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Have you LOOKED at Novell's product lines recently? There's a new game in town... NDS eDirectory for Linux will do just what you are talking about. Sure, you need to pay Novell for the NDS licenses, but TAANSTAAFL.

NDS eDirectory is Novell's latest full-service directory - a 'standalone, cross-platform LDAP directory service that powers e-businesses (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/)'. A new version is coming soon, with more functionality than I can address here. Among other things, eDirectory blows away NDS' old scalability issues - Novell has demonstrated eDirectory trees with over a billion objects... Alongside eDirectory (and causing quite a bit of confusion, from what I've seen) is NDS Corporate Edition. The best explanation of the difference between the two products that I've been able to come up with is this: eDirectory is for EXTERNAL users, CE is for INTERNAL users. EITHER version can be HOSTED from Netware, W2K, NT, Solaris, or Linux platforms (with FULL communication between NDS databases hosted by different OSes, also Tru64 support is reported to be coming soon) but a Corporate Edition license permits user authentication against NDS FROM NT, Solaris, Linux, etc. For example, NDS eDirectory for Linux provides an NDS database running on a Linux box. NDS Corporate Edition for Linux adds user authentication pieces (including PAM modules!) permitting an authorized NDS user to login on any authorized Linux workstation.

As for the questions raised in your last paragraph:

First, note that eDirectory has a native implementation of LDAPv3. If the application you wish to host on Linux supports LDAP authentication, you are DONE but for the configuration. Licenses start at $200 for 100 users, dropping in per-user price for higher quantity of course (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/ pricing.html). If your application requires local Linux ID authentication but supports PAM - you will need to purchase more expensive Corporate Edition licenses. Also please note that Novell DOES provide extensive trial versions of their main applications. You can find eDirectory evaluation software at http://www.novell.com/products/n ds/evaluation.html, including downloadable software or instructions on ordering a CD.

Second, you mention Netware 5.0 - yes, 5.0 is better than prior versions. Netware 5.1 is better yet... The bundled and/or integrated applications include Oracle 8i, IBM WebSphere Application Server 3.0 Standard Edition, NetWare Enterprise Web Server, WebDAV support, MS O2K support, loadable servers for FTP, News, Search, and Multimedia, integrated DHCP/(dynamic)DNS, a Certificate Server permitting you to operate your own CA, etc. Check out a full feature list at http://www.novell.com/products/ netware/details.html.

Novell IS partnering agressively with other developers to permit development of applications that support NDS. The future is directory-enabled applications - I believe that it will include NDS as a lynchpin.

--- Andy Deckowitz, speaking only for myself

Have you LOOKED at Novell's product lines recently? There's a new game in town... NDS eDirectory for Linux will do just what you are talking about. Sure, you need to pay Novell for the NDS licenses, but TAANSTAAFL.

NDS eDirectory is Novell's latest full-service directory - a 'standalone, cross-platform LDAP directory service that powers e-businesses (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/)'. A new version is coming soon, with more functionality than I can address here. Among other things, eDirectory blows away NDS' old scalability issues - Novell has demonstrated eDirectory trees with over a billion objects... Alongside eDirectory (and causing quite a bit of confusion, from what I've seen) is NDS Corporate Edition. The best explanation of the difference between the two products that I've been able to come up with is this: eDirectory is for EXTERNAL users, CE is for INTERNAL users. EITHER version can be HOSTED from Netware, W2K, NT, Solaris, or Linux platforms (with FULL communication between NDS databases hosted by different OSes, also Tru64 support is reported to be coming soon) but a Corporate Edition license permits user authentication against NDS FROM NT, Solaris, Linux, etc. For example, NDS eDirectory for Linux provides an NDS database running on a Linux box. NDS Corporate Edition for Linux adds user authentication pieces (including PAM modules!) permitting an authorized NDS user to login on any authorized Linux workstation.

As for the questions raised in your last paragraph:

First, note that eDirectory has a native implementation of LDAPv3. If the application you wish to host on Linux supports LDAP authentication, you are DONE but for the configuration. Licenses start at $200 for 100 users, dropping in per-user price for higher quantity of course (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/ pricing.html). If your application requires local Linux ID authentication but supports PAM - you will need to purchase more expensive Corporate Edition licenses. Also please note that Novell DOES provide extensive trial versions of their main applications. You can find eDirectory evaluation software at http://www.novell.com/products/n ds/evaluation.html, including downloadable software or instructions on ordering a CD.

