InformationWeek

Novell Brings Unix Down To Earth

Plus: A UnixWare security software fix .

By David Fiedler
Issue date: March 20, 1995

Does the thought of trying to install an applications server make you queasy? Relax. Novell Inc.'s UnixWare 2.0 is a PC-based, multiprocessor-ready applications server that you can drop into your NetWare or NFS-based corporate network without qualms. It's perhaps the first fully featured Unix System V that's easy for non-experts to use and manage.

UnixWare would be out of place in a network composed of only Microsoft Windows machines. But it's right at home in a mixed environment encompassing Unix servers or workstations, PCs, and NetWare servers, where it takes on the task of running your server applications. The fact that it supports X terminals and other Unix machines is not unique, but its ability to share print services with an overloaded NetWare server is. UnixWare may not be the killer desktop environment the Unix industry once hoped to produce, but it manages to be a full-featured Unix system that's as easy to work with as a traditional PC operating system.

Novell positions UnixWare against IBM's OS/2 and Microsoft's Windows NT, but UnixWare's higher pricing and extra features put it more directly in competition with the Santa Cruz Operation Inc.'s SCO Unix, especially since it runs SCO application binaries.

Competitive Pricing
The desktop version, called UnixWare Personal Edition, is priced very competitively; with the optional software development kit, it provides a complete Unix workstation and development environment with virtually all the features of the server version, which is called UnixWare Advanced Server. In fact, the only Advanced Server features missing in the Personal Edition are support for multiple users, multiple network cards, IP/IPX routing, and the optional Server Merge and Processor Upgrade packages.

For less than $600, you can get both UnixWare Personal Edition and the associated software development kit, which lets technical users plug their Personal Edition workstation into the Internet--directly or via Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection--and download lots of publicly available Unix software, compile it, and run it.

UnixWare's desktop is close enough to Windows that most users will get the hang of it quickly. It also transparently integrates remote NetWare and NFS-mounted files and applications. UnixWare will even serve Windows applications to remote users on X terminal and Unix workstations. Despite a few technical gl itches, UnixWare is a product that many information systems (IS) managers, especially in mixed environments, should seriously consider.

InformationWeek's OpenLabs examined the "gold disk" version of UnixWare: a special CD-ROM created for reviews that Novell said was virtually identical to the final UnixWare 2.0 distribution, due to ship to distributors and resellers on March 21 in English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish versions.

Documentation And Support
UnixWare 2.0 installation is much improved over its previous incarnation. Automatic detection and configuration of most EISA, MCI, and PCI hardware, including graphics boards, makes installation simple enough for a Unix novice. UnixWare attempts to display possible conflicts in interrupt and memory settings to help the system administrator diagnose problems with competing interface cards.

There's a single diskette and a CD-ROM to insert. Unless you have some complex network topology at your installation, a ccepting the default UnixWare settings will fit the bill.

TCP/IP installation is a bit trickier but really requires only the system's IP address, netmask, broadcast address (which it calculates for you), router address, and basic DNS (Domain Name Service) information.

As it does with NetWare, Novell certifies specific machines as UnixWare-ready. That list includes 74 computers from 22 manufacturers (mostly major brands), and 11 multiprocessor servers. UnixWare has drivers for more than 40 popular graphics boards, but it doesn't include one for the Chips and Technologies Wingine board in the Epson Progression test machine I used.

UnixWare has a multithreaded kernel to support multitasking and multiple processors. Symmetric multiprocessor servers (such as certain Acer, AST Manhattan, Compaq, Corollary, Intel, Olivetti, and Tricord models) are directly supported by UnixWare 2.0 without add-on packages, although additional UnixWare licenses are needed for machines with more than two processors. CD-ROMs m ake installing large software packages, such as operating systems, more convenient, but their generous storage capacity has led vendors to include less printed documentation with that software. For example, Novell distributes NetWare 4.1 with no printed user or administrator manuals--just those needed for installation or upgrade.

