I've got to disagree with your assesment that Novell is not a key industry player. Novell's eDirectory is the premier directory solution in a market that includes Active Directory, iPlanet, OpenLDAP, and others. Microsoft's attempt to cover for their weak directory solution do not in any way detract from the importance of a good directory.
And to answer the original question, eDirectory is the new name for Novell's NDS, a mature yet still evolving directory service that is fully LDAPv3 compliant. As it has been available for so long, there are MANY third-party tools and utilities available to manage it (such as Bindview or JRBUtils) in addition to Novell's own tools and utilities. Novell's eDirectory management utilities include import/export tools built in to ConsoleOne (an admittedly heavyweight Java-based management console) as well as BulkLoad, a command-line LDAP utility that uses LDIF files for command input. These utilities permit import/export of userids in LDIF format, as well as the migration of data between LDAP servers.
eDirectory is fully cross-platform, currently running on Netware, NT, 2000, Linux, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX. It's been demonstrated at tradeshows with databases of up to one BILLION user accounts. Features of the latest version, 8.6, include persistent searches, dynamic groups, and live backup. The next release is expected to include UDDI, SOAP, and DSML 2.0 support.
Novell is practically giving eDirectory away at a list price of $2/user or less. They are actually giving it away for VARs and developers that wish to bundle eDirectory as the dedicated directory for their applications.
Oh, and if you wish to stay with open source options, look on Freshmeat.net for OpenLDAP - it includes a set of client utilities that should fit at least some of your requirements. Freshmeat should also have other LDAP clients, including browsers.
Have you not been paying attention? Novell doesn't have to 'roll NDS stuff into LDAP'... The last two or three revisions of NDS are already FULLY LDAP compatible. eDirectory IS the future of Novell.
Yeah, gotta agree with that. NS makes no attempt to hide the fact that they think you are a cow. At least in IE you can disable all these "features", in NS you're stuck with THAT GODDAMNED FUCKING *SHOP* BUTTON!!! Excuse me, I just really don't like that button. Even worse than having it at all is that they put Shop right next to Stop. This really bothers me since I generally use text only buttons in NS. I'd rather use the icons, but they're stuck at size FUCKING HUGE! Well that's enough of my ranting for today.
Pretty please, pretty please, can I have a good browser for Linux???
You can disable the Shop@Netscape button and Netscape Radio feature by editing the prefs.js file (preferences.js on Unix).
To disable the Shop@Netscape button, open the prefs.js file and add the following statement: user_pref("browser.chrome.disableMyShopping", true);
To disable the Netscape Radio plugin, open the prefs.js file and add the following statement: user_pref("browser.chrome.disableNetscapeRadio", true);
No comment on the buttons, they look fine to me at 1152x864 resolution.
Andy ---
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.
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.
Try this search on Google (I've already emailed this result to Jamie):
Chocolate chippie
With Google's 'I Feel Lucky' feature, this will place you on an obvious pr0n website: http://www.amateurs.com/guests/homemoviesJ/Odyss ey/57550/guest.htm
BTW, the search 'chocolate chippie cookie' returns a number of drug-related links on several search engines, but nothing that qualifies under the contest.
IMHO, this highlights the big problem with keyword blocking: slang. Slang usage will change faster than any filter company can adapt, and slang re-usage of common words virtually guarantees false positives.
I find it particularly disturbing that the only mention of scalability in the main article is in relation to SCO's UnixWare, and yet the scorecard makes scalability worth 20% of the total score. 2000 & Unixware both scored 8 for scalability while Netware and RedHat scored 6. There was NO scalability category in the main review even though there was one for client administration (worth 5% of the total score). Call me a cynic, but the weight assigned to scalability deserves SOME writeup in the main review. From the scores, the ONLY thing keeping 2000 ahead of NW5.1 - and the only thing keeping UnixWare 'close' to RedHat is the scalability weight.
Just for the hell of it, I re-scaled the scorecard, reducing scalability's weight by 60% and increasing all other weights by 15%. The results were informative: NW5.1 @ 7.85, W2000 @ 7.75, RH6.1 @ 6.40, & UW7.1.1 @ 5.81.
