14.3 Coexistence and Migration of Storage Services

The following sections summarize the coexistence and migration issues related to storage services.

14.3.1 MySQL

OES 2 includes the open source MySQL database. When combined with a Web application and a Web server, MySQL is a very reliable and scalable database for use in hosting e-commerce and business-to-business Web applications.

NOTE:The more powerful PostgreSQL database server comes with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.

14.3.2 OES 2 Options

OES 2 provides support for Novell Storage Services (NSS) as well as Linux POSIX file systems.

NSS Volumes

NSS volumes are cross-compatible between NetWare and Linux.

To use NSS on OES 2, you must have a disk available to be managed by Enterprise Volume Management System (EVMS). The boot partition (such as /boot for Grub) and system partition (such as for the swap and system volumes) are managed by Logical Volume Manager 2 (LVM2). Any disk managed by LVM2 cannot be managed by EVMS, which makes the disks where the boot partition and system partition reside unavailable to NSS.

If you have a single-disk server that you want to install OES 2 for Linux on and create an NSS volume, see Installing with EVMS as the Volume Manager of the System Device in the OES 2 SP3: Installation Guide.

On OES 2, you can use NSS volumes only as data volumes. Configure NSS pools and volumes in iManager or NSSMU after the server installation completes successfully.

Starting with NetWare 6.5 SP4 and OES 2, a new metadata structure provides enhanced support for hard links. After you install or upgrade your operating system, you must upgrade the media format in order to use the new metadata structure; some restrictions apply. For more information, see Upgrading the NSS Media Format in the OES 2 SP3: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.

For additional information about coexistence and migration of NSS volumes, as well as access control issues for NSS on Linux, see Cross-Platform Issues for NSS in the OES 2 SP3: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.

Linux POSIX File Systems

You can install NCP Server for Linux to provide NetWare Core Protocol access to Linux POSIX file systems. This allows users running the Novell Client software to map drives to the Linux file system data, with access controls being enforced by NCP.

For more information on using NCP Server for Linux in OES, see the OES 2 SP3: NCP Server for Linux Administration Guide.

Users can access data storage on OES 2 servers through a number of methods. For more information, see Overview of File Services.

14.3.3 NetWare 6.5 SP8 Options

NetWare 6.5 SP8 supports both the NetWare Traditional file system and Novell Storage Services (NSS).

NetWare Traditional File System

After upgrading an older NetWare server to NetWare 6.5 SP8, it is possible for a NetWare Traditional file system volume to still reside on that server. Although you can continue to use Traditional volumes with NetWare 6.5 SP8, you will want to consider upgrading them to NSS to support a data migration to OES 2.

NSS Volumes

NSS volumes are cross-compatible between NetWare and Linux servers. You can mount an NSS data volume on either kernel—Linux or NetWare—and move it between them as long as they both support the same media format. In a clustered SAN, volumes that were originally created on a NetWare server can fail over between kernels, allowing for full data and file system feature preservation when migrating data to Linux.

Supporting NSS volumes in a mixed environment and migrating data between OES platforms presents a number of possibilities for your storage solutions. However, to ensure success you must fully understand the proper methods and limitations involved.

For additional information about coexistence and migration of NSS volumes, as well as access control issues for NSS on Linux, see Migrating NSS Devices from NetWare 6.5 SP8 to OES 2 Linux in the OES 2 SP3: NSS File System Administration Guide for Linux.