A Brief History of NDS/eDirectory and Its Versioning The meaning of the acronym NDS has changed a number of times since it was first introduced with NetWare 4.0. When Novell initially introduced NDS as a component of NetWare 4.0 in 1993, NDS stood for NetWare Directory Service because at that time NDS was available only on NetWare. Working with third-party vendors such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Microsoft, and Sun, in 1999 Novell made NDS available for a number of different platforms: -
NDS for Windows NT -
NetWare Services for UnixWare 7 -
NDS for Solaris -
NetWare 4.1 Services for HP 9000 -
Novell Network Services for AIX -
Novell Network Services for OS/390 Accordingly, in 1999 the meaning for the NDS acronym was changed to Novell Directory Services . Later in the same year, Novell introduced the next generation of NDS, NDS 8 for NetWare 5 servers. Shortly after that, Novell split NDS off from NetWare into a separate standalone product, with a new name ”eDirectory (which essentially is a rebranding of NDS 8). eDirectory versions 8.5 and higher are platform independent and exist for a number of operating systems, such as Solaris, Linux, Tru64, Windows NT/2000, and, of course, NetWare. NetWare 6.0 shipped with eDirectory 8.6, and NetWare 6.5 shipped with eDirectory 8.7.1. NOTE During the 2002 “2003 time frame, Novell consolidated the code base for eDirectory 8.7 so that the same version runs on NetWare, Linux, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, AIX, and HP /UX. Support for Tru64 was dropped starting in eDirectory 8.6.
Confused about the naming? The confusion between NDS 8, eDirectory, and eDirectory 8.x stems from the fact that eDirectory 8.5 was conceived long before eDirectory (NDS 8.x) ever reached a patch level of 8.73 (or higher). Despite these versioning conflicts, eDirectory 8.x is a new product and is an extension of the feature set originally released in 1999 with eDirectory (NDS 8.x). So how do you determine if you have NDS 8, or eDirectory, or eDirectory 8.5/8.6/8.7? One way is to look at the version numbering of the NDS module. When NDS was introduced, Novell Engineering used the industry-standard version-numbering convention, such as "version 2.96," in version-stamping the DS module files. At the same time, it used a variant of standard version numbering (296 for version 2.96, 489 for version 4.89, and so on) to refer to the same version in print or in conversation. For instance, DS.NLM for NetWare 4.10 would report "version 4.89," but when you were communicating with Novell or looking at the Novell Support Knowledge Base, it would be referred to as "DS 489." By the time NetWare 5.0 was released, NDS was up to the "700 series," while NetWare 4.11 and 4.2 continued with the "600 series" of version numbering. Next came NDS 8/eDirectory. They were given the "800 series" numbering. But Novell broke the mold when eDirectory 8.5 was released; its numbering is not the "850 series" as you might expect, but 85.xx! What is more annoying is that eDirectory 8.6 on NetWare 6.0 reports a version number in the form 10110.20! REAL WORLD: Versions of Novell eDirectory Because of the versioning confusion, Novell eDirectory Development and Marketing have finally agreed to have two different version strings for their modules, and eDirectory 8.6 is the first product to use this new versioning process. For eDirectory 8.6, the Marketing version string will be "eDirectory 8.6.0," and the Development version string will be "10110.20." Both of these version strings are displayed when you type MODULES DS.NLM at the server console prompt. The Marketing string is pretty easy to understand: product major_rev.minor_rev.update . The Development version string, however, is a bit more complicated. The breakdown is as follows : release_number_(1-4293)subrelease number_(01-99)release source_(1-4=Product or 5-9=CPR).build_number_(001-999)build_source_(0, 5, 6-26)] . So the Development string 10110.20 indicates release number 1 (Dove), the first subrelease (01), released by the Product group (1), build number 2, built by Engineering (0). Although this is still a little confusing, in the long run, the new versioning will be able to provide more definitive information as to what DS version you are running and where you got it. |
The seemingly inconsistent numbering system is a major source of confusion for network administrators when they're trying to figure out whether they are running NDS 8/eDirectory or eDirectory 8.x. For instance, NDS 8/eDirectory reports (via NDIR DS.NLM /VER or MODULES DS , for example) the version of DS.NLM as 8.77 when you are running NDS 8. Common logic would suggest that because DS.NLM v8.77 is numerically higher than eDirectory 8.5, you are running "the latest." Unfortunately, this is not the case. NOTE Novell is now using the terms NDS 8.xx to refer to the original eDirectory product, NDS to refer to the non-cross-platform versions of NDS , and eDirectory 8.x to refer to the newer product.