UnixWare strikes a reasonable balance for documentation: It includes step-by-step installation, system, and basic user manuals, and leaves the rest to online DynaText books--a convenient hypertext facility that will be familiar to NetWare users. DynaText provides a special viewer with its own search and print functions and lets users save sections of documents in standard PostScript format for later viewing or printing.

Unfortunately, the online documentation was almost unreadable through DynaText on the 640-by-480 resolution display I was forced to use because of the missing Wingine driver mentioned above.

Longtime Unix system administrators will still feel at home, however , because--in addition to the DynaText books--Novell also provides Unix manual pages in the traditional online presentation.

Limited technical support is available free via electronic mail or through CompuServe. Regular phone support is free for 30 days. Thereafter, support is available on an as-needed or contract basis for an additional charge.

UnixWare, in both Personal Edition and Advanced Server incarnations, has a Desktop Manager, which runs on the X-Window System with Motif as the window manager/graphical user interface. You click on icons to edit files or run applications; to move files, you drag icons from one window to another; to delete files, you move their icons onto the wastebasket icon. In addition, some icons support other drag-and-drop actions. You can redefine the actions of supplied icons or create your own with the tools provided.

Each Unix application runs in its own window: Character-based applications run in an xterm window, while graphical applications run in an X window. Micr osoft Windows users will be happy to find that the familiar Alt-Tab key combination can be used to switch between active Unix windows.

DOS/Windows Integration
To run DOS and Windows programs on UnixWare, Novell has included DOS Merge from Locus Computing Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif. Because it works by emulating a basic 386 DOS environment, Merge cannot run DOS or Windows applications that need the performance of a 486 or Pentium processor.

On top of this DOS environment, you can install Windows--which is not included. Unfortunately, Windows must be run in standard mode, which eliminates some major applications. I tested various applications, from Microsoft Word 2.0 to shareware graphics programs and had no problems.

Locus provided a list of about 150 major applications that have been successfully tested under Merge, including Harvard Graphics V3.03, Quattro Pro V5.0, Microsoft Mail V3.0, Delrina WinFAX Pro 3.0, Word 6.0, and WordPerfect V5.2. Locus also provided a short list o f applications that won't work, including DESQview, Lotus 1-2-3 V3.1/DOS, Lotus Improv and Notes, Microsoft C/C++ V7.0, Windows for Workgroups, and WordPerfect 6.0 for Windows. Novell plans to release a free upgrade to Merge later this year that will support enhanced-mode applications.

DOS/Windows sessions under Merge can use up to 15 Mbytes of extended, or 8 Mbytes of expanded, memory. DOS Protected Mode Interface is not supported. Merge also supports physical DOS partitions on the system disk.

Windows didn't feel at all sluggish in VGA mode and didn't slow down appreciably while the system was doing other things, although, as you would expect, response speeded up when the system was otherwise idle.

UnixWare turned in a surprisingly good performance for Windows, considering the technical limitations of Merge. I tested this with WinTach, a publicly available benchmark that reports results as multiples of a 386DX/20 reference system (for example, 4.0 would be four times faster). WinTach's combined res ults under OpenLabs' UnixWare test machine (486DX2/66 with 36 Mbytes of memory) were 3.26, not bad at all compared with the 3.74 results of a similar system (486/66 with 32 Mbytes of memory) running Windows for Workgroups, also in 640-by-480 VGA mode.

Using X-Window drivers, Windows applications can either run locally in an X window or be displayed remotely on an X terminal or Unix workstation. Unfortunately, running in an X window gives far slower performance than running in full-screen mode.

What Users Can Do
UnixWare is standards and interoperability personified. It includes TCP/IP networking and PPP serial protocols; NFS server and client software; both DNS and NIS (Network Information Service) directory services; C2 security auditing; UUCP connectivity; and the X-Window System and Motif graphical user interface. UnixWare users can access NetWare files from UnixWare, and users of either system can access printers on either NetWare or UnixWare. UnixWare can be an used as an MHS (Mail Handling Service) gateway, so NetWare and UnixWare users can exchange E-mail.

