"Geoff Marshall takes an exclusive first look at NetWare 5.1"

With this latest release of NetWare, Novell has embraced the Web more than it ever did, even with IntranetWare. Shipping in bulk this month, NetWare 5.1 is more than just the next version of NetWare: it includes NDS version 8 and many third-party products aimed specifically at e-business.

A few companies have had difficulties moving to NetWare 5 because the barriers to upgrade NDS versions are significant. NetWare 5.1 removes this barrier through the NDS Deployment Manager tool that makes all the preparations for you. It will help you migrate to version 7 if your tree is ready, and warn you if it's not, or recommend that you migrate to version 7 now until you're prepared for version 8, which Novell also calls 'eDirectory'.

Manageability is improved with the addition of the NetWare Management Portal, which enables network administrators to manage a server from anywhere the server can be reached through a web browser. The NetWare Management Portal provides complete management of NetWare 5.1 servers andpartial management of NetWare 4.x and 5.0 servers that are in the same tree as your NetWare 5.1 server. Portal brings the millions of servers that don't support TCP/IP into this corporate web-based management scenario.

As a development platform, NetWare 5.1 makes it easy to build reliable applications. It supports the WebSphere Studio Development Toolset as well as support for third-party WebSphere tools. It is 100 percent Java compatible, CORBA compliant. It offers scripting with NetBasic 6 and 7, PERL, Nombas Javascript, and REXX CGI. It includes LDAP support, C/C++ support, and includes Halcyon InstantASP.

System requirements are basically the same as NetWare 5, although additional specifications are needed for some of the add-ons. For example, the WebSphere Application Server for NetWare ups the requirements to 1.3 GB on volume SYS, and 256 MB RAM (512 recommended).

Web Enabled
NetWare Enterprise Web Server enables you to configure your NetWare server as a web server. It can serve web pages using the HTTP protocol to respondto requests from web browsers. You can create multiple web servers on a single NetWare 5.1 server. For example, the server can respond differently to requests depending upon the URL, even though the server only has one IP address. For example, one server can serve different pages for http://www.mozilla.com and http://www.netscape.com.

Web publishing using Microsoft Office 2000 is simple using NetWare 5.1, through its support of WebDAV. Novell's WebDAV enables you to save applications to the web as easily as to a local disk. Microsoft Office 2000 support includes, but is not limited to, Web folders and the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) standard for file usage on the Internet. NetWare 5.1's usage of WebDAV eliminates the need for users to learn HTTP addresses or FTP conventions. Every document and directory has a URL, and access is controlled though NDS. It ties into Novell International Cryptographic Infrastructure (NICI), Secure Authentication Service (SAS), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) authentication.

Searching your Intranet
Many departments within companies have their own Web servers allowing them to publish anything they need for their own use and for the use of other groups within their company. Previously, there was no way to search all of those departmental sites with a single act: you would need to visit each site and either browse it or, if search is available, search that site. The NetWare Web Search Server searches all of these departmental Web servers and makes all of the content searchable from one central location. This allows you to go to one site and search everything published within the company.

Office 2000 behaves on NetWare the same as it does on Microsoft NT with Microsoft IIS server. This makes it easy for all users on your network tocreate and publish information.

The NetWare News Server addresses the needs of collaboration by utilisingthreaded discussion groups and providing access to external news groups.During installation, the administrator configures the server to use LDAP to access the user accounts within NDS. Users access the news server using astandard news reader, such as Microsoft Outlook Express. You may also allow internal users to access an external news feed.

The NetWare MultiMedia Server 1.0 enables multimedia features on a NetWare server that you can play on the workstations. It is very easy to implement and use, and clients need RealPlayer G2, from Real Networks Inc., to play the multimedia files from the server.

The Microsoft Angle
Microsoft Office 2000 requires back-end services to enable many of its features, and NetWare 5.1 allows you to take full advantage of Office 2000.

The My Network folder provides a central location on your NetWare server from which you can get to the rest of the network resources that you use. Unlike the Network Neighbourhood folder seen in Windows, this folder actually exists on your NetWare server instead of your workstation. This folder is also accessed via industry standard web protocols. Because of these special qualities, you can access the My Network folder from any Windows workstation that is attached to the public internet - anywhere in the world.

Within the My Network folder, you will find your personalized version of the Mapped Drive Web Folders. If your network administrator has set up mapped network drives for you that are normally visible at the client, you will be able to see those same directories as web folders within the My Network folder. This will allow you to access your corporate applications and data remotely without the need for a Novell client on your workstation.

When your login account was created on your Novell network, your networkadministrator will normally have created a home directory (user directory) for you out on the network. If your network administrator has enabled the User Home Directories feature, your My Network folder will contain a link to your personal web publishing directory, regardless of which NetWare 5.1 server your personal home directory is located. You can control who can access your web publishing folders by dragging and dropping users and groups from your NDS directory web folders onto those folders.

Application and E-business Services
IBM WebSphere Web Application Server enables the developer to build and deploy complete web-based solutions that run on the NetWare 5.1 platform.With support for Java servlets, Java server Pages, XML, and Enterprise Java beans (EJB support is in the Advanced addition), Corporations can deploy E-commerce solutions with a standards-based infrastructure.

Oracle8i Enterprise Edition for NetWare is release 8.1.5 of Oracle's Object Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS). Oracle8i is designed specifically to be an Internet development and deployment platform.

Conclusion
NetWare 5.1 goes way beyond file and print services. It allows you to create a complete web-based environment, it includes all the necessary tools to enhance communication both inside and outside your company, and facilitates collaboration and e-commerce.