[TriLUG] Novell eDirectory? Anyone?

[Sinner from the Prairy]

El dia Tuesday 19 February 2002 02:57 pm, no tenies res mes que fer i vas i 
m'envies aquest mail:
> Anyone here using Novell eDirectory?

> Like it?  Dislike it?

> I'm evaluating it for a client and would like some opinions based on real
> world experience.

> Client platforms include Linux, Windows *, and possibly Solaris.  There are
> some OpenBSD boxes as well but it is not anticipated that end users will be
> authenticated against those, unless there is some nice way to hook
> eDirectory to Squid for authentication.

I used to be a Novell Sysadmin (~ 500 users on a city WAN). I worked with 
NDS, Novell DIrectory Services. This was waaaaaaaaay before Windows even 
decided that it needed a directory something on their systems.

I can tell you that it worked great. When Win2k came up with its Active 
Directory, well, NDS was very well tested, already deployed and under pretty 
heavy use. MS-AD was another beta-soft-sold-as-stable. MS-AD was less capable 
and was more difficult to integrate in existing networks (unless you wanted 
to upgrade everyone to Win2k... and then, its max capacity and performance 
wasn't up to the marketing hype.

We were about to start deploying Novell eDirectory when I left the company in 
Barcelona (a Novell partner). It just made sense, because it had the 
integration of Novell network, NDS, Intranet, Border Manager, extranet...

By then, it already had a "Novel Remote Desktop Manager" to 
manage/teach/solve problems on desktops that were on the other side of the 
city. Pretty nifty. Also, the support website from Novell was very helpful. 
And Novell engineers were better than Microsoft engineers (in my experience).

And with the new Novell, you do not even need to install a "client" program 
on the computer. So you have an out-of-the-box multiplatform solution.

I guess that now is a pretty much proven technology. While MS-AD (or its .NET 
directory) is still trying to catch up. 

I do not know about the other (possible) options.

But if the house already has some experience with Novell technology, it will 
be a smart move.

If it is a Microsoft-only shop, it is a matter of how deep are into 
Microsoft-only technology, what are their needs, if they only think on .NET...

But if they have multi-platform clients, want a proven technlogy and "less 
hype, more performance", go with Novell. Also, Novel Applications Launcher 
(NAL) just rocks.

IMNSHO, anything before Microsoft. And Novell jsut works. So I recommend it :)


Salut,
Sinner
-- 
"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father 
smelt of elderberries!"
RedHat QA Test Engineer  --  Running RedHat 7.2 on i386smp
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