NetStorage

NetStorage provides a transparent WebDAV interface to OES files. Effectively, NetStorage allows you to access files on an OES Linux server without a Novell client. NetStorage is integrated with iFolder, NetDrive, and Virtual Office to make accessing your network files as easy and seamless as possibleall without using the traditional Novell Client.

NetStorage leverages a middle-tier architecture, also called XTier, to provide its services. This same architecture is used to support some of the functionality for Novell's ZENWorks line of management solutions.

Installing NetStorage

NetStorage can be installed during the installation of the OES Linux server, or after the fact through YaST. Typically, you will need to install NetStorage only on one OES Linux server in your eDirectory tree, or on one server at each geographical site, although very heavy usage might require more than one per site.

To install NetStorage through YaST, complete the following steps:

1.	Access YaST from a terminal using yast, or from a graphical environment using yast2 or the YaST launcher from the application menu.
2.	Select the Network Services category in YaST. From within this category, locate and select the NetStorage module. This module will detect that the RPMs for NetStorage are missing and ask if you want to install them. Select Continue to install the necessary packages.
3.	At the conclusion of the software installation, SuSEconfig is executed to update the system configuration. When this completes, the configuration of the OES component will begin automatically.
4.	At the NetStorage LDAP Server Configuration screen, enter the following information and click Next: Local or Remote Directory Server Select the radio button that indicates whether eDirectory is running on the local server or a remote server. Directory Server Address If a remote eDirectory server is in use, enter the IP address for this server. Admin Name with Context Enter the eDirectory administrator's credentials using fully qualified dot notation, for example, cn=admin.o=novell. Admin Password Enter the password for the administrator user. Port Details If necessary, select this button to change the configured ports for the eDirectory server you specified earlier. The default LDAP port for unencrypted communications is 389 and port 636 is used for SSL-encrypted communications.
5.	At the NetStorage Configuration screen, enter the required information (see Figure 12.1), and click Next. You can change these settings after the installation through iManager by opening the NetStorage link and selecting Authentication Domains. (Optional) Enter the iFolder 2 server address Specify the DNS name or IP address of your iFolder 2.x server if you want users to be able to access iFolder data through NetStorage. More information on iFolder is available later in this chapter. Authentication Domain Host Specify the DNS name or IP address of a server in your eDirectory tree that hosts a master or a read/write replica of eDirectory. This does not have to be the server where NetStorage is being installed. NetStorage will use this server to authenticate users when they attempt to log in to NetStorage. Proxy user name with context Enter a fully distinguished user proxy name for use with NetStorage. This is required and must be a user who has sufficient rights to read and save users' iFolder passphrases. The default user is the eDirectory admin user. Proxy user password Enter the password for the proxy user. User context Specify the base context in which valid NetStorage users may be located. Users found in the subtree beneath this context will be able to use NetStorage. If you want to use the entire tree, specify the root context, for example, o=novell. Figure 12.1. NetStorage Configuration options.
6.	In order for NetStorage to be active, select to restart XTier, Apache, and Tomcat when prompted.

The NetStorage installation is now complete and additional configuration can now be performed.

Configuring NetStorage

Use iManager to configure and manage your NetStorage environment by opening the File Access (NetStorage) link in the Navigation frame. There really isn't much in the way of required configuration, but it's nice to understand the control you do have over NetStorage.

• Authentication Domains This page enables you to add, remove, and modify authentication domains to NetStorage. These are eDirectory servers that NetStorage will search for user authentication information.

• Current Sessions This page shows a list of current NetStorage sessions.

• Files This page enables you to actually view the available NetStorage files. You will be required to authenticate as a valid user, and the user must exist in one of the authentication domains defined for this NetStorage server.

• iFolder Storage Provider This page enables you to review and change basic iFolder parameters that relate to its operation with NetStorage. In most cases you won't have to change any of these, but they are accessible if necessary.

• NetWare Storage Provider This page enables you to review and change basic parameters related to the use of NetWare-mapped drives with NetStorage. In most cases you won't have to change any of these, but they are accessible if necessary.

