" and "Comparing NetWare 5 and NetWare 4.2." )
DIFFERENT STROKES FOR DIFFERENT FOLKS
In other words, Novell is well aware that you all have different needs. The release of NetWare 4.2 illustrates Novell's commitment to meeting those needs. "NetWare 4 has and will continue to be an important part of the network solution on which many of our customers depend," says Novell's senior vice president of corporate marketing, John Slitz, in a December 7 press release.
Basically, NetWare 4.2 is intraNetWare with several additional features, including the following:
NetWare 4.11 updates
Zero Effort Networks (Z.E.N.works) Starter Pack 1.1
Oracle8 for NetWare (five-user version)
Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare
Novell Upgrade Wizard
These enhancements, coupled with a NetWare 4 and Novell Directory Services (NDS) foundation, enable NetWare 4.2 to offer Internet-enabled companies a means of managing their increasingly complex networks more effectively. NetWare 4.2 also lowers the total cost of owning a network.
Patches, Fixes, and Optional Year-2000 Updates
As you know, Novell makes any updates to its products available through Novell's Support Connection World-Wide Web site (http://support.novell.com). Although these updates are free of charge and the service is valuable, it's probably safe to assume that few of you regularly check, install, and apply the updates posted on this web site. Because most of you are pressed for time, you probably take a more reactive approach to updates: That is, you wait until you (or users) encounter a problem, and only then do you check the Support Connection web site to see if an update is available to fix that problem. By upgrading to NetWare 4.2, you take a proactive approach to updates: With NetWare 4.2, you install the updates before you encounter the problems.
NetWare 4.2 includes Support Pack 6 for NetWare 4.11, which promises to significantly decrease the number of problems you encounter and, therefore, the number of updates you have to find, download, and apply. Support Pack 6 contains a comprehensive set of the NetWare 4.11 reliability updates that were available as of November 13, 1998, when Novell compiled Support Pack 6. This Support Pack contains updates for all of the services and utilities in NetWare 4.11, including updates for the operating system itself, NDS, the NetWare Administrator (NWADMIN) utility, and LAN drivers. Novell has tested all of the updates contained in Support Pack 6.
When you install NetWare 4.2, the installation program automatically installs and applies all of the updates included in Support Pack 6--including year-2000 updates. These updates address year-2000 glitches in NetWare 4.11 that do not pose a threat to network operations or to data integrity. In fact, NetWare 4.11 is year-2000 ready right out of the box. Nevertheless, Novell made available optional updates to the year-2000 glitches in NetWare 4.11. These updates, according to John Canfield, Novell's year-2000 marketing manager, address superficial, date display issues.
For example, in Japanese- and European-language versions of NetWare 4.11, the date format is appropriately displayed year/month/day. The format, of course, is not the problem. The problem is that without the update, only one digit is displayed for the year (for example, 0/01/25 for January 25, 2000). Although this single-digit year obviously does not impact the performance of the server, most people find the format disconcerting.
NetWare 4.2 corrects this problem through Support Pack 6, which includes updates that ensure the server displays two digits for the year (for example, 00/01/25). By upgrading to NetWare 4.2, you can ensure that when the year 2000 arrives, your network software will not only handle all date situations correctly but will also display those dates in an appropriate format.
Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1
NetWare 4.2 (just as its NetWare 4 predecessors) offers a lower cost of network ownership than NetWare 3 or Windows NT. This lower cost of network ownership is a direct result of NDS. NetWare 4.2 is inextricably integrated with NDS, which allows you to store information about all network components. You can then access that information and manage these components from any workstation on the network. (Of course, you must have rights to manage these network components, and you must be able to access an NDS management utility, such as the NWADMIN utility, from that workstation.)
The NDS network-centric, directory-enabled approach to networking can save you time and, therefore, money. For example, through NDS, NetWare 4 servers reduce the time you spend managing user accounts. On an NDS-enabled network, such as NetWare 4.2, you create only one user account per user, regardless of the total number of servers and other network resources to which each user has rights. With NetWare 3, in contrast, you have to create a user account on each server a user needs to access.
NetWare 4.2 includes the latest version of NDS (version 6) and also includes an NDS application, which promises to reduce the cost of network ownership even more: Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1. This Starter Pack is also included in NetWare 5 and dramatically simplifies desktop management. Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1 is a subset of the fully functional Z.E.N.works product. This Starter Pack offers the functionality of Novell Workstation Manager 1.1 and includes the application management and distribution software formerly called Novell Application Launcher (NAL) 2.5.
