Migrating to Netware 4.1 -- Ch 1 -- What s New in NetWare 4.x
Migrating to Netware 4.1
- 1 -
What's New in NetWare 4.x
- Motivation for New NetWare 4.x Features
- Overview of NetWare 4.x Features
- NetWare Directory Services
- Logical Organization of the Network
- Single Login to the Network
- Global Network Management
- Independence from Physical Location of Resources
- Improvements in the NetWare File System
- Block Suballocation
- NetWare File System Compression
- Data Migration
- Improved File System Security and Management
- Support for Network Auditing
- Simplified and More Efficient Memory Management Architecture
- Improvements in Client Networking Services
- Integrated Storage Management Services (SMS)
- Improvements in Network Print Services Architecture
- Multiple Language Support (Internationalization)
- Simplified Installation and Upgrade Procedures
- Online NetWare Manuals via DynaText
- NetWare 4.x Utilities
This chapter discusses the new features that make NetWare 4.x different from NetWare 3.x. It also covers the motivations behind those new features. In some ways, NetWare 4.x is very similar to NetWare 3.x, but in other ways, NetWare 4.x represents a radical departure.
Motivation for New NetWare 4.x Features
A network can consist of several LANs tied together with wide area links, as shown in figure 1.1. For a user to make use of printer or network volume storage resources, she has to know the location of the resources. In the example in figure 1.1, the user, in earlier versions of NetWare, would have to know the names of the file servers to which the printer and volume resources are attached. Before accessing a resource on a server, the user would have to log in to that server. If the user needed to access a volume resource on another server, the user would have to attach to that server and then create a separate drive mapping. Attaching to a server implies that the user would need accounts on each server the user needs access to. This approach works quite well in small networks that have a workgroup orientation (called workgroup networks), but on large networks where there are many servers, it is not easy for the user to remember what resources are available on each of the servers. It would be much easier for the user to have a logical view of the network that hides nonessential physical details. Figure 1.2 shows a logical view of the network in figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Example NetWare-based network.
Figure 1.2 Logical view of a network.
In the logical view of the network, resources are organized into groups that are in turn organized into a hierarchy that reflects their usage, function, or geographical location. For the user to use the resources on this network, the user logs in to this logical view of the network. Access to resources on the network can be controlled by security mechanisms that are global in scope and apply to the entire network. In NetWare 3.x and NetWare 2.2 networks, access to resources was controlled by a security mechanism that was local to each server (called the bindery). The bindery did not have network-wide significance. The bindery-based services were therefore server-centric. To provide a single access to the network, the designers of NetWare 4.x created a global database called the NetWare Directory Service. The NetWare Directory Service is the mechanism used in NetWare 4.x to provide a logical view of the network.
The NetWare Directory Services provide a global database service that is not confined to a single server and represents network-wide resources. This is the single most important difference between NetWare 4.x and NetWare 3.x/2.2. It is also the feature that affects many of the network administration tasks and network utilities. Many of the pre-NetWare 4.0 network administration and utilities modified the network information in the bindery. The NetWare 3.x/2.2 utilities cannot be used for NetWare 4.x because the information in a global database needs to be modified, and the older utilities understand the bindery but have no concept of a global database. Because of this, several of the older utilities have been consolidated into newer utilities that have the understanding of how to correctly modify the global database.
Overview of NetWare 4.x Features
Some of the more significant NetWare features are as follows:
- NetWare Directory Services (NDS)
- Improvements in NetWare File System support
- Improved file system security and management
- Support for network auditing
- Simplified and more efficient memory management architecture
- Improvements in client networking services
- Integrated Storage Management Services (SMS)
- Improvements in network print services architecture
- Multiple language support (Internationalization)
- Simplified installation and upgrade procedures
- Online NetWare manuals via DynaText
NetWare Directory Services
NetWare Directory Services (NDS) is perhaps the most distinctive feature of NetWare 4.x. It provides the network administrator and the user with a logical view of a network that hides the sometimes bewildering complexity of the actual physical topology and configuration. The logical view of the network can be organized into what makes sense for the organization and what is easily recognizable to the users of the network. For instance, in figure 1.3, the view of the network is hierarchical and reflects the organizational structure of the company itself, a structure that will be readily recognized by the users in that organization. The physical details of the network, such as the type of cabling, or the interconnecting devices, such as routers and bridges, are abstracted away in figure 1.3. In other words, the network administrator and the user do not need to be aware of the physical nature of the network in order to use the network.
Figure 1.3 A logical network reflecting hierarchy of organization.
The logical view is possible because of the Network Directory Services. NDS provides a distributed database that can act as a repository of information on all the shared resources on the network. A distributed database is one that does not physically reside on any single server on the network. A hierarchical database provides a convenient grouping of resources by function, location, or organization structure.
