PREVIEW: NOVELL NETWARE 5.0, BETA 1
Moab upgrade proves a rocky ride
By P.J. Connolly
STATUS UPDATE
Novell NetWare 5.0, beta 1
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Open beta:
Yes
Expected to ship:
Midyear
Shows promise:
Bundled Java SDK might finally convince developers that NetWare is a viable applications platform
Needs work:
Installation, documentation, and mixed IPX-TCP/IP support don't yet show promised improvements
ife is already hard in the high desert of the Utah Valley, but it could get harder if the next release of Novell Inc.'s flagship NOS, NetWare 5.0, does not convince customers to upgrade instead of switching to Microsoft Windows NT Server.
Our look at beta 1 of the NOS, which is code-named Moab, left us discouraged, at least for now.
Although it's likely that NetWare 5.0, due midyear, will ship well before Microsoft Corp. can work the bugs out of its highly anticipated next release, Windows NT Server 5.0, we're not clear on what is expected to compel network managers to upgrade.
Novell promises to include many exciting new features and technologies in NetWare 5.0, but in beta 1, most of them are incomplete or nonfunctional. It is early, of course, but if truth be told, we ripped the software off our test server the moment we finished writing this article. Basic stability must be a major objective for Novell with beta 2.
Novell has had mixed luck in convincing its customers to upgrade from the 3.x versions of NetWare to the 4.x platform, a move that offered profound benefits such as a directory service, single network sign-on, and more efficient use of server disk space.
NetWare 5.0's benefits are not as readily apparent, but that isn't to say that it will be devoid of value. Although beta 1 is about as far from being feature-complete as you can get while carrying the title of "beta," we are encouraged by some signs of progress beyond the NetWare 4.11 release.
For example, NetWare 5.0 finally lets administrators execute NLMs from the console prompt without typing the word load in each instance. This feature makes running programs on a NetWare server as easy as it is on a machine running Microsoft DOS 1.0, albeit 16 years later.
Another incremental improvement is the online documentation for NetWare 5.0, which is supplied in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format instead of the proprietary formats that previously required managers to install an application.
We'd like to be more excited about the inclusion of Novell Distributed Print Services--which was made available for the 4.x platform last year--in NetWare 5.0, but it is currently limited to Windows 95 clients. It must support Windows NT Workstation clients to be of real value in today's corporate networks.
A major enhancement in NetWare 5.0 is a unified kernel that supports both uniprocessor and multiprocessor systems. This contrasts favorably with NetWare 4.x, in which multiprocessor support was an option that required an additional installation routine.
Another attempt
Finally, Novell makes another attempt to position NetWare as an applications server with Moab by including a Sun Microsystems Inc. Java SDK (Software Developer's Kit). Past NetWare-based applications efforts involving NLMs and the doomed AppWare project failed, but the company's current head, Eric Schmidt, is convinced that the lean and lightning-fast NetWare can be an ideal Java applications-server platform.
NetWare 5.0's most often touted feature is the replacement of IPX/SPX with TCP/IP as its core network protocol. Although previous products such as NetWare/IP let data pass between NetWare clients and servers in an IPX packet encapsulated within an IP "wrapper," the NetWare/IP server still ran IPX at its heart. With NetWare 5.0, Novell's objective is to let customers run native IP, native IPX, or both on the server.
During our installation, we found that beta 1 is not living up to Novell's billing in this area. When we configured the network drivers on our beta 1 server, we found that IPX is listed as Always Selected in the Install program.
Things did not improve as we got further into the NetWare 5.0 configuration. It was impossible to connect our beta 1 server to an existing NDS (Novell Directory Services) tree using IP. The existing server was a NetWare 4.11 machine speaking native IPX, but we always configure our servers in the Testing Center to support IP from the moment of installation. We were able to connect to the existing tree using IPX, and given that all machines involved responded to IP pings, we are certain that our hardware was configured properly.
We set up a new tree using IP from inside the Novell Install routine. We were prompted to run through our LAN driver configuration again because the server had somehow misplaced our entries. After we had created our entries and let the server cogitate for a few minutes, we downed the server and rebooted.
After rebooting, we found that the NetWare 5.0 server had lost all of its NDS and LAN driver configuration. We could manually bind IP to our network card, but we could not do so with IPX, even after unbinding IP. This may seem like a trifle at this stage of the product's development, but this is a problem that should have been resolved in alpha testing.
We aren't able to tell you how well beta 1 supports clients because we never could get a client workstation connected to the test server using IP or IPX. Again, our hardware checks out, so we're at a loss to explain the whys and wherefores.
Where to go from here?
We weren't expecting much from beta 1, so we're not completely pessimistic about NetWare 5.0's prospects. But a lot has to be done, by Novell's own admission as well as from what we observed, and there's no time like the present to get cracking on beta 2.
For openers, the setup routine for beta 1 is virtually identical to that used for NetWare 4.11, right down to the requirement that a DOS partition exist on the NetWare server's boot disk before installation. Later beta versions are expected to let users create this partition during--rather than before--installation, leaving Net-Ware a step behind Windows NT Server, which can boot from its own NT File System partition.
But this is 1998, and requiring managers to set up a DOS partition is comparatively medieval. We think that it's time for an installation routine whose graphical capabilities go beyond a splash screen. Mouse support would be nice, too. Although some purists will no doubt bemoan the loss of the beloved C-worthy interface, the rest of the world has gone to point-and-click. Novell would be well-advised to pursue this option, if only for appearance's sake.
We have been in this business enough years not to put too much stock in beta software. Time and again, we've seen swans emerge from some ugly eggs. Major upgrades to NetWare are also notorious for being troublesome in their early releases.
This time, however, we don't think Novell can wait until release 5.11 to get it right. With that marketing fact in mind, and based on our experience with beta 1, Novell has a lot of work to do before NetWare 5.0 ships. Estimated arrival time? Do not bank on seeing anything final before the leaves start falling.
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Moab, the Savior.....gets clobbered....I am starting to seriously doubt my investment now <g> Thank God my other speculative investment FTEL is skyrocketing...I think I will have a talk with my wife who talked me into buying Novell (great products, billion cash, etc u know the drill) in the first place<g>
At least, Schmidt is much better than Marengi when I first got into Novell. I got to give him some time and hope DOJ comes through to stop the NT express...
What a frustrating investment to see so much potential and so much managerial incompetence and disregard for the shareholders...
I feel better now, all have a good day |
