Command Line Parameters for Starting and Stopping NetWare 5 Servers
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Novell, Inc.
mspong@novell.com
01 Aug 2000
NetWare 5 allows for more flexibility in loading and unloading the NetWare operating system than in previous versions of NetWare. Novell's Michael Spong looks at some of the commands that expand how you can bring NetWare 5 servers up and down.
To prevent the NetWare Peripheral Architecture (NWPA) from autoloading drivers, use the NWPA \NALOAD command in the STARTUP.NCF file. Without autoload, the system will load only the Custom Device Modules (CDMs) that are manually loaded in the STARTUP.NCF file. By manually loading CDMs, you can be certain that a specific value-add feature provided by the manufacturer is available. If you don't disable autoload, NetWare 5 will merrily chug along and load the default CDMs for all devices detected by NWPA, as well as those CDMs that are manually loaded.
However, some issues have been found with devices where only the manufacturer provided the CDMs that should have been used, but other default CDMs had been loaded as well. Specifically, when using a SCSI tape drive to make a backup, you should use the CDM that is recommended by the backup application manufacturer.
To bring up your server, use either the RESET SERVER or the RESTART SERVER commands. (Remember that in NetWare 5, you don t need to use the DOWN command.)
RESET SERVER warm boots your system.
RESTART SERVER brings the server down and then backup by unloading, then reloading NetWare 5. So, RESTART SERVER doesn't actually reboot your entire system, just the operating system. This is great if you've made any changes to the AUTOEXEC.NCF and STARTUP.NCF files, and it's faster than RESET SERVER.
To shut down your server and not reload NetWare 5, use the DOWN command instead of the old DOWN and EXIT combination. And rest easy, events that have been keyed to EXIT will still function with the DOWN command since DOWN alone now triggers the EXIT events.
From the C:\NWSERVER directory, you can also perform the following:
SERVER ND starts the server without loading NDS.
SERVER NA starts the server without executing AUTOEXEC.NCF.
SERVER NS starts the server without executing STARTUP.NCF. Generally, this command also stops the execution of the AUTOEXEC.NCF since SYS: is not mounted.
Note: If there is an AUTOEXEC.NCF in the C:\NWSERVER directory when you use the SERVER NS command, AUTOEXEC.NCF will execute.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
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