I've read the comments on NWFusion's web site - it looks like there may have been a scalability section at one point, but I can't see it now. The only comment I could find was from the 'How we did it' page: "We evaluated the scalability of each NOS based on its symmetric multiprocessor ability, failover clustering support and load-balancing clustering ability." Sorry, what was that? Scalability was measured on 'ability' and 'support', not real-world performance?
Here's what I've culled from several stories on the subject...
mrfantasy mentioned DigitalMe above - I have also seen mention of the management interface for ICS (the Internet Caching System), and more importantly, the NDS for Linux client. I would absolutely love to see NWAdmin, along with the (vital) plugins for administration of ZEN and other NDS extensions, running on a Linux platform. Yes, I know that ConsoleOne is the future direction of Netware administration - but there are far too many critical administrative functions that do not run on that platform yet.
I use Visio in my work regularly, for documenting network structures. Visio *used to* have a free add-on - the Visio Solution Pack for NDS. This product could be added on to Visio 5.0 and permitted an administrator to diagram NDS trees easily, by importing live data into a Visio chart. With the release of the Visio Enterprise (priced $600 higher than the previous professional versions) this functionality was 'embraced and extended' - the free product was withdrawn. The new product does include MS Active Directory and NT Domain structures but does not seem to include any enhancements to the functionality of the free NDS Solution Pack. I cannot help but believe that MS will either direct the removal of the NDS functionality altogether or inhibit any future enhancements - it is not in MS's best interests to sell a product that enhances a competing directory-enabled network.
Enhancements/features I'd like to see: -better online/offline directory reporting and prototyping similar to DS Standard (and don't get me started on CA...) -better performance when charting trees with large numbers of objects -improved charting of NDS partitions -the ability to easily chart server relationships (such as timesync provider groups)
Anyone know of a competing product that includes such functionality (Dia perhaps?)
I also note with disappointment that the new version of the Standard and Technical Editions is 'Visio 2000' - a logical precursor to its inclusion in Office 2001 I suppose. Does the year-based numbering scheme make sense for anyone but marketing?
After all of the recent discussion of copyright, I'm surprised that no-one else has commented on this one... the AC post 'The book has an essential flaw' is cut & pasted exactly from a customer comment on the Amazon.com listing for this book. The original author was juergen@idsia.ch from Lugano, Switzerland. The initial comment was on August 26, 1999, with a followup on September 6.
Slashdot Mirror
I've got to disagree with your assesment that Novell is not a key industry player. Novell's eDirectory is the premier directory solution in a market that includes Active Directory, iPlanet, OpenLDAP, and others. Microsoft's attempt to cover for their weak directory solution do not in any way detract from the importance of a good directory.
And to answer the original question, eDirectory is the new name for Novell's NDS, a mature yet still evolving directory service that is fully LDAPv3 compliant. As it has been available for so long, there are MANY third-party tools and utilities available to manage it (such as Bindview or JRBUtils) in addition to Novell's own tools and utilities. Novell's eDirectory management utilities include import/export tools built in to ConsoleOne (an admittedly heavyweight Java-based management console) as well as BulkLoad, a command-line LDAP utility that uses LDIF files for command input. These utilities permit import/export of userids in LDIF format, as well as the migration of data between LDAP servers.
eDirectory is fully cross-platform, currently running on Netware, NT, 2000, Linux, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX. It's been demonstrated at tradeshows with databases of up to one BILLION user accounts. Features of the latest version, 8.6, include persistent searches, dynamic groups, and live backup. The next release is expected to include UDDI, SOAP, and DSML 2.0 support.
Novell is practically giving eDirectory away at a list price of $2/user or less. They are actually giving it away for VARs and developers that wish to bundle eDirectory as the dedicated directory for their applications.
Oh, and if you wish to stay with open source options, look on Freshmeat.net for OpenLDAP - it includes a set of client utilities that should fit at least some of your requirements. Freshmeat should also have other LDAP clients, including browsers.
Have you not been paying attention? Novell doesn't have to 'roll NDS stuff into LDAP'... The last two or three revisions of NDS are already FULLY LDAP compatible. eDirectory IS the future of Novell.
Check out http://www.novell.com/products/nds/ ; for more information.
---
Pretty please, pretty please, can I have a good browser for Linux???
... so TURN THE (Shop, Radio) BUTTONS OFF!
From the Version Notes at http://home.net scape.com/eng/mozilla/4.7/relnotes/windows-4.75.h
No comment on the buttons, they look fine to me at 1152x864 resolution.
