Novell Open Enterprise Server
Encyclopedia
Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) is the successor product to Novell, Inc.
's NetWare operating system, based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
(SLES). Originally released in March 2005, the current (2010) release is OES 2 SP3. The next release, OES 11, is currently in beta testing.
, print
, directory
, clustering, backup
, storage management
, PKI
, web application
s, etc.) and common management tools. OES can run atop either a Linux
or a NetWare kernel. Clustered configurations can include nodes with either kernel types, and most services can migrate freely between the platforms. Thus, customers can deploy the platform selection that best suits their needs, as opposed to being locked into a single platform.
, the product is known as OES-Linux. This uses SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
(SLES) as its platform. Atop the SLES install, daemons are added to provide NCP
, eDirectory
, NSS
, iPrint
and other services delivered by OES.
guest inside the Xen
hypervisor
and new Linux
-based version using SLES
10. New features include:
For more details see Upgrading to OES2 - Planning & Implementation Guide
OES is Novell's reaction to two things:
, Xen
). Finally, NetWare and OES both include two-node licenses for Novell Cluster Services, allowing basic clustered environments to be created without additional licensing charges.
This contrasts directly with MS Windows
, which imposes per-server charges, per-client charges, and levies additional charges for larger SMP
support and even basic clustering.
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
's NetWare operating system, based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a Linux distribution supplied by SUSE and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 3-4 years, while...
(SLES). Originally released in March 2005, the current (2010) release is OES 2 SP3. The next release, OES 11, is currently in beta testing.
Summary
Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) is best thought of as a platform for delivery of shared network services (fileFile server
In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...
Print server
A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers....
, directory
Directory service
A directory service is the software system that stores, organizes and provides access to information in a directory. In software engineering, a directory is a map between names and values. It allows the lookup of values given a name, similar to a dictionary...
, clustering, backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
, storage management
Enterprise storage
In computing, an enterprise storage is the computer storage designed for large-scale, high-technology environments of the modern enterprises. When comparing to the consumer storage, it has higher scalability, higher reliability, better fault tolerance, and much higher initial price.From the...
, PKI
Public key infrastructure
Public Key Infrastructure is a set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates. In cryptography, a PKI is an arrangement that binds public keys with respective user identities by means of a certificate...
, web application
Web application
A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...
s, etc.) and common management tools. OES can run atop either a Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
or a NetWare kernel. Clustered configurations can include nodes with either kernel types, and most services can migrate freely between the platforms. Thus, customers can deploy the platform selection that best suits their needs, as opposed to being locked into a single platform.
OES-Linux
When installed using a Linux kernelLinux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
, the product is known as OES-Linux. This uses SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a Linux distribution supplied by SUSE and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 3-4 years, while...
(SLES) as its platform. Atop the SLES install, daemons are added to provide NCP
NetWare Core Protocol
The NetWare Core Protocol is a network protocol used in some products from Novell, Inc. It is usually associated with the NetWare operating system, but parts of it have been implemented on other platforms such as Linux, Windows NT and various flavors of Unix.It is used to access file, print,...
, eDirectory
Novell eDirectory
Novell eDirectory is an X.500-compatible directory service software product initially released in 1993 by Novell for centrally managing access to resources on multiple servers and computers within a given network...
, NSS
Novell Storage Services
Novell Storage Services is a file system used by the Novell NetWare operating system. Recently support of NSS was introduced to SUSE Linux via low-level network NCPFS protocol...
, iPrint
IPrint
In computing, iPrint, a technology developed by Novell, allows users to install printer-drivers from a web browser and to submit print jobs over the Internet or a local network through the standard Internet Printing Protocol ....
and other services delivered by OES.
OES-NetWare
When installed using a NetWare kernel, the product is known as OES-NetWare. This uses NetWare v6.5 as its platform. Atop the NetWare install, NLMs are added to provide Apache web server, Tomcat, OpenSSH, NCP, eDirectory, NSS, iPrint and other services delivered by OES.OES 2
OES 2 was released on 8 October 2007. It includes NetWare 6.5 SP7, which supports running as a paravirtualizedParavirtualization
In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware....
guest inside the Xen
Xen
Xen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
hypervisor
Hypervisor
In computing, a hypervisor, also called virtual machine manager , is one of many hardware virtualization techniques that allow multiple operating systems, termed guests, to run concurrently on a host computer. It is so named because it is conceptually one level higher than a supervisory program...
and new Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-based version using SLES
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a Linux distribution supplied by SUSE and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 3-4 years, while...
10. New features include:
- 64-bit64-bit64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
support - Virtualization
- Dynamic Storage Technology, which provide Novell Shadow Volumes
- DomainWindows Server domainA Windows domain is a collection of security principals that share a central directory database. This central database contains the user accounts and security information for...
services for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... - Apple Filing ProtocolApple Filing ProtocolThe Apple Filing Protocol is a network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and original Mac OS. In Mac OS X, AFP is one of several file services supported including Server Message Block , Network File System , File Transfer Protocol , and WebDAV...
(AFP)
For more details see Upgrading to OES2 - Planning & Implementation Guide
History
- OES was released in March 2005 and included NetWare 6.5 SP3 and SLES 9 SP1.
- OES SP1, released in September 2005, was based on NetWare 6.5 SP4 and SLES 9 SP2.
- OES SP2, released in January 2006, was based on NetWare 6.5 SP5 and SLES 9 SP3.
- OES 2, based on NetWare 6.5 SP7 and SLES 10 SP1, was released in early October 2007.
- OES 2 SP1 was released in December 2008, was based on NetWare 6.5 SP8 and SLES 10 SP2.
- OES 2 SP2 was released in November 2009, based on SLES 10 SP3.
- OES 2 SP3 was released in December 2010, based on SLES 10 SP3.
Vendor motivation
Novell executives, as well as most analysts, expect that porting these services to an OS with growing popularity and better support from hardware and software vendors will give Novell a good opportunity to improve its business results.OES is Novell's reaction to two things:
- the increased significance of Linux and open-source in the company strategy and the industry in general
- the fact that it lost a lot of market share, not because the customers were dissatisfied with the quality of its networking services (usually it was just the opposite), but mostly because these services ran almost exclusively on top of an OS that was narrowly specialized in its initial design and didn't get as strong support from ISVsIndependent software vendorIndependent software vendor is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, designed for mass marketing or for niche markets...
as most of its competitors.
License costs
Licensing costs are identical regardless of the platform, and the platforms may be mixed under the same license. As is typical for Novell's products, OES is licensed per user seat, without regard to the number of physical servers on which the product is deployed. Further, pricing is typically not altered by physical CPUs or the use of hardware virtualization technologies (e.g. VMwareVMware
VMware, Inc. is a company providing virtualization software founded in 1998 and based in Palo Alto, California, USA. The company was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2004, and operates as a separate software subsidiary ....
, Xen
Xen
Xen is a virtual-machine monitor providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently....
). Finally, NetWare and OES both include two-node licenses for Novell Cluster Services, allowing basic clustered environments to be created without additional licensing charges.
This contrasts directly with MS Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, which imposes per-server charges, per-client charges, and levies additional charges for larger SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
support and even basic clustering.
External links
- Novell Open Enterprise Server product page
- Open Enterprise Server Cool Solutions - tips & tricks, guides, tools and other resources submitted by the OES community
- Upgrading to OES resources