To all: Groupwise --- Good Stuff
====================================================================
Wise Guise
Novell's new face on GroupWise shines.
By Travis J. Berkley
Network World, 9/16/96
With GroupWise 5, Novell, Inc. has enhanced almost every aspect of the groupware platform that began life as WordPerfect
Office. The new product's messaging and conferencing capabilities are in the same league as those of Microsoft Corp.'s
Exchange and Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes, but you also
get integrated document management and workflow, along with
easy administration that relies on the powerful Novell Directory
Services (NDS). In other words, GroupWise 5 is a well-rounded
groupware package that makes it easy to access and share your
information.
Our evaluation of a recent beta version of the software revealed a
product with more data access options than ever. Its open
architecture supports many network operating systems and
provides hooks for third-party applications to easily tie in. The
system administration functions, now presented in a
Windows-based environment, are more intuitive, more powerful
and easier to navigate.
The server agents have been enhanced significantly since the
last release of GroupWise 4.1. While end users will not directly
appreciate the changes, you'll probably have far fewer headaches
when it comes to upkeep and load balancing.
The "servers " of GroupWise 4 are being replaced with "agents"
in GroupWise 5:
* Message Server is being replaced by a Message Transport
Agent (MTA) that transports data between message stores,
performing any necessary conversions;
* Administration Server has become an Administration Agent
(ADA) that is responsible for functions such as adding new
users, meeting replication requests and domain database
maintenance; Post Office Server is now a Post Office Agent
(POA) and handles post office message stores and libraries.
We tested all three types of agents for both NetWare and
Windows NT.
One major enhancement is the ability to schedule maintenance
at any time of day or night. You can schedule an ''Analyze and
Fix'' job nightly, while each weekend you can run a more robust
check that includes scanning contents and indexes. You can
also schedule maintenance on the libraries that store document
management information. To facilitate clean backups, you can
tell the ADA to remain idle for a period of time. The interface to
this feature was functional in our beta copy, but the developers
had not yet enabled the buttons that caused the execution of
scheduled events.
Another interesting feature is the ability to have numerous POAs
servicing the same post office. Each POA interacts with
client/server requests. For heavily used post offices, this can
distribute the workload over many different machines and
processes to help with load balancing. We used the NetWare
Loadable Module and NT agent simultaneously with two
machines hand experienced no problems.
Administration of all facets of GroupWise 5 is handled within the
NetWare Administrator program NWAdmin through the use of
snap-in modules. Four new tabs in the Details windows offer
options for each GroupWise user. There is also a View option
that can be activated to show Domain and post office information
in the top pane and User, Resource and Library information in the
bottom pane. For most of the system maintenance in GroupWise
4, administration was a tedious process, performed largely one
user at a time. Maintaining GroupWise now is as simple as
pointing to any resource in NDS and clicking on System
Maintenance. Repairs, if necessary, are handled by either the
ADA or the POA, whichever is appropriate. As with the previous
version, maintenance may be performed while users are active in
the system.
Since GroupWise administration is built around NDS, it can be
centralized or distributed. With the previous version of
GroupWise, administration could only occur on a domain level.
By making others trustees of any of the GroupWise components,
you can customize your levels of administration to suit your
needs.
Have data your way Connectivity and the ability to get to your data in a variety of ways is a strong point of GroupWise 5. For backward compatibility, Novell designed the GroupWise 5 MTA to be compatible with the GroupWise 4 remote clients. The MTA performs message conversion from Version 5 to Version 4, and can upgrade post offices one at a time in a domain.
GroupWise 4 clients used shared post office box files, which put the burden of data manipulation on the client. If your server lacks processing power, this could be an accceptable solution, and, in
the same manner. However, it does require e client have
some form of direct access to the post office, making it possible
for them to accidentally delete or corrupt data.
GroupWise 5 offers an additional client/server option in which the
message stores are always on a file server. Users communicate
with the agent via TCP/IP, and the agent sends back the
information they request. Users do not have to be authenticated
to the server. This option requires no drive mappings and does
not even require a connection to a file server if the client is
installed locally.
With this option, the client makes requests directly to the POA.
Since the administrator is free to implement many POAs for a
single post office, the agents can be moved to points on the
network that balance the load, eliminate bottlenecks and
facilitate faster response. It also provides tighter security, since
the client does not need any direct access to the post office.
Remote users used to require a separate product that kept
separate databases and address books and synchronized them
when connections were made to the PO, much the same way
Lotus Notes performs replication. The new client comes with
remote capabilities bundled in. If you select ''Hit the road'' from
the Action menu, it downloads copies of whatever you select
locally to, say, your laptop. When you make a connection, select
the same option and GroupWise sends copies of the messages,
addresses, and whatever else you created, updates the message
stores on the server and you're back in client/server or file-
sharing mode again.
For users on the go, Novell's Web Access is a handy way to
access personal information without the need for a specific client.
