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1991-10-29
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FYI
Note: The origin of this information may be internal or external
to Novell. Novell makes every effort within its means to verirfy
this information. However, the information provided in this
document is FOR YOUR INFORMATION only. Novell makes no explicit
or implied claims to the validity of this information.
TITLE: NetWare Lite Pre-Release White Paper
DOCUMENT ID#: FYI.P.6026
DATE: October 29, 1991
PRODUCT: NetWare Lite
PRODUCT VERSION: All versions
SUPERSEDES: NA
SYMPTOM: NA
ISSUE/PROBLEM
NetWare Lite Pre-Release White Paper
Overview
NetWare LiteTM is Novell's new peer-to-peer operating system.
Its client/server architecture provides networking features for
small LANs. NetWare Lite is designed to be easy to install and
use. It supports disk and printer sharing for up to 25 nodes on
a single physical LAN segment. Each node in the network can be
configured as either a client, a server, or both. Both client
and server are DOS terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs.
Therefore, the server operates in a nondedicated mode with DOS as
the underlying operating system.
Program Details
NetWare Lite consists of three TSR software pieces, and a single
utility.
The client supports the Microsoft interrupt 2fh redirector
interface, and occupies approximately 12k of workstation memory.
The server is another DOS TSR that utilizes DOS networking server
hooks. The average configuration requires 45k of workstation
memory. The server runs in real mode on an IBM PC, XT, AT or
compatible computer with a hard disk. The server uses DOS and
the DOS file system to share files with network clients.
Both programs use Novell's IPX protocol. IPX is provided by a
trio of TSRs that implement Novell's ODI protocol interface and
MLID LAN board interface. The group of programs providing the
IPX protocol requires approximately 15k of workstation memory,
depending on the LAN driver used. NetWare Lite provides a group
of MLID drivers with the product to support a large number of LAN
boards. NetWare Lite also runs with other LAN boards if an MLID
compliant driver is provided. NetWare Lite also runs over the
older "linked" version of IPX, if already present.
Network operations and administration are performed using a
single utility that functions in either command-line or menu-
driven mode. The utility incorporates extensive online user
help.
The client and server communicate using a request/response
protocol similar to that used by the dedicated NetWare■ operating
system. The server can support up to 25 simultaneous client
connections. All nodes on a NetWare Lite network, both clients
and servers, reside on a single physical LAN segment, or on LAN
segments connected via MAC layer bridges. The underlying
operating system for the server and client is DOS version 3.x
(3.1 and above), 4.x, 5.0 or DR DOS 6.0. Disk redirection, file
attributes, and file sharing are supported, including enforcement
of DOS sharing modes and record locking through DOS' SHARE.EXE.
Printer redirection is supported through both DOS device I/O and
BIOS printer services.
Network Features
The server provides network directories, that can be shared by a
client as a redirected disk. A network directory associates a
logical name to a subdirectory on a physical drive at the server.
More than one network directory can be defined within the same
subdirectory tree on a server's physical disk. Both hard drives
and floppy drives can be shared as network directories. The
server can also provide network printers, that can be shared by a
client as a redirected printer port. A network printer
associates a logical name to a printer attached to the server.
Network security is enforced via user accounts. Access to
network resources can be controlled on a per-user basis, using a
simplified rights scheme implemented through access control
lists. A user's identity is verified using password
authentication. Passwords are encrypted both in the user
database and during transmission on the network. A full range of
user account restrictions and password requirements is enforced
by the operating system.
Network directories can be manipulated dynamically, for instance
a new network directory can be created and used without rebooting
the server on which it resides.
Print jobs are spooled, and can be manipulated (held, deleted or
other) while in the print queue at the server. The server
supports both parallel and serial print devices, and can spool
simultaneously to multiple printers. Print jobs can be
controlled by a variety of printing options: printing a banner,
number of copies, tab expansion, printer setup strings, holding a
job, etc. Also supported is direct printing, whereby a job can
begin despooling (printing) before it has finished being
submitted to the print queue.
A variety of statistics is reported for servers. These can be
monitored and used to reconfigure a server for enhanced memory
utilization or performance. The network maintains an audit log
so that activities on the network can be tracked. An error log
is also kept, to aid in isolating and resolving problems with the
network. The installation program includes verification that LAN
cards, cables and IPX software are installed correctly and are
operational.
Additional miscelaneous features include the following: Messages
can be sent to other users' video displays. It is possible to
disable the reception and display of messages on your terminal.
Time for all or part of the machines on the network can be
synchronized. The server has a pop-up window that displays
printer errors and necessary operator actions, and another window
that requests confirmation when the user reboots the machine.
Operational Details (Advanced Features)
NetWare Lite's implementation of advanced networking techniques
achieves simplicity of operation as well as network performance
and robustness. Shared directories and printers and users are
presented in a network-wide view. Network directories and
printers can be used without reference to (or user's awareness
of) the location of their physical component. Furthermore,
client access to a resource is unaffected by moving the resource
from one server to another. Although resources are presented to
the user in a conglomerate view, servers operate independently of
each other. Also, a single server or group of servers can go
down without disrupting the rest of the network.
The user database is a distributed, replicated database.
Therefore, user accounts are administered on a network-wide,
rather than per-server basis. A user logs into the network,
rather than into specific servers. The password is required only
once (the client software, not the user, handles authentication
with new servers as their resources are used). Only one account
exists on the network for each user. This greatly simplifies
user administration. If user accounts are administered when a
portion of the network is down, the user database is
resynchronized when that portion again becomes operational.
Since the database is distributed, network operation continues
even if only one server is functional.
The client can reconnect (transparently to the user) with a
server and continue most operations even after a server has gone
down and is brought back up. In such a case, drives need not be
remapped nor must printer ports be recaptured. However,
information for open DOS files cannot be retained through a
server reboot.
NetWare Lite supports de-centralized network administration.
Network resources and server configurations can be manipulated
from any machine (running the client software) on the network.
Remote administration of servers can be optionally disallowed per
server.
The server implements a read-ahead cache for enhanced
performance. NetWare Lite is also compatible with third party
DOS-based disk caches. Several third party caches have been
tested and found to enhance network performance by the same
amount that they enhance local DOS disk performance.
NetWare Compatibility
NetWare Lite is compatible with NetWare. NetWare Lite software
(both client and server) can use either the ODI implementation of
IPX or the original linked implementation of IPX. The client and
server both coexist with the NetWare DOS shell. Thus a client
may have drives mapped to volumes on dedicated NetWare 286 or 386
servers, while simultaneously having other drives mapped to
NetWare Lite network directories. Also, dedicated NetWare
volumes can be chained into a NetWare Lite network by mapping a
drive to the volume using the shell and then providing a network
directory, based on that drive, to Lite clients through the non-
dedicated NetWare Lite server. The same holds true for
simultaneous port captures, and chained printer ports.
Applications Compatibility
NetWare Lite is compatible with application software that uses
single-machine DOS calls. Also, NetWare Lite supports network
applications that use only DOS networking APIs. This includes
all DOS networking APIs. The NetWare application programming
interface is not supported.
Peer-to-peer network level APIs are also supported. This
includes IPX, SPX, and NetBIOS. To use the NetBIOS API with
NetWare Lite, you must load Novell's NetBIOS emulator software
(available separately).