Second, you mention Netware 5.0 - yes, 5.0 is better than prior versions. Netware 5.1 is better yet... The bundled and/or integrated applications include Oracle 8i, IBM WebSphere Application Server 3.0 Standard Edition, NetWare Enterprise Web Server, WebDAV support, MS O2K support, loadable servers for FTP, News, Search, and Multimedia, integrated DHCP/(dynamic)DNS, a Certificate Server permitting you to operate your own CA, etc. Check out a full feature list at http://www.novell.com/products/ netware/details.html.

Novell IS partnering agressively with other developers to permit development of applications that support NDS. The future is directory-enabled applications - I believe that it will include NDS as a lynchpin.

--- Andy Deckowitz, speaking only for myself

Have you LOOKED at Novell's product lines recently? There's a new game in town... NDS eDirectory for Linux will do just what you are talking about. Sure, you need to pay Novell for the NDS licenses, but TAANSTAAFL.

NDS eDirectory is Novell's latest full-service directory - a 'standalone, cross-platform LDAP directory service that powers e-businesses (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/)'. A new version is coming soon, with more functionality than I can address here. Among other things, eDirectory blows away NDS' old scalability issues - Novell has demonstrated eDirectory trees with over a billion objects... Alongside eDirectory (and causing quite a bit of confusion, from what I've seen) is NDS Corporate Edition. The best explanation of the difference between the two products that I've been able to come up with is this: eDirectory is for EXTERNAL users, CE is for INTERNAL users. EITHER version can be HOSTED from Netware, W2K, NT, Solaris, or Linux platforms (with FULL communication between NDS databases hosted by different OSes, also Tru64 support is reported to be coming soon) but a Corporate Edition license permits user authentication against NDS FROM NT, Solaris, Linux, etc. For example, NDS eDirectory for Linux provides an NDS database running on a Linux box. NDS Corporate Edition for Linux adds user authentication pieces (including PAM modules!) permitting an authorized NDS user to login on any authorized Linux workstation.

As for the questions raised in your last paragraph:

First, note that eDirectory has a native implementation of LDAPv3. If the application you wish to host on Linux supports LDAP authentication, you are DONE but for the configuration. Licenses start at $200 for 100 users, dropping in per-user price for higher quantity of course (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/ pricing.html). If your application requires local Linux ID authentication but supports PAM - you will need to purchase more expensive Corporate Edition licenses. Also please note that Novell DOES provide extensive trial versions of their main applications. You can find eDirectory evaluation software at http://www.novell.com/products/n ds/evaluation.html, including downloadable software or instructions on ordering a CD.

Second, you mention Netware 5.0 - yes, 5.0 is better than prior versions. Netware 5.1 is better yet... The bundled and/or integrated applications include Oracle 8i, IBM WebSphere Application Server 3.0 Standard Edition, NetWare Enterprise Web Server, WebDAV support, MS O2K support, loadable servers for FTP, News, Search, and Multimedia, integrated DHCP/(dynamic)DNS, a Certificate Server permitting you to operate your own CA, etc. Check out a full feature list at http://www.novell.com/products/ netware/details.html.

Novell IS partnering agressively with other developers to permit development of applications that support NDS. The future is directory-enabled applications - I believe that it will include NDS as a lynchpin.

--- Andy Deckowitz, speaking only for myself

Have you LOOKED at Novell's product lines recently? There's a new game in town... NDS eDirectory for Linux will do just what you are talking about. Sure, you need to pay Novell for the NDS licenses, but TAANSTAAFL.

NDS eDirectory is Novell's latest full-service directory - a 'standalone, cross-platform LDAP directory service that powers e-businesses (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/)'. A new version is coming soon, with more functionality than I can address here. Among other things, eDirectory blows away NDS' old scalability issues - Novell has demonstrated eDirectory trees with over a billion objects... Alongside eDirectory (and causing quite a bit of confusion, from what I've seen) is NDS Corporate Edition. The best explanation of the difference between the two products that I've been able to come up with is this: eDirectory is for EXTERNAL users, CE is for INTERNAL users. EITHER version can be HOSTED from Netware, W2K, NT, Solaris, or Linux platforms (with FULL communication between NDS databases hosted by different OSes, also Tru64 support is reported to be coming soon) but a Corporate Edition license permits user authentication against NDS FROM NT, Solaris, Linux, etc. For example, NDS eDirectory for Linux provides an NDS database running on a Linux box. NDS Corporate Edition for Linux adds user authentication pieces (including PAM modules!) permitting an authorized NDS user to login on any authorized Linux workstation.