Using any HTML 1.0, or more recent compliant browser, you can
log on and, with very few limitations, access your complete post
office box. Web Access was released recently for GroupWise 4,
and a version that works with GroupWise 5 will ship with the
initial release. It will have the same functionality as the current
Web Access version, meaning only those functions available in
GroupWise 4 will be available. A version planned for late this year
or early next will support message attachments, document
management and access to shared folders.
Any Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) 1.0-
compliant mail client can also access the GroupWise 5 message
stores, either through file sharing or client/server access. For
example, using the standard Microsoft Exchange client that
ships with Windows 95, we were able to access our GroupWise
5 mailbox. Exchange still displays information in its native
format, so items such as appointments appear as mail
messages, but they are accessible.
Within two to four months after the initial release, GroupWise 5 is
slated to have a back end available to provide Post Office
Protocol 3 (POP3) and Internet Message Access Protocol 4
services. This was not available for evaluation.
Like its predecessor, GroupWise 5 supports a variety of
gateways to link to multiple platforms and systems. And, by
using the GroupWise 5 to GroupWise 4 message conversion
built into the MTA, you can upgrade to new versions of the
gateways as they are released. New versions of the gateways
were not available for this evaluation.
The only stated requirement for running GroupWise 5 is NDS
running on one NetWare 4.1 server anywhere on your network.
As Novell develops versions of NDS for other platforms, a
NetWare server will not be a necessity in the future.
The NetWare agents installed easily and required no special
attention to run. As the Setup Wizard gathers information about
your domains and post offices, it automatically creates the
configuration files that each agent needs and saves them in the
server's System directory. In addition, it creates a script file to
make starting the agents a one-command process. Domains and
post offices can be on any version of NetWare 4.X and 3.X.
Setting up the NT agents was just as straightforward. The agents
can be installed to either a file server directory or to a local disk.
For our testing, the agents were installed locally on NT
Workstation 4.0. The screens look similar to the NLM screens,
except that menus are available via mouse clicks instead of via
function keys.
Both the NLM and NT agents were stable, even in this beta
release. While we couldn't recreate the volume of our 4,000+-
user production system, we encountered no server crashes, and
could perform maintenance without incident.
Agents for other platforms are in development. Three to five
months after initial release, Novell says agents will be available
for SCO Unix, HP/UX, AIX, Sun Solaris and OS/2.
A new face
One of the most prominent additions to the GroupWise package
is the arrival of a 32-bit client. It is written for Windows 95, but
Novell says it will be supported as a Windows NT 4.0 client by
release date.
What grabs your attention first is the two-paned appearance of
the client, similar to that of Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange.
It juxtaposes folders and hierarchical structures with content and
items. A third pane containing the Quick Viewer, a means of
browsing your information, can be opened along the bottom.
Novell has expanded on the universal in-box concept by adding a
few new features and enhancing current ones. The Mailbox,
called the In Box in the previous release, is still the common
entry point to which all items reach the user. Also, just as with
the previous version, all items sent by the user are stored in the
Sent Items folder, formerly known as the Out Box. The
functionality of the Calendar and Task List folders remain
consistent enough for veteran users to pick up where they left off
with the previous version. Also, the Trash is now simply another
folder. As with previous versions, the Mailbox, Trash and now the
Calendar icons each change to reflect new items that require the
user's attention.
The Cabinet, which is the default location of the unlimited number
of folders users can tailor to their needs, gives you a tremendous
amount of flexibility in organizing your data. You can use rules to
automatically move inbound items from the Mailbox to alternate
locations. While you cannot make sub-folders for standard items
such as Mailbox and Calendar, you can add new folders to the
top level of your post office box and nest folders however you
wish. A Work In Progress folder is available to save draft
messages.
A powerful new feature in GroupWise 5 is shared folders, a
feature also found in Microsoft Exchange. Without help from the
administrator, users can share folders and their contents with
other users. If the user exists on another post office, replication
of the items occurs behind the scenes. The right to read a folder
is implied, but you may also grant the right to add to, modify or
delete what is already in the folder. Once you've done this, a
dialog box asks for a message to be sent as an invitation to the
user you've designated. When the recipient reads and accepts
the invitation, a folder is created in his Cabinet and sharing is
immediately activated.
Shared folders are a prerequisite for discussions, which are
basically threaded online conversations. Message threads can be
expanded and collapsed to make it easier to find a particular
thread of interest. Formatting the text seems to be rather crude -
no hard returns, no tabs and no addition of white space - but the
functionality of a bulletin board feature is a welcome addition. As
with all GroupWise message types, you can attach files to a
discussion item.
E-mail in any folder can also be viewed as threads. By default,
GroupWise shows messages you have sent, denoted by red
arrows, interspersed with the messages you have received. If you
do not wish to see your outbound messages, you can simply
click off that filter in the toolbar.
The address book in GroupWise 5 has taken on a completely
different look. Integrated within previous versions, it is now a
separate executable program that can be browsed or called while
addressing messages.