• NetStorage Options This page enables you to do some configuration of the XTier server configuration. In most cases you won't have to change any of these, but they are accessible if necessary.

• NetStorage Statistics This page displays a report with information about server up time, login failures, number of NetStorage sessions, and so on.

• Resource Usage This page shows server resources being used in support of the NetStorage middle-tier server environment. It is useful for keeping track of how server resources are being used for troubleshooting server issues.

• WebDAV Provider This page lists the location of the NetStorage WebDAV provider (XDAV.NLM) and the location of NetStorage template files used for building the NetStorage web interfaces.

• Storage Location Use the Storage Location links to access pages where you can create, delete, and modify storage location objects in your eDirectory tree. Storage location objects are pointers to NetWare directories that can be given more useful names than those typically seen when looking at NetStorage resources. This is particularly useful for common directories shared by multiple users.

For more detailed information on any of these parameters, see the OES online documentation.

Using NetStorage

In order to avoid timestamp issues and confusion over the most current version of a file, Novell recommends that the date and time on the NetStorage server and the WebDAV client be reasonably close, within a few hours of each other.

You can access NetStorage from any WebDAV client, two of the most obvious of which are web browsers and Microsoft Windows web folders. However, there are WebDAV clients for Linux and Macintosh systems as well. The following process is equally applicable to those environments.

1.

From your WebDAV client, enter the NetStorage URL, which is the DNS name or IP address of your NetStorage server with /oneNet/NetStorage appended to the end. Remember to include the http:// prefix and remember that URLs are case sensitive. For example: http://prv-serv1.quills.com/oneNet/NetStorage NOTE To use web folders in Windows XP/2000, open My Network Places (the Windows WebDAV client) and select Add Network Place. This opens a wizard for creating a new folder in My Network Places.

2.

At the authentication screen, specify your eDirectory username and password. This User object must be accessible from the eDirectory server(s) you specified during the NetStorage installation.

After being authenticated, your WebDAV client displays the network files and folders that are currently accessible. To do this, NetStorage reads the user's Novell login script to determine drive mappings, reads eDirectory User object properties to determine the path to the user's home directory, and then displays a list of files and folders based on mapped drives and home directories. Figure 12.2 shows NetStorage views from both a web browser and Windows web folders.

Figure 12.2. Accessing NetWare folders through NetStorage.

TIP

If you specified multiple Authentication Domains, NetStorage will read the user login script from only the primary eDirectory server when calculating mapped drives to display. However, NetStorage will read User object properties from all trees and display multiple home directoriesas long as the User object has the same name in each tree. This is useful if a user normally logs in to more than one eDirectory tree.

If you have an iFolder account, you will see an iFolder folder in addition to your mapped drives and home directory, as shown in Figure 12.2. The first time you open the iFolder folder, all you will see is a file called PASSPHRASE.HTM. To access the contents of your iFolder directory, open PASSPHRASE.HTM, as shown in Figure 12.3, and specify the passphrase of your iFolder account.

Figure 12.3. Specifying your passphrase to access iFolder from NetStorage.

This allows NetStorage to decrypt your iFolder files so that it can interpret them properly. The passphrase for NetStorage is stored as an encrypted attribute on your User object, so it is not at risk of discovery.

When you're connected to your OES files through WebDAV, you have full access to them. You can browse, open, and close folders; copy files to your local drive; and open files with WebDAV-compliant applications such as web browsers, Microsoft Office 2000, and so on.

In addition, if you use Microsoft Windows web folders, you can use all the normal Windows mechanisms for copying, cutting, pasting, and renaming files. To perform similar actions from a browser interface, click the down arrow next to the file or folder with which you want to work.

If you need to use a file with a non-WebDAV application, you will need to copy the file to your local drive so that the application can use normal operating-system mechanisms for working with the file. This is the only real drawback to NetStorage: It does not provide low-level integration with the operating system, such as creating a drive letter that allows applications to access the files as if they were local.

Novell helps you resolve this issue for Windows workstations with NetDrive, which is described in the next section. The trade-off is having full access to network files as if they were local versus having a clientless solution for accessing your network files.