UnixWare runs SCO Unix application binaries without a hitch--both character and X Window. Plus, Novell has compiled a list of about 800 native applications tested for UnixWare. When UnixWare comes out or immediately after, the latest versions of major applications and databases, such as Oracle, Informix, CA-UniCenter, and, of course, WordPerfect 6.0 for Unix, should also be available for UnixWare.

For developing your own applications, UnixWare includes a basic development system with a C compiler, which supports the Intel Pentium chip, and the SCCS (Source Code Control System) configuration management. To compile or develop X or Motif applications, however, you'll need the optional software development kit with the X-Window and Motif libraries and header files. This costs $145, a far cry from the prices of development tools on many other Unix platforms. (For example, SCO's system costs $1,595.)

The optional developme nt kit also has Pentium-optimized ANSI C and C++ compilers; a graphical debugger that displays threads and processes executing on multiple CPUs; a number of profilers for analyzing code efficiency; and a Windowing Korn Shell for writing scripts with a graphical interface. There also are numerous code libraries, including Motif 1.2, streams, TCP/IP, PPP, IPX/SPX networking libraries, and full applications programming interfaces for NetWare and the Desktop Manager.

System Administration
UnixWare's default Journaling File System (JFS), developed by Veritas Software Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., makes manual file system repairs--once the most nerve--wracking part of Unix system administration--a thing of the past. The JFS keeps track of attempted write operations in a database, and physically writes pending data from system cache buffers to disk whenever an application closes.

I tested this feature several times by cutting the power on a busy system. When rebooting after such brutal sh utdowns, UnixWare came up smoothly, without requesting operator input--just a remark that it was examining the system and a delay of a minute or so. Novell has indeed made UnixWare as easy to shut down as a DOS system. In fact, the manual says, "You can shut off power at any time without damaging system files."

An optional Online Data Manager (ODM) supports RAID Level 1 disk mirroring for more data safety and redundancy, as well as RAID Level 0 data striping for improved speed. ODM has features that are more typical of mainframe data centers than of PC-based Unix systems, such as online resizing, tuning, and defragmentation of file systems; files or file systems spanning multiple disks; unlimited number of drives per disk stripe; and central, drag-and-drop management of remote storage. All this makes system management extremely flexible and responsive to changing requirements.

ODM permits dynamic allocation of inodes, which saves disk space and will be greatly appreciated by administrators who have to m anage constantly varying loads like Usenet news. Online Data Manager also supports the ability of certain hardware to let the administrator add disks without shutting down the system. UnixWare's system administration and management tools run under the X-Window System. Unlike virtually every other Unix system, UnixWare can be set up, backed up, tuned, reconfigured, and managed without typing esoteric command lines. It's all done from icons that launch Motif-based system applications; the administrator types configuration information, such as tunable system parameters, user and program names, or modem speeds into dialog boxes, or selects them from menus. If icons aren't your style, you can use the Extra Administration icon, which allows you to perform all administrative functions through full-screen, character-based forms.

Amazingly, UnixWare doesn't protect the familiar Control-Alt-Delete key combination by default, so that anyone who has physical access to the server keyboard can reboot the entire server by pressing these keys. Such a security vulnerability is not the case in Windows NT or SCO Unix. I was able to obtain an undocumented fix for this problem. Another glitch was that applications windows would sometimes hang--not properly redrawing the screen--until completion of their network I/O calls. Novell admitted this was a probable bug.

NetWare Integration
The NetWare Unix Client, which is included, lets UnixWare users transparently access printers and files on servers running 3.x or higher versions of NetWare. The NetWare Unix Client File System lets UnixWare users see file and directory permissions on NetWare volumes exactly as if they were part of the Unix file system (this works with NetWare 3.11 and above).

To prepare a NetWare server for UnixWare support, you must first format and create two diskettes from directories on the UnixWare machine, a complex 18-step procedure that will leave you begging for the Windows File Manager. Then you must phys ically carry these diskettes to your NetWare server and run them there, to install and load the necessary files and NLMs. That's right: UnixWare requires that you first use sneakernet before you can connect to Novell's flagship server product.