As for the questions raised in your last paragraph:

First, note that eDirectory has a native implementation of LDAPv3. If the application you wish to host on Linux supports LDAP authentication, you are DONE but for the configuration. Licenses start at $200 for 100 users, dropping in per-user price for higher quantity of course (http://www.novell.com/products/nds/ pricing.html). If your application requires local Linux ID authentication but supports PAM - you will need to purchase more expensive Corporate Edition licenses. Also please note that Novell DOES provide extensive trial versions of their main applications. You can find eDirectory evaluation software at http://www.novell.com/products/n ds/evaluation.html, including downloadable software or instructions on ordering a CD.

Second, you mention Netware 5.0 - yes, 5.0 is better than prior versions. Netware 5.1 is better yet... The bundled and/or integrated applications include Oracle 8i, IBM WebSphere Application Server 3.0 Standard Edition, NetWare Enterprise Web Server, WebDAV support, MS O2K support, loadable servers for FTP, News, Search, and Multimedia, integrated DHCP/(dynamic)DNS, a Certificate Server permitting you to operate your own CA, etc. Check out a full feature list at http://www.novell.com/products/ netware/details.html.

Novell IS partnering agressively with other developers to permit development of applications that support NDS. The future is directory-enabled applications - I believe that it will include NDS as a lynchpin.

--- Andy Deckowitz, speaking only for myself

Like many others, I too find myself at a loss here agreeing with Orrin Hatch. But don't bother bringing up his criticism of Microsoft. There's a perfectly good republican-type (check that, I mean't 'politician-type') reason. He's from Utah. Home of a certain software company that is getting eaten alive by Microsoft. I'm probably not the first to point this out here (sorry can't browse that low with just about 500 messages already.....).
Having said that, he does seem genuine for such a wack job as he... I mean I trust him (trust him to be himself) more than a lot of Democrats. I sure liked him more Dianne Feinstein who doesn't get any of this and was basically a jerk about it (I saw the c-span).

Novell Directory Services, or eDirectory, is a distributed, replicable, hierarchical directory database, which currently runs with full functionality on NetWare (administered and managed almost exclusively from MS Windows), with plenty of functionality (or so the glossies imply) on Solaris and Linux. In the past, NDS has been accessed mostly from Windows clients through Novell Directory Access Protocol (NDAP), something that looks darn similar to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP, a subset of the heavy X.500's Directory Access Protocol). Novell used to provide an LDAP gateway to the NDS, which would send your LDAP request through NDAP to the NDS, and then the answer would come back through NDAP, through the LDAP gateway, and back to you. Novell's eDirectory now lets you hit NDS directly through LDAP, so LDAP is now a true peer to NDAP.

I've played with NDS for Solaris before, and it's pretty slick. Here at Miami U, we've got one or two replicas of a test NDS tree, and we just made our Solaris machine another replica of that tree. All user attributes like shell and home directory are stored as NDS attributes (part of the installation involved extending the NDS schema to allow for Unix attributes). We're pretty excited about this, because any given client of ours has at least five or six different passwords to remember; consolidating directories is a must at this point.

Novell also has a product in Golden Master right now called NetWare NFS Services 3.0. This is another gateway-type thingy that provides NIS and NFS services. I haven't played with this one yet, but it sounds promising.

The problem I'm running into is that Linux doesn't support 32-bit UID's. Miami has on the order of 30,000 clients to support, so we decided to start numbering UID's at the next highest order of magnitude, 100,000. Well, Linux can't see UID's bigger than 65,535, so we must either re-do all our UID's (big, big, big pain in the tochus, as thousands of these UID's are currently in use), abandon universal UID's and the ability to NFS share data across platforms, or wait until Linux gets big UID support. I've read that the recent 2.3 kernels actually support large UID's but we've still got to wait for glibc 2.2. There have been hacks, but I really don't want an enterprise depending on Joe's hack.

