What's New

Exponential storage growth, regulatory compliance, requested product enhancements, and even the green IT movement were all factors in the development of features new to Novell Storage Manager 2.5. The most notable of these features are summarized below.

What's New in Storage Manager 2.5

Expanded Linux Support

As Novell networked organizations expand their environments to include SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server or Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Storage Manager 2.5 addresses this expansion with Event Monitors that can be hosted on servers running either Novell Linux offering. Agents (known previously as "Sentinels") can now be hosted on Novell OES 2 running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. New supported file types include OES 2, ext2/3 and Reiser if you have the NCP extension.

Collaborative Storage Enhancements

Rather than first having to first create a Group object in eDirectory™, an administrator can now create collaborative storage based on the Organizational Unit (OU) object itself. Novell Storage Manager 2.5 also extends its powerful file vaulting and grooming capabilities to collaborative storage. Now, you only need to set collaborative storage vaulting policies for aged files and unallowable file types and just like user file vaulting, these files will be moved to a vault location on less expensive hardware or deleted altogether. Finally, network administrators that are in the process of consolidating servers will appreciate Novell Storage Manager 2.5's ability to migrate collaborative storage by simply changing the storage location path within the collaborative storage policy.

Action Objects

Novell Storage Manager 2.5 includes new "Action Objects" APIs to enable the automation of very distinct storage actions outside of what is practical with Novell Storage Manager policies. Action Objects enable specific actions in coordination with other applications that manage through Novell eDirectory or LDAP. One such example is Novell Identity Manager.

Auxiliary Storage

Auxiliary User Storage is an enhancement that was also added at the request of many Novell Storage Manager enterprise customers. It allows administrators to create a policy in eDirectory that creates auxiliary storage folders when a new user is created. This auxiliary storage can even be invisible to the user for whom it was created. There is no limit to the number of auxiliary folders that can be created. Auxiliary folders can be created in volumes that differ from the location of the user's home directory.

New Interface

Novell Storage Manager 2.5 features a fresh new NSMAdmin interface. Icons and dialogs have all been given an updated look. Additionally, the interface has been redesigned to be easier to use. For example, where an administrator had to previously perform certain tasks through multiple steps in NSMAdmin, many of these steps can now be addressed through a single form. In addition, a Quick Links tab lets you place and access your most frequently used management options.

Enhanced Cataloging

Novell Storage Manager 2.5 includes a new "Custodian" feature that maintains a history of file movements in the Novell Storage Manager catalog. Similar to a building custodian that comes in (normally after business hours) to perform regular cleanup and maintenance tasks, the Custodian updates the catalog with time-based data recording. This means that whenever an administrator moves data managed by Novell Storage Manager 2.5, the Custodian records it in the catalog.

Graphical Analytics

The Custodian also gathers and presents an extensive amount of analytical summaries pertaining to file system data in a Novell eDirectory-managed network. In fact, once you launch NSMAdmin, you are presented some of this analytical data in the main screen. Analytical information is available covering the distribution of data per server or volume, the distribution of disk space quota between user and collaborative storage, the number of orphaned home directories, percentage of managed versus unmanaged storage, historical time lines and much more.

Path Analysis

The new Path Analysis feature helps ensure compliance by allowing administrators to browse down a file path from any server and volume to a particular folder and perform an analysis of both access rights through either direct assignment or inherited rights through both the file system and directory services. Path Analysis can also report file types that are being stored in a folder and all subfolders based on file extension. For example, by selecting a home folder, you can easily see the number of .MP3, .MOV, .JPG, etc., files the user is storing on the network.