Administering a Novell Network

Once the NetWare server software is installed on the server, you have more than one option for administering the server. When the server boots and then loads the NOS, a GUI interface starts on the server that can be used to access the ConsoleOne or the NetWare Remote Manager, which are both management utilities. You also have the option of managing the server from the command line; NetWare servers have historically been managed using a number of different menu-driven utilities that are run on the server. For example, to manage volumes and hard drives you would type nssmu at the Server Console command line, which would start the NSS Management Utility.

You also have the option of remotely administering the server and the network. You can access the NetWare Remote Manager from any client on the network using your Web browser. The NetWare Remote Manager allows you to manage your servers, users, and volumes. With the release of NetWare 6, another management tool, the iManager was also made available. It allows easy access to a greater number of server services and their settings, including DHCP and DNS.

The easiest way to access the NetWare Remote Manager and the iManager (and other Web-based NetWare utilities) is through the use of the NetWare Web Manager. To access the NetWare Web Manager, open your Web browser and type https :// server-ip-address :2200 (where server-ip-address would be the actual IP address of your server; you are using a secure socket to access the server; that is why the https is required). When you press Enter, you will be asked to provide the admin password for the server; supply the password and click Login. The NetWare Web Manager will appear, as shown in Figure 8.4. You can access both the Remote Manager and the iManager from the main Web Manager screen.

Figure 8.4. The NetWare Web Manager can be accessed from any Web browser.

To open the Remote Manager, you click the Open Remote Manager link. The Remote Manager will open in its own Web browser window as shown in Figure 8.5.

Figure 8.5. The NetWare Remote Manager can be used to manage volumes and monitor server settings.

The Remote Manager allows you to quickly view the overall health status of your server. Click the Health Monitor link to view the status of the server's components . Figure 8.6 shows the Health Monitor screen. The Health Monitor includes information on processor use, failed logins, available memory, and other information related to server processes.

Figure 8.6. Health Monitor provides a snapshot of the general health of your NetWare server.

Notice in Figure 8.6 that there are Notify check boxes for each of the monitored processes in the Health Monitor. You can check these Notify check boxes for a particular parameter and configure an email address for the notification. Then when the status of that particular process changes (from green to yellow or red), an email notification is sent to the address that you specified.

As already mentioned, the Remote Manager also provides you with the ability to manage volumes, users, and other eDirectory objects. Let's take a look at volumes and folders (or directories as they are often referred to in the NetWare environment) and then we can take a look at users and groups and the Tree Walker utility that provides us access to the eDirectory.

Note

ConsoleOne, which was the successor to the NetWare Administrator program found in earlier versions of NetWare, has all but been replaced itself. The new Remote Manager and iManager are the tools of choice for managing your NetWare servers. In fact, you can no longer use ConsoleOne to manipulate drives and volumes in NetWare 6.5. You must use the mssu utility on the server or the Remote Manager (from the server or remotely from a client).

Tip

You can bypass the Web Manager and open the Remote Manager directly by typing http://server-ip-address:81 . This opens the server on an unsecure socket. You will still have to supply the admin name and password to log on to the Remote Manager.