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GroupWise: Ascot Platform Support Matrix

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29 April 2011 - 3:14pm
Submitted by: dlythgoe

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Prepare now by making sure your datacenter, desktops and browsers are updated to support the GroupWise Ascot release.

Prepare now by making sure your datacenter, desktops and browsers are updated to support the GroupWise Ascot release. Here is a fairly comprehensive list of platforms, operating systems and browsers that will be tested, validated and supported for GroupWise Ascot. I will also highlight several of the significant platforms that will no longer be supported with GroupWise Ascot.

Servers

The GroupWise agents (POA, MTA, GWIA) will all be supported on this list of platforms:

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
  • SUSE Linux Enterpreise Server 11
  • Novell OES 2.11 (Linux)
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server

Note: All GroupWise Ascot server components will be 32-bit agents. They will run and be supported on 32-bit platforms as well as 64-bit platforms. Just like GroupWise 8. In other words, on a 64-bit processor, GroupWise still runs as a 32-bit application.

Workstations or Client Operating Systems

The GroupWise Windows Client will be supported on this list of platforms:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 32-bit
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Professional or Business (32/64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (32/64-bit)

Browsers

The GroupWise WebAccess client will be supported on the following browsers:

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 9
  • Mozilla Firefox 3.x
  • Mozilla Firefox 4.x
  • Google Chrome 8
  • Apple Safari 4
  • Apple Safari 5

We expect Microsoft Internet Explorer to be run only on XP, Vista and Windows 7 OS. For Chrome, it will be supported on Vista and Windows 7 only. For Firefox versions, we will support the entire list of desktop OS platforms. For Safari, we will offer support for Mac OSX 10.5 and 10.6 only.

Tablet Devices

  • Apple iPad (all versions)
  • Other mobile browsers based on the WebKit Open Source Browser Engine

ConsoleOne

We will support ConsoleOne v 1.3.6h in 32-bit mode running on any of these platforms:

  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 32-bit
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Professional or Business (32/64-bit)
  • Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (32/64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (32/64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (32/64-bit)
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 – 64-bit
  • SUSE Linux Enterpreise Server 11 – 64-bit
  • Novell OES 2.11 (Linux) – 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 Server, 64-bit
  • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server

Novell eDirectory

  • Novell eDirectory 8.8 is the supported version. We will support both the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of this version.

GroupWise Ascot will NOT be supported on any of these platforms:

  • Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (Netware)
  • Apple Mac OS X, Power PC Architecture
  • Apple Mac OS X, v10.4
  • Novell eDirectory 8.7.x
  • Mozilla Firefox 2.x
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and 7

Hopefully this is easy enough to read and understand. Let us know if you have other questions or need support or clarification for anything on this list.

We are rapidly moving towards Authorized BETA. Invitations have been sent and we are still taking applications for Authorized BETA sites and participants. See blog by Alex Evans.

Dean


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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User Comments

pli's picture

Linux, Mac client

Submitted by pli on 30 April 2011 - 4:00am.

Does this mean no Linux or Mac client will be supported?

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Linux, Mac Client

Submitted by dlythgoe on 2 May 2011 - 8:12pm.

It means that there is no 'new' Linux/Mac Client for GroupWise Ascot.

As with all clients, you can continue to run older clients, ie. GroupWise 8 Mac/Linux Clients - against newer agents - ie. GroupWise Ascot POA.

The GroupWise 8 Mac/Linux clients will be supported on the same platforms they were with GroupWise 8.

There is no new platform support matrix for Ascot with regards to Linux/Mac GroupWise clients.

Clear? :)

Dean

pli's picture

Re: Linux, Mac Client

Submitted by pli on 2 May 2011 - 11:05pm.

Thanks Dean, this is now clear.

paul2282's picture

I really feel this is a

Submitted by paul2282 on 4 May 2011 - 6:52pm.

I really feel this is a really bad move. Microsoft has released Outlook for Mac with big enhancement because like everyone else they see the market is increasingly adding Macs to business and corporate users. A lot of the Executive level have purchased or using iPhones which has caused a shift in more Macs in business. If you give an executive the choice between using Outlook and an Old version of the GroupWise client with limited features, which do you think they will select. We all know who work with these individuals that they will drive a change in an email system because they want it even if it's not the best for the company. I think serious consideration should be given to a new Mac/Linux Client to continue to drive this great email system. If nothing else their should be a plugin written to allow the Mac Mail client to talk to a GroupWise server with out limiting it's functions. I know that is easier said then done, but don't leave us Partners hanging with no good answer when a CEO asked why they are on an old version of a GW client.

jsessler's picture

Mac Lion Support

Submitted by jsessler on 8 July 2011 - 11:05am.

