Review:NetWare
Review: NetWare 5.1
NetWare 5.1 appears to be a worthwhile upgrade which introduces some new features as
well as consolidating previous patches. A notable addition is the bundling of IBM's WebSphere.
There's also the new NetWare Management Portal, and improvements to ConsoleOne.
By David Norfolk
T
he latest version of NetWare,
NetWare 5.1 just for its new features.
tication of users by the NetWare
NetWare 5.1, shipped in the USA
The big news is the inclusion of IBM's
operating system, and you can up
on January 10th 2000, ahead of its
WebSphere Application Server 3.0
grade your licence to more users
obvious rival, Windows 2000, which has
Standard
Edition,
and
IBM
with Oracle if the database proves
neatly avoided having a point zero
WebSphere Studio 3.0 Entry edition,
useful.
release number but risks having the
for building and implementing In
G
Novell Certificate Server this rep
usual characteristics of such a release.
ternet applications that can take ad
resents Novell's current provision
The old adage suggests that you should
vantage of Novell's directory services
of PKI (Private Key Infrastructure)
never install the point zero release of
and Internet services such as Border
facilities. You'll need this to prove
anything; let braver souls bear the pain .
Manager.
identity for e commerce applica
This used to be especially true of
WebSphere Standard Edition sup
tions, since all the effective link se
Novell products, when release x.0
ports servlets, Java Server pages, XML,
curity (which is so common today)
barely worked, x.1 worked properly
Enterprise Java Beans, transactional
doesn't help a bit if the wrong per
and x.11 was actually rather a nice
processing,
the
Web
Distributed
son is calling in. The Certificate
product. Companies have got better at
Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)
server is good at issuing lots of cer
releasing workable product first time,
standard for managing documents on
tificates, to your entire customer
and NetWare 5.0 wasn't too bad. How
the Web, and robust database access.
base, based on their NDS entries.
ever, 5.1 does consolidate a lot of cos
Studio is the development environ
G
WAN Traffic Manager is a policy
metic and usability patches at the very
ment for WebSphere.
based tool used to reduce WAN
least.
Novell will also offer WebSphere
traffic. NDS will consult the traffic
Advanced
Edition
(with
better
manager's policies before initiating
Machine Requirements
CORBA support and NDS authentica
WAN traffic over slow links or dial
tion features) as a separate product,
up lines.
Realistic installation requirements
although it has no plans to offer the
G
NetWare Enterprise Web Server.
for the new NetWare include the usual
Enterprise Edition of WebSphere,
This generally seems effective and
server class Pentium PC; a SYS volume
which can be obtained from IBM.
scales well.
of a couple of gigabytes (minimum 1.3
In fact, this release is all about build
G
NetWare News Server. This sup
GB to allow for the implementation of
ing high performance Web servers.
ports internal and external news
products like WebSphere, but 900 MB
Other new features (some sourced
groups, supports threaded discus
will suffice for the basic operating sys
from third parties) include:
sion groups, and can be controlled
tem); a 50 MB DOS partition with 35
from NDS using LDAP.
MB free; 128 256 MB RAM (512 MB is
G
Five user versions of Oracle 8i and
G
NetWare ftp Server. This may be
recommended
if
you're
using
Oracle WebDB. This gives you a
controlled from NDS, and offers
WebSphere); and a bootable CD drive.
chance to explore the features of
fast file transfers as well as a secure
These extra demands on the server
one of the more advanced Web en
transfer service.
partly come from the need to support
abled databases. Oracle 8i is a hy
G
NetWare Multimedia Server. This
the new directory enabled applications
brid
object relational
database
enables streaming audio and video
Novell is producing, such as the Bor
optimised for Web applications. In
access, and also supports interac
derManager cache and firewall prod
addition, it is one of the few non
tive two way conferencing ses
uct, and also from the need to support
Novell NetWare applications to
sions. Clients only need RealPlayer
a much more heavyweight directory
take full advantage of the NetWare
G2 from RealNetworks Inc.
database infrastructure and its indexes.
multi threaded architecture, multi
G
NetWare WebSearch Server. This
tasking and input/output (I/O). It
allows you to build a single index
New Features
can even, allegedly, take advantage
covering a heterogeneous enter
of all the CPUs in an SMP server.
prise network.
You'll probably want to upgrade to
Oracle provides automatic authen
G
Support for the use of the Internet
Issue 117 (April 2000) page 21
File: R1615.1
PC Network Advisor
Next page >
New! The best sites for quality inkjet printer cartridges and the best sites for cheap inkjet cartridges