NDS essentially is a replacement for the bindery services that were part of pre-NetWare 4.0 product line. The bindery in the earlier NetWare release was also a way of organizing resources, but the resources were specific to the server on which the bindery resided. The bindery could not easily support information on other nodes on the network, and because it was organized as a flat database rather than a hierarchical database, it did not have any natural way of representing usage or organizational relationships between resources.
If you were to categorize some of the benefits of using NDS, the list would include the following:
- Logical organization of the network
- Single login to the network
- Global network management view
- Independence from physical location of resources
NOTE: See Chapters 2 and 13 for more on NDS.
Logical Organization of the Network
The logical organization of the network is a benefit that derives directly from the way the resources can be grouped in a hierarchical fashion in the NetWare directory service representation for an organization (refer to fig. 1.3). This grouping is done to reflect the way users would want to use the network. This makes it easy for users and network administrators to find the network resources without knowing the physical details of network connectivity, and this is primary benefit. A user who needs to use a network resource has a logical pointer to the NDS database. These pointers are called objects, and they contain information on the resource. In NetWare 4.x, all network resources that can be accessed by a NetWare user are represented by objects.
An example of a network resource is a file server, which can be modeled as a file server object. Inside this file server object (see fig. 1.4) is information such as the name of the file server, its network address, location, and so on. These bits of information about the file server are called the properties of the file server object.
Figure 1.4 File server represented as an object.
Single Login to the Network
A single login to a network (see fig. 1.5) enables a user to be authenticated just once to access all the resources on the network. After a user logs in, the network administrator can limit access to resources on the network. For instance, all users, by default, are allowed to see the structure of an organization's directory, even though they cannot access all the objects in this directory unless explicitly given this access by a network administrator. A single login to a network can also simplify the use of the network, because a user does not need to do separate logins to multiple servers on the network.
Figure 1.5 Single login to the network.
In pre-NetWare 4.0, the user had to log in (or attach) explicitly by supplying a user name and password for every server to which the user wanted access. Also, the number of such concurrent connections was limited to 8. In addition, the network administrator had to create separate accounts on each server to which the user needed access. This could easily become a burdensome task on a large network.
The single login to a network is possible because the user authentication takes place against a global network directory that is not specific to a server. In figure 1.6, you can see that the first step to logging in to a network is authentication of the user against information in the global directory. Once the user authentication is successful, the user is granted access to any resource on the network. The maximum number of concurrent connections to different NetWare servers is now increased from 8 to 50.
Figure 1.6 User authentication to the network.
Global Network Management
In pre-NetWare 4.0, the network management tasks had to be performed separately on each NetWare server, because network management usually resulted in a modification of the bindery, and the bindery was specific to each server. The bindery, a local database of network resources on a specific server, had to be modified on each server.
Because the NDS is a global database, global network management is possible. The network administrator can change network resources from any place on the network (see fig. 1.7). Also, the network administrator can delegate responsibility to other users who serve as additional network administrators. In pre-NetWare 4.0, the responsibility could be delegated to a fixed number of user account managers, workgroup managers, and other operators; in NetWare 4.x there can be many levels of network administrators with varying degrees of responsibilities.
Independence from Physical Location of Resources
In pre-NetWare 4.0 based networks, the resources were described in a server bindery and depended on that server. A classic example of this was NetWare printer definitions that were tied to a specific server. If the printer had to be relocated to another server, the bindery representation of the printer had to be moved to another server (see fig. 1.8). In a large network in a state of flux, this can become a major task.
Figure 1.7 Global network management.
Figure 1.8 Bindery representations of printer definitions.
In NetWare 4.x, the resource definitions are not tied to any specific server or a physical location on the network. This means that a user can access a resource without worrying about the physical location of the resource and how it can be reached. Changes to network resources are made to the NDS object that is part of a global database. The NDS object can be accessed from any station on the network, provided the user has been granted security permission for the resource.
Improvements in the NetWare File System
One of the strengths of NetWare has always been a fast and efficient file system. This has always been central to NetWare's popularity and capability to act as a file server. In NetWare 4.x, the file system has been improved. Some of these improvements stem from new features called block suballocation, compression, and migration.
Block Suballocation
NetWare 4.x allows the disk block size selected at installation time to be 4 KB, 8 KB, 12 KB, 16 KB or 64 KB. This capability also existed in NetWare 3.x; but in NetWare 3.x, if a 200-byte file was created on a volume that had a disk block size of 4 KB, a 4 KB block of storage would be allocated and the remaining 3,896 bytes (4,096 - 200) would not be available for use. This represents a wasted space of 95 percent, and if the disk block size is 64 KB, the wasted space would be even greater. Figure 1.9 shows how block suballocation in NetWare 4.x works. In NetWare 4.x, the unused disk block space is used in 512-byte suballocation units. This means that in the example of creating a file of about 200 bytes, a 512-byte suballocation within the 4 KB disk block would be used. The remaining seven 512-byte suballocation blocks would be available for sharing by the leftover fragments of other files. If all of these suballocation blocks were used, then in the NetWare 4.x example there would be wasted space of only 312 bytes (512 - 200) out of a total of 4,096 bytes--only 8 percent wasted space. And if the disk block size is 64 KB, this would be an even smaller percentage of wasted space (about 0.5 percent). Also, if the file sizes and leftover fragments were multiples of 512-bytes, there would be no wasted space.
