The early returns are in: SNA Server 3.0 is a winner
Datamation (September issue):
Microsoft's upcoming SNA Server 3.0 is garnering rave reviews from beta users. In fact, some sites are planning to switch from NetWare For SAA.
By David Simpson
For many Windows NT and NetWare sites, the need to integrate PC LANs with IBM's AS/400 and System/390 environments is a fact of life. One option is to use a set of SNA gateways from IBM, most notably NetWare For SAA. But NetWare For SAA has been plagued by a number of problems--most notably its tendency to crash. To make matters worse, IBM hasn't significantly enhanced NetWare For SAA since taking it over from Novell last year.
Another strong option is Microsoft's SNA Server 3.0, which is currently in beta and is due to ship within two months (60 days after Windows NT 4.0 shipments,which were due last month). Early beta users are enthusiastic about a variety of new features in release 3.0. In fact, some are planning a quick migration away from NetWare For SAA. (For more information on SNA Server 3.0, go to microsoft.com
One example is East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Ala. The hospital complex plans to migrate to SNA Server 3.0 as soon as the final code is available, provided that it matches the functionality of the beta release, according to Bruce Gray, a systems analyst at the medical center.
Gray has a number of complaints about NetWare For SAA. For starters, he says, the product frequently crashes, logging off more than 200 users at the medical center. "It even crashes our NetFrame server, which is supposed to be bulletproof," Gray says. Another complaint is that, whenever East Alabama adds a new PC LANprinter, the medical center must first shut down all of the printers hooked up to the LAN. For these and other reasons, East Alabama plans to migrate to
SNA Server 3.0 to link NetWare PC LANs with an AS/400 environment.
East Alabama is not the only customer impressed with SNA Server 3.0. In fact, many beta users are sold on the product's increased functionality. "The two key features for us are the printing capabilities and single sign-on," says Dave Martin, a network engineer at North Pacific Insurance, Portland, Ore., which plans to use
SNA Server 3.0 to link a NetWare LAN to a System/390 CICS facility. In addition to those two features--SNA Print Service and single sign-on
capability--release 3.0's increased capacity is another improvement that large corporate customers are raving about.
Consolidated printing
In release 3.0, SNA Print Service provides server-based 3270 and 5250 print emulation, allowing S/390 and AS/400 applications to print to any LAN printer connected to an NT or NetWare server. "We really like SNA Print Service because it consolidates all kinds of printing into one architecture--NT--and allows us to use commodity printers to spool jobs from the host," says Rick Sangha, manager of telecommunications at Allegheny Ludlum, a steel manufacturer in Pittsburgh.
Prior to 3.0, companies had to use third-party print emulation packages running on client platforms or on stand-alone conversion boxes to print host-based files on LAN-connected printers. At North Pacific Insurance, SNA Print Service will eliminate their need for stand-alone print servers to handle print job conversions.
Previously, the insurance company had to buy a conversion box (about $200) for each printer it added. Although $200 per box wasn't prohibitively expensive, the print-conversion boxes were causing other problems. For one, says Martin, their power supplies failed frequently, requiring manual replacement.
Other improvements that SNA Print Service offers are increased performance and reduced network management hassles because you now don't have to define as many print services when submitting a job, according to Vesa Suomalainen, general manager of Microsoft's SNA Server Product Unit. To be fair, it's important to note that such
features are not unique with SNA Print Service; NetWare For SAA has had comparable functionality for some time.
One password
One feature that is unique to SNA Server 3.0 is the product's single sign-on capability, which allows users to use one sign-on and password for multiple environments, such as NT, AS/400, and S/390. So, for example, when you log onto NT, you're automatically logged onto your AS/400 or mainframe. "Our users' biggest gripe is that they
have to sign on to each environment," says North Pacific Insurance's Martin. "And we have a rule that requires them to change their passwords every 60 days, so it's hard to keep them all in sync." North Pacific Insurance also evaluated NetWare For SAA, but that package did not support single sign-on and, according to Martin, it was
less stable than SNA Server.
Single sign-on was also a big selling point at Bell Mobility Cellular. The Toronto-area company has a heterogeneous environment that includes Windows NT, NetWare, and S/390, as well as various flavors of UNIX.
Each of the platform environments--in addition to a variety of different applications--requires a separate password. "Some of our users have as many as 14 passwords, and at that point they don't want to change them, so you've got a security mess," says George Morris, senior LAN specialist at Bell. "Our goal is to get to as few passwords
as possible."
Morris is also looking forward to software from Proginet that will extend the single sign-on capabilities of SNA Server to UNIX platforms. Proginet has not yet announced ship dates for the UNIX version of its code, but the company currently sells add-onsoftware for SNA Server 3.0 that handles password synchronization in the MVS
environment, including integration with IBM's RACF and Computer Associates' CA-Top Secret and CA-AFC2 security packages.
