Novell NetWare

 Novell NetWare is the venerable file and

print server that has been around for as long
as there has been a local area network (LAN).
 Novell NetWare

 The core NetWare system is launched from

DOS--you boot up the server under DOS and
then run NetWare. At that point, NetWare takes
over the system and DOS is no longer the
dominate operating system.
 Novell NetWare

 The NetWare server manages the

transmission of data among the network
devices, stores and retrieves data from
hard disks, manages one or more file
systems, ensures data integrity, manages
printers and printing, and allocates and
manages memory.
 Novell NetWare

 The NetWare server is designed to

operate on either a uniprocessing or
multiprocessing computer.
 Novell NetWare

 In large environments, NetWare worked well

as file and print servers, but did not fare well as
database or messaging servers. To address this
limitation, Novell has introduced NetWare
Symmetrical Multi-Processing (SMP) 4.1,
which enables NetWare to take advantage of
multiple processor hardware platforms.
 Novell NetWare

 Novell pioneered the PC LAN network

operating system in the PC market. From a
technology perspective, however, Novell
offered few true innovations in the area of file
and print sharing--most of the concepts Novell
implemented were borrowed from other
computer markets.
 Novell NetWare

 In the early days of PC LANs, a

number of companies--some big, some
small--rushed products to market to
claim space in the exploding market.
 Novell NetWare

 In all fairness, many of these

products offered technical features
and functions superior to NetWare;
however, none of the companies
behind those products could match
Novell's marketing effort.
 Novell NetWare

 Novell took a solid, but hardly best-of-

class product, and leveraged it into a
leadership position through salesmanship and
marketing savvy.
 Novell NetWare

 After Novell gained control of the market,

they made major develop investments in
NetWare to shore up some of the technical
inadequacies and insure it's longevity in the
market.
 Novell NetWare

 One of the key early developments

was the release of a System Fault
Tolerance (SFT) version of NetWare
that addressed the data protection/data
recovery demands of large businesses.
 Novell NetWare

 As the market leader, Novell set the stage

for a long line of PC LAN innovations that
extend well beyond simple file and print
services.
 Novell NetWare

 Novell designed the NetWare Load

Module (NLM) to enable third-party
companies to write server-side
NetWare applications and enterprise-
oriented features, such as fault
tolerance and data recovery.
 Novell NetWare

 NLMs are Novell’s way of customizing

the server to run just the services you
want. You can load or unload NLMs to
provide or remove different types of
services, like DHCP, DNS, FTP, or many
others.
 Novell NetWare

 Novell licensed other companies to port

NetWare to non-Intel systems, such as high-
performance UNIX systems. These systems
were quite capable of running both NetWare
and other business applications concurrently.
 Novell NetWare

 Although NetWare has been ported to non-

Intel systems where it can run alongside other
applications, the majority of NetWare
installations are, in fact, dedicated, Intel-based
servers.
 Novell NetWare

 Like any large, prosperous, and fast-growing

company, some of Novell's new products and
new ideas were less than successful. Novell
succeeded only in wasting millions of dollars
and years of research.
 Novell NetWare

 Even worse, Novell's lack of focus

during this phase enabled Windows NT
to penetrate deep into Novell's file and
print server market.
 Novell NetWare

 Starting with NetWare 4.1, Novell

also introduced NetWare Directory
Services (NDS) to help network
administrators manage enterprise
networks.
 Novell NetWare

 NDS is a global directory service that

provides an organized, hierarchical structure
for the administration and management of
network resources (in other words, users, file
servers, shared printers, and so on).
 Novell NetWare

 NDS offers a significant advantage over the

older NetWare bindery. Under NDS, the entire
network appears to the end user as a single entity,
and permits a single log on to access all servers
and shared network resources. Because the NDS
structure is replicated across servers, there is no
single point of failure.
 Novell NetWare

 Originally, NetWare used server-

based security that required each user to
log on to every server on which he or
she needed resources.
 Novell NetWare

 With the advent of NDS, however, user

permissions can be set up on a network-wide
basis, and each user simply has to log on to
the network once. After a user logs on,
NetWare can activate a user-specific batch
program (a log on script) that allocates the
resources the user accesses on a regular
basis.
 Novell NetWare

 Novell has clearly realized that it is

becoming rare for an enterprise to use a single
server operating system. With this in mind,
Novell plans to integrate Microsoft, HP, IBM,
Sun, and SCO server platforms by making
them all manageable via Novell's NetWare
Directory Services (NDS).
 Novell NetWare

 As NDS continued to mature, it was

given a new moniker for the e-business age;
it is now called the NDS eDirectory.
 Novell NetWare

 The way Novell would like to see the

eDirectory work is by allowing the use of
directory-enabled applications. With these
applications, you could customize the
application so your customers can populate
a customer-driven directory. Your business
partners can communicate directly with
each other and make use of each other’s
directory.
 Novell NetWare

 NDS eDirectory is truly the lynchpin of the

new Novell. It is what makes NetWare suitable
for use in a large organization. NDS has been
around for years, so as a directory service, it is
proven and has a track record.
 Novell NetWare

 More importantly, as a mature

product, it has been broken and has
been fixed, and has a well trained
and experienced workforce to run
the network.
 Novell NetWare

 The configuration and management of a

NetWare system can be performed at the
system console, which is the keyboard and the
monitor attached to the system. The system
console provides a simple, character-mode
interface for configuration and administration
tasks.
 Novell NetWare

From the server console you can:

-Shut down and restart the server
-Load and unload NLM programs
-Monitor server performance
-View network traffic
-Set configuration parameters
-Edit configuration and other batch files
-Send messages
 Novell NetWare
 The server console supports more than one
interface:
1) Command line. Commands can be entered at
the server console prompt, with or without
options and parameters. The prompt is
indicated by a colon (:).
 LOAD is an example of a server
console command.
 Novell NetWare
 The server console supports more than one
interface: (continued)

2) Character-based menuing. Utilities use

menus, lists, and portals.
 The key utility for monitoring the
server--MONITOR--is an example of
this interface.
 Novell NetWare
 The server console supports more than one
interface: (continued)

3) ConsoleOne . This new Servertop

application uses a graphical user interface
(GUI). ConsoleOne is a Java-based
administration tool that can also be used to
remotely administer your network.
 Novell NetWare
 The server console supports more than one
interface: (continued)

4) NetWare Management Portal - The NetWare

Management Portal allows system administrators to
manage their NetWare 5.1 servers from any Web
connection on the network.
 While this is a NetWare 5.1 tool, partial functionality
is provided for NetWare 4.x servers and above
 Novell NetWare

 NetWare typically relies on the Internet

Packet Exchange (IPX) protocol as the network
transport between the client and server systems.
Although Novell is aggressively moving toward
supporting TCP/IP instead of IPX, the majority
of NetWare installations still use IPX as the
primary transport.
 Novell NetWare

 At the network level, the routing

capabilities and simple client configuration of
Novell's IPX protocol suite enables NetWare
customers to easily construct networks of any
size
 Novell NetWare

 Novell has launched a Smart Global

Network initiative. Under this initiative
NetWare services will be extended to the
Internet and to other types of networks so
NetWare can become the central focus of
networking in a heterogeneous environment.