2.1 Assessing Your Current Network

2.1.1 Running Novell Support Advisor

To ensure you are equipped with the latest pre-upgrade information and area aware of known issues, we recommend you validate your OES upgrade readiness using the Novell Support Advisor 1.1 (or later) tool. For more information and to obtain this free tool, access the Novell Support Advisor Web page.

2.1.2 Recording Your Current Network Information

Whether you will be upgrading on your own, using Novell Global Services, or working with another consulting firm, you need a complete and accurate record of your current network setup.

  1. If you don’t already have one, create one or more diagrams of your network, including the following information:

    • Router/switch/subnet/firewall diagrams; note particularly any blocked ports

    • Current WAN configuration, including link speeds for all sites running NetWare. Duplicate the following tables or use a spreadsheet, as necessary, to accommodate multiple sites.

    Table 2-1 Sample WAN Environment Overview

    Site Location

    WAN Speed

    # of Servers

    Server Breakdown

    Home Office

    Local

    25

    • 3-NW4.11
    • 3-NW5.0
    • 4-NW5.1
    • 3-NW6.0
    • 3-NW6.5
    • 5-W2K3
    • 2-W2K
    • 2-RHEL3

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Table 2-2 Sample WAN Location Environment Overview

    Site Location

    # of NetWare Servers

    NetWare Versions

    Server Notes

    # of Clients

    Client Breakdown

    Client Notes

    Southwest Office

    6

    • 2-NW4.11
    • 1-NW5.1
    • 3-NW6.5

    All NetWare are being retired. Users will be moved to OES servers

    30

    • 4–Win98
    • 6-W2K
    • 20-WinXP

    Win9x clients will be migrated to Windows XP Professional SP2

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  2. If you don’t already have a current directory design document, create one that includes:

    • NDS/eDirectory tree diagrams.

    • Partition and replication diagrams.

    • NDS versions, such as NDS v6, v7, and/or v8.

    • Versions of NDS/eDirectory that are installed on non-NetWare operating systems.

    • Other Novell applications that are directly dependent on eDirectory, such as Novell Account Management, DirXML, and Identity Manager.

    • Any bindery contexts currently in use, including a brief description of how they are used.

  3. List all of the NetWare servers in your tree along with their context, IP address information, and any other information you might need as you plan to migrate them.

  4. Identify any NetWare traditional (non-NSS) volumes being used on your NetWare servers.

  5. Identify the file services provided by NetWare servers, including AFP, CIFS, iFolder, NetStorage, FTP, and NCP (Novell Client), then list the servers that provide them and the contexts of the users that use them.

  6. Identify the printers that are serviced by NetWare servers, along with the print services associated with them, including iPrint, NDPS-based printing, and legacy queue-based printing.

  7. Identify any in-house applications developed specifically for NetWare and briefly describe the services that these provide.

  8. Identify other Novell products, such as GroupWise, ZENWorks, or Identity Manager that are currently running on NetWare, and verify which of these are supported on OES.

  9. Document how your e-mail infrastructure is currently set up.

  10. Identify any third-party applications currently running on the NetWare servers, such as backup/restore and anti-virus solutions.

    Verify with the vendors whether these applications are supported on SLES 11/OES and whether they are Novell YES Approved.

    Specify which applications will be ported to OES and which must continue to run on NetWare for the time being.

  11. List any databases (critical or otherwise) that are stored on NetWare servers.

  12. Create a design document that outlines your network service configurations, including time synchronization, SLP, DNS, DHCP, and any other network protocols or services that might be impacted by an upgrade to OES, such as IPX.

  13. Collect any standards documents you have, such as server standards and naming standards.

  14. Collect or document the hardware information for your NetWare servers, including processor specs, RAM configuration and storage adapters.

  15. Document any NetWare clusters in your network, both Novell Clustering Services (NCS) clusters and Business Continuity Clustering (BCC) clusters. Specify the function of each cluster node, including service failover configurations.

  16. Specify any security standards that must be met on OES/Linux. Unlike NetWare, Linux security is much more modular/granular.

The tables in the next section suggest additional information you might need to collect before you begin planning your upgrade to OES.