Novell Directory Services, or eDirectory, is a distributed, replicable, hierarchical directory database, which currently runs with full functionality on NetWare (administered and managed almost exclusively from MS Windows), with plenty of functionality (or so the glossies imply) on Solaris and Linux. In the past, NDS has been accessed mostly from Windows clients through Novell Directory Access Protocol (NDAP), something that looks darn similar to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP, a subset of the heavy X.500's Directory Access Protocol). Novell used to provide an LDAP gateway to the NDS, which would send your LDAP request through NDAP to the NDS, and then the answer would come back through NDAP, through the LDAP gateway, and back to you. Novell's eDirectory now lets you hit NDS directly through LDAP, so LDAP is now a true peer to NDAP.

I've played with NDS for Solaris before, and it's pretty slick. Here at Miami U, we've got one or two replicas of a test NDS tree, and we just made our Solaris machine another replica of that tree. All user attributes like shell and home directory are stored as NDS attributes (part of the installation involved extending the NDS schema to allow for Unix attributes). We're pretty excited about this, because any given client of ours has at least five or six different passwords to remember; consolidating directories is a must at this point.

Novell also has a product in Golden Master right now called NetWare NFS Services 3.0. This is another gateway-type thingy that provides NIS and NFS services. I haven't played with this one yet, but it sounds promising.

The problem I'm running into is that Linux doesn't support 32-bit UID's. Miami has on the order of 30,000 clients to support, so we decided to start numbering UID's at the next highest order of magnitude, 100,000. Well, Linux can't see UID's bigger than 65,535, so we must either re-do all our UID's (big, big, big pain in the tochus, as thousands of these UID's are currently in use), abandon universal UID's and the ability to NFS share data across platforms, or wait until Linux gets big UID support. I've read that the recent 2.3 kernels actually support large UID's but we've still got to wait for glibc 2.2. There have been hacks, but I really don't want an enterprise depending on Joe's hack.

What, the ones that prominently display "Microsoft Telnet copyright Microsoft corp." when run? The point is that if you have to search the file for a string that is not prominently displaying the actual source (as in origin) of the program.

The funny thing is that Microsoft continues to say that free software cannot be trusted, whereas they have had to use it for anything mission-critical, like the TCP stack in general. Also the wonders of Hotmail not working with Exchange, only with qmail, and of course freebsd.

That BSD software gets around, too. It forms the heart of the Sun Solaris networking stack, and I would imagine is used by Netware and MacOS. It is of course used by Mac OS X Server and its open source cousin, Darwin.

Another interesting point... if you try to use Microsoft for your main DNS servers, your isp will laugh at you. Everyone knows some form of *nix or *bsd is required for anything so critical. Besides, they are free. ;).

How about 'Slashdot: Novel data for users of electronic calculating machines. Information that matters'?

I was gonna mention Novell, but there's the pesky extra "L". I wouldn't be surprised, though, if "Data" were trademarked by Paramount. :)

One of the really cool features of the Novell NetWare Client for Windows 95 is "Automatic Client Update" (ACU). By just putting

#sys:\public\client\win95\setup.exe /acu

This trick is especially useful when installing new machines, because it will even upgrade from the Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks. All you have to do in install Windows 95 from CD, and after logging into a NetWare server once, you're automatically running the latest and greatest client from Novell.

However, Microsoft broke this feature in Windows 98. Trying to install Novell Client 3.x from a network drive causes the installation to fail with the errors

"Install could not find the class type for device id NWWSMGR"
"Install could not find the class type for device id NWNDPS"

There is a nice description of the problem of trying to get your money back at Trent University. Also, despite what the above Knowledge Base article says, this problem was not corrected in Windows 98 Second Edition!

Now, according to Infoworld, the next version of Windows, Windows Millennium Edition (ME), won't have any NetWare connectivity built in. Microsoft is going to remove it from the box. That will fix it! You can't use ACU to upgrade Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks, because you can't have Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks at all!

Okay, so I'm back to my conspiracy theories... Windows isn't done until NetWare doesn't run.