Andy
---
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
Well, Slash incorrectly anonymized my first attempt. This is a re-post under my own name.
.pdf: http://www.novell.com/advantage/tech- eval.pdf
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
(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.
Check out this search (xref my other posting, http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/02/21/13223 7&cid=474 )
Google, 'Chocolate chippie', hit the "I feel lucky" button.
That should fit your point A test...
Andy
Try this search on Google (I've already emailed this result to Jamie):
s ey/57550/guest.htm
Chocolate chippie
With Google's 'I Feel Lucky' feature, this will place you on an obvious pr0n website:
http://www.amateurs.com/guests/homemoviesJ/Odys
BTW, the search 'chocolate chippie cookie' returns a number of drug-related links on several search engines, but nothing that qualifies under the contest.
IMHO, this highlights the big problem with keyword blocking: slang. Slang usage will change faster than any filter company can adapt, and slang re-usage of common words virtually guarantees false positives.
Andy
I find it particularly disturbing that the only mention of scalability in the main article is in relation to SCO's UnixWare, and yet the scorecard makes scalability worth 20% of the total score. 2000 & Unixware both scored 8 for scalability while Netware and RedHat scored 6. There was NO scalability category in the main review even though there was one for client administration (worth 5% of the total score). Call me a cynic, but the weight assigned to scalability deserves SOME writeup in the main review. From the scores, the ONLY thing keeping 2000 ahead of NW5.1 - and the only thing keeping UnixWare 'close' to RedHat is the scalability weight.
Just for the hell of it, I re-scaled the scorecard, reducing scalability's weight by 60% and increasing all other weights by 15%. The results were informative: NW5.1 @ 7.85, W2000 @ 7.75, RH6.1 @ 6.40, & UW7.1.1 @ 5.81.
I've read the comments on NWFusion's web site - it looks like there may have been a scalability section at one point, but I can't see it now. The only comment I could find was from the 'How we did it' page: "We evaluated the scalability of each NOS based on its symmetric multiprocessor ability, failover clustering support and load-balancing clustering ability." Sorry, what was that? Scalability was measured on 'ability' and 'support', not real-world performance?
This review's conclusions are seriously flawed...
Here's what I've culled from several stories on the subject...
mrfantasy mentioned DigitalMe above - I have also seen mention of the management interface for ICS (the Internet Caching System), and more importantly, the NDS for Linux client. I would absolutely love to see NWAdmin, along with the (vital) plugins for administration of ZEN and other NDS extensions, running on a Linux platform. Yes, I know that ConsoleOne is the future direction of Netware administration - but there are far too many critical administrative functions that do not run on that platform yet.
This is truly disheartening news.
I use Visio in my work regularly, for documenting network structures. Visio *used to* have a free add-on - the Visio Solution Pack for NDS. This product could be added on to Visio 5.0 and permitted an administrator to diagram NDS trees easily, by importing live data into a Visio chart. With the release of the Visio Enterprise (priced $600 higher than the previous professional versions) this functionality was 'embraced and extended' - the free product was withdrawn. The new product does include MS Active Directory and NT Domain structures but does not seem to include any enhancements to the functionality of the free NDS Solution Pack. I cannot help but believe that MS will either direct the removal of the NDS functionality altogether or inhibit any future enhancements - it is not in MS's best interests to sell a product that enhances a competing directory-enabled network.
Enhancements/features I'd like to see:
-better online/offline directory reporting and prototyping similar to DS Standard (and don't get me started on CA...)
-better performance when charting trees with large numbers of objects
-improved charting of NDS partitions
-the ability to easily chart server relationships (such as timesync provider groups)
Anyone know of a competing product that includes such functionality (Dia perhaps?)
I also note with disappointment that the new version of the Standard and Technical Editions is 'Visio 2000' - a logical precursor to its inclusion in Office 2001 I suppose. Does the year-based numbering scheme make sense for anyone but marketing?
After all of the recent discussion of copyright, I'm surprised that no-one else has commented on this one... the AC post 'The book has an essential flaw' is cut & pasted exactly from a customer comment on the Amazon.com listing for this book. The original author was juergen@idsia.ch from Lugano, Switzerland. The initial comment was on August 26, 1999, with a followup on September 6.
Andy