Press Release

NetWare 4 "Green River" Release Speeds, Simplifies Installation and Upgrade Process

New Utilities Add to NetWare's Administration and Management Lead By Making Installation and Upgrades Easy

OREM, Utah -- July 24, 1996 -- Novell, Inc. today announced new utilities in the upcoming release of NetWare™ 4, code-named Green River, that speed the installation and upgrade process in making networks easy to administer and affordable to operate. New auto-detection capabilities in Green River speed the installation process by identifying adapter cards on the server and automatically installing the correct device driver software. Green River also streamlines the installation of network solutions by integrating features such as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support and TCP/IP that were previously installed separately. In addition, new utilities make the upgrade process fast and easy by enabling network administrators to model and then automatically migrate bindery and file information from NetWare 2 and NetWare 3 servers to NetWare 4 directory trees.

"With the delivery of Green River, we have reduced the time and effort it takes to install the new operating system, effectively decreasing the cost of network administration," said William Donahoo, senior director of product marketing at Novell. "Each new feature of Green River adds to Novell's networking lead and makes Green River a more obvious choice for both upgrades and new installations."

Automated Installation Process Cuts Administrator Efforts

Novell has automated key aspects of the Green River installation process, eliminating many of the manual operations required by previous versions of NetWare. New hardware auto-detection capabilities recognize the server's LAN adapters and disk adapters and support all drivers compliant with NetWare Peripheral Architecture (NWPA). Green River also automates the administrator's choice and configuration of network protocols, eliminating the need to reference and then manually enter protocol specifications for each LAN card.

Green River auto-detects the following types of adapter cards:

  • EISA -- Extended Industry Standard Architecture
  • MCA -- Micro-Channel Architecture
  • PCI -- Peripheral Component Interconnect
  • PnP ISA -- Plug and Play Industry Standard Architecture
  • PC Card -- Personal Computer Card (formerly PCMCIA)

Integrated Migration Utilities Simplify Upgrades

To simplify upgrades from earlier NetWare releases, Green River features two new utilities -- DS Migrate™ and File Migration™. DS Migrate, developed in partnership with Preferred Systems, Inc. (PSI), provides an "in-the-box" migration solution by enabling fast and easy transfer of NetWare 2.1x, NetWare 2.2 and NetWare 3.1x bindery information to an existing NetWare 4 directory. DS Migrate, a sub-set of PSI's' popular DS Standard® Novell Directory Service™ (NDS™) management tool, offers the core capabilities found in that product. For more robust migration capabilities, as well as NDS modeling and management, Novell Labs has approved the full implementation of DS Standard. DS Migrate also enables administrators to model, verify and print directory trees before performing migration. Novell surveys show that network administrators place a high value on these capabilities for analyzing various directory schema and preparing proposals and presentations to upper management.

Green River's new File Migration tool transfers existing data files to NetWare 4 directory trees, while maintaining existing trustee rights. Both of the new utilities are integrated with Green River as part of NetWare Administrator™ (NWAdmin™), the global management tool for NDS. Other new Green River modeling and migration features include:

  • The ability to view and model the migration process through a graphical user interface that saves time and makes decision making more intuitive; and
  • Support for English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Spanish, enabling European administrators to manage networks with a local-language interface.

About Green River

Green River, the next version of Novell's market-leading network operating system, provides organizations with a platform for comprehensive network, intranet and Internet solutions. This platform significantly eases installation, migration and administration of networking processes. Currently slated for release later this year, other major features of Green River include:

  • NDS enhancements including NDS Manager to simplify the monitoring and management of multiple NDS trees;
  • C2-level security to protect sensitive data during transmission across networks; and
  • NetWare Application Launcher™ (NAL) to centrally administer network applications and provide users with location-independent access.
Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet, intranet and small-business markets. Novell education and technical support programs are the most comprehensive in the network computing industry. Information about Novell's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.

Founded in 1990, Preferred Systems, Inc. is the market leader in the development of directory services management tools. With more than 140,000 copies of the DS Standard product distributed, it is recognized as the de facto tool to manage NDS. PSI's products are distributed worldwide. PSI can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://prefsys.com.

Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks, and DS Migrate, File Migration, NDS, NetWare Administrator, NetWare Application Launcher, Novell Directory Services and NWAdmin are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

Press Contacts:
Jason Werner
Novell, Inc.
Phone: (801) 861-7574
Internet: jwerner@novell.com

Julia Mason
Cunningham Communication, Inc.
Phone: (408) 764-0747
Internet: julia@ccipr.com