Dean,
I certainly hope you plan to support the xPlat client on 10.7 Lion - If not, I can say without a doubt that GroupWise will be dead on my campus. I have many Sr. Staff on Macintosh and my Mac client base is growing, and unlike the windows world, adoption of new Mac OS versions tend to be rapid.

Thus, if we move to Lion and the Mac xPlat client stops working, we’ll have no choice but to discontinue use of GroupWise. This after more than fifteen years…
Your customers want/need the Mac client, so please, if you have any interest in keeping GroupWise in .EDU, ensure the client at least continues to work on Lion.

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Mac Lion Support

Submitted by dlythgoe on 12 July 2011 - 2:34pm.

Jeffrey,

yes, we do plan to support the GroupWise 8 Mac Client on the new 10.7 Lion Mac platform.

We have found a problem with one of the dynamically loaded libraries and we are working on that problem, but we expect that to be fairly easy to resolve and then it appears that things will work as well as they always have.

Glad you can stay with us :)

Dean

jsessler's picture

<<< man hug>>> Thank you for

Submitted by jsessler on 12 July 2011 - 3:36pm.

<<< man hug>>>

Thank you for this. It helps! Will the fix be released outside of the normal hot-patch/SP? I hope so given Lion is due any day now, and I wouldn't want to be waiting any longer than necessary.

You may also want to update the support matrix to include 10.7.

Last but not least, this certainly will delay the urgency of determining GW's fate on my campus, but without a definitive answer on the future of Mac client support, the future of GW here is still cloudy. :(

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Upcoming Hot Patch Release...

Submitted by dlythgoe on 13 July 2011 - 8:49pm.

The plan is to make this available in GroupWise 8.0.2 HP3 and in Ascot. We are right on the edge of the Hot Patch and the fix has not passed all validation...so we will just have to play that one by ear...but we certainly understand the priority and the demand.

Thanks of the reminder on the Support Matrix...I will make myself a note to update that when we have a solution shipping.

I understand your last comment about Mac client support. We have certainly considered many options.... I know this is a loaded question...BUT....We still 'hope' to satisfy our Mac community with a web solution. IF WebAccess could do offline mode, auto refresh, quick viewer, tasklist, and home folder would your Mac community be satisfied?

Let's see what hornet's nest I can stir up!!! :)

Dean

jsessler's picture

Dean, There is a conversation

Submitted by jsessler on 14 July 2011 - 4:13pm.

Dean,

There is a conversation here that is much too long to have in email, perhaps a phone call?

Trust - There has been "hope" for over eleven years now that WA would be on feature-parity with the windows client, and it's not even close. Every GW head has made the same claim; all have so far failed on the goal. It's difficult to believe given the past, and I'm not encouraged given the less-ambitious Ascot release has slipped many many months behind and lost features. I need something to be a believer again.

So, to answer in simple terms... Having those features would be a positive move forward, and it may satisfy the "drive by" email people e.g students and some faculty, but if functions such as archive and advanced rules aren't there, then the solution isn't going to work for our knowledge workers or other high-demand email consumers e.g. my President, CFO, etc.

Here is the question for you to ask of yourself:
Would an existing _Windows_ GW user be satisfied with WA (with the features you mention) as their only client? Could you and your administrative assistant move 100% to WA? If the answer is no, and I suspect it would be for knowledge workers and their Sr. staff, then it's not going to satisfy the Mac users either.

The Mac “xplat” client is already a red-headed step-child to the windows client, users are already complaining, so if I’m have to ask them to compromise more, GW's future will remain cloudy. And let's not forget that GW 8 WA had been stability challenged, and now that it seems to be AOK, the whole engine is being replaced agian for Ascot. So, if you ask my Mac users to use WA, and WA Ascot falls on its face like GW 8 WA did, it's just going to piss-off more people and call for a change.

Here is my “pie in the sky” suggestion. Rebuild the GW client from the ground-up using a common code-base that can be ported to windows/mac/linux and compiled as a native application (Java just isn’t cutting it). Oh, and take advantage of the OS features, such as spotlight on the Mac. The problem is that you devote a lot of resources to the Windows client and very little to the Mac. If there was a common codebase, perhaps you’d end up with a single great client.

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Conversation

Submitted by dlythgoe on 18 July 2011 - 8:10am.

Thanks for the feedback and insight. You have come to the same answers and conclusions as we have. To quote one of my engineers, "our only solution to supporting so many clients is to create a new client!" :)

You have articulated exactly the challenges we have had and still face. Bottom line - the only way we make progress is to deliver. Fortunately, that is what I am finally hearing and seeing with Attachmate.

