You have already seen that there are differences in the way OES provides services on SLES 9 and NetWare 6.5 (See Section 3.2, What Services Are Included in OES?.) To help you better assess which OES platform can best meet your network service needs, you should consider the inherent platform strengths of Linux and NetWare and the differences in the service offerings on each platform.
Although both OES platforms provide a full set of network services, there are differences in the NetWare and Linux platforms.
Table 3-2 Platform Comparison
In addition to considering the platform strengths, you should understand the differences in the features available when services are running on Linux or NetWare. The following examples illustrate this point.
DHS/DHCP: NetWare DNS/DHCP services are far richer than the basic DNS/DHCP functionality available in the standard Linux implementation.
Many organizations find Linux DNS/DHCP services to be completely adequate. On the other hand, some organizations—especially those that currently leverage the advanced services available on NetWare—might be frustrated with the Linux implementation of DNS/DHCP and find it inadequate for their needs.
Novell Storage Services (NSS): When deploying NSS, you might want support for Novell Distributed File Services (DFS) so you can move or split NSS volumes. This feature is currently available only on NSS running on NetWare.
You should fully investigate any service differences between platforms before you finalize your service/platform choices.
It is beyond the scope of this guide to explain every point that might be important to you as you plan your network services. For this level of information, you should consult the service-specific manuals and guides provided in the OES online documentation.
To help you, Table 3-3 indicates which services are the same, contains links to documentation sections that discuss service differences, and shows which services are unavailable on a given platform.
Table 3-3 Information on Service Differences between the OES Platforms
|
Service |
Explanations and Links |
|---|---|
|
Apache Web Server |
|
|
Archive and Version Services |
This Novell product is not supported on Linux. |
|
Backup (SMS) |
SBCON is not supported on Linux. |
|
Clustering |
|
|
DFS (Distributed File Services) |
Not supported in NSS for Linux. |
|
DHCP |
|
|
DNS |
|
|
eDirectory 8.7.3 |
No functional differences. |
|
eDirectory Certificate Server |
No functional differences. |
|
eGuide (White Pages) |
No functional differences. |
|
FTP Server |
|
|
Health Monitoring services |
No functional differences.
|
|
Identity Manager |
No functional differences. |
|
Novell iFolder 2.x |
No functional differences. |
|
Novell iFolder 3.x |
For OES SP1 Linux and later; not for OES NetWare. |
|
iPrint |
|
|
IPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange) |
Novell doesn't provide this on Linux. |
|
iSCSI |
Linux-iSCSI Project on the Web
|
|
LDAP Server for eDirectory |
No functional differences. |
|
MySQL |
|
|
NCP Server |
|
|
NetStorage |
NetStorage on Linux offers connectivity to storage locations using the CIFS/SMB, NCP, and SSH protocols. NetWare uses only NCP. These and other differences are summarized in NetStorage. |
|
NICI (Novell International Cryptography Infrastructure) |
No functional differences. |
|
NMAS (Novell Modular Authentication Services) |
No functional differences. |
|
Novell Client support (Linux and Windows) |
No functional differences with NCP Server for Linux installed on OES Linux. |
|
Novell Cluster Services |
|
|
Novell Licensing Services |
Not available on Linux. |
|
Novell iFolder 2. x |
No functional differences. |
|
NSS (Novell Storage Services) |
|
|
Nsure Audit |
Not available on Linux. |
|
NTPv3 |
|
|
OpenSSH |
|
|
PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) |
Not available on NetWare. Authentication is fully integrated with eDirectory. |
|
Pervasive.SQL |
|
|
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) |
No functional differences. |
|
Printing |
See iPrint. |
|
RADIUS |
No functional differences (NMAS). |
|
QuickFinder |
See Search. |
|
Samba |
Linux solution for CIFS file access. NetWare provides CIFS access through the Native File Access Protocol (NFAP) functionality. For more information, see the Samba Administration Guide for OES Linux SP2 . |
|
Search (QuickFinder) |
When indexing a file system, the QuickFinder engine indexes only what it has rights to see. On NetWare, it has full access to all mounted volumes. On Linux, it has rights to only the files that the novlwww user in the www group has rights to see. For more information, see
|
|
Server resource management (eDirectory) |
eDirectory on NetWare manages server resources. For example, you can view and modify file system information, manage files and folders on NetWare volumes, salvage and purge deleted files, allocate volume space, and create objects to facilitate file management. See
The current version of eDirectory for Linux does not support management of server resources. |
|
SLP (Novell SLP) (OpenSLP) |
Implementing the Service Location Protocol NetWare uses Novell SLP by default, which provides synchronization between Directory Agents (DAs) that are in the same eDirectory context. This provides service information beyond the local network. Alternatively, you can implement OpenSLP for eDirectory. Be aware, however, that DA synchronization is not supported in OpenSLP. OpenSLP on Linux is not customized to provide DA synchronization. |
|
Software RAIDS |
|
|
Storage Management Services (SMS) |
No functional differences. |
|
TCP/IP |
No functional differences. |
|
Timesync |
Not available on Linux, but NTPv3 is supported on both OES platforms. |
|
Tomcat |
|
|
NetWare Traditional File System |
Not available on Linux. |
|
Virtual Office (Collaboration) |
No functional differences. |
|
WAN Traffic Manager |
Not supported on Linux.
|