Make sure your system satisfies the required software and configuration settings that are specified in this section.
NCP Server for Linux supports OES 2 Linux and later.
NCP Server for Linux provides the NCP services for NSS volumes on Linux and for NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems. Dynamic Storage Technology (DST) is a component of NCP Server. Using DST is optional, but NCP Server must be installed and running for DST to work.
For information about managing Dynamic Storage Technology, see the OES 2023: Dynamic Storage Technology Administration Guide.
During the OES install, you assign a static IP address (IPv4), a host name, and a domain name to the server. NCP Server uses the server hostname (such as server1) as the NCP File Server Name, and generally considers that the hostname never changes. If you modify the host name after the installation, you must also modify the NCP File Server Name parameter. For information, see Section 3.12, Modifying the NCP File Server Name.
IMPORTANT:Modifying the IP address or host name for an existing server impacts most services, not just NCP Server.
Selecting NCP Server as part of a 64-bit installation automatically installs 64-bit NCP server.
NCP Server manages data access for NCP volumes, Dynamic Storage Technology (DST) shadow volumes, and NSS volumes. NCP Server restricts data access to users who have User objects defined in NetIQ eDirectory. For information about configuring eDirectory and users, see the NetIQ eDirectory Installation Guide.
IMPORTANT:The server’s root user is the only local user who can access data without authenticating in eDirectory.
A container administrator (or non-administrator user) needs the following eDirectory rights to install and manage the NCP and Dynamic Storage Technology service on an OES server:
Object Create right on the container where the NCP Server objects are.
Object Create right where the cluster container will be.
A container administrator (or non-administrator user) needs the following eDirectory rights to manage an NCP volume on an OES server:
Object Write and Modify rights on the Volume object.
For example, to create an NCP volume NCPVOL1 in the sales.mycompany.com container, the administrator must have Create right on the sales Container object and the Write and Modify rights on the NCPVOL1 Volume object.
The container administrator must be Linux-enabled with Linux User Management (LUM) and be added to the LUM admingroup for the server. For more information, see Installing and Configuring OES as a Subcontainer Administrator in the OES 2023: Installation Guide.
NOTE:If the eDirectory administrator user name or password contains special characters such as #, +, and =, ensure that you escape each special character by preceding it with a backslash(\) when you enter credentials. You do not need a backslash for other special characters such as !,@,$,%,^,&,*,(,), and-.
NSS requires NCP Server; however, NSS is not required for using NCP Server with NCP volumes on Linux file systems.
In its initial release, Dynamic Storage Technology supports only NSS volumes being used as shadow volumes. If you plan to use DST, you need to install NSS when you install NCP Server and Dynamic Storage Technology.
For information about installing NSS, see Installing and Configuring OES Storage Services
in the OES 2023: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.
Users must be Linux-enabled with Linux User Management in order to access data via CIFS protocols. Linux User Management is selected and installed automatically when you install NCP Server and Dynamic Storage Technology. For information about Linux-enabling users with Linux User Management, see the OES 2023: Linux User Management Administration Guide.
NCP Server supports the sharing of NSS volumes on Linux, NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems, and DST shadow volumes in clusters with Cluster Services for Linux. NCP Server itself is not clustered, and must be installed and configured on each OES node in the cluster where you plan to fail over these volumes.
For information about configuring NCP volumes in cluster resources, see Section 11.0, Configuring NCP Volumes with OES Cluster Services.
For information about configuring DST shadow volumes in cluster resources, see Configuring DST Shadow Volume Pairs with OES Cluster Services
in the OES 2023: Dynamic Storage Technology Administration Guide.
For information about configuring NSS volumes in cluster resources, see Configuring and Managing Cluster Resources for Shared NSS Pools and Volumes
in the OES 2023: OES Cluster Services for Linux Administration Guide.
For information about installing and managing OES Cluster Services for Linux, see the OES 2023: OES Cluster Services for Linux Administration Guide.
SLP (Service Location Protocol) is a required component for OES Cluster Services on Linux when you are using NCP to access file systems on cluster resources. NCP requires SLP for the ncpcon bind and ncpcon unbind commands in the cluster load and unload scripts. For example, NCP is needed for NSS volumes and for NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems.
SLP is not automatically installed when you select OES Cluster Services. SLP is installed as part of the eDirectory configuration during the OES installation. You can enable and configure SLP on the eDirectory Configuration - NTP & SLP page. For information, see Specifying SLP Configuration Options
in the OES 2023: Installation Guide.
When the SLP daemon (slpd) is not installed and running on a cluster node, any cluster resource that contains the ncpcon bind command goes comatose when it is migrated or failed over to the node because the bind cannot be executed without SLP.
The SLP daemon (slpd) must also be installed and running on all nodes in the cluster when you manage the cluster or cluster resources.
NCP Server re-registers cluster resource virtual NCP servers with SLP based on the setting for the eDirectory advertise-life-time (n4u.nds.advertise-life-time) parameter. The parameter is set by default to 3600 seconds (1 hour) and has a valid range of 1 to 65535 seconds.
You can use the ndsconfig set command to set the n4u.nds.advertise-life-time parameter. To reset the parameter in a cluster, perform the following tasks on each node of the cluster:
Log in to the node as the root user, then open a terminal console.
Take offline all of the cluster resources on the node, or cluster migrate them to a different server. At a command prompt, enter
cluster offline <resource_name> or cluster migrate <resource_name> <target_node_name>
Modify the eDirectory SLP advertising timer parameter (n4u.nds.advertise-life-time), then restart ndsd and slpd. At a command prompt, enter
ndsconfig set n4u.nds.advertise-life-time=<value_in_seconds>
rcndsd restart
rcslpd restartBring online all of the cluster resources on the node, or cluster migrate the previously migrated resources back to this node.
cluster online <resource_name> or cluster migrate <resource_name> <node_name>
Repeat the previous steps on the other nodes in the cluster.
OpenSLP stores the registration information in cache. You can configure the SLP Directory Agents to preserve a copy of the database when the SLP daemon (slpd) is stopped or restarted. This allows SLP to know about registrations immediately when it starts.
For more information about configuring and managing SLP, see Configuring OpenSLP for eDirectory
in the NetIQ eDirectory Administration Guide.
iManager for Linux is required for managing eDirectory users, Samba services, Universal Password, Linux User Management, Storage Services (NSS), and Cluster Services for Linux. It is not necessary to install iManager on every server, but it must be installed somewhere on the network. For information about installing and using iManager, see the NetIQ iManager Installation Guide.
OES Remote Manager for Linux is required for managing NCP Server services, NCP volumes, and Dynamic Storage Technology. It is installed by default when you install NCP Server and Dynamic Storage Technology.
For information about using OES Remote Manager for Linux, see the OES 2023: OES Remote Manager Administration Guide. For information about management options for NCP Server, see Section 7.1.4, Quick Reference for the NCP Server Plug-In for OES Remote Manager for Linux.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 uses the open source CIMOM (or CIM server) from the SBLIM project called Small Footprint CIM Broker (SFCB). OES 2018 or later and SLES 12 SP2 or later provide SFCB as the default CIMOM and SFCC for CIM client functionality.
OpenWBEM, which was used as the CIMOM in OES 2, has been replaced by SFCB as the CIMOM.
For information, see OES Services That Require LUM-Enabled Access
in the OES 2023: Planning and Implementation Guide
Ensure that you install and configure additional OES services that might be required by each of the other services mentioned in this section. Refer to the individual guides for those services for information about how to install and manage them.