Because OES services run on Linux rather than on NetWare, there are noticeable differences between the system and administrative users and groups on OES servers. For example, some OES services, such as Novell CIFS, require proxy users to retrieve service-related information and service attributes, and to write service information in eDirectory.
For more information, see System User and Group Management in OES
and Administrative Users and Groups in OES
in the OES 2023: Planning and Implementation Guide.
Table 1-3 Service Comparison—NetWare 6.5 SP8 and OES 2015 SP1
|
Service |
NetWare 6.5 SP8 |
OES 2015 SP1 |
Platform Differences / Migration Issues |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Access Control Lists |
Yes |
Yes |
In combination with NCP Server, Linux supports the Novell trustee model for file access on NSS volumes and NCP (POSIX) volumes on Linux. |
|
AFP (Apple File Protocol) |
Yes - NFAP |
Yes - Novell AFP |
AFP services on NetWare and OES are proprietary and tightly integrated with eDirectory and Novell Storage Services (NSS). |
|
Apache Web Server |
Yes - NetWare port of open source product |
Yes - Standard Linux |
|
|
Archive and Version Services (AVS) (Novell) |
Yes |
No |
Discontinued from OES 2015. |
|
Backup (SMS)
|
Yes |
Yes |
SMS provides backup applications with a framework to develop complete backup and restore solutions. For information, see the OES 2023: Storage Management Services Administration Guide for Linux. NSS provides extended attribute handling options for NSS on Linux. For information, see |
|
CIFS (Windows File Services) |
Yes - NFAP |
Yes - Novell CIFS |
Both NFAP and Novell CIFS are Novell proprietary and tightly integrated with eDirectory and Novell Storage Services (NSS). |
|
Clustering |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
DFS (Novell Distributed File Services) |
Yes |
Yes |
In combination with NCP Server, DFS supports junctions and junction targets for NSS volumes on Linux and NetWare. DFS also supports junction targets for NCP volumes on non-NSS file systems, such as Btrfs, Ext3, and XFS. The VLDB command offers additional options to manage entries in the VLDB for NCP volumes. |
|
DHCP |
Yes |
Yes |
For a comparison between what is available on OES and NetWare, see To plan your DHCP implementations, see |
|
DNS |
Yes |
Yes |
For a comparison between what is available on OES and NetWare, see See |
|
Dynamic Storage Technology (DST) |
No |
Yes |
For more information, see the OES 2023: Dynamic Storage Technology Administration Guide. |
|
eDirectory 8.8 |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
eDirectory Certificate Server |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
eGuide (White Pages) |
Yes |
No |
This functionality is now part of the Identity Manager User Application. For more information, see the User Application: Administration Guide. |
|
Filr |
No |
Entitlement |
See Novell Filr. |
|
FTP Server |
Yes |
Yes |
FTP file services on OES servers are provided by Pure-FTPd, a free (BSD), secure, production-quality and standard-conformant FTP server. The OES implementation includes support for FTP gateway functionality as on NetWare and offers a level of integration between eDirectory and Pure-FTP that allows users to authenticate to eDirectory for FTP access to the server. See |
|
Health Monitoring Services |
Yes |
Yes |
In OES, NRM provides health monitoring via the open source monitoring tools Ganglia and Nagios. These tools do not use SFCB. For help with diagnosing problems using Ganglia and Nagios in OES, see The NRM Health Monitor tool is no longer available in OES 11 SP2 and later. For information about using Health Monitor in OES 11 SP1 and earlier, see |
|
Identity Manager 4.0.2 Bundled Edition |
No |
Yes |
|
|
iPrint |
Yes |
Yes |
See |
|
IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) from Novell |
Yes |
No |
No plans to port IPX to OES. |
|
iSCSI |
Yes |
Yes |
The iSCSI target for Linux does not support eDirectory access controls like the NetWare target does. Nor is the iSCSI initiator or target in OES integrated with NetWare Remote Manager management. You use YaST management tools instead. On the other hand, the iSCSI implementation for Linux is newer and performs better. See Linux-iSCSI Project on the Web. See |
|
KVM Virtualization Guest |
No |
Yes |
Of the two OES virtualization solutions (KVM and Xen), only Xen is supported for running Netware. |
|
KVM Virtualization Host Server |
No |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
LDAP Server for eDirectory |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
Multipath Device Management |
Yes |
Yes |
NetWare uses NSS multipath I/O. Linux uses Device Mapper - Multipath that runs underneath other device management services. |
|
MySQL |
Yes - NetWare port of open source product |
Yes - Standard Linux |
See MySQL.com on the Web. See See also |
|
NCP Volumes |
No |
Yes |
NCP Server on Linux supports creating NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems such as btrfs, Reiser, Ext2, Ext3, and XFS. OES includes support for much larger NCP volumes. For information, see |
|
NCP Server |
Yes |
Yes |
NCP services are native to NetWare 6.5 and NSS volumes; to have NCP services on OES, the NCP Server must be installed. See |
|
NetStorage |
Yes |
Yes |
NetStorage on Linux offers connectivity to storage locations through the CIFS, NCP, and SSH protocols. NetWare uses only NCP. |