I am very encouraged about where we can go and what we can do. Promises mean very little and trust is a delicate request. Ascot is just the first installment, we will be making more frequent, more substantial installments.

Hope to see you at BrainShare and we can discuss more as Novell takes necessary steps forward.

Dean

vgalino's picture

Groupwise 8 Works well on MAX OS X Lion

Submitted by vgalino on 21 July 2011 - 12:38am.

They works

ecallis's picture

Mac Client

Submitted by ecallis on 26 July 2011 - 5:45pm.

I would also like to emphasize the necessity for the continuation (and upgrade to parity with) of the Mac client for GW. I've been fighting to maintain GW and Novell in our district for over 13 years, even through the dark days of no native clients. Webaccess is not, as many others have stated, a viable solution for power users or execs who rely heavily on calendaring.

As an Apple distinguished school, we have dozens of districts visit our schools each year and most of them are absolutely amazed that we are still Novell loyalists and also with what we have been able to achieve with the combination of OS X and Novell products. Groupwise is our most visible branded client-facing applicaiton. If I can no longer justify it, Novell will be dead with us.

I hope there is reconsideration and continued development of the x-platform or a new client is renewed.

Eric

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Mac Client

Submitted by dlythgoe on 27 July 2011 - 10:37am.

Eric,

Thank you for your input and added value to the conversation. We understand and we are listening. I love that GroupWise is so mission critical for your organization. We certainly want to maintain its value for you.

Your request and feedback, along with so many others, is valuable!

Dean

gburg's picture

32 bit support

Submitted by gburg on 30 April 2011 - 7:24am.

Dean,

You mentioned not so long ago that 32 bit for the agents will be supported.
I don't see that in the matrix.
I don't see that in the NOT supported matrix either.

So, what is it? And if it is ONLY 64 bit why the confusion?

Gert
GWCheck.com

dlythgoe's picture

Re 32-bit support...

Submitted by dlythgoe on 2 May 2011 - 8:14pm.

Thanks for the clarification.

All of the agents in GroupWise Ascot will be 32-bit. This matrix was to show what platforms that would be supported on. Just like with GroupWise 8 - 32-bit agents can and do run and are supported on 64-bit hardware and 64-bit platforms.

We expect to release 64-bit GroupWise agents in the next release of GroupWise - code named Windermere.

I hope that helps...

Dean

gburg's picture

32 bit

Submitted by gburg on 4 May 2011 - 8:40am.

Then please show the 32 bit agent support in this blog post, cause new readers will not notice.

Gert

dlythgoe's picture

Re: 32-bit...

Submitted by dlythgoe on 4 May 2011 - 8:25pm.

I think I got it :)

Check my work....does it make sense now? I have updated the blog post and added a few more clarification statements. I hope this is now clear.

Now that a lot of customers are running on 64-bit hardware with 64-bit operating systems, I wanted them to know that our 32-bit server components will continue to run on these platforms as well as the 32-bit platforms.

whew....

Dean

kbannister's picture

32 bit eDirectory

Submitted by kbannister on 11 May 2011 - 8:04am.

So, this will not be supported on 32bit eDirectory. If not will it even run on 32bit eDirectory. We need edir for LDAP authentication and cannot afford new hardware for at least four more years. Would hate to put off the GW upgrade until then.

dlythgoe's picture

Re: 32-bit eDirectory...

Submitted by dlythgoe on 16 May 2011 - 1:17pm.

Thanks for calling this out...it made me investigate further.

I had incorrectly assumed that eDir 8.8 only came in a 64-bit version. I was wrong...it comes in both flavors and we will support both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of eDir 8.8.

I will update the blog as well. Good catch!

We might get this right after all :)

Dean

gburg's picture

Dean?

Submitted by gburg on 11 May 2011 - 1:34pm.

32bit eDir NOT supported? IMO it works well.

vgalino's picture

Mac OS X Lion and Mobility Pack

Submitted by vgalino on 21 July 2011 - 12:30am.

Hello.
I have some clients with Mac and myself.

Now the MAC OS X Lion have a good features , is like a iPAD,

¿ Its not a possibility to syncronice Contacts, Mail and Calendar with Mobility Pack directly ?

I am very happy with mobility pack with the IPhone and the iPad, If i get the same with Mac os x lion i think its a very good news...

