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Problem

There are NBM 3.9 setup caveats, with N2H2, iManager Version, etc.

While in the process determining an upgrade strategy to Novell BorderManager 3.9, I itemized several of the concerns and findings and thought that they might be of use to others as well.

As the proxy feature of NBM is the one that concerns me the most (we use N2H2 as a Category Server in numerous locations), I have always continued to use NWADM32 for updating the Category Server info and associated rules. While I understand that the other features of NBM have been available using iManager for some time, this portion has never been fully incorporated to my knowledge until NBM 3.9.

As I was planning for putting a new server in place, I originally burned the latest OS and PROD cd's (NetWare 6.5 SP7) and did an install from scratch. After installing NBM 3.9, I noticed that it can be accessed with NWADM32, but you cannot modify it, and the indication is to use iManager for all changes.

I tried using iManager afterward, but I found that the option to manage NBM did not show up. I then looked and found documentation at Novell's site that indicated iManager 2.7 (which is installed with the NetWare 6.5 SP7 overlay) currently doesn't have the plug-ins available for BM 3.9. After a few attempts at removing iManager 2.7 and trying to install version 2.6, and the fact that it was an R&D environment, I ended up starting over from scratch as described below.

In the following link, see Section 3 (Installation Instructions), which are the notes indicating that iManager 2.7 doesn't yet have plugins for BM 3.9. Note that higher up in the same section is the recommendation to use at least an 8GB Sys volume for NW65SP7 - I'd increase it to 10 GB.

http://www.novell.com/documentation/oes2/oes_readme/data/oes_readme.html

Solution

At the time of the re-install, I used the following steps and all worked well.

1. Used the NetWare 6.5 SP5 overlay CDs and install iManager and other required options.

2. Installed NetWare 6.5 SP6 and upgrade to iManager 2.6.

My thinking is that it would have been fine to use the NetWare 6.5 SP6 overlay (and iManager 2.6) - I am just being specific as to what worked well for me at this time.

3. Made a 10GB SYS volume.

I used the new standard of 8GB described in the link and added a little, as space is cheap compared to having to change it later. Remember that the SYS will be NSS and the caching Volumes will be traditional. Check Novell's site for "tuning BorderManager" for details on this and much more.

Afterward, I found that using iManager 2.6 worked well for setting up the Third Party Proxy features, which I haven't until now gotten to work satisfactory while using iManager.

Example

Use an overlay CD that is older than the current (NetWare 6.5 SP7) and install or upgrade from there to iManager 2.6. Follow the suggestion at the link posted and use at least an 8GB SYS volume. If you are upgrading to NetWare 6.5 SP7, don't upgrade to iManager 2.7 until you know that Novell has updated the snapins of 2.7 for BorderManager.

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.