It's quiet in here!

[Joedetic]

I hope it doesn't because I've heard a lot of good things about it and I'd like to get the chance to play with it before it gets scrapped.

[riedquat]

I think NW 6.5 is a great product, but unfortunately it is betamax to w2k3's VHS. A technically superior and more mature product but w2k3 will always be the platform of choice 99% of the time. AD still can't match Edirectory/NDS for scalability in the enteprise, but ofcourse Edirectory can run on Windows or Linux aswell now so NW is no longer the must have.

Indeed, the current version of the Netware services running on the native Netware kernel is the last version although it will be supported by service packs for a few years yet (the installed user base is too big for it to be completely abandoned). Novell's current push is for Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES2) which is basically the Netware services running on a Linux kernel. In fact Netware 6.5 with service pack 7 IS OES2 on the netware kernel and like you say, the killer Novell proucts, edirectory, Zenworks (now Zenworks Configuration Management) and Groupwise will run on Netware, Linux or Windows.

[torledo]

I think NW 6.5 is a great product, but unfortunately it is betamax to w2k3's VHS. A technically superior and more mature product but w2k3 will always be the platform of choice 99% of the time. AD still can't match Edirectory/NDS for scalability in the enteprise, but ofcourse Edirectory can run on Windows or Linux aswell now so NW is no longer the must have.

Indeed, the current version of the Netware services running on the native Netware kernel is the last version although it will be supported by service packs for a few years yet (the installed user base is too big for it to be completely abandoned). Novell's current push is for Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES2) which is basically the Netware services running on a Linux kernel. In fact Netware 6.5 with service pack 7 IS OES2 on the netware kernel and like you say, the killer Novell proucts, edirectory, Zenworks (now Zenworks Configuration Management) and Groupwise will run on Netware, Linux or Windows.

Could you explain a little bit about how the OES product works. I know that starting with Netware 6 Novell ported open source apps such as MySQL, PHP and Apache to Netware. With the SUSE acquistion they've now got an enteprise-scale Linux server platform (SLES). So how does the OES fit into this and how is it useful ? I would have thought it's better to choose one or the other, Netware or SLES, can you explain a bit about the architecture of OES and why it's useful ?

[RoyG]

You're not the only Netware admin, I have been for the past 11 years, although from easter 2008 it's all change as we will be replacing the whole network with an RM system. SMT want 'full' support from our county ICT team and that means we have to move to a complete RM system.
On the plus side, it does mean that i'll get some new servers to play with to run it all.

I'd be totally devastated if our SMT made a similar decision! Fortunately I don't think they are going to!!

I'm heading for retirement next July. We've appointed a replacement who's going to work alongside me from January to make the transition as seamless as possible. He's got experience of Netware & is happy to leave the present system pretty much as it is. I suppose medium term he'll have to consider upgrading to OES when Novell end support for Netware 6.5 - 2012 I believe.

Meanwhile - Netware rocks!!

RoyG

[riedquat]

Could you explain a little bit about how the OES product works. I know that starting with Netware 6 Novell ported open source apps such as MySQL, PHP and Apache to Netware. With the SUSE acquistion they've now got an enteprise-scale Linux server platform (SLES). So how does the OES fit into this and how is it useful ? I would have thought it's better to choose one or the other, Netware or SLES, can you explain a bit about the architecture of OES and why it's useful ?

The core services that make up a typical Netware 6.5 server (NCP, iprint, edirectory, ifolder, netstorage, NSS etc) have been ported/re-coded to run as services/daemons on top of a standard Linux server installation. This is what you get if you use OES2-Linux, a standard SUSE linux install with all the typical linux services such as apache, mysql, php etc...PLUS the Netware componants running on top. To your clients, it appears as a normal netware server. The big advantage you get is that you now have access to a huge range of standard linux apps (application serving has always been Netware's weak point). As to which to choose, I belive that the idea is that you choose OES2-Linux for new installs and install SP7 on your Netware boxes which turns them into OES2 before eventually converting them into Linux servers.
Where I am for instance, we have 3 Netware 6.5 SP6 boxes (SP6 turns Netware into OES v1) and 1 OES-Linux box (used to run squid/dansguardian). If we were not moving away from Netware in easter, I would now be planning to upgrade the netware boxes to SP7 essentially turning them into OES v2 and upgrading the Linux server to OES v2.