So, block suballocation can be defined as a mechanism in NetWare 4.x that allows small files and files that are not multiples of the disk block size to share space in a disk block that would otherwise have gone wasted. The improved utilization in disk space is accompanied by the extra overhead in the operating system to maintain status of disk blocks that have been suballocated, but because disk writes occur in the background, the impact of this overhead is minimal.
Disk suballocation is enabled by default during a NetWare volumes installation, but can be explicitly disabled during installation.
TIP: Always allocate a disk block size of 64 KB for maximum gain in server disk performance, because the software and disk subsystems perform at an optimum at this block size.
Figure 1.9 Disk suballocation.
NetWare File System Compression
NetWare File System Compression
Studies have shown that the processor utilization of many NetWare servers in real-life networks does not often exceed 50 percent. In heavily loaded servers, it is not uncommon to see processor utilization higher than 90 percent, but such situations are relatively rare. The designers of NetWare 4.x decided to use this unutilized processor "bandwidth" for useful background tasks such as file system compression. Today, there are many disk compression utilities available for DOS. However, these utilities decompress a disk block as it is read and compress it again as it is written. This process causes the disk to appear slow because of the compression operation that accompanies each read or write operation. In NetWare 4.x, file compression occurs in the background. Certain parameters can be set at the file server to control the frequency at which compression can be done in the background. When a file is retrieved, it is decompressed. The file blocks that are immediately decompressed are available for use, even as the rest of the file is being decompressed by special decompression threads (see fig. 1.10). Usually, the file remains in the decompressed state for a certain period of time that can be controlled at the server. The compression of files is always done in the background.
Using the file compression feature, you can increase the effective disk space without adding new server drives. The amount of savings in disk space depends on the nature of repeated characters or binary patterns in the file and is very high for text files. It is not uncommon to see savings of up to 63 percent or more beause of file compression. This means that 500 MB of files can take up as little as 185 MB (at 63 percent compression) of disk space. With disk space being at a perennial premium on file servers, this is a great advantage.
Figure 1.10 Read of a compressed file.
A file will not be compressed unless NetWare sees a certain gain in disk space. The network administrator can exercise explicit control by flagging a file or directory for immediate compression or by specifying that it should never be compressed.
The compression option can be disabled or enabled during installation of a volume on the NetWare server. The default is that compression is enabled, which means that NetWare tries to compress files if they have not been used for some time, provided a minimum savings in disk space can be achieved.
NOTE: See Chapter 15 for more on NetWare 4.x file compression.
Data Migration
Data migration allows infrequently used files to be moved to a near-line or off-line storage medium. Examples of near-line storage are optical disk libraries (also known as juke-boxes), and examples of off-line storage are tape backup devices. When data migration occurs, NetWare 4.x still sees the data on the NetWare volumes because the directory entries for the migrated files are still on the NetWare volume. If a file is accessed and it has been migrated, the file is brought back in ("de-migrated") to the NetWare volume (see fig. 1.11). The net effect of data migration is that valuable disk space is freed up. When combined with compression, data migration is a very effective way to save on disk space.
Figure 1.11 Data migration.
Some of the earlier Control Data Corporation supercomputers used data migration, but NetWare 4.0 is the first to popularize its use among PC-based Network Operating Systems (NOS).
Data migration can be enabled/disabled at the time of installing the NetWare volume. The files can also be marked for migration using the NetWare utilities.
Data migration can be implemented using the High Capacity Storage System (HCSS), a storage/retrieval system that can extend the capacity of a NetWare server by integrating optical libraries into the NetWare file system. HCSS can work in conjunction with data migration, so that migrated files can be moved from the faster but lower-capacity NetWare volumes to the slower but higher-capacity media that comprises the HCSS.
As far as the user is concerned the operation of data migration and HCSS is transparent. Files that have been migrated to the HCSS are accessed with the same commands as files that reside on the NetWare volume. If a migrated file is accessed, it is automatically demigrated.
Migration is performed on an individual file basis depending on the last time the file was accessed (the least recently used criteria) and the current volume usage. Least recently used criteria for files refers to files that are the least active, or that have not been accessed for the longest period of time. If the current volume usage exceeds a capacity threshold, data migration occurs. Capacity threshold is defined as the percentage of the server's disk used before data migration begins.
