InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
November 9, 1998
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continued...page 3 of 3
Web Server Capability
NetWare 5 also includes Netscape FastTrack server for NetWare, the entry-level version of Netscape's Web server. When combined with additional products such as Novell's BorderManager Internet security and proxy services, NetWare becomes a very viable candidate for use as a high-volume Web server. All of Novell's own heavily trafficked Web servers are running NetWare and BorderManager.
The Java virtual machine included with NetWare 5 is one of the fastest available, according to recent benchmarks--although you would never know it from ConsoleOne. It is certainly easy to install Java applications; they are installed into the SYS:\java\classes directory, and then loaded from the server console. The ability to extend the NetWare interface through Java may push more developers into the NetWare market, because writing in Java is substantially easier than writing NetWare Loadable Modules, which are the old standard for NetWare server applications.
NetWare's Directory Services
NDS is a stable directory product that has several years of development and debugging behind it. Also, for years, additional applications have been developed to leverage it, such as Z.E.N.works. NDS is not as exciting and new as Microsoft's Active Directory, but most network administrators don't want their networks to be exciting.
There are a number of new features in NDS. These include more granularity, support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol version 3, catalog services that make it easier for developers and administrators to write applications that access NDS, improved replication services, and new security features. NDS now provides role-based management, so administrators can designate which users will have responsibility for specific duties, such as password administration. This lets lower-level technicians be given specific duties but not access to all the supervisory functions. Of course, this extends the existing role-based duties, such as being able to designate a user as manager of a particular printer or print server.
LDAP is a data exchange protocol that makes it possible for different directories from different companies to exchange information intelligibly. It is similar to SQL, in that it provides a way for products from competing companies to work together. LDAP provides a way for applications written for the Internet to interoperate with NDS.
NDS's catalog services provide a flat-file interface for NDS, letting developers or administrators define a subset of the whole NDS database and access it with relatively simple programming techniques.
Replication services allow for NDS to propagate itself across LAN and WAN links, maintaining consistency and accuracy across an enterprise. Improvements have been made that reduce network traffic and increase flexibility by changing how replicas interact with each other. For instance, if a server on the network is not available, only one of the remaining servers will look for it and try to update it until it comes back, rather than all other replica servers trying to update the missing server and failing. Another new feature allows administrators to specify when replication will occur across WAN links, allowing them to keep bandwidth free during busy times.
Security features new to NetWare 5 include support for Secure Sockets Layer in conjunction with LDAP, public-key infrastructure support (which provides for the storage of the keys used for encryption and decryption of encoded messages in NDS), and secure authorization services (which allow for identification of users by biometric or token recognition, rather than passwords).
Biometric devices include fingerprint scanners, video cameras that recognize someone by the shape of his or her face, and voice-recognition systems. Tokens are hardware devices such as smart cards that provide authorization with a card reader, or in some cases, by simple proximity. They can be radio-frequency devices that allow access when the user is within a few feet, and automatically log the system off when the user leaves.
In all, NetWare 5 is an extremely worthwhile upgrade for any 3.x or 4.x server, and should be the platform of choice for any new servers that support more than 25 users. Time will tell if the new features--such as faster native IP, Java virtual machines, and NSS--will draw users back from other operating systems, but NetWare 5 is a solid and dependable file and print server, which is still the backbone of the network.
Features such as the ability to reconfigure network interfaces without rebooting the server have been available for years, and it's not uncommon to find a NetWare server that's been online for six months or more without a crash or reboot, which can't be said for everything out there.
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Read sidebar, "NetWare 5 Arrives, Without Windows' Hype."
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