Problem loggin into Novell 4.11 server

<pet peeve>

There is no such thing as a "Novell server". "Novell" is a company. It makes products like "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server", "NetWare", Open Enterprise Server" and, as you know, "GroupWise".

Saying "Novell server" perpetuates the myth that the company only makes one product.

You have NetWare v4.11.

</pet peeve>

Novell is a company that, as you're aware, sells multiple products, including more than one Operating System.  Although it's kind of obvious what you mean when you say "Novell 4.11 server" that's really not what's on the box, is it?  It probably says either "NetWare 4.11" or the goofy and ill-concieved "IntranetWare 4.11" right?

I say that because it grates on me when the PHB's and other suits hear people say "Novell" when referring to NetWare and automatically assume that anything "Novell" necessarily means, by definition, NetWare, which makes purchase of other Novell products an uphill climb with the nontechnical folx that get bombarded with FUD from Microsoft and their minions.


Anyway, I'm not sure what the problem is.  Let me try to rephrase your Question to see if I understand right.

You had a NetWare 4.11/GroupWise 5.5 setup, and then you installed a NetWare 6.5 SP6 server with GroupWise 6.5 on it.  After turning on the new server, suddenly people couldn't log in, with the client saying stuff like "tree or server not found."

Then you turned off the new GroupWise server, and people still get the same thing.

I guess my question to you is - did you install the new NetWare 6.5SP6 server into the same tree as the 4.11 server, or is it a different tree?  If it's the same tree, did you 1) prepare your obsolete NetWare 4.11 NDS for integration with eDirectory 8.7.x and 2) make the new NW6.5 server your Master of [Root]?

It strikes me that you seem to be treating NetWare/NDS/eDirectory as though it were a couple of standalone NT servers and not an enterprise infrastructure...

Two different trees.  However the workstations that can't log in are trying to attach to the new server using the Netware 6.5 with eDirectory.  I can see the eDirectory on the login screen.  How can we make the workstations point back to the NDS server?  Is this a setting?  

We had to bring the new server back up and then shut down.  Once we shut the new server down then we were able to log in again on all workstations.  

Can you tell me what the gotchas are going to be with having 2 trees?  We can upgrade Netware 4.11 to Netware 5 as we have an unlimited server and user license.  We just purchased  Netware 6.5 for the Groupwise server.   The funding is just not here to do everything at once.  Besides when the Netware 4.11 server software works it is difficult to get management to upgrade.  We are upgrading the Groupwise because it lacks functionality and have been having problems with it.

Guess what, guys - you have an unlimited number of NetWare 6.5 servers, too - unless you bought Small Business, in which case you can install up to 5 NetWare 6.5 servers in your tree.

Starting with NetWare 6.0, the licensing model changed to per-active-user-object licensing.  You only have to buy one license per active user object in the entire tree, regardless of how many servers they connect to.

So, if you have NetWare 6.5 red-box with, say, 100 user licenses, that gives you license to connect those 100 users to as many NetWare 6.5 servers as you want to install.  You are no longer charged: a) for a "server license" or b) for connecting to more than one server.

If you need more information on how the licensing works, there's a lot of information on the Novell website, plus we've discussed it many times here on E-E, so a quick search of the NetWare TA will reap you tons of info on NW6.x licensing.

The "gotchas" of having two Trees include doubling your administration workload. Adding a user, changing user passwords, deleting sa user - all those things now have to be done TWICE.

Since you have purchased NetWare v6.5, you are not limited in the number of servers (unless, as ShineOn has pointed out, you got the SBS package, in which case you're limited to 5 servers). There is no reason you can't upgrade the NetWare v4.11 server to v6.5. There is no licensing cost to do so.

Upgrading the NetWare v4.11 server also allows you to get rid of IPX.

... with the added benefit of having a currently-supported version of the OS throughout the enterprise.

If you upgrade your (obsolete) 4.11 servers to (obsolete) NetWare 5.0, you're not gaining any supportability.  Yes, it's possible to join 5.0 (with its last SP) to a NW6.5 tree, but I wouldn't want to have to support that mixed of an environment.  You might be able to get rid of IPX if you bump your 4.11 to 5.0, but you'd still be running on old, obsoleted software.

The problem is that the 6.5 Netware server version has no user licenses.  It was purchased just to run the new Groupwise.  I think we are stuck with Netware 5.1 until we can budget for Netware 6.5 user licenses.  

It's probably too late now, but did you check into the new bundle - Novell Enterprise Workgroup?

It has OES, GroupWise 7 and the full ZEN 7 suite at a package-deal price, which is even cheaper when you do a version upgrade.  I don't know how much you paid for the GroupWise upgrade, but...