The diskette copying procedure adds support files and NLMs (NetWare Loadable Modules), particularly NUC.NLM, the NetWare Unix Client, to the NetWare server. This allows UnixWare users to access NetWare volumes in either NetWare or Unix mode. In NetWare mode, the NFS name space is added to the NetWare volume, which supports long file names and translates NetWare access rights to UnixWare permissions. The NetWare administrator has full control of the NetWare files; UnixWare users cannot change file permissions (but they can make files they own executable).

In Unix mode, UnixWare users have control over NetWare files as if they were on UnixWare. Before UnixWare users can work in Unix mode, Novell recommends that they have unique login names but the same ID number across all UnixWare machines. The administrator also will have to create three files on the NetWare server: passwd (a sorted compilation of the /etc/passwd files on the UnixWare servers), nfsusers (a mapping of UnixWare IDs to NetWare user names), and nfsgroups (a mapping of UnixWare group IDs to NetWare group names).

These files must be edited by hand on the NetWare server and kept up to date as users are added and deleted from any UnixWare machines-a daunting task when you're dealing with large corporate networks. The NetWare NFS or NetWare NFS Gateway products, available separately, automate the installation and maintenance of these files.

Once the installation has been done, things work smoothly. Simply double-clicking the NetWare icon from UnixWare's desktop opens up a folder on the NetWare server if you've been previously authenticated (otherwise a password dialog box pops up). This provides users with a single login for both UnixWare and NetWare access for extra security; the passwords for the s ystems don't have to match. The administrator also will be able to back up and restore UnixWare servers via the NetWare Storage Management Service. This can be done over either IPX/SPX or TCP/IP, provided that the TCP/IP protocols have been bound to the appropriate network adapter on the NetWare server.

Even NFS mounts are done by filling in an on-screen form; the only information you need is the name of the server, where the directory is, and where you want to mount it on UnixWare. The form has to be filled in only once if you want the mount done every time the system is rebooted, and you don't need root privileges to do this.

Another feature of UnixWare's NetWare integration is a remote console that lets you perform NetWare administration right from the UnixWare screen, exactly as if you were sitting at the NetWare console. Although this utility runs quickly enough once it appears on your screen, it takes more than a minute to initialize. You'll probably want to boot it once and leave it minimized un til you need it again.

One glaring omission is support for NDS (NetWare Directory Services). Novell plans two levels of NDS support in the future--integrating UnixWare objects into NDS, and making UnixWare an NDS host--but would not commit to dates for either one.

Two terminal emulators are supplied free with UnixWare, and they must be copied onto a diskette like the NetWare NLMs and then brought to a client machine. These emulators let a user login to UnixWare from a DOS or Windows computer connected to a NetWare server on the same network. Login via this NVT (NetWare Virtual Terminal) service facility must be explicitly enabled on UnixWare.

TCP/IP, Internet Support
Although Novell is getting up to speed on the Internet, it isn't quite there yet. Novell has a Web site for sales, support, and product updates. UnixWare 2.0 did come with an Internet browser, or at least an icon for one. Clicking on the icon gives you instructions on how to downl oad the browser from Novell's FTP site (ftp.summit.novell.com) and install it.

The browser is an unmodified version of Mosaic 2.4 in the form of a quite large (4-Mbyte) binary file. Unfortunately, it arrived without the external viewing programs that are necessary for playing certain sound and image files. Your users will be unpleasantly surprised when Mosaic says, "Spawning external viewer," and then sits there doing nothing; neither the printed manual nor the online instructions built into the browser icon mentions that you need these viewers, or even where to find source code for them on the net. You'd also find it next to impossible to compile and install those programs without the optional software development kit, unless you could find an executable binary file on the net.

Mosaic, at 4 Mbytes, is better-suited to run on a server than on a workstation. Novell could have made more points by providing the httpd software that could let you turn your UnixWare machine into a World Wide Web server, a tas k for which UnixWare is eminently well-suited. You can still do this, of course, but you'll have to go through the "prowl the net, compile the code, and figure out how to install it" routine.

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