First off, you don't have to remove the Novell client in order to join the computers to the AD domain. BudDurland is correct, and you can take it to the bank.
It is imperative that you understand, apparently not knowing the Novell environment very well, that NetWare 5.0 and later does NOT need IPX/SPX, but NetWare 4.2 and earlier DOES. In fact, it is best if you do not have IPX/SPX at all if you've got NetWare 6.0 or later. That means, if they are already using TCP/IP, they should continue to use TCP/IP. If they have both enabled on the client and server, it can cause funky things to happen, but it can work that way. I would recommend to stick with one protocol.
Since they are at the NetWare 6.5 level, it would behoove you to look into MSDSS/FMU, but if your customer has already chosen a manual migration path, that's beside the point.
Regardless, just leave the Novell client in place on those computers whose users need continued access to the NetWare server, join the computers to the Domain, and if you need to have the MSGINA be first in line, there are settings in the Novell client to enable that.
One more thing - the application, if it can't reside on a Windows server, may require IPX/SPX, and may require NCP communicaitons. That would require that you leave the Novell client in place, and NOT enable CIFS on the NetWare server - because if you make the Novell client second in line, the MS redirector will take over, not caring what the needs of the connectivity may be.
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by: BudDurlandPosted on 2009-10-11 at 05:49:55ID: 25545748
We just updated our network to use AD on the WIndows 2003 server, rather than workgroup mode. Long and short is that a workstation can happily be a member of a Windows domain and a NetWare network at the same time. No need to remove the Novell client -- the login process will authenticate to both networks just fine. The only thing you might have to do is check the settings of the Novell client software (right-click on the red "N" in the system tray and choose 'properties'). In the one of the tabs ('advanced', I think), there is an option to copy the user name to the windows login process. We used Microsoft's MOVEUSER utility to move the local user profiles to the domain profiles, and it worked prety well.
We used the Microsoft user migration tool MSDSS to import the user names from NetWare to AD, and set the AD password blank, with a forced change at first login. If you already have the Windows accounts created, this is probably not needed. However, make sure that the Windows AD password and the NetWare passwords are the same, otherwise the user will be prompted twice during the login process.
Just for the record, NetWare doesn't have the concept of "shares" -- it has volumes, and users are granted rights to read folders or files on the volume. Mapping a drive letter simply points to the desired object: "MAP S: = Servername:VolumeName\Fold
There is a facility in Netware called "CIFS" that will let a NetWare server advertise itself to he network as a Windows server. It has to be installed when the server is created, and managed using NetWare managment tools. It can be configured to offer folders as windows shares to workstations that do not have the Novell client installed. We tested it and it works, but because the user authentication and security is still managed with NetWare tools, it's easier to simply not use CIFS.
Hope this helps