Novell Open Enterprise Server

[Matthew Carpenter]

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Hi all,

Former CNI/CNE here.  Read at own risk.
We are defining a corporate Linux distro standard for a large
corporation.  Due to the whole "vendor support" factor, Red Hat and SuSE
are the two finalists.  So one of the Unix guys and I headed down to a
Novell event this am to get the scoop.

Well, sadly enough, SLES wasn't covered.  The whole focus is on OES,
which is basically SLES with Novell Enterprise Services installed.  For
those of you with some Novell background, aside from their (hopefully
former) severe lack of marketing prowess, they have generally had great
products to sell.  Let me tell you that they continue to dominate the
innovation space.  I'm excited for them.  We just informed them that we
will not be re-upping maintenance for our several hundred NetWare boxen.
~ We's becomin smrt an' grade-uppin' ta Winders fer ussen's F&P and
directorees.

Anyway, I've been out of the Novell loop for about 4 years.  I was duly
impressed.  Web-access for admin *and* file/print.  Also, Windows and
Linux clients for iFolder, which allows "Briefcase-like" synchronized
folders, and iPrint, which allows very easily installed/managed
printing.  The demonstration was all on Novell Linux Desktop, with
VMWare to demonstrate the OES and WinXP stuff.
Most of what Novell offers can be (and is being) accomplished using OSS,
but they make it easy and pretty... and are doing some pretty cool
stuff.  One of the nicest things is that they are actually using OSS
underneath.  Not just Linux as an OS, but iFolder (again, suporting both
Linux and Win32) uses rsync for the underlying sync algorithm.  They
will soon be partnering with security distro Astaro-Linux for a
potential BorderManager appliance...  using NetFilter, FreeSwan, etc...
from Astaro  :)
Bordermanager is starting to look up.

eDirectory has *significantly* enhanced their Unix ID management
interface.  In former releases, one had to actually assign a uidNumber
for the LDAP authentication... as if you had nothing better to do than
keep track of the last assigned number!  This is  all done at
user-creation.  And the directory is still best-of-breed.

I won't go into their server-management stuff, although it's pretty
slick as well.  Point is, they seem to have done a pretty good job
enhancing their products with a great deal of OSS, and of course they've
positioned themselves to really make a lot of what we do easier.
They're not in a position to take the place of OSS in our worlds... but
they have certainly figured out how to harness OSS to provide a
higher-up set of solutions.  Everything has a cost.  They're just added
value, and it's pretty much real benefit.

Oh, and did I mention "Salvage"?  heheheh.  That, and they provide a SMB
interface to Novell Services, and easier FS/DIR management that what is
currently available for OSS.

Now if only we could get Salvage functionality into EXT3, XFS and
Reiser.  Closest thing we have is fls and The Coroner's Toolkit
(forensic toolset)
- --
Matthew Carpenter
matt at eisgr.com                          http://www.eisgr.com/

Enterprise Information Systems
* Network Server Appliances
* Security Consulting, Incident Handling & Forensics
* Network Consulting, Integration & Support
* Web Integration and E-Business
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