NCP has been used for years to manage access to the primary NetWare server resources. NCP makes procedure calls to the NetWare File Sharing Protocol (NFSP) that services requests for NetWare file and print resources. NCP is the principal protocol for transmitting information between a NetWare server and its clients.
NCP handles login requests and many other types of requests to the file system and the printing system. NCP is a client/server LAN protocol. Workstations create NCP requests and use TCP/IP to send them over the network. At the server, NCP requests are received, unpacked, and interpreted.
Services included with NCP are file access, file locking, security, tracking of resource allocation, event notification, synchronization with other servers, connection and communication, print services and queue management, and network management.
Client for Open Enterprise Server software must be used to initiate a connection between a Windows or Linux workstation running Client for Open Enterprise Server software and a Linux server running NCP Server services. Security and authentication issues require that linking clients to servers be a client/server application. Intelligence at both ends of the connection works together to verify that clients are who they claim to be, and that file controls are followed when using shared server files.
NCP recognizes only the DOS and LONG namespaces for an NSS volume on an OES server that is enabled to access via NCP.
However, NCP recognizes the DOS, AFP, NFS, and LONG namespaces for an NSS volume on a NetWare server that is enabled to access via NCP.
In OES, NCP does not support mounting a volume in a DOS name space.
However, an NCP verb request through the Client for Open Enterprise Server to return the files and folders names in a DOS name space is supported.