I See on mac os x lion on system settins -> email -> i can add and exchange account. The only doubts is if they works with active sync (i think so) or with Exchange web servers. If this is the first case, then i think its possible to syncronice with this...(program mail, agenda and contacts). A lot of clients are very happy with this¡¡¡

Note : I test to syncronice directly with my mobility pack server and they don t works...But if they have the active sync connector its very cool¡¡¡

Regards
Victor

kranzera's picture

AD support

Submitted by kranzera on 25 July 2011 - 5:53am.

I thought, AD support will be added in Ascot?

dlythgoe's picture

Re: AD Support

Submitted by dlythgoe on 25 July 2011 - 2:47pm.

Active Directory (AD) support was originally scheduled for the next major release of GroupWise. At the time, that release was Windermere. We decided to do a few things quicker and get some solutions out to our customers before Windermere. Ascot was hatched....

We did consider trying to get Active Directory Support in Ascot, but it simply did not fit. Our new administration model including support for Active Directory is scheduled for Windermere. We expect to share a lot of details about the design and architecture for this at BrainShare 2011 in Salt Lake City.

BrainShare is October 10-14th....Hope to see you there and we will be prepared to share exactly where we are and what we are doing.

Dean

kranzera's picture

Re: AD Support

Submitted by kranzera on 26 July 2011 - 12:51am.

we are one of the last gw-bastions in austria. our path goes to AD.
with ZCM Novell had done the step.
what is the problem with GW?

primary we need the gw-authentication without nw-client again the AD.
next we will need the administrative relocation to AD...eDir will die...sniff...
...but...
we are not allone at this path! when the ad-integration will not be included in the next releases,
the way to exchange will be wide open!!

thx for the infos @ andreas

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Active Directory..

Submitted by dlythgoe on 27 July 2011 - 7:35am.

Andreas,

Thank you! We hear you and are working as quickly as we can to provide a wider range of directory support outside of eDir. Active Directory is the principal target.

This is currently scheduled for Windermere. Thanks for the feedback and comments.

Dean

kranzera's picture

Re: Active Directory

Submitted by kranzera on 27 July 2011 - 11:21pm.

What is the timeline for Windermere...how long I have to wait for AD-Support?
...and...
what will be the functional range of the AD-Support?

Andreas

Eric2001's picture

Outlook Connector

Submitted by Eric2001 on 26 July 2011 - 9:41am.

Dean, I know that Novell made a decision to not put resources into an Outlook Connector, but has the new ownership reconsidered this idea? We tested Outlook 2010 and it seems to work almost perfectly with GroupWise 8 client installed (Windows). In fact it works so well that we did a little research and it appears that Microsoft has a new implementation of MAPI with Outlook 2010. In the past we found that only Outlook 2003 with a GroupWise 7 client worked well enough. Outlook 2007 with GW7 failed and Outlook 2003 or 2007 with GW8 failed. But Outlook 2010 with GW8 is pretty darn good. Tasks are not quite right, and every now and then on start up we get a "Outlook needs to shut down" error. But calendar and contacts work surprisingly well, and mail is much quicker.

To recap why this is important: 1. Lots of third-party integration with Outlook, virtually none with GroupWise. 2. If you want to show someone the parts of GroupWise that are better than Outlook to convince them to use it, or convince them to push for third-party integration, you need to show them the latest client. GW8 has many features that are better than GW7. As an example, if you show them contacts in GW7 they will want to stay with Outlook. Show them contacts in GW8 and they will think that GW is a viable option. Comapre the Home View in GW8 to anything in any version of Outlook and they will be interested in GroupWise. For that matter, how about an Exchange Connector to allow the GW client to use an Exchange server.

Eric

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Outlook Connector

Submitted by dlythgoe on 27 July 2011 - 7:27am.

I am very encouraged by the Attachmate acquisition. They are breathing new life into all areas of the GroupWise product and business.

They have been open to a lot of ideas and suggestions that are not only new, but like a solution for Outlook - are also 'old'.

At this point - I can only say - stay tuned! We will see how far and how quickly we can provide relief in some of these areas. Will we be able to get to all of them? Probably unlikely - but like I said - I am very encouraged by the initial actions and direction that 'we' are now taking with this Product line.

Dean

dlythgoe's picture

Re: Outlook Connector

Submitted by dlythgoe on 27 July 2011 - 7:31am.

I am very encouraged by the Attachmate acquisition. They are breathing new life into all areas of the GroupWise product and business.

They have been open to a lot of ideas and suggestions that are not only new, but like a solution for Outlook - are also 'old'.

At this point - I can only say - stay tuned! We will see how far and how quickly we can provide relief in some of these areas. Will we be able to get to all of them? Probably unlikely - but like I said - I am very encouraged by the initial actions and direction that 'we' are now taking with this Product line.

Dean

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