Complete the following tasks to prepare your computer for the NetWare 6.5 installation:
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to install and connect the network board and network cabling to your computer. Make sure that all storage devices are properly attached to the storage adapters.
Novell recommends that you install NetWare onto a clean, error-free disk drive. NetWare 6.5 requires a DOS partition in standard FAT format to hold the NetWare operating system startup and server files. If an adequate boot partition already exists on your machine, proceed to Accessing the Installation Files.
HINT:You should increase the size of your boot partition to accommodate your specific configuration requirements. See Meeting System Requirements.
To create and format a DOS boot partition:
Back up any desired data to another computer or offline storage media.
Boot your computer with DOS 3.3 or later.
If the computer already has an operating system installed, such as Windows or a previous installation of NetWare, you should completely remove the existing partitions and the operating system.
You can use FDISK to remove partitions, or the partitions can be deleted from the Prepare Boot Partition screen during the NetWare 6.5 installation.
If you want to use FDISK to create an active DOS partition, enter FDISK at the DOS prompt.
Create a primary DOS partition and make it the active partition. See Meeting System Requirements for minimum requirements. The computer will restart.
Format and transfer DOS system files to the partition by changing to drive a: and entering FORMAT C: /S at the DOS prompt.
Run SCANDISK or CHKDSK /F (depending on the machine's version of DOS) to verify the integrity of the DOS partition.
In the machine’s config.sys file, set FILES=50.
Your computer should now have an active DOS partition that meets or exceeds the minimum requirements. Continue the installation by accessing the installation files.
NetWare 6.5 can be installed from the server’s local CD or DVD drive or from installation files located on the network. If you want to run the NetWare 6.5 Install program from a network drive, complete the steps in Preparing to Run the NetWare 6.5 Installation from a Network Drive.
Starting in NetWare 6.5 SP1, Novell added an option during a new server install to use NetWare as the Boot OS instead of Caldera* DOS (overlay install only). This option allows you to proceed with the NetWare 6.5 Install program directly without having to boot DOS first. To use this option, make sure your computer is set up to boot from the CD drive before the hard drive. Skip to Section 4.2, Starting the Installation Program.
Make sure that the DOS config.sys file contains the FILES=50 and BUFFERS=30 commands.
Make sure the config.sys and autoexec.bat files are configured to load the CD-ROM drivers for your computer. The logical filename of your CD drive (specified in these files) must not be CDDVD.
Boot your computer with DOS 3.3 or later.
Install the IP Server Connection Utility (srvinst2.exe) software.
Copy the contents of both NetWare 6.5 SP8 CD 1 (Operating System) and NetWare 6.5 SP8 CD 2 (Products) to the same directory on your network. In copying these two CDs to the network, you might see messages regarding duplicate files. This is because some of the files for NetWare 6.5 are placed on both CDs. Proceed past the duplicate file messages and continue the copy to the network.
Alternatively, you can copy the contents of NetWare 6.5 SP8 DVD to the network.
The c:\nwupdate directory structure for NetWare 6.5 mirrors the directory structure of the install image. Updated files should be placed in the c:\nwupdate subdirectory that corresponds to where they are located in the install image.
There are two notable exceptions to this rule:
Install scripts (sys_inst.ils, dos_inst.ils, defpre.ils, defcopy.ils, etc.) should be placed in the c:\nwupdate directory.
NOTE:Defpre.ils and defcopy.ils are dummy scripts called from dos_inst.ils (the first C-Worthy copy) and sys_inst.ils (the second C-Worthy copy), respectively, and are intended to be modified for OEM use. These scripts are also used in NetWare 6.0.
The subdirectories of the c:\nwupdate\drivers directory (\storage, \lan, \psm, \sbd, \cios) have been eliminated. Their files and subdirectories should be placed in the c:\nwupdate\drivers directory.
There is a blackout period during the install when access to the DOS drives (C:, D:, etc.) is prohibited. This occurs during the time that platform support and storage drivers (PSMs, HAMs, SBDs, and CDMs) are detected and loaded. However, they can be loaded from a floppy disk.