• http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/tidfind er.cgi?2946390
• http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles /q190/6/56.asp
• http://www.trentu.ca/csd/software/netdi.shtml
• http://www2.infoworld.com/articles/en/xml/00/03/ 13/000313enwinupgrade.xml?Template=/st orypages/printarticle.html

Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)
http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_d yk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf

(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf

(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf

(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf

(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Novell has commented on some of W2k's DNS oddities at their 'The Novell Advantage' site: http://www.novell.com/advantage/

There is more specific information on Windows 2000 at http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k.html

Specific DNS-related comments can be found at the following URLs:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk7.html - this one refers to a scenario where a W2k client can crash a BIND 8.1.1 DNS server (8.1.2 & above are OK)

http://www.novell.com/advantage/w2k_dyk8.html - this one discusses W2k's use of SRV RRs to refer to dynamic services. Stale SRV RRs can cause a variety of problems.

The whole series of 'Did You Know?' web pages has been re-posted as a .pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf

(Obvious) Disclaimer: Novell is a big competitor of Microsoft, especially in the area of enterprise networking and enterprise directory services. I do not work for either Novell or Microsoft, but I do use Novell & NDS extensively in my day job.

Microsoft has been saying for a while that Active Directory was going to be the focal point for Win2000, and to a certain extent, it is. It is the part of win2k that has changed the most from previous versions of NT (4.0 and earlier used the domain model, which is basically identical to the domain model used by NIS -- a collection of computers grouped into a flat (non-hierarchical) group, with one or more master servers (Primary Domain controllers) and zero or more slave servers (Backuck Domain Controllers)). Active Directory is a true hierarchical directory service, similar to Novell's NDS. Active Directory has an LDAP interface, proprietary interfaces for D?COM and the like, as well as a direct API that can be used by VB/C++ programmers.

Yeah, Microsoft is on the leading edge as far as Dynamic DNS is concerned, and LDAP support, and all those lovely wonderful things that no one is implementing for real. All this comes at a price, of course, even assuming that there won't be a huge amount of bugs in Active Directory (this is not a flame or a jibe at microsoft; AD is a 1.0 product, and a huge one at that). When you implement any of these things, you have to implement them all. Because of the radical differences between AD and the NT 4.0 domain model, all of your domains and workgroups need to be replanned and re-implemented (no small feat even for small companies). Are you using DHCP for your windows clients? Ooops, you have to use the AD version of DHCP; the older "outdated" (NT 4.0) version doesn't work with AD.

Another problem that has been plaging AD is the speed issue. AD is written as a part of the win2k OS, naturally; to access it via all these disparate methods (LDAP, the API, etc), which the OS doesn't support natively, there needs to be a compatibility layer. And this compatibility layer is way slow. So slow as to render AD unusable on anything but super boxen (Uber-Boxen?). So, merely upgrading your NT 4.0 servers, whose hardware requirements are modest compared to Win2k, is not a good option here.

Do I think Microsoft did a good thing here? In theory, yes. Having only worked with it a little, and that in passing on another person's box, I can't say authoritatively whether I think they did in actuality do it right. The approach has the outward appearance of being done right, but Microsoft's track record for playing by the rules is not spotless (to say the least). We'll have to wait and see, I guess...

darren

There are some ultra orthodox religious conservatives in Utah, and considering that the state legislature is about 70% Republican, with so much control that the Democrats can't even stop a bill even if it is vetoed by the Governor. This tends to make legislative activity more like political platform actions, and some people have even suggested that most state legislative action actually occurs during the state Republican party convention, or at least during the party legislative caucus meetings.

Even with all of that kept in mind, it is still surprising how much erotic literature can be found in paper form, even at public libraries in a very conservative state like Utah. And don't think that the people in Utah are technically illiterate. Senator Bob Bennett chairs the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem (The Y2K Comittee), in fact he helped push the formation of the comittee in the Senate. Utah is also home to tech companies like Novell, Caldera, Thiokol(the makers of the space shuttle booster rockets), Iomega, and many others. To say that Utah is being backward in their decisions is not really taking notice of what happened. The state legislature took the considered opinions of many tech professionals, together with the screaming opinions of a strong conservative religious constituancy and came up with the legislation that could be considered "the will of the people" in a representative democracy.