Improved File System Security and Management
Access to the NetWare 4.x based network is performed when the user logs in to the NetWare Directory for a network. Each organization can be expected to have its own network directory tree that reflects the usage and security needs of network users. As part of implementing network security, access to parts of the network directory tree are controlled by explicit trustee assignments. Figure 1.12 shows the different steps that must occur before a user is granted access to a file on a volume, including login authentication, NDS security, and NetWare file system security.
Figure 1.12 NetWare 4.x Security.
When a user logs in to the network, the user specifies the name of the NDS object that represents the user account. The user's login name and password are used to build a personalized key that is used to authenticate a user's right to access the network. The actual algorithm used to build the personalized key is RSA, which stands for Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman, the original creators of a public encryption key algorithm. Novell licensed this technology from RSA, Inc., for use with NetWare 4.x.
After the user is authenticated on the network, the user must have rights to directory objects that represent resources on the network. This is seen in figure 1.12, in which a user must pass through the NetWare Directory Services Security. For example, to access files on a volume, the user must have certain rights to the volume object in the directory tree.
After the user passes through the NetWare Directory Services, the user's access to a file is controlled by the File and Directory Trustee rights. These rights are the same as those for the NetWare 3.x servers.
The network administrator performs network management. An initial user account called ADMIN is created when a directory tree is first established, equivalent to the SUPERVISOR user in pre-NetWare 4.0, except that the ADMIN user has network-wide responsibility. The ADMIN user account can be deleted or renamed and in that sense does not have the special significance of the SUPERVISOR account in NetWare 3.x or 2.x, which could not be renamed or deleted. Because the ADMIN account can be deleted, care should be taken to ensure that other users have the equivalent of supervisory rights to the directory tree before the ADMIN account is deleted.
TIP: For secure environments, rename the ADMIN account so that an unauthorized user cannot know and use the Supervisor's username to try to break system security.
The ADMIN user can create other user objects anywhere in the directory tree. This is usually done in such a manner that security is easily implemented and users can easily access resources in the directory tree.
The network administrator can delegate to users different levels of network responsibility. For instance, a user can be delegated the authority to create other user objects but not delete them, or a user can be assigned the responsibility of managing a part of a directory tree but not access to the information represented by the objects. This makes it possible to have multiple levels of network administrators in a manner that is more flexible than the NetWare 3.x approach of workgroup managers and user account managers.
Security in NetWare 4.x can be more finely controlled by creating assistant "supervisors" who can administer network resources, but do not have access to data that needs to be protected from view, such as the payroll data or other financial data of an organization.
NOTE: See Chapter 10 for more on NetWare 4.x security.
Support for Network Auditing
In NetWare 4.x, a class of users called auditors can be set up to act independently of the network administrator in order to audit critical activities on the network. The auditors can also audit past and present transactions on the network for any security breaches (see fig. 1.13).
Figure 1.13 Auditing in NetWare 4.x.
Auditing should not be confused with accounting features of earlier NetWare versions. Accounting allows the tracking of resource usage on the networks, such as disk blocks read and written, storage charges, and service requests. This accounting capability is still available in NetWare 4.x.
Auditing allows the monitoring of critical events on the network, such as logins and logouts, file operations, directory services object operations (creations, deletions, reads, and writes), directory object events, user events, and trustee modifications
The primary utility for implementing auditing is AUDITCON.
NOTE: See Chapter 17 for more on NetWare 4.x auditing.
Simplified and More Efficient Memory Management Architecture
NetWare 3.x was a great improvement over NetWare 2.2 in the way memory was managed on the server. However, there were a few problems with memory management under NetWare 3.x, as shown in figure 1.14. In NetWare 3.x, memory was managed in five pools, each serving a different purpose. The pools were for purposes such as cache movable, cache nonmovable, permanent memory, and semipermanent memory. As the names suggest, each of these memory pools was for a special purpose. To meet temporary high demands, memory pools were permitted to borrow memory from the file cache buffer memory; but once borrowed, this memory was not returned. Under certain conditions, it was possible for this memory leakage to occur to the point that the file cache buffer memory was severely depleted, and this resulted in a severe degradation in server performance. To reset the memory pools, the server had to be restarted.
Just as NetWare 3.11 was an improvement over NetWare 2.x, NetWare 4.x memory management is a considerable improvement over NetWare 3.11. For one thing, there are no separate memory pools (see fig. 1.15). There is only one main pool--the file cache memory. All memory used by processes running on the server are borrowed against this pool and completely returned to it when the process terminates. Other processes can reuse the memory returned to the file cache, therefore, memory management is simpler because there is only one pool instead of five. And because memory management is simpler, it requires fewer processor cycles, and memory allocation, therefore, is faster.
Figure 1.14 NetWare 3.x memory management.
Figure 1.15 NetWare 4.x memory management.
Some of the features of NetWare 4.x memory management are
- Improved server performance, because memory management is an important resource for server processes.
- Integration with the paged memory architecture of the Intel processors.
- Ring protection to control damage caused by misbehaved NLMs.