A nice feature of the Address Book is the Frequent Contacts
book. As each message is sent or received, its address is
picked out and placed in the Frequent Contacts book. You can
use this book, sorted by number of contacts, just as any other.
To find a name, just start typing in one of the destination fields;
the client looks for matches based upon which field you're typing
in. It first searches Frequent Contacts, then the user's personal
address book, and finally the system address book, containing
all GroupWise users. Once an address is selected, it is
displayed by showing the person's full name rather than some
cryptic form of their address. As before, you can logically
combine users together into groups, but you now can save these
groups in any of your personal address books.
The ability to find a piece of information in an ever-expanding mail
box is always a challenge. With GroupWise 5, you can use the
Find tool to locate a text string in any message type. The Find
options allow the user to selectively control which folders to
search, what message types to look for, and even specific
information about the author, delivery date or version. This is
quite a handy feature for those who don't prune their mailbox as
often as they should.
Workflow is a new addition to the GroupWise suite, though it was
not available in the beta version we tested. Workflow is designed
to automate processes - messages can be forwarded to the
appropriate personnel, actions can be triggered based on the
type of message or its content, and the progress of the entire
procedure can be tracked and monitored.
Novell also folded its SoftSolutions document management
product into this version of GroupWise. Any program that can
take advantage of Open Document Management APIs can tie
into the Document Management features of GroupWise 5. Other
documents can be manually merged into your post office box.
Once you've done this, you can check documents out to others,
keep track of revisions and the history of a document, and control
how and whether people can access the document concurrently.
To set up document management, an administrator must define
at least one library. A library is an area where documents are
stored when not checked out to a user. Documents are encoded
when checked into the library - an added security bonus. When
someone makes a request to check out a document, it is copied
from the library to a directory the user specifies. If you attempt to
check out the same document, you'll be informed as to who has
already checked out the document.
Wise but quirky
With all the improvements on the server side, Novell might be
excused for devoting less effort to enhancing its clients. But
happily, that doesn't appear to be the case.
The Windows 95 32-bit client is a feature-rich tool, though we
question some of the design choices. For example, those who
create regularly scheduled appointments using the Auto-Date
feature might be confused by the behavior of the Set Alarm
action. If you remember to set the alarm before going into
Auto-Date, the result is what you would expect: each event will
have an alarm set on it. But if you try to select Set Alarm after
you have used the Auto-Date, the option is grayed out, and no
event gets an alarm associated with it.
Another potential ''gotcha'' is that the Quick Viewer marks items
as opened. So if you thumb down through your In Box with the
Quick Viewer, the messages you pass are marked as read
whether you actually opened them or not. If you do not know
about this ''feature,'' you might overlook a mail message that is
actually new.
The 16-bit Windows 3.1 client has changed little since Version
4.1a. It cannot take advantage of most of the features added to
the 32-bit client except for client/server connectivity. This was not
an oversight on Novell's part. In fact, after considering Novell's
recommended upgrade path, it makes the job of moving to
GroupWise 5 a much more manageable task.
When the post office is upgraded from Version 4 to Version 5,
the 16-bit client, which runs under Windows 95, as well, is
delivered automatically to the desktop. This lets the users begin
using GroupWise 5 immediately in an environment they are
familiar with. Users can then migrate to a full-featured 32-bit
client whenever it is convenient.
Novell plans to provide a version of the 32-bit client that runs
under Windows 3.1 with Win32's extensions about two to four
months after the initial release. This will give users the power of a
32-bit client without forcing them into a new operating system.
There's also a full-featured Macintosh client for both Motorola and
PowerMac architectures available with the initial release of
GroupWise 5. The initial beta version was unavailable for review,
but the client is reported to be similar to the Windows 95 client.
Migrating in the Macintosh environment will be more of a plunge
because there will not be an older-looking client compatible with
GroupWise 5, unless users are running the remote client.
Two to four months after initial release, and not currently even in
beta, Novell expects to release clients for AIX, HP/UX and
Solaris.
The one client not available in GroupWise 5 that was present in
Version 4.1 is a DOS client.
Into the spotlight
The decision to upgrade from previous versions to GroupWise 5
is all but a foregone conclusion. The new 32-bit clients pack the
power of document management, sharing and workflows.
Administration is now easier, more flexible and more
configurable. The addition of client/server connections and MAPI
1.0 compliance provide more options to get to your information,
and shared folders make it easy to share that information. The
wide variety of platforms supported ensures that everyone can
join in the fun.
Even if you are not a current user of GroupWise, you should
consider it as your primary groupware platform. It offers an
enticing superset of the functions of Microsoft Exchange, and
overlaps largely with the capabilities of Lotus Notes, though with
simpler administration.
The author would like to thank Ralph Chapman and Bird Vilseck
for their assistance in testing.
====================================================================
Joe....
monmouth.com |