This isn't to say that this is a one-way street either. If it turns out that net filtering will keep out politically sensitive sites (which it does), it will eventually prove to be a faulty technology.

Novell is betting the farm on NDS (now eDirectory).
Check out their FAQ for a scary gamble...
They're also giving away free licenses to anyone who purchases Windows2000 (3 versions which just arrived on my desk) to compete with MS Active Directory.
Seems to me that it's a last ditch effort, but who knows what they can do with Linux support.
--D

Here are some relevant references from Novell's site:

• Novell Extends Directory Leadership Across Major Platforms with NDS for Linux - This appears to be the main annoucement, dated May 1999
• The NDS Advantage - "NDS technology also seamlessly integrates with other NDS platforms, including ...Linux" and "NDS is shipping, or will soon ship, on ... Linux"
• Novell to License Novell Cross-Platform Services to Caldera For Use on Linux - 10/1996

<darren />

Here are some relevant references from Novell's site:

• Novell Extends Directory Leadership Across Major Platforms with NDS for Linux - This appears to be the main annoucement, dated May 1999
• The NDS Advantage - "NDS technology also seamlessly integrates with other NDS platforms, including ...Linux" and "NDS is shipping, or will soon ship, on ... Linux"
• Novell to License Novell Cross-Platform Services to Caldera For Use on Linux - 10/1996

<darren />

Here are some relevant references from Novell's site:

• Novell Extends Directory Leadership Across Major Platforms with NDS for Linux - This appears to be the main annoucement, dated May 1999
• The NDS Advantage - "NDS technology also seamlessly integrates with other NDS platforms, including ...Linux" and "NDS is shipping, or will soon ship, on ... Linux"
• Novell to License Novell Cross-Platform Services to Caldera For Use on Linux - 10/1996

<darren />

Novell claims NetWare 5.x supports 32 processors. This shipped last year, not Real Soon Now.

from Novell's offical press release

Active Directory is Microsoft's first real attempt into the directory space, and, frankly, their inexperience is evident in important real-world functions.

Things like this give me a good laugh. A M$ certified partner saying M$ is inexperienced.

Here is what Novell has to say on this.

Cheers,
Ben

Novell will continue supporting NetWare 3.2 for some time, thought.

Roy

They _do_ offer small licenses for home and demo use. I have a 3 license NetWare 5 server CD sitting on my desk that I got many moons ago. I'm sure that if you look around on their website you could find it (currently NetWare 5.1).

In my limited experience there is nothing better to serve Win9x/NT clients than NetWare/NDS/ZENWorks. I use it at a local Tech College and have been very impressed.

They _do_ offer small licenses for home and demo use. I have a 3 license NetWare 5 server CD sitting on my desk that I got many moons ago. I'm sure that if you look around on their website you could find it (currently NetWare 5.1).

In my limited experience there is nothing better to serve Win9x/NT clients than NetWare/NDS/ZENWorks. I use it at a local Tech College and have been very impressed.

They do. There are books on Netware admin which come with licence-restricted copies of Netware 5.

Novell's "Did you know" points are documented (usually by Microsoft themselves!) and appear to actually be based on fact. Here's FUD:

http://www.novell.com/advantage/ms_fud. html

Enjoy a good laugh!

I just checked on the Novell site, and NDS and several variants of it are Novell trademarks.

http://www.novell.com/advantage/ms_fud. html

I also know Novell has contributed a port of Apache to NetWare 5.1 to the Apache Group, and is releasing (closed source) NDS for Linux.

I guess Microsoft's done the ActivePerl stuff, and maybe some help with Samba (I don't know.) However, they've backed away from AD support on any non-MS system, and certainly have made no open source announcements about AD.

My point is is that both of these companies will respond to open source. Of course, I'd think Novell has more to gain/lose, so they're likely to be more agressive, while Microsoft is still in the "crush our competitors" analogy.

The person who wrote
DID YOU KNOW that Windows 2000 may crash non-Microsoft DNS servers? should be larted.

I hate how MS has "embraced & extended" DNS, but
the fact that BIND dumps core when updated by W2K clients is BIND's problem, not Microsoft's!

"Maybe my company hasn't proven itself to be a major force in the internet, but that's only because we didnt want to be anyway! The internet runs on BAD TECHNOLOGY! Sure, e-commerce has exploded in the past two years, but everyone buying things on line is a FOOL! How childish of all of you for thinking that you could implement key internet standards without Novell! All you web developers should have been patient enough to wait for us!"