- Easier-to-write applications for the NLM developer because memory management is simpler.
A controversial aspect of NetWare 3.x memory usage is that all programs--the kernel and applications--run in Ring 0 of the Intel 80386 architecture. The Intel 80386 architecture defines 4 rings--Rings 0 to 3 (see fig. 1.16). The reason behind this is to have the operating system kernel run at Ring 0, and other programs at one of the outer rings. Programs running at, say, Ring 3 can access the RAM used by programs running at Ring 3, but cannot directly access RAM for programs running at Rings 2, 1, and 0. So, if the operating system kernel is running in Ring 0, a program at Ring 3 would have to make an inter-ring gate call to make service requests from the operating system kernel. If the program crashes, it cannot affect the operating system kernel.
Figure 1.16 Intel 80386 processor ring architecture.
This architecture makes the system more reliable at the cost of reduced speed because of the inter-ring call overhead. An example of an operating system that uses the ring architecture is OS/2.
NetWare 3.x does not use the ring architecture. The NetWare 3.x operating system, NLMs, and all server processes run at Ring 0. What NetWare 3.x loses in reliability, it gains in simplicity and speed.
In NetWare 4.x, all NLMs run in Ring 0 by default. However, the network administrator can configure the server to run NLMs that are loaded in an outer ring so that offending programs cannot cause the operating system kernel that runs in Ring 0 to crash. As new NLMs are added to the server, they can be loaded in an outer ring for a trial period. They will run a little slower in the outer ring because they have to make an inter-ring call. If the NLMs prove to be reliable, they can be added to Ring 0, where they can run faster.
TIP: When purchasing NLMs from third parties, check to see if they are designed to run in an outer ring of the Intel processor (80386 and higher). Not all NLMs can run in an outer ring.
NOTE: See Chapter 14 for more on NetWare 4.x memory management.
Improvements in Client Networking Services
The NetWare 4.x networking software for workstation operating system clients includes better support for DOS, MS Windows, and OS/2 (see fig. 1.17). DOS and MS Windows now use a DOS requester, ODI support, and Packet Burst Protocol support.
The DOS requester allows the redirector capability of later releases of DOS via the interrupt mechanism INT 2F (hex) to be used. The earlier NetWare shell used the DOS INT 21 (hex) mechanism, and a software multiplexor mechanism to direct the request to appropriate system services. Because of the additional overhead of the software multiplexor mechanism, it was slightly less efficient. In NetWare 4.x, the DOS requester actually consists of number of smaller components that need to be loaded only if the service is needed. These smaller components are called Virtual Loadable Modules (VLMs), and they are loaded and managed by the VLM Manager (VLM.EXE). VLMs give you the flexibility of selectively loading only the services that are needed. VLMs are designed to understand NetWare Directory Services, and there is even a VLM component (NETX.VLM) that can be used to communicate with bindery-based servers.
Figure 1.17 Multiple client support in NetWare 4.x.
The ODI support is the Open Data-Link interface that provides an interface for protocol stacks to talk to network boards, which represent layer 2 (data-link layer) of the OSI model. The ODI interface was also available in earlier NetWare client software.
The Packet Burst Protocol allows transmission of multiple packet requests and packet replies. It is similar to the window flow control mechanism used in other protocol suites and is an improvement over the single packet request/response behavior of the earlier NCP packet transmissions. The Packet Burst Protocol was added to later releases of NetWare 3.x and is also available for NetWare 4.x. The Packet Burst Protocol is particularly useful for multiple NCP packet requests and packet replies, where a number of requests or replies can be acknowledged by a single acknowledgment packet. This eliminates some of the overhead of the round-trip delay, when a sender has to wait for the last packet that was sent to be acknowledged before transmitting the next packet. It also results in fewer packets being sent, and this results in a reduction of network traffic and reduced time for processing packets.
Another enhancement in NetWare 4.x is support for Large Internet Packet (LIP). Earlier NetWare routers were limited in the size of the internet packet that could be supported. With LIP, this limit has been removed and larger packet sizes that are common in Token Ring networks (4 KB to 16 KB) and Ethernet networks (1.5 KB) are possible.
Integrated Storage Management Services (SMS)
Storage Management Services (SMS) in NetWare 4.x provide for data on the net- work to be backed up or restored in a common data format and in a manner that is hardware- and software-independent. The device that needs to be backed up is called the target. A Target Service Agent (TSA) program is run on the target. The TSA communicates with the SBACKUP program. The target could be a workstation, a NetWare 3.x server, or a NetWare 4.x server (see fig. 1.18).
Figure 1.18 SMS and TSAs.
In SMS, the SBACKUP program is responsible for backup and restore operations. SBACKUP is an NLM that runs on a NetWare server. The NBACKUP functionality of earlier NetWare releases is now consolidated in SBACKUP.
