Installing NetWare

The current version of Novell's NOS (in beta testing as of this book's writing) is NetWare 6.5. Here is the base (minimum) hardware configuration for NetWare 6.5:

  • Processor: Pentium II or higher (a Pentium III running in excess of 700MHz recommended).

  • RAM: 512MB (running multiple services on a single server such as Apache and DNS will require more memory).

  • Video Adapter: A SVGA display adapter.

  • Hard drive: DOS partition of at least 200MB, with at least 200MB of available space. Also 2GB of available, unpartitioned disk space outside the DOS partition for sys volume.

  • CD-ROM drive: A bootable CD-ROM drive supporting the El Torito specification.

  • Network Interface Card: At least one NIC.

As with any NOS, you will want to configure your NetWare server or servers with the appropriate hardware to get the job done. It makes no sense to set up servers with marginal hardware configurations and then have them end up being performance bottlenecks once the network is up and running. For more about server hardware see "Network Server Considerations," in Chapter 3, "Networking Hardware".

For purposes of illustration, we will take a look at a clean install of NetWare 6.5 in this chapter. This means that no previous NOS was installed on the server. You can also update previous installations of NetWare with a newer version (such as 6 or 6.5). Upgrading a previous version of NetWare such as 5x to 6x requires that you upgrade client operating systems and the NDS database to eDirectory specifications (eDirectory is discussed in a moment). See www.novell.com for information on upgrading NetWare on an existing server. Tools such as the NetWare Deployment Manager can be used to back up existing servers, update network clients , and upgrade servers.

To do a clean install of NetWare you must configure and format a DOS partition on the boot drive of the computer. This DOS partition is used to boot the system and to load the NetWare files.

You can create and format the partition by booting to the NetWare Installation CD and following the prompts. Or you can configure the required partition yourself (before the NetWare installation) by using DOS 3.3 or later (if you still have a set of DOS disks lying around). DRDOS ships with NetWare and tools such as fdisk and the format command are available on the NetWare 6 installation CD. For more background information on DOS and fdisk see Chapter 18, "Protecting Network Data".

As already mentioned, you can create the Primary DOS partition on your server and make it the active partition using fdisk (from your own DOS disks or the DRDOS directory on the NetWare CD). You can then format the new partition using the DOS command format c:/s . The /s switch places the boot files on the new formatted partition.

Whether you create the boot partition by booting to the NetWare Installation CD or create it yourself, the rest of the NetWare installation is very straightforward. It is really no different than the step by step installation of other server products such as Windows Server 2003 or Red Hat Linux. You are basically walked through the entire installation process. The NetWare installation goes through two different phases: a DOS phase and then a GUI phase. Let's look at some of the high points of each of these installation phases with the understanding that the different selections that would actually be made during a NetWare installation would depend on the specifics of the network that you are creating.

Note

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El Torito is a specification for bootable CD-ROM drives created by Phoenix Technologies and IBM. A CD drive that complies with the specifications allows you to boot from a CD-ROM. You can actually boot from the NetWare installation CD if you have the appropriate CD drive on the server.


Note

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Do not use Windows 9x or Me Startup disks to create the partition and format it for a NetWare installation. These disks (which are made as emergency startup disks when you install Windows) do not have the correct version of DOS on them, even though they do contain the fdisk and format commands, and are not going to work properly with your NetWare installation.


NetWare Installation: DOS Phase

When you boot to the NetWare installation CD, DRDOS 7.02 is loaded. You are then provided with several choices related to the NetWare installation. To begin the installation press I as shown in Figure 8.3. You must then specify how the installation program searches for a CD-ROM driver. You can have the search conducted automatically by pressing A , or choose to conduct the search for only IDE ( I ) or SCSI ( S ) drivers.

Figure 8.3. The DOS portion of the installation begins with the loading of DRDOS and the search for CD drivers.

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After the CD driver is found, you are provided with the opportunity to have the installation batch (installation.bat) file started automatically by pressing A . This begins the installation of the NetWare NOS in earnest. Different NetWare files will be loaded and then a Regional Settings screen will appear. On this screen you are to provide the country and keyboard settings if necessary (they are detected ). Highlight Continue with the arrow keys and then press Enter to continue.

On the next screen you are asked to accept the licensing agreement by pressing the F10 key. You can then select either an Express or a Custom Install of the NetWare software. Once you have made your selections, highlight Continue with the arrow keys and then press Enter to continue. This concludes the DOS portion of the installation and the appropriate NetWare software files are copied to the hard drive of the server.

Note

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The Netware 6.5 server installation requires two CDs: the NetWare 6.5 CD 1 (Operating System) and the NetWare 6.5 CD 2 (Products).


Note

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Bat or batch files are a method of firing off a series of DOS settings and commands. A bat file is just a text file that lists the commands and settings that are to be run when the bat file is initiated.


NetWare Installation: GUI Phase

The next phase of the NetWare installation uses a GUI and a series of screens that require you to select the overall configuration of the server and the different services that will be added to the server installation (such as Web server and DNS server).

The first screen of the GUI installation phase provides you with the option of configuring a customized server, a basic file server, or a special preconfigured server such as a DNS/DHCP server or a backup server. If you choose to create a customized server you can add components such as the Apache2 Web server, the NetWare FTP Server, the Novell DNS/DHCP services, and other specialized server components .

After making your selections, a list of products to be installed will be listed. Clicking Install Files will begin the process of copying the various files to the server. After the files have been copied, you will be asked to provide a cryptography module that is stored on the Installation CD. After supplying the path to the module, you can continue the installation by clicking Next.

On the next screen you are asked to supply the IP address for the server and also have the option of enabling the IPX/SPX network protocol (for more about protocols see Chapter 6). The next screen also asks for information related to the IP network such as the hostname and domain of the server and also the IP address of name servers (DNS servers) on the network.

Other than providing the IP settings for the server, the other important aspects of the GUI phase of the NetWare server relate to the creation of the eDirectory root and the installation of licenses. When you create the new tree root for the eDirectory, you are asked to supply a tree name and the admin name and password for the administrator of the tree (admin is the default name). You are also asked to supply a server name and the tree context.

After configuring the root, you are asked to install licenses for the clients on your networks. NetWare 6x uses two different types of licensing: server connection license and user access license.

The server connection license (SCL) provides the user with access to network resources and services based on the server they log on to. This server-centric approach means that a user would need a license for every server that hosted a service. The user access license (UAL) provides each user with a license that allows them to access any service anywhere on the network. This user-centric licensing scheme makes much more sense on large networks.

The licenses for the installation will be on the installation CDs or a supplemental CD or disk provided by Novell. Once the licensing modules have been provided (it is a file with the NLF extension) the installation of the server software is complete and the system will reboot.

Note

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With TCP/IP serving as the de facto protocol for LANs and WANs, understanding different IP settings is very important to configure a NOS. See Chapter 12, "TCP/IP Network Administration," for more information related to IP addressing, DNS, and DHCP.




Absolute Beginner's Guide to Networking
Absolute Beginners Guide to Networking (4th Edition)
ISBN: 0789729113
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 188
Authors: Joe Habraken

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