|
NetWare Traditional File System |
Yes |
No |
No plans to port the NetWare Traditional File System to Linux. |
|
NetWare Traditional Volumes |
Yes |
N/A |
|
|
NFARM |
No |
Yes |
The Novell Access Rights Management (NFARM) shell extension for Windows Explorer lets you manage Novell Trustee ACLs for AD users and groups who have access to AD-enabled NSS volumes. For more information, see |
|
NFS |
Yes - NFAP |
Yes - native to Linux |
For NetWare, see |
|
NICI (Novell International Cryptography Infrastructure) |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
NIT |
No |
Yes |
The Novell Identity Translator provides UID support for eDirectory and Active Directory users accessing NSS data through CIFS. For more information, see |
|
NMAS (Novell Modular Authentication Services) |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
Novell Audit |
Yes |
No |
Novell Audit is not included with OES. However, the Novell Audit 2.0 Starter pack is available for download at no cost on Novell.com. |
|
Novell Client for Windows and Linux support |
Yes |
Yes |
Novell Client connectivity to OES requires that the NCP Server be installed. Access to the larger NCP volumes supported by OES requires the latest Novell Client software. |
|
Novell Cluster Services (NCS) |
Yes |
Yes |
See See |
|
Novell Filr |
No |
Yes |
Organizations with a current maintenance agreement are entitled to deploy Novell Filr at no cost. For more information, see the Novell website. Filr supports NSS-AD integration in OES 2015 or later. |
|
Novell iFolder 2.x |
Yes |
No |
For migration information, see |
|
Novell iFolder 3.9 |
No |
Yes |
OES includes Linux, Macintosh, and Windows clients. |
|
Novell Licensing Services |
Yes |
No |
See OES Doesn’t Support NLS in the OES 2015 SP1: Planning and Implementation Guide. |
|
Novell Linux Volume Manager |
No |
Yes |
The Novell Linux Volume Manager (NLVM) command line interface can be used to create and manage Linux POSIX file systems. For information about the syntax and options for the NLVM commands used in this section, see the OES 2023: NLVM Reference. |
|
NSS (Novell Storage Services) |
Yes |
Yes |
Most NSS services are available on both platforms. For a list of NSS features that are not used on Linux, see In OES 11 and later, NSS supports both the DOS and GPT partitioning scheme. In OES 11 SP1 and later, NSSMU supports Linux volumes in addition to NSS pools and volumes. |
|
NTPv3 |
Yes |
Yes |
The ntpd.conf file on NetWare can replace an OES server’s NTP configuration file without modification. |
|
OpenSSH |
Yes |
Yes |
NetWare includes a port of the open source product. Linux includes the open source product itself. See |
|
PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) |
No |
Yes |
PAM is a Linux service that Novell leverages to provide eDirectory authentication. eDirectory authentication is native on NetWare. |
|
Pervasive.SQL |
Yes |
No |
Pervasive.SQL is available for Linux from the Web. |
|
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
Printing |
Yes |
Yes |
See iPrint. |
|
QuickFinder |
Yes |
No |
See Search. |
|
RADIUS |
Yes |
Yes |
|
|
Salvage |
Yes |
Yes |
Salvage is now supported for eDirectory and AD users using NFARM utility. |
|
Samba |
No |
Yes |
Samba is an open source technology available on OES. Novell provides automatic configuration for authentication through eDirectory. For more information, see the OES 2018: Novell Samba Administration Guide. |
|
Search (QuickFinder) |
Yes |
No |
Discontinued from OES 2015. |
|
SLP |
Yes - Novell SLP |
Yes - OpenSLP |
For OES, see SLP in the OES 2015 SP1: Planning and Implementation Guide. NetWare uses Novell SLP, which provides caching of Directory Agent scope information in eDirectory. This provides for sharing of scope information among DAs. OpenSLP on Linux is customized to provide DA information retention and sharing as well. |
|
Software RAIDS (NSS volumes) |
Yes (0, 1, 5, 0 1, 5 1) |
Yes (0, 1, 5, 0 1, 5 1) |
See |
|
Storage Management Services (SMS) |
Yes |
Yes |
The SBCON backup engine is not supported on Linux. The nbackup engine is available for exploring SMS capabilities, but in a production environment, you should use a third-party, full-featured backup engine. Beginning with OES 2015, SMS is enhanced to support the 64-bit storage enhancements and AD-user ACLs on AD-enabled NSS volumes. |
|
TCP/IP |
Yes |
Yes |
No functional differences. |
|
Timesync NLM |
Yes |
No |
Timesync will not be ported to Linux. However, NTPv3 is available on both Linux and NetWare. See Time Services in the OES 2015 SP1: Planning and Implementation Guide. |
|
Tomcat |
Yes |
Yes |
NetWare includes Tomcat 4 and a Tomcat 5 servlet container for iManager 2.7. OES includes Tomcat 6. There is no impact to any of the administration tools, which are tested and supported on both platforms. See “Administration Instance vs. Public Instance on NetWare” |
|
Virtual Office (Collaboration) |
Yes |
No |
Virtual Office has been replaced by Novell Vibe A separate purchase is required. For more information, see the Novell Vibe website. |
|
WAN Traffic Manager |
Yes |
No |
|
|
Xen Virtualization Guest |
Yes |
Yes |
NetWare 6.5 SP8 (and NetWare 6.5 SP 7) can run as a paravirtualized machine. OES can run as a paravirtualized machine or fully virtualized machine. |
|
Xen Virtualization Host Server |
N/A |
Yes |