SMS consists of a number of other modules, such as the Storage Management Data Requester (SMDR) used to pass commands between SBACKUP and the TSAs, and device drivers that use the Storage Device Interface (SDI) to communicate between the SBACKUP program and the storage devices (see fig. 1.19).
Figure 1.19 SMS architecture.
TIP: You might want to consider a number of third-party backup schemes that use SMS rather than SBACKUP. The third-party programs provide a simpler and more streamlined user interface and many advanced backup options.
NOTE: See Chapter 18 for more on SBACKUP and SMS.
Improvements in Network Print Services Architecture
In NetWare 3.x, print services were defined as part of the print server definition, and the only way to do a network print job was to submit the print job to a print queue. In NetWare 4.x, the network print jobs can be still sent to the network print queue, but print jobs can also be sent to the printer object in the NDS tree.
Other improvements in NetWare 4.x printing include the following:
- Simpler installation in comparison to NetWare 3.x.
- Support for a larger number of printers (up to 256) on a single print server.
- Support for remote printers on NetWare servers.
Printing issues are covered in greater detail in later chapters.
NOTE: See Chapters 7 and 16 for more on NetWare 4.x printing.
Multiple Language Support (Internationalization)
Because the character of NetWare has become international in scope, NetWare 4.x has introduced support for international languages to NetWare Loadable Modules and network utilities. This means that messages and options associated with utilities can be set in the language of the user. The default language is English, but other languages can be supported during installation when running the SERVER.EXE program. After installation, the INSTALL.NLM can be used to configure date, time, and number formats.
Having different language NLMs running on the server at the same time or having one user using the system utility NETADMIN in French and another user using the same utility in Italian are even possible. It is important to understand that the language support does not mean that NetWare is capable of translating messages between users using different languages. For example, if the SEND utility is used by a French language user to send a message in French to another user who is set up to use Italian, NetWare is not smart enough to translate the message from French to Italian.
Although the language might be the same, there can be differences in date, time, and number formats. A classic example of this is English, which is spoken in both the U.S.A. and the U.K. The default format for representing dates in the U.S.A. is mm/dd/yy (example: 10/16/93). In the U.K., the default date format would be dd/mm/yy (example: 16/10/93).
Examples of the date, time, and number formats for U.S.A, U.K., France, and Germany are shown in table 1.1.
TABLE 1.1 Format Differences for Countries
| Country | Number Format | Time Format | Date Format |
| U.S.A. | 355,113.22 | 11:55:00 PM | 10/16/93 |
| U.K. | 355,113.22 | 23:55:00 | 16/10/93 |
| Germany | 355.113,22 | 23:55:00 | 16.10.93 |
| France | 355 113,22 | 23:55:00 | 16.10.93 |
The capability to support differences in language and format representations is called internationalization, which is supported in NetWare through unicode representation, a standard for representing data in 16 bits rather than the familiar 8-bit ASCII.
NOTE: See Chapter 15 for more on multiple language support.
Simplified Installation and Upgrade Procedures
NetWare 4.x distribution comes in CD-ROM. Distribution on high-density floppy disks is an additional cost and can be obtained by sending in a request form that accompanies the NetWare 4.x distribution.
Installing NetWare 4.x on CD-ROM saves time during installation because the copying of the files from the distribution media is much faster. This leads to a simpler and faster implementation.
The CD-ROM drive can be attached to the server being installed, or to a remote workstation. Figure 1.20 shows the different possibilities. In figure 1.20, the CD-ROM drive is shown as an external unit to the workstation or server. Internal CD-ROMs also are possible.
NOTE: See Chapter 3 for more on NetWare 4 installation.
Figure 1.20 NetWare 4 installation using CD-ROM distribution.
Online NetWare Manuals via DynaText
Online NetWare Manuals via DynaText
NetWare DynaText is a graphical utility that works with Windows 3.1 (or better) to provide online manuals that can be accessed through a graphical user interface (GUI). Figure 1.21 shows a sample DynaText screen.
Figure 1.21 Sample DynaText screen.
All of the NetWare manuals are available in DynaText format. A list of these manuals and a brief description of their contents follows:
- Master Index. The index links to all places in the manuals. Click on a link marker to go to a place in the manual in which a term or topic can be found.
- AppleTalk Reference. This reference provides the information you need to understand the AppleTalk protocol stack for NetWare servers. It describes configuration parameters for the AppleTalk protocol stack.
- Btrieve Installation and Reference Manual. Btrieve is a popular and efficient record manager bundled as an NLM in NetWare servers. This manual contains information on installing, configuring, executing, and monitoring the Btrieve record management system for NetWare servers.
- Concepts. This is a glossary of NetWare-related terms with a tutorial description of what each term means. Topics are listed alphabetically in categories ranging from AAA to ZZZ.
- NetWare Client for DOS and MS Windows User Guide. This manual helps you set up and install your client software. It introduces you to the client tools for managing your client on a NetWare network. The manual covers concepts and procedures for installing and using NetWare client software on NetWare 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x networks.