The fully functional Z.E.N.works product, which you can purchase separately and use with NetWare 4.2, includes additional features such as a hardware inventory tool, remote-control software, and help desk policies. For more information about Z.E.N.works, visit Novell's web site at http://www.novell.com/nds.
Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1 uses NDS to enable you to distribute, configure, update, and manage applications on workstation desktops from your own workstation or from any location on the network. Consequently, you will have to visit users' workstations on far fewer occasions. In fact, Novell speculates that Z.E.N.works' workstation management features, which are included in Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1, can eliminate as many as 80 percent of your visits to users' workstations. Network administrator Oswald Seerattan of Electronic Data Systems believes that Z.E.N.works' workstation management features potentially cut the time he spends managing his network by 50 percent just because those features let him "administer desktops through NDS."
As with the fully functional Z.E.N.works, with Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1 and NDS, you use the NWADMIN utility to create Application objects in the NDS tree. You then assign users or groups rights to these objects in the same way you assign rights to other NDS objects. Users at workstations running the Z.E.N.works client software (which is included in the Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1) then double-click the Z.E.N.works Application Launcher icon to view a list of all of the applications they have rights to access.
Because the applications you deliver through Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1 are linked to a user's NDS login ID rather than stored on a specific, physical workstation hard drive, users can access the applications they need from any workstation on the network. As a result, all users, including remote users, can reach the tools they need to stay productive.
Z.E.N.works and NDS are helping to usher in a new era of location independence for the desktop and the PC user. They deliver what Novell chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt calls a "digital persona" for each user. The digital persona refers to a concept of a network that remembers who you are and what network resources you need. Z.E.N.works and NDS make such a concept possible by enabling you to create a unique desktop configuration for each user.
This desktop configuration is based on each user's needs, rather than on his or her physical location. In other words, a user doesn't have to sit at the same workstation every day to get the same desktop configuration. Regardless of the user's location, when the user logs in to NDS, the user will see the desktop uniquely configured to suit his or her needs. For example, when a user logs in, the user will see all of the applications to which he or she has rights. (For more information about Z.E.N.works, see "NDS and Z.E.N.works," NetWare Connection, October 1998, pp. 24-33. You can download this article from http://www.nwconnection.com/oct.98/zen08.)
Oracle8 for NetWare
If you opt not to store data on users' workstations, you obviously need to store data elsewhere. Conveniently, NetWare 4.2 includes an alternative application and data storage solution: Oracle8 for NetWare. Like NetWare 5, NetWare 4.2 includes a five-user version of Oracle8 for NetWare in the box. (Oracle8 for NetWare is still available for NetWare 4.11 and intraNetWare customers. You can order Oracle8 for NetWare from the Novell web site at http://www.novell.com/intranetware/oracleorder.html or from the Novell Customer Response Center at 1-888-321-4272 or 1-801-228-4272. Novell charges a small fee to cover postage and handling.)
Oracle8 is a relational database that enables you to store more applications and more data than you will ever need. You will also be able to deliver these applications and that data reliably and securely to more users than your company will probably ever have.
Specifically, the Oracle8 database stores up to several petabytes of data and supports as many as 50,000 concurrent users. Just as a point of reference, one petabyte is 1,024 terabytes, and you would need only 10 terabytes to store the entire printed collection of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Oracle8 for NetWare is fully integrated with NDS, enabling you to manage the database just as you manage all other network resources from any workstation on the network. Because Oracle8 is integrated with NDS, you don't have to be familiar with Oracle8 to control users' access to it: You can control users' access to Oracle8 using the NWADMIN utility.
The integration between Oracle8 and NDS provides several other features, including a single login. When users with rights to the Oracle8 database log in to the network, NetWare 4.2 automatically authenticates these users to Oracle8 based on their authentication to the NDS tree. As a result, users are spared the inconvenience of having to enter a separate username and password to access the Oracle8 database.
Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare
If your company is like most companies, it probably either has a web site or would like to have one. If lack of time is preventing you from getting your company on the Internet, NetWare 4.2 can help. NetWare 4.2 includes the Netscape FastTrack Server for NetWare.
Winner of the Datamation 1997 product of the year award, FastTrack Server is easy-to-use software for creating, publishing, and serving web documents. FastTrack Server enables individuals and workgroups--even the web illiterate--to create personal web sites from their own workstations and to publish web documents quickly and easily. You realize the implications of this, don't you? Through FastTrack Server, NetWare 4.2 enables your users to do for themselves what you might otherwise have to do for them.
