Novell vs Windows 2000

We are considering changing from a Novell network to a Windows 2000 network. Is this advisable? What are the advantages/disadvantages of going from Novell to Windows? Thanks in advance.

 

What version of Netware are you running now? What's your backbone look like today? Are you all IP now? How many nodes? What are you using for security?

 

We are running Netware 5.0 on an ethernet backbone. We are using PentaSafe security.

 

I am currently running three Netware 5.5 servers with Edirectory 8.5, 4 Win2000 Servers (two are advance server).
I am using a combination of Novell's Account Manager and NDS for NT.

This allows the NT servers to show up in the Edirectory as objects of NDS. If you do the Netware 5.5 upgrade most everything is controlled from ConsolOne and you really do not need to use NWAdmin anymore.

As far as user authentication is concerned...
The Edirectory integrates with MS Active Directory and automatically synchronizes passwords between the two directory services.

Ideally one would use NDS to control authentication and rights, ditch Netware and use MS servers, but Novell is not quit ready...
Maybe when the release EDirectory 9.0.

 

Let me begin by saying that I am not Microsoft's biggest fan!

However, Win2K has made some great improvement over it's predecessor (NT4). To start with, things are leaning more on DNS than ever. That should make an administrator's job much easier, especially if you are familiar with BIND 8 and it's ability to accept dynamic entries. Second, and IMO most important, is Active Directory. Though Novell (and once upon a time Banyan ) have used this concept for some time, I think Microsoft's AD took the good from everyone else's and made it better! Throw IntelliMirror in the equation and Win2K starts to look even better!

If there's one thing that everyone asks about a Microsoft server platform is stability. I can honestly say that, for the first time, Microsoft did this one right! We're now seeing uptime numbers comparable to UNIX machines!!! Patching is a brease with WindowsUpdate (yes, it works on servers).

If you were asking whether to change to NT4, I would probably have told you to sit tight. But unless there's a reason for you to stay with Novell like a specific application, I'd begin the migration!!

 

Another real-world consideration is staffing. Unless you have zero turnover in IT staff, you will probably find it much easier to hire qualified NT folk than to get the same for Novell.

IMO Novell did as so many other companies have over the years and got to the top of their market and sat. And sat. And sat. By the time they woke up, M$ had passed them by with market share.

Even if you assume the platforms are absolutely identical in terms of function and such, I think you would be well advised to consider switching now that 2K has proven to be good and not just hpye.

 

I agree 110% with the staffing point. M$ admins are very easy to find and can be bought for whatever price you can afford...from the recent high school grads that have been reading books and playing with a small network at home to someone that remembers NT 3.51 !!!

I also agree with the sitting at the top point. In Novell's day, they were it! They were faster and more stable. Admin kind of sucked back in the 3.X days, but once you got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. They needed to get a slick GUI out the door and work on making their platform perform over IP as well as it did over IPX. Then they needed to forget about charging you for every little option you needed/wanted! But, hindsight is always 20/20!!!!

I think you would be very happy moving to M$'s product. Go to the website and request a 120-day eval copy of Server and Advanced Server, as well as a few copies of Professional. However, I would lean toward XP Pro on the desktops. "Much-mo-betta!!! "