- NetWare Client for DOS and MS Windows Technical Reference. This manual describes the parameters needed to configure NetWare workstation software on NetWare 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x networks.
- Installation. This manual contains information on how to install a new NetWare 4.x server.
- NetWare IPX Router Reference. This manual provides the information you need to understand the IPX protocol for the router. It describes the IPX configuration parameters.
- Macintosh File and Print Services. This manual explains how to install, configure, and maintain the NetWare for Macintosh software.
- Using MacNDS Client for NetWare 4. This manual describes the NetWare for Macintosh MacNDS Client software. The MacNDS client software allows access to NetWare 4 NDS services from Macintosh workstations.
- MHS Services for NetWare. This manual explains the NetWare MHS (Message Handling Service) services, and explains how to install and manage it. The guide also describes how to use the FirstMail client software.
- Installing and Using NetSync. This manual explains how to install and use the NetSync utility. NetSync is a management utility that enables you to manage NetWare 3.x servers from the NetWare Directory Services.
- Introduction to NetWare Directory Services. This manual introduces you to the basics of NDS and helps you plan the NDS tree.
- New Features. This manual introduces you to features unique to NetWare 4.x.
- NetWare Client for OS/2. This manual describes the installation and configuration of NetWare Client software for OS/2 workstations. This client software can be used for both NetWare 3.x and NetWare 4.x. The manual contains information on accessing network services from Virtual DOS machines and setting up Named Pipes and NetBIOS protocol support.
- Print Services. This manual helps you with NetWare 4.x printing concepts and how you can set up, load, and use network printing utilities. It contains some troubleshooting tips and guidelines for network print services.
- Supervising the Network. This manual helps you to set up and administer the network after you complete the NetWare 4.x installation. It covers issues such as managing NDS, NetWare files and directories, creating login scripts, NetWare server maintenance, network auditing, and backing up and restoring data.
- Utilities Reference. This manual contains information on how to use NetWare utilities, such as Text workstation utilities, server utilities, and GUI-based utilities. It also contains information on NDS bindery objects and their properties.
- Upgrade and Migration. This manual describes upgrading to NetWare 4.x from other NetWare servers, such as NetWare 2.x or 3.x and IBM LAN Server.
- TCP/IP Reference. TCP/IP is a de facto protocol for connecting heterogeneous systems together. This manual discusses how TCP/IP can be configured and managed on the NetWare 4.x server. It explains the concepts in relationship to NetWare's implementation of TCP/IP.
- Building and Auditing a Trusted Network Environment with NetWare 4. This manual overviews the security requirements of large networks and how NetWare 4 auditing can be used to meet these requirements.
- System Messages. This is a list of all possible system and warning messages that you could encounter while configuring NetWare 4.x. It lists the messages according to the modules that generate them, and there are over 150 modules. It explains the possible causes of the error message and the action you can perform to fix it.
The command-line utilities now have a /? switch that gives additional help information on how to use these utilities. This switch is very convenient because help is available from the command line without invoking any other online documentation. In reality, typing illegal command-line parameters also results in help screens. For example, the NDIR help screen is displayed by typing the following command:
NDIR /?
Figure 1.22 shows the output of the NDIR /? command.
Help is also available in the menu utilities via function key F1. This help is context sensitive. The menu utilities, such as FILER and PCONSOLE, use the familiar C-Worthy Menu interface. Unlike previous versions of NetWare, pressing the F1 key twice does not display extended help information.
Figure 1.22 NDIR /? help command.
NetWare 4.x Utilities
A common experience many people have had when they upgrade from NetWare 3.x to NetWare 4.x is the discovery that some of the very familiar utilities, such as SYSCON, are no longer present in NetWare 4.x. SYSCON was a bindery-based network administration tool. SYSCON has been replaced by the more powerful NETADMIN tool, which is based on NDS.
Some utilities have disappeared or have been consolidated into more functional utilities. For example, the utilities VOLINFO, SALVAGE, and PURGE have been consolidated into FILER.
The following table lists some of these changes.