To enable users to browse the web, NetWare 4.2 includes Netscape Communicator. Netscape Communicator is a browser, e-mail, and calendar suite that includes Netscape Navigator 4, the latest version of Netscape's popular web browser. (NetWare 4.11 and intraNetWare shipped with Netscape Navigator 2.01.)
Upgrading to NetWare 4.2
NetWare 4.2 also includes the Novell Upgrade Wizard, which can help reduce the costs associated with upgrading your operating system. Also included in NetWare 5, the Novell Upgrade Wizard, is a graphical modeling and upgrade tool that simplifies the process of migrating a NetWare 3 server across the wire to a new or existing NetWare 4.11, NetWare 4.2, or NetWare 5 server. (For more information about the Novell Upgrade Wizard, see "Novell Upgrade Wizard: Upgrading Couldn't Get Easier," NetWare Connection, Aug. 1998, pp. 30-35. You can download this article from http://www.nwconnection.com/aug.98/wizard.)
The Novell Upgrade Wizard performs three processes: modeling, verification, and migration. During the modeling process, you create an upgrade project, which enables you to model the NetWare 3 bindery and file system offline before you actually migrate this information. During the upgrade project, you use the modeling screen, which displays the source NetWare 3 bindery and volume information on the left and the NDS tree on the right. You can then select existing NDS Organization or Organizational Unit (OU) objects in which you want the NetWare 3 bindery information to reside, or you can create a new OU object.
This modeling process is performed in an offline database, which means that the NDS objects you create during this process will not be created in the actual NDS tree until you select Novell Upgrade Wizard's Migrate option. As a result, you can try several modeling scenarios until you find the one best-suited for your company.
After you decide where the NetWare 3 bindery and volumes belong in your NDS tree and before you select the Migrate option, you should use the verification process. During the verification process, Novell Upgrade Wizard notifies you of problems that may affect a successful migration, such as naming conflicts between bindery objects being migrated and existing NDS objects. By default, the Novell Upgrade Wizard automatically verifies name spaces, rights, and NLM versions and notifies you if a problem exists. You can also specify that you want the Novell Upgrade Wizard to check for and notify you of duplicate objects and insufficient disk space.
Once you verify that no problems exist, you select the Novell Upgrade Wizard's Migrate option. During the ensuing migration process, the Novell Upgrade Wizard copies Bindery and Volume objects from the NetWare 3 server, converts these objects to NDS objects, and places the NDS objects in an existing NDS tree according to the model you created during the upgrade project.
If you are simply upgrading from a NetWare 4.11 or intraNetWare server to NetWare 4.2, you won't need to use the Novell Upgrade Wizard. In this case, you simply select the upgrade option in the NetWare 4.2 INSTALL utility.
IT'S GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME
As you may have noticed, Z.E.N.works Starter Pack 1.1, Oracle8 for NetWare, Netscape FastTrack Server, and the Novell Upgrade Wizard are existing products. So what's the big deal about NetWare 4.2? The big deal is that NetWare 4.2 conveniently includes all of these products and enhancements in the box. Although the NetWare 4.2 features are not new, they bring NetWare 4 servers up-to-date and make those servers better.
NetWare 4.2 includes more features than those that have been explicitly mentioned here. For example, NetWare 4.2 includes NetWare Connect 2, which enables remote users of Windows, Macintosh, and DOS systems to dial in to a NetWare 4.2 network to access network information and resources such as files. databases, applications, e-mail, printing, and host/mainframe services. In addition, NetWare 4.2, unlike NetWare 4.11, includes online documentation, so you can find answers to your questions more easily--and faster.
Linda Boyer Kennard is a frequent contributor to NetWare Connection. She works for Niche Associates, an agency that specializes in writing and editing technical documents.
NetWare 5 or NetWare 4.2--Which Is Best for Your Company?
Many NetWare 3.x, NetWare 4.x, or intraNetWare customers will upgrade directly to NetWare 5--but not all of them. Novell is aware that many of its customers have valid business reasons that prevent them from upgrading immediately to NetWare 5 and, in the interest of these customers, has upgraded its NetWare 4 product line. The following are four of the many valid reasons your company might want to upgrade to NetWare 4.2 now and before upgrading to NetWare 5 later.
