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One of the problems I find with iManager is that although you can list the currently installed versions of the various plug-ins (NPMs) from within iManager itself you can't easily find out when particular plug-ins were last updated. This is especially a problem if you're in the (bad!) habit of selecting all available plug-ins and then hitting Install!
Anyway I did a bit of poking about out the filesystem and found that plug-ins are installed to /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/packages/ (on NetWare it's SYS:\tomcat\5.0\webapps\nps\packages\). However listing that directory in date order doesn't reveal when plug-ins were installed/updated, simply which plug-in file is later than another.
Then I discovered that iManager records information that can be used to uninstall plug-ins in /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData (with NetWare it's SYS:\tomcat\5.0\webapps\nps\uninstallerdata\). Here the date of the directory is when the plug-in was installed or last updated (this is important to note - see later) so could be useful for a changelog.
So on an OES Linux server you can use
ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData
which will produce a directory listing sorted in reverse date (actually modification time) order that is then your changelog. All directory names start with Uninstall_ followed by the name of the plug-in.
oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData total 176 drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_base drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_fw drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_afp drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ark drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryBackupAndRestore drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_cifsmgmt drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_CaseSensitivePassword drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_dfsmgmt drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryMerge drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_EA drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectory88_Plugins drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirExtended drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ER drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_fileman drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ICEWizardModule drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ifolder3 drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_IndexManagerPlugin drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_Kerberos drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_LDAPConfiguration drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_LinuxUserManagement drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ncs drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_NMAS drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_NetStorage drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_nssmgmt drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_dhcp drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_CertServerPlugins drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_PS drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_notfconfig drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_pwdpolicy drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SharedContentV1 drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_QFSearch drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_RWiz drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_samba drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ServiceManager drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SMS drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SNMPConfiguration drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_storage drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_WanManConfiguration drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_iman_supportpack drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_iPrintX drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Nov 2 20:02 Uninstall_dns
With most directory names it's kind of obvious which plug-in it relates to - for example Uninstall_dns is for the DNS plug-in. If you're not sure which plug-in a particular Uninstall_ directory relates to you can check iman_mod_desc.xml in /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/packages.
If you'd like a tidier output, perhaps just containing the date, time and directory name for each Uninstall_ directory then you can filter the output from the ls command through cut so the command becomes
ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6-
which produces
oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_base Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_fw Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_afp Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ark Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryBackupAndRestore Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_cifsmgmt Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_CaseSensitivePassword Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_dfsmgmt Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryMerge Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_EA Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirectory88_Plugins Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_eDirExtended Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ER Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_fileman Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ICEWizardModule Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ifolder3 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_IndexManagerPlugin Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_Kerberos Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_LDAPConfiguration Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_LinuxUserManagement Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ncs Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_NMAS Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_NetStorage Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_nssmgmt Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_dhcp Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_CertServerPlugins Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_PS Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_notfconfig Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_pwdpolicy Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SharedContentV1 Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_QFSearch Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_RWiz Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_samba Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_ServiceManager Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SMS Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_SNMPConfiguration Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_storage Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_WanManConfiguration Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_iman_supportpack Mar 15 2010 Uninstall_iPrintX Nov 2 20:02 Uninstall_dns
You could actually take this one step further and remove the Uninstall_ prefix by filtering output through sed so command becomes
ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- | sed -e 's/Uninstall_//'
producing
oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- | sed -e 's/Uninstall_//' Mar 15 2010 base Mar 15 2010 Mar 15 2010 fw Mar 15 2010 afp Mar 15 2010 ark Mar 15 2010 eDirectoryBackupAndRestore Mar 15 2010 cifsmgmt Mar 15 2010 CaseSensitivePassword Mar 15 2010 dfsmgmt Mar 15 2010 eDirectoryMerge Mar 15 2010 eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile Mar 15 2010 EA Mar 15 2010 eDirectory88_Plugins Mar 15 2010 eDirExtended Mar 15 2010 ER Mar 15 2010 fileman Mar 15 2010 ICEWizardModule Mar 15 2010 ifolder3 Mar 15 2010 IndexManagerPlugin Mar 15 2010 Kerberos Mar 15 2010 LDAPConfiguration Mar 15 2010 LinuxUserManagement Mar 15 2010 ncs Mar 15 2010 NMAS Mar 15 2010 NetStorage Mar 15 2010 nssmgmt Mar 15 2010 dhcp Mar 15 2010 CertServerPlugins Mar 15 2010 PS Mar 15 2010 novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins Mar 15 2010 notfconfig Mar 15 2010 pwdpolicy Mar 15 2010 SharedContentV1 Mar 15 2010 QFSearch Mar 15 2010 RWiz Mar 15 2010 samba Mar 15 2010 ServiceManager Mar 15 2010 SMS Mar 15 2010 SNMPConfiguration Mar 15 2010 storage Mar 15 2010 WanManConfiguration Mar 15 2010 iman_supportpack Mar 15 2010 iPrintX Nov 2 20:02 dns
(note the unknown plug-in listed second)
Perhaps not the best example to use but you can see that I've just updated the DNS Management plug-in having installed the server ready for presenting at BrainShare 2010 and then not updating since (not wanting to break a working demo!).
Don't forget that at a NetWare server console you can use the dir command that becomes available when you load TBX.NLM (or TOOLBOX.NLM). Or of course you can can connect from a Windows or Linux machine.
Now as I noted earlier, the date of the directory is when the plug-in was installed or last updated and this is important because it appears that you can only uninstall a plug-in once - only one Uninstall_ directory is possible per plug-in as only the plug-in name is used and no date/time-stamp.
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.
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