Fewer servers required
Another big advantage of SNA Server 3.0 is the product's increased capacity relative to the preceding version--2.11--as well as to competing offerings from other vendors. Microsoft claims that SNA Server 3.0 can support up to 5,000 users and 15,000 host sessions per server. That compares with 2,000 users and 10,000 host sessions supported by SNA Server 2.11. At Bell Mobility Cellular, which has some 2,700 users, the increased capacity was a major selling point.
The benefit of such a capacity increase is that you'll need less servers. For example, say you have 12,000 users. With SNA Server 2.11, you'd typically have to have six servers plus two backup servers. With 3.0, claims Microsoft's Suomalainen, you can reduce that total to only four servers and still have adequate backup capability.
At some sites, server consolidation can be even more dramatic. Allegheny Ludlum, for example, plans to decrease its server count from 20 NetWare For SAA servers to three SNA Server 3.0 gateways. The steel manufacturer is currently in the process of migrating from NetWare For SAA to SNA Server, after which the company expects to support some 2,000 users and 3,000 to 4,000 host sessions, according to Sangha.
Other key features
Bell Mobility's Morris says that another key advantage of SNA Server 3.0 at his site is the product's improved administration tools. "They're not bad in 2.11, but there will be some real goodies in 3.0," he says. "For example, I want our help desk to have a subset of our admin tools, and 3.0 will facilitate that quite nicely."
To make systems administration consistent across Microsoft platforms, SNA Server 3.0 includes SNA Explorer, a graphical administration tool with a user interface that looks like Windows95 and NT Explorer. SNA Explorer handles tasks such as configuration management and server monitoring and management. And SNA Explorer is based on ActiveX, so developers can write their own Visual Basic programs to control the interface and to automate management tasks.
Improved systems administration tools was one major reason why Texas Utilities went with SNA Server 3.0. "We like the Explorer-like admin tools that allow us to administer multiple SNA Servers from one location," says Craig Carter, IT systems development manager at the utility's Fort Worth location.
SNA Server 3.0 also offers a number of other enhancements that may or may not be of advantage at your site. The relevance of these features depends on a variety of factors, such as whether you're trying to connect PC LANs to AS/400s, mainframes, or both. For example, the Shared Folders Service is an AS/400-specific feature that makes AS/400 disk subsystems look like local NT Server disks to PC LAN users. Prior to release 3.0, this feature required users to install SNA code on all
clients.
Another AS/400-specific feature is TN5250 Service, which allows any client that's running standard Telnet 5250 emulation software to connect through SNA Server to AS/400s. This feature can be a
huge benefit for sites that have a mix of PCs, Macs, and UNIX systems because it allows users of those platforms to connect to the AS/400 without having to run TCP/IP on the AS/400. Avoiding
TCP/IP will translate to an approximately 18% reduction in AS/400 CPU cycles, according to
Microsoft's Suomalainen.
For users that have to connect to S/390 environments, SNA Server 3.0 offers TN3270E Service.
This feature was already included in version 2.11, but 3.0 adds TN3287 print emulation capability.
SNA Server 3.0 also supports the Syncpoint API for advanced program-to-program communication (APPC). Syncpoint is an IBM-defined feature of the LU6.2
protocol that allows users to roll back a transaction in a systematic fashion.
For shops with stringent security requirements, such as those in the banking and financial services industries, SNA Server 3.0 includes data encryption. All data
that flows between clients and SNA Server is automatically encrypted and then decrypted before it's sent to the AS/400 or mainframe. For end-to-end encryption,
users can locate a centralized SNA Server in a secure room with the host platform. Encryption introduces a performance penalty but, to minimize system
degradation, managers can choose on a user-by-user basis who's data gets encrypted.
A compelling choice
Echoing the opinions of beta users, consultants say that SNA Server 3.0 provides a compelling choice for shops that have to integrate PC LANs with AS/400 and
S/390 environments. "It's hard to find something that's even close to SNA Server," asserts Lynn Nye, a consultant with NetResults in Portland, Ore. "On features,
functionality, and performance, it's hands down the best SNA gateway."
Nye argues that the only advantage of NetWare For SAA right now is that it has the largest installed base. But that may be slipping. International Data Corp., a
market research firm in Framingham, Mass., recently reported that SNA Server has been outshipping NetWare For SAA in the last two quarters. "Since Novell
fell asleep at the wheel and then handed NetWare For SAA over to IBM, there's been no momentum there," claims Nye.
Despite the wealth of enhancements in SNA Server 3.0, however, the most compelling reason to adopt the product may be its underlying operating system. "You
can get into all kinds of techno-weenie comparisons, but the key benefit of SNA Server is its tight integration with the NT environment," says Joseph Clabby,
director of transitional technology at the Aberdeen Group consultancy in Boston. //
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