Not your father’s NetWare

By the late 1990s, Novell, the one-time pioneer of network OSes and integrated directory services, had lost its way in a number of areas. Even after the release of NetWare 6 — by which point the most glaring shortcomings were addressed — the core OS and the bundled apps still lacked coherence.

But NetWare 6.5 shows that Novell can still step back from the abyss and put together best-of-breed technologies into a solid package.

Installation is easier than ever. The setup routine now allows admins to choose a role for the server and install the appropriate software. The bundled software improves on the components introduced in NetWare 6, including a port of the Apache 2.0 Web server, the Tomcat 4.0 Java app server, the MySQL 4.0 database, and support for the Perl programming and PHP scripting languages — and is bolstered by the exteNd app server. By supporting these platforms — better known for their origins in the Linux universe — Novell is making a dramatic attempt to court developers by offering them familiar tools.

Also included are the eDirectory 8.7.1 directory service, and in starter-kit form, the unique DirXML 1.1 data sharing service, the next version of which will be known as Nsure Identity Manager 2. By whatever name, it performs cross-platform identity management tasks by meshing OS and application data structures through XML.

Nterprise Branch Office is one of the most interesting new features. A so-called “soft appliance” configuration, it synchronizes data and apps with equipment at a central IT site, It also offers auto-provisioning that frees up IT staff for issuing IDs and passwords. A new Virtual Office setup includes Web mail access and Novell’s eGuide, iFolder, and iPrint Internet-based directory lookup, file, and print services.

For the storage-obsessed, NetWare 6.5 now supports iSCSI. This method of transmitting block storage over IP is increasingly important as cost-conscious customers seek to implement SANs with Ethernet hardware. Many other server functions are now included in the capabilities of the Novell Remote Manager, the latest generation of Web-based management tools for NetWare environments.

While the Remote Manager dashboard is useful for managing individual servers, an increasing number of functions at the logical enterprise level have moved from the Java-based ConsoleOne application to the Web-based Novell iManager 2.0. The plethora of unintegrated management tools —the obsolete, Windows-based NetWare Adminis-

trator is still needed to manage printing in sites that haven’t embraced iPrint — is one of my handful of gripes.

Installing NetWare 6.5 is easier than ever. Although some preparation tools must be run before installing the first server with the new OS into an existing eDirectory environment, the process is painless if one has kept up with server support packs. Adminstrators can add other features a la carte, or according to the role of the server.

The first thing one notices when the server comes up is an enhanced X Windows desktop. Now useful utilities can be accessed through a toolbar icon that looks suspiciously like Microsoft’s Quick Launch feature. But most admins will find they can accomplish much of what they need to from the remote management tools.

Novell may never regain its overwhelming dominance of the server OS, buj it is far from irrelevant. The company’s two-track strategy of covering its investment in NetWare by adopting a pro-Linux attitude is a smart plan to take a mature operating system with an almost equally mature directory service and adapt the most popular open source tools to run on it. NetWare 6.5 is just that: a mature OS, a mature directory service, and an application environment that people can actually use.