MICROSOFT NT ENTERPRISE DESIGN
Interoperability
Most organizations migrating to NT have a need to be have interoperability
with their existing computer systems. There are two areas of integration
that can be addressed - Clients, and Servers.
Client Integration - If your companyís desktops are primarily Windows
95, or Windows NT Workstation, you are in luck. Outside of the need for
the user to manage one more ID and password, making a few changes in Control
Panel will enable connectivity to the NT enterprise. Wherever possible try
to use TCP/IP and DHCP. This not only utilizes the network bandwidth efficiently,
but also eliminates the manual maintenance of IP addresses. Keep in mind
the issues with WINS(e.g. Don't make your WINS replication chain long),
and Browsing(e.g. A maximum of 2000-3000 entries are possible in your browser
table) as outlined in the Management section of this chapter.
If your desktops
are primarily Windows 3.x, then you will need to do a lot
of work, especially, if your server platform was NetWare. Enabling the ODI
and NDIS stacks on the same machine at the same time is not a task for the
meek. It requires memory optimization on the PC, and standard configurations,
otherwise it will result in chaos. Your best option is to migrate to Windows
95 or Windows NT Workstation.
For UNIX clients, NT comes with an FTP service, and third-party NFS and
Telnet products can make file systems and applications available. Using
standard RPCs also enables the workstations to communicate with the applications
on an NT server. UNIX clients can also use DHCP to request IP addresses
from the NT server.
Macintosh clients have easy access to the server after the administrator
installs Services for Macintosh. The software enables an NT server to appear
as an Appleshare resource.
Microsoft has made it very easy for an NT server to participate in a NetWare
network. Microsoft tools such as FPNW, GSNW, and Directory Services Manager
for NetWare, allow both sides to talk.
File/Print Services for NetWare makes an NT server look like a NetWare 3.x
server. Any desktop with NetWare client access software can login to this
server and map to volumes etc. The volumes are simply directories on the
NT server that the administrator has enabled for NetWare File/Print services.
You have access to the printers as well. FPNW is an optional product and
is a great transition tool while you are enabling the desktops for NT access.
The only caveat is that access to the server from NetWare clients can be
slower than to a native NetWare server.
Gateway Services for NetWare allows the NT server to login to a NetWare
server, and while maintaining a single NetWare connection, it is able to
provide access to NetWare file resources for it's clients who may have only
the ability to use NT resources on this server. So the NT server with the
GSNW service acts as a gatewa
y to the NetWare world translating between
SMB and NCP calls. The administrator can map areas of the NetWare servers
to Shares that clients can access easily. NetWare print queues are also
made available to Microsoft clients. Again this is a good tool if you have
critical data residing on a NetWare server, but want to give NT clients
access to this data. However, because access from multiple clients is sent
through a single connection to the NetWare server, the access can be slow.
Directory Service Manager for NetWare allows the administration of NetWare
server Ids from an NT console. If you are primarily NT, and have NetWare
servers as well, or if you would like to administer all IDs from one platform,
a single point of administration can be achieved by using this software.
Changes you make to UserId and Groups using an extended User Manager for
Domains are propagated back to Novell has recently demonstrated the ability
to manage NT Ids from their Novell Directory Services Administrator. So
if you are a NetWare 4.x shop, Novell will make it easy for you to administer
NT Ids. The ideal would be to have one ID for accessing both NetWare and
NT services.
FPNW, GSNW, and DSMN are all Microsoft products and enable access to and
control of NetWare resources. You can run NetWare utilities such as SYSCON
from an NT or a Windows 95 workstation. Herein lies the problem. Novell,
being the market leader, hasn't done nearly enough to enable management
of NT from NetWare clients. While this may be changing where NetWare 4.x
is concerned, i.e., utilities to manage NT resources via the NDS tree, there
isn't much for NetWare 3.x shops.
To migrate a NetWare server to NT, use NWCONV utility to transfer userids,
and groups to a accounts server, and the files and directories to a resource
server. This utility only recognises bindery servers(NetWare 2.x, 3.x)
Important steps to consider in migrating from NetWare to NT:
- If currently NetWare 4.x, th
en its best to wait for NT 5.0 (Cairo)
X.500 capability
- Develop an enterprise WINS infrastructure
- Choose an appropriate domain model to allow for growth and/or conversion
to NT 5.0
- Publish user and workstation naming standards to avoid duplicate NetBIOS
names
- Develop Microsoft Networking training for user migration
- Develop support plan for central and distributed administration functions
- Pilot a controlled migration plan before implementing fully
- Provide for contingency recovery and design reliability
Next
Updated August 15, 1996
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