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November 9, 1998

NetWare 5: Substance Matters

Unjustly overshadowed by Microsoft's upcoming Windows 2000, Novell's NetWare 5 proves itself to be a strong network operating system

By Logan Harbaugh

First Look

hile the eyes of the IT world have been focused on the ongoing soap opera of Microsoft litigation and on the promises of Windows 2000, Novell has been quietly getting its next network operating system out to customers. NetWare 5, the latest iteration of a long line of network operating systems from Novell, is a worthy entry.

NetWare is still an enterprise-class network operating system, despite the lack of attention paid to it. Its feature set, including the third major upgrade to Novell Directory Services, may make it the only truly enterprise-class network operating system available for the Intel platform today. And other features--such as the bundled Oracle8 database server, Netscape FastTrack Web server, and Java virtual machine--finally make NetWare an enterprise-class application server as well.

I tested NetWare 5 in InformationWeek Labs both as an upgrade to prior versions of NetWare and as a new installation. I installed the final-release version of NetWare 5 on two systems, first performing a new install on a clean system--a Racer PC PII/333--to get a feel for the basics of the installation process. The installation was clean, with no hang-ups; the operating system detected the installed SCSI and network adapters without error.

The only sticking point I hit was a compatibility issue between directory service software modules. The existing NetWare 4.11 server was running DS.NLM version 5.73, and in order for the NetWare 5 server to join the existing NDS tree, I had to upgrade the DS.NLM to version 5.99. This can be done without shutting down the server. Once that was accomplished, I was able to add the new NetWare 5 server to the existing NDS tree. Users with NetWare 4.10 servers will also have to upgrade to 4.11 before they can upgrade to NetWare 5.

There are a couple of new features in the install process that will make life easier for administrators. The installation CD is bootable, using the ISO 9660 (El Torito) specification, and Dr DOS 7 is included. This means administrators won't have to hunt around for the old DOS boot disk to boot the system and create the bootable DOS partition. If the server doesn't support the El Torito bootable CD-ROM specification, the license diskette is also bootable, and it contains the files necessary to create the DOS partition.

Neat Configuration
The installation process itself is also neater--once the initial configuration decisions are made, the rest of the installation doesn't require any intervention--so the administrator can walk away from the server and the installation will finish copying files and configuring the server automatically.

Once the installation on the new system was completed, I installed NetWare 5 as an upgrade to a NetWare 4.11 server, a Hewlett-Packard NetServer LH Pro Pentium Pro 200. I had more than the required 35 Mbytes of space available on the DOS boot partition, and lots of free space in the SYS: volume, so the upgrade was straightforward.

I loaded the DOS CD-ROM driver and ran setup from the CD. Once I told the setup program it was an upgrade, it detected the existing SCSI cards and network cards, loaded the appropriate drivers, and started the graphical user interface installation program. (One caveat for administrators: Few existing NetWare servers have a mouse on them. It's possible to get around the GUI without one, but it's a pain, so get a mouse before installing NetWare 5.)

The upgrade went smoothly, and the updated server worked fine, but Macintoshes on the network were no longer able to access the server. NetWare for Macintosh was still installed as a service, and AppleTalk was bound to the network board, but the AppleTalk File Protocol service was no longer loaded, and was not available.

It turns out Novell is no longer supporting Macintosh clients; the AppleTalk protocol is still supported, as is printing to AppleTalk printers, and Macintosh file names are still supported, but Mac clients will require additional software to access NetWare 5 servers.

Novell has signed an agreement with Prosoft Engineering Inc. in Pleasanton, Calif., to take over the Macintosh Connectivity Solutions for NetWare. In conjunction with this transition, Novell has removed Macintosh support from NetWare 5. This means existing networks will either have to purchase connectivity products from Prosoft or transition their Macs to MacIPX or TCP/IP stacks.

Once the server is rebooted, the most noticeable change is the GUI. It offers ConsoleOne, the new administrative utility, an installation utility, and tools for changing the screen. In many ways, the GUI is reminiscent of Windows 3.0: It is immature, slow, and often cumbersome, but also much easier and more accessible than the previous command-line interface. It's not as slow as it was in beta versions, but administrators who work with systems slower than a Pentium II/333 may find themselves unloading the GUI and using the text-based utilities instead.