"That's OK though, we forgive you. And what's more, we have lovingly designed a system that will eliminate those pesky security headaches forever. Just sign up for our new INSTA-SECURE service and we'll take care of all your problems! For just a small monthly fee, we'll store all your customer's secure data on OUR server! To sign up, visit our secure site NOW! Just make sure that you enable cookies first..."

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Novell has a very nice clustering solution for NetWare 5. Check out http://www.novell.com/products/clusters/

he solution is to use tools that interoperate and enable you to manage multiple accounts, security, identity and authentication informations.
Novell provides Single Sign On to login to accounts on different systems and applications through the network. Another solution-enabler, for the Internet, is Digitalme. It stores your online identity information and helps you manage your accounts (the e-card is a particularly pretty thingy IMHO). LDAP is another element of the puzzle, and Novell Directory Services knits them all together.
And I almost forgot to mention; a year ago I tried some Java beans and VB ActiveX controls that connected to NDS, and I could, therefore, create NDS-aware applications. You could, for example, make a simple application that would tell you the number of servers and users in a certain organisational unit. OK, and I am pretty nostalgic because I'm working on totally different projects now, so I kinda miss the neat Novell technology....

NDS and other Directory Services may not matter much to nickle and dime shops, but anyone who has to manage more than 10 networked devices can appreciate the ability to do so from a single administration front-end to directory services

Novell has been doing this for years. The only thing keeping Novell from dying as a company, is that they keep making their network adminstration easier through directory services. With NDS 8, Novell Netware 5.0, and Zero Effort Networks (ZEN), you can administer just about every device on your network in about every way imaginable.

Those that have implemented NDS the right way just can't switch to NT, they'd have to increase the number of employees in their IT department by and order of magnitude.

With NDS and ZEN, you can lock down who can login from which specific machines. Have their printers and data resources move automatically based on User and Workstation. Install and distribute software updates. Administer resource quota's, etc. And that is just the start.

With the addition of NDS for UNIX and NT, life is going to get a lot easier for those that have to administer, maintain, and support networks.

I only wish the open source community could deliver 10% of the product that NDS already is. -And I don't mean spending 1000+ hours to configure this-and-that open source tools which already exist... but rather a single intuitive rock-solid directory server with an accompanying intuitive administrative interface.

I had hoped that Caldera's Open Administration System (COAS) would grow to fill this role... but it seems destined to die of neglect and disinterest.

They have. NetWare Core Protocols was released during BrainShare '99.

Mindcraft's NT vs. IntraNetware benchmarks:
Server Config: Compaq ProLiant 5500 single 500Mhz Xeon. They report software Price/performance. (see Novell's rebuttal)

And then, sometime between last fall and now, servers needed 3 more Xeons and another 512 Megs of ram, and companies stopped caring about price/performance.

Oh, I almost forgot. NSI sucks. What arrogance.

Novell reacts to Mindcraft Benchmarks of Novell 5 vs NT4.
http://www.novell.com/adv antage/nw5/nw5-mindcraftcheck.html

Mindcraft admits that Microsoft commissioned the original report.
http://www.mind craft.com/whitepapers/rebuttal-summary-nts4nw5file svr.html

Do we see a trend here?

Okay, this is rubbish. Sponsored by MS, eh. Weeelll, then it must be true! Here are some other points of view:

1. This article in InfoWorld about MS's own concern about NT server system crashes, along with a few choice quotes from other consultants.

2. This article by Novell pointing out Mindcraft's lack of, uh, a reality check.

3. This survey by Netcraft showing Apache whopping the sh*t out of NT/IIS.

Preaching to the choir, I know, but I just had to do it. I just wish we had a central, big-name pr channel to counter the MS FUD. Any ideas?

>and presumable still do
Yup, they do. Here's Novell's rebuttal to a similar 'independent comparison' of NT4 and Netware 5 http://www.novell.com/a dvantage/nw5/nw5-mindcraftcheck.html. The study that prompted this particular article was done by none other than mindcraft, so I wouldn't put too much faith in the results of any of their tests.
Kathryn.

Chilli