Rather than use the same network operating system on all servers, modern networks often work in multivendor environments, meaning that you might encounter more than one of the major network operating systems functioning on the same network. Although it is completely possible to use a single operating system for all the common network server tasks, in some situations, a more flexible approach is required. To facilitate such environments, network operating system manufacturers build in features and services that enable their operating systems to coexist on networks with other vendors' operating systems. The following sections take a brief look at how well some of the major network operating systems "play" with each other. Using Windows with NetWareIn some environments, you might find that both Windows and NetWare servers are deployed. Unfortunately for Novell, an increasing number of these environments are in place to facilitate migration to a completely Windows-based network. In some other environments, organizations leverage the power of eDirectory and NetWare for file and print services and use a Windows server product for application hosting. Because it realizes that there will be such environments, Microsoft supplies a range of tools, including the following, to help in the communication between Windows server products and NetWare:
Using Windows and Linux ServersIn today's environments, Linux and Windows servers are commonly used together, and therefore, the servers themselves must be capable of communicating. That said, most of that communication is likely to take place with industry standard protocols such as FTP and HTTP, so no additional client software is necessary to communicate between servers under these conditions. Microsoft provides some degree of integration for UNIX systems via a special add-on pack called Windows Services for UNIX. This add-on pack provides compatibility with the UNIX NFS and a variety of UNIX utilities. The add-on pack can also be used on Linux servers. However, Microsoft states clearly that Windows Services for UNIX has only been tested on a limited number of versions of UNIX and only one version of LinuxRed Hat 8. Using NetWare and Linux ServersNetWare and Linux servers are fully interoperable and are often found together in network environments. For instance, a NetWare file and print server might coexist with a Linux firewall and proxy server. In addition, it is possible, by using eDirectory, to integrate the management of Linux servers into the directory services system in order to streamline administration. To make these scenarios possible, Linux supports both IPX/SPX, which is required for NetWare 3.x and 4.x, and TCP/IP, which is used in the later NetWare versions. However, many of the Linux distributions do not natively support IPX/SPX. If you use one of those distributions, you need to download extra software and perform additional configuration. |