The disk capacity, memory, and performance limitations of your company's current server hardware preclude the possibility of running NetWare 5, and you want to extend the life of your hardware investment. The server hardware requirements for NetWare 4.2 are as follows: 386-based PC or above, 16 MB of RAM minimum, 100 MB hard disk recommended, and 55 MB of free hard disk space minimum. The server hardware requirements for NetWare 5 are as follows:
Pentium-based PC or above
64 MB of RAM minimum
1 GB hard disk recommended
550 MB of free hard disk space minimum
Your company's budget is limited, and the suggested retail price for NetWare 4.2 is approximately 10 percent less than NetWare 5. The suggested retail price for a five-user version of NetWare 4.2 is U.S. $1,095 compared with $1,195 for a five-user version of NetWare 5.
You rely on several applications that run on NetWare 4.2 but are not yet certified on NetWare 5.
You use Novell's SFT III, which NetWare 4.2 supports but NetWare 5 does not. (Novell will provide similar functionality in NetWare 5 through its high-availability products.)
Of course, other valid business reasons exist for preferring a NetWare 4.2 to a NetWare 5 upgrade. For example, when asked why he might recommend a NetWare 4.2 upgrade over a NetWare 5 upgrade, reseller Steven Krivit explained that he has "a lot of customers who depend on NetWare's reliability and are extremely conservative about changes." Krivit, who works for Data Link Services Inc. of Pacific Palisades, California, adds that these customers "don't want to change anything that's working well, particularly their NetWare 4.11 servers." Upgrading to NetWare 4.2, Krivit concludes, is an excellent choice for such customers "because it keeps them current with the operating system, without requiring them to significantly rework that operating system."
Comparing NetWare 5 and NetWare 4.2
|
FEATURES
|
NETWARE 5
|
NETWARE 4.2
|
| Management | ||
|
Novell Directory Services (NDS) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
WAN traffic manager |
Yes |
No |
|
Catalog services |
Yes |
No |
|
LDAP 3 support |
Yes |
No |
|
Role-based management |
Yes |
No |
|
DNS/DHCP integrated with NDS |
Yes |
No |
|
Z.E.N.works Starter Pack |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NetWare Management Agents (NMA) |
Yes |
No |
|
ConsoleOne (Java-based management console) |
Yes |
No |
| Internet/Intranet | ||
|
IP support |
Pure IP |
IP via NetWare/IP (encapsulation) |
|
Compatibility mode |
Yes |
N/A |
|
Migration agent |
Yes |
Yes (provides integration with NetWare 5) |
|
Netscape FastTrack Server |
Yes |
Yes |
|
IPX/IP gateway |
No |
Yes |
|
Multiprotocol WAN router |
Yes |
Yes |
|
FTP services |
Yes |
Yes |
| Kernel | ||
|
Symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) |
Yes (single kernel supporting up to 32 processors) |
Yes (separate multiprocessing NLM supporting up to 8 processors) |
|
Memory protection |
Yes |
No |
|
Virtual memory |
Yes |
No |
|
Application prioritization capabilities |
Yes |
No |
| Core Services | ||
|
Novell Storage Services (NSS) |
Yes |
No |
|
Novell Distributed Print Services (NDPS) |
Yes |
Free add-on |
|
I20 support |
Yes |
Yes, with free file download |
|
Secure Authentication Services (SAS) |
Yes |
No |
|
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) |
Yes |
No |
| Application Development | ||
|
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and Java tools |
Yes |
Add-on |
|
Common Object-Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) |
Yes |
No |
|
NetBasic interpreter |
Yes |
Yes |
|
JavaBeans |
Yes |
No |
|
JavaScript |
Yes |
No |
|
Visual Basic scripting support |
Yes |
No |
|
PERL 5.1 |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Integrated debugger |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Novell International Cryptographic Services |
Yes |
No |
|
Oracle8 |
Five-user version |
Five-user version |
| Upgrade Support | ||
|
REXXware Migration Toolkit (RMT) |
Free download available |
Free download available |
|
Novell Upgrade Wizard |
Yes (for upgrades from NetWare 3 and NetWare 4) |
Yes (for upgrades from NetWare 3) |
| Other | ||
|
Year-2000 ready |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Remote access via NetWare Connect |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Recommended server hardware requirements |
Pentium or higher processor, 64 MB of RAM, and 550 MB of available disk space |
386 or higher processor,16 MB of RAM, and 105 MB of available disk space |
* Originally published in Novell Connection Magazine
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.