8.2 Understand NetWare-to-Linux Data Migration Issues

Before using the Server Consolidation Utility to copy data from NetWare servers to OES Linux servers, you should be aware of the issues described in this section.

8.2.1 Use of SMS to Copy Data

The Server Consolidation Utility uses Storage Management Services (SMS) as its file copy engine to copy data from NetWare servers to OES Linux servers. Using SMS preserves as many of the NetWare trustee rights and file/directory attributes as possible.

8.2.2 New attrib Command for OES Linux

If you copy files from a NetWare source server that have the Delete Inhibit attribute set, the files cannot be deleted from the destination NSS volume on an OES Linux server using the standard Linux or Windows utilities.

Novell has provided a new attrib command for OES Linux that lets you remove the Delete Inhibit attribute, as well as set or modify other supported NetWare attributes on Linux. For more information, enter attrib -h to view the online help.

8.2.3 Creation Dates Change from NetWare to Linux

After copying files from a NetWare source server to an OES Linux destination server, the creation dates for those files change to today's date rather than the date the files were originally created. Linux doesn't provide a Creation Date field for file systems, so NCP Server displays the current date.

8.2.4 Migrating Macintosh Files from NetWare to Linux

If the Server Consolidation Utility encounters files with Macintosh* resource forks (supported in early versions of NCP), the resource forks are not copied to the Linux server. However, if you use Macintosh-based backup/restore tools that use AppleTalk* Filing Protocol (AFP) when migrating Macintosh files to a Linux server, you won't lose any of the Macintosh-specific metadata.

8.2.5 NFS Name Space Required when Copying Data from TFS on NetWare to NSS on Linux

If you need to transfer data from a traditional NetWare file system (non-NSS) volume on NetWare to an NSS volume on OES Linux, you must first install NFS name space support on the traditional NetWare volume.

Without the NFS name space loaded, the Server Consolidation Utility file copy fails with an error message indicating there is not enough disk space.

8.2.6 Disable Server Consolidation Utility File and Folder Comparison

Novell recommends that you do not enable the Compare Files and Folders verification when copying data from NetWare to Linux. If you do enable this check, you should expect to see many errors reported in the log file, because of the inherent differences in how Linux stores file system data.

8.2.7 Enable UTF-8 Encoding on NCP Client for SCU

When using the Server Consolidation Utility to copy data from servers storing double-byte character set data (Japanese, Korean, and other non-ASCII characters) or extended ASCII character data (multinational characters), you must enable UTF-8 support in the Novell Clientâ„¢ 4.91 for Windows 2000/XP. (UTF-8 support is turned off by default.) This prevents trustees and ownerships from being lost.

8.2.8 Understanding the Need for Linux Enabling Users

When you use the Server Consolidation Utility to copy data from NetWare servers to NSS volumes on an OES Linux server, it transfers the NetWare trustee rights and supported file and directory attributes along with the files. If you are using the Novell Client (NCP) to access NSS data, it is no longer necessary to Linux enable the users to preserve file ownership. All ownership information is now tracked correctly during a migration, except for the deleter ID information in connection with the Salvage feature in NSS.

For other types of access, in order to preserve file ownerships the users must be Linux enabled (also known as LUM enabled because the process involves the Linux User Management service in OES). To become Linux or LUM enabled, an eDirectory User object must be associated with an eDirectory Group object, which is in turn associated with an eDirectory Linux Workstation object that represents the physical Linux workstation/server. The Group object is necessary because NSS on Linux uses Virtual File Services (VFS), which requires both a User ID and a Group ID to authorize access. For a more thorough discussion of the issues involved with Linux enabling users for OES Linux, see the OES 2: Novell Linux User Management Technology Guide .

To maintain file ownership information when copying data from NetWare volumes to NSS volumes on OES Linux for non-NCP access, Novell recommends that you Linux enable your users before copying their data.

IMPORTANT:If you Linux enable users after their data has been copied to an OES Linux server, the file ownerships might not be re-established immediately on the destination NSS volume. If you use the nambulkadd command to Linux enable your users, the user IDs are updated immediately upon completion of the command. However, if you Linux enable users individually with iManager, ConsoleOne, or the namuseradd command, it could take up to four hours before the user IDs are updated. You can have the update ID process occur immediately by running the refreshids command after Linux enabling the user.

You can Linux enable users either one user at a time using ConsoleOne® or iManager, or in bulk using the nambulkadd command. For more information, see the OES 2: Novell Linux User Management Technology Guide .