NOTE The term NDS is also used to refer to Novell's DS technology in general. The context in which NDS is used should not cause any confusion if reference is made to the technology or to legacy versions of DS.NLM .
Table 2.1 lists the version number associated with each different version of NDS to help you determine what version of NDS/eDirectory you are running. Table 2.1. NDS and eDirectory Version Numbering | YEAR RELEASED | MARKETING NAME | DS MODULE VERSION | OPERATING SYSTEM SUPPORTED | | 1993 | NetWare Directory Services | v2.xx “v5.xx | NetWare 4.0x “4.10 | | 1999 | Novell Directory Services | v6.xx (NDS 6) | NetWare 4.11 and 4.2, HP 9000, S/390, AIX, Solaris, UnixWare, and Windows NT | | 1999 | Novell Directory Services | v7.xx (NDS 7) | NetWare 5.0 and 5.1 | | 1999 | NDS 8 | v8.1x (NDS 8) | NetWare 5.0 and 5.1 | | 1999 | eDirectory or eDirectory 8 | v8.3x (NDS 8) | NetWare 5.0 and 5.1, Solaris, Windows NT, and Linux | | 2000 | eDirectory 8.5. x | v85.xx | NetWare 5.0 and 5.1, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, Tru64, and Linux | | 2001 | eDirectory 8.6. x | v10110.xx | NetWare 5.1 and 6.x, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, and Linux | | 2002 | eDirectory 8.7.0 | v10410.xx | NetWare 5.1 and 6.x, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, AIX, and Linux | | 2003 | eDirectory 8.7.1 | v10510.xx (for instance, NetWare and Linux report 1051.64 but Windows reports 10510.65) | NetWare 5.1 and 6.x, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, AIX, and Linux | | 2003 | eDirectory 8.7.2 | v10512.19 (version not publicly released but was used in Novell Nterprise Linux Services [NNLS] beta) | NetWare 5.1 and 6.x, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, HP/UX, AIX, and Linux | | 2003 | eDirectory 8.7.3 | v10550.98 | NetWare 5.1 and 6.x, Solaris, Windows NT/2000, HP/UX, AIX, and Linux |
TIP A list of specific version numbers assigned to eDirectory 8.6 and above (including patches) can be found in Novell Technical Information Document ( TID ) #10066623.
The most accurate way to determine the version of NDS you are currently running is to query the DS module when it is running. For a NetWare server, you can use the console commands VERSION or MODULE DS . The following is an example of output from the MODULE command: NETWARE61_SERVER: module ds DS.NLM Loaded from [SYS:\SYSTEM\] (Address Space = OS) Novell eDirectory Version 8.7.1 SMP Version 10510.64 July 11, 2003 Copyright 1993-2003, Novell, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Patents Pending.
Alternatively, you can use DSREPAIR.NLM . It reports the version of DS at the top of the screen (using the Development string). NDIR.EXE run from a workstation could report inconclusive version information. For instance, the following is the output from scanning DS.NLM for NetWare 6.5: F:\>ndir \system\ds.nlm /ver NETWARE_65_A/SYS:SYSTEM DS.NLM: Version Novell eDirectory Version 8.7.1 SMP Copyright 1993-2003 Novell, Inc. All rights reserved. Patents Pending. Checksum is BA00 F7C1 2553 3F47 9F4F 43C2
Notice that the Development version string is not displayed in this output. If you examine the file using Windows Explorer, however, both the Marketing and Development strings are reported . On non-NetWare platforms (such as Windows 2000 or Solaris), you will likely already be running at least NDS 8/eDirectory, if not eDirectory 8.5 or higher. On Windows NT/2000, you can either launch dsrepair.dlm or look at the Agent tab of ds.dlm 's configuration screen, as shown in Figure 2.1. On Unix/Linux, you use the ndsstat command to determine the exact version number: [RH8-VM root]# ndsstat Tree Name: RH9-NDSTREE Server Name: .CN=RH9-VM.O=Testing.T=RH8-NDSTREE. Binary Version: 10510.64 Root Most Entry Depth: 0 Product Version: NDS/Unix - NDS eDirectory v8.7.1 [DS]
Figure 2.1. Checking the version of eDirectory running on Windows 2000. 
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