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After talking to my Novell Sales Exec. the other day, I began pondering a wild notion. He had mentioned that he had several customers that were big NBO users and still wanted to upgrade to OES 2 Linux. Now with NBO, this is not a possibility at this time, due the single server/tree configuration of NBO. But, with a server that is in a multi-server tree, it is possible.

The main purpose of this article is to show that it can be done. I challenge you to take this ball and run with it. Show Novell and the community what you can do! And, above all, have fun with it.

Assumptions

• More than one server in replica ring. - for eDirectory
• Any replicas are removed from NetWare server prior to install.

Procedure

• Remove any replicas from NetWare server to be migrated.
• Place the SLES 10 SP1 DVD in the server and reset the NetWare server. Boot to the DVD.
• Choose New Installation and Add-On CD for OES2.

Partitioning - IMPORTANT

• Choose Expert under partitioning. You will see existing partitions. If you see more than one “NetWare Partition” then you can accomplish this process. If you see one NetWare Partition” then you cannot distinguish between sys and any other data volumes.
• Delete DOS and SYS partitions.
• Create /boot, Swap, / (root) partitions, etc... as desired. Leave larger NetWare Partition intact and do not set a mount point yet.

OES2 Installation

Ensure you choose NSS Software in addition to your other Software Packages.

If you wish to re-use the same server name, Name your server the same as your NetWare server. NOTE: During the OES2 installation, use iManager, on another server, and remove references to the NetWare server, volumes, NCP Server and other ancillary objects.

Complete the OES2 installation.

Reviving the Data volume

Upon completion of the installation, open a console screen and type nssmu

Click to view.

Choose Devices and find the device that you left alone during the installation.

Click to view.

As you can see, the type is NSS and it is recognized by the utility as a legitimate device.

Click to view.

Press Enter and you see the Volume.

Go back to the main menu and select Volumes.

Click to view.

Notice that the Mount Point has been added. Press F4 to update eDirectory.

Exit this utility and let's take a look at /etc/fstab

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST340014AS_5JXEVJ27-part1 /boot                ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST340014AS_5JXEVJ27-part3 /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_ST340014AS_5JXEVJ27-part2 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
VOL1 /media/nss/VOL1 nssvol noauto,rw,name=VOL1 0 0

Look at the last entry. It's our NSS Volume.

Open iManager and look at the container where you put the server.

Click to view.

We can see that the volume has been updated in eDirectory.

Click to view.

Check the trustees of the user apple's home directory.

Conclusion

Although it seems an impossibility, migrating data from NetWare to Linux on the same server can be performed with relative simplicity. Hopefully, some of your own ideas will stem from this one. The Chameleon changes it's color from red to green.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.