TABLE 1.2 NetWare 4.x Utility Changes
| NetWare 4.0 Utility | Description |
| NETADMIN.EXE | Menu-driven text utility used to create NDS objects. Can also be used to assign property values and rights. Consolidates some of the features of pre-NetWare 4.0 utilities such as SYSCON, SECURITY, USERDEF, and DSPACE. |
| NWADMIN.EXE | MS Windows and OS/2 Graphical utility to manage NDS tree and perform operations on it. A consolidated graphical tool for network management. |
| UIMPORT.NLM | Text utility for batch creation of users. Replaces the functionality of the pre-NetWare 4.0 MAKEUSER utility. |
| DOMAIN.NLM | Allows the creation of protected domains that allow NLMs to run in Rings 1, 2, and 3 of the Intel processors. Runs as a server NLM. |
| MONITOR.NLM | General purpose server monitor utility for monitoring the server. Runs as a server NLM and consolidates the functions of the pre-NetWare 4.0 MONITOR and FCONSOLE. |
| SERVMAN.NLM | Facilitates the easy viewing and changing of the many server SET parameters. Allows these changes to be stored in AUTOEXEC.NCF and STARTUP.NCF files. Runs as a server NLM. |
| RCONSOLE.EXE | RCONSOLE also performs the function of ACONSOLE (asynchronous console). Used for remote management of server. |
| REMOTE.NLM | Used for remote management of server. |
| NWSNUT.NLM | Library interface for C-Worthy style graphical functions used by server-based graphical tools, such as MONITOR and SERVMAN. |
| PARTMGR.EXE | Text utility for managing partitions and their replicas. |
| Partition Manager | GUI equivalent of the PARTMGR utility. |
| DSREPAIR.NLM | Repairs inconsistencies and problems in the NDS database. Provides the functionality of the BINDFIX and BINDREST utilities used to repair the bindery. |
| TIMESYNC.NLM | Performs time synchronization. Set up during NetWare 4.0 server installation to load via AUTOEXEC.NCF. |
| CDROM.NLM | CD-ROM support for CD drives attached to the NetWare 4.0 server. |
| RTDM.NLM | Real Time Data Migration utility that runs at the server. |
| LIST DEVICES | Server console command. Lists device information. |
| SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES | Server console command. Scans for any new devices that have been added to the server. |
| MEDIA | Server console command. Used to confirm if requests to insert/remove media on the server have been performed. |
| MAGAZINE | Server console command. Used to confirm if requests to insert/remove magazine on the server have been performed. |
| MIRROR STATUS | Server console command. Used to display status of mirrored partitions. |
| ABORT REMIRROR | Server console command. Used to stop mirroring of partitions. |
| REMIRROR PARTITION | Server console command. Used to remirror partitions. |
| AUDITCON.EXE | Enables independent users to act as auditors. Is a super-set of the pre-NetWare 4.0 ATOTAL and PAUDIT. |
| RIGHTS.EXE | Consolidates functions of pre-NetWare 4.0 utilities RIGHTS, GRANT, REVOKE, REMOVE, and ALLOW. |
| FLAG.EXE | Consolidates functions of pre-NetWare 4.0 utilities FLAG, FLAGDIR, and SMODE. |
| FILER | Consolidates functions of pre-NetWare 4.0 utilities FILER, SLAVAGE, PURGE, DSPACE, and VOLINFO. |
| NPRINTER.EXE | Allows a printer attached to a workstation (DOS or OS/2) or a server to be used as a network printer. |
| SBACKUP.NLM | Used to perform backup across the network. Consolidates the pre-NetWare 4.0 SBACKUP and NBACKUP. |
| RPL.NLM | Allows remote booting for diskless workstations (PCs). |
| KEYB | Server console command. Allows the selection of a nationality or language for the keyboard device. |
| LANGUAGE | Server console command. Sets up the use of the specified language at the server. |
| CX.EXE | Enables users to navigate the NDS tree by changing the context. Does for NDS directory what the CD command does for file directories. |
| LOGIN.EXE | Used to log in or attach to a server. Uses NDS objects and consolidates pre-NetWare 4.0 utilities LOGIN and ATTACH. |
| NMENU.BAT | Batch utility. |
| MENUMAKE.EXE | Menu compiler utility. |
| MENUCNVT.EXE | Menu conversion utility. Menus are based on Saber menus. |
| NDIR.EXE | Consolidates the pre-NetWare 4.0 NDIR, LISTDIR, CHKDIR, and CHKVOL. |
| NETUSER.EXE | Replaces pre-NetWare 4.0 SESSION. Text graphical tool for performing drive mappings, printing, and network attachments. |
| SEND.EXE | Consolidates the pre-NetWare 4.0 SEND, CASTON, CASTOFF. |
| NLIST.EXE | Consolidates the pre-NetWare 4.0 USERLIST and SLIST. |
| Tools Group for Windows | Consists of tools installed as a group in the MS Windows and OS/2 Program Manager and OS/2's desktop. |
NOTE: See Chapter 15 for more on NetWare 4 utilities.
In this chapter, you have examined the features of NetWare 4.x. NetWare 4.x represents an exciting change in the way large enterprise-wide area networks can be supported. The principal change has been the introduction of NetWare Directory Services. NetWare Directory Services enables you to superpose a logical structure or view on a physical network, which makes the network easier to use and administer.
Because NDS is central to accessing resources on the network, security is integrated into NDS. When a user logs in, that user is authenticated at the NDS level. Auditing can be used to further monitor activity on the network.
Other improvements have been in the area of Storage Management Services, Enhanced client support, Enhanced and integrated utilities, and better online documentation.
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