Chapter N5. Integrating Linux with Novell NetWare

Chapter N5. Integrating Linux with Novell NetWare

*"And 1.1.81 is officially BugFree(tm), so if you receive any bug-reports*
*on it, you know they are just evil lies."*
*-- Linus Torvalds*
Goals for this chapter: Linux and Novell The Netware Directory Services Browsing NetWare Servers from Linux Administering a Novell server from Linux Printing from Linux to the NetWare printer. Caldera NetWare for Linux -- transforming a Linux server into a NetWare Server Some OpenSource tools	rpm packages covered in this chapter: ipx (ipx) nwclient+utils (nwlogin) Netware for Linux

Linux and Novell

When we speak about Novell and Linux, the first company that appears on the mind is: "Caldera Inc". Founded by Ray Noorda and Brian Sparks, in Jan 1995. The Caldera belong to the Canopy Group company set.

Ray Noorda was also the founder of Novell Inc, and there are various persons that moves from Novell to Caldera, after the foundations.

Therefore, there are no other company that knows better the Linux-NetWare integration. NetWare is the Server Operating System developed by Novell.

The Caldera expertise is so evolved that normally any OpenLinux version from Caldera Network Desktop ... then to OpenLinux 1.0/1.1/1.2/1.3 ... 2.2/2.3/2.4 and now 3.3, is included normally the IPX packet.

[root@world /root]# rpm -qi ipx
Name        : ipx                          Vendor: Caldera Systems, Inc.
Version     : 1.0                    Distribution: OpenLinux 2.4
Release     : 14                       Build Host: bm.calderalabs.com
Install Date: 2001-01-12T11:05:01Z     Build Date: 2000-02-17T16:43:57Z
Size        : 32354                    Source RPM: ipx-1.0-14.src.rpm
Group       : System/Network
Copyright   : Greg Page, Caldera, Inc.; distributable.
Packager    : David M. Brown <david@calderasystems.com>
Summary     : Internetwork Packet eXchange Utilities.
Description :
Utilites, init scripts, man pages and configuration files for IPX
(Internetwork Packet eXchange - a Novell-centric datagram protocol).
[root@world /root]#

Also, in 1997 Caldera release the product: "Netware for Linux". This product is a complete set of RPM packages and sources that "transform" an OpenLinux (or any Linux OS) in a Novell Netware 4.0 server.

Caldera continues to offer for "free" download this product. FT includes it in its mirrors.

The Netware Directory Services

Before to integrate Linux with Novell Netware, we will introduce shortly here the hierarchy Novell Netware organization.

NetWare is a FileServer Operating System capable to offer high-performance, using a copyright Protocol called: IPX. The product was develop by Novell Inc in the 80-90.

The product was available in different products:

Novell Netware 5 users
Novell Netware 10 users
Novell Netware 20 user
and also the Novell Lite for two PCs, the most simple product to connect two PCs ... before the Linux generation.

Novell Netware tree is as follows:

/Netware
-- NDS
   -- NDS Tree1
   -- NDS Tree2
       -- NDS Container Object
           -- NDS User Object
           -- NDS Group Object
           -- NDS Volume Object
             -- Directory
             -- Directory
                -- File
                -- File
-- Bindary
    -- Server1
      -- Objects
           -- Users
           -- Groups
           -- Printers
      -- Volumes
         -- Volume1
         -- Volume2
                 -- Directory
                 -- Directory
                         -- File
                         -- File

NDS stand for Netware Directory Tree.

Using the Caldera netware utilities is possible to login, print and browse the Netware Server and its Volumes.

Browsing NetWare Servers from Linux

In the same mode that we use SAMBA to integrate Linux with MS Windows, the Caldera Utilities

Basically the utilities are similar to SAMBA Utiltities.

Before, we start is important to explain that these Utilties requery Novell Netware 4.0

We have:

nwlogin to login into the NetWare
nwlogout to logout
nwwhoami, showing all connection information for NetWare servers and NDS trees.
nwpasswd, to change a password on a Netware account
nwprint, to send a file on the remote printer connected to a NetWare printer.
nwqstat, to retrieve a netware print queue, showing its jobs and their status.
nwbocreate, create a new object on a NetWare bindary server.

The complete set of Caldera Netware Utilties is the following:

[root@world /root]# rpm -ql nwclient+utils | grep bin
/etc/nwdsmgr.english/binderrs.str
/usr/bin/nwboaddtrust
/usr/bin/nwbocreate
/usr/bin/nwboprops
/usr/bin/nwborm
/usr/bin/nwbosetspace
/usr/bin/nwboshowspace
/usr/bin/nwboshowtrust
/usr/bin/nwbpadd
/usr/bin/nwbpcreate
/usr/bin/nwbprm
/usr/bin/nwbpvalues
/usr/bin/nwdelqjob
/usr/bin/nwdsaddtrust
/usr/bin/nwdsattrs
/usr/bin/nwdscreate
/usr/bin/nwdsmodify
/usr/bin/nwdsrm
/usr/bin/nwdssetspace
/usr/bin/nwdsshowspace
/usr/bin/nwdsshowtrust
/usr/bin/nwdsvalues
/usr/bin/nwlogin
/usr/bin/nwlogout
/usr/bin/nwmount
/usr/bin/nwmsg
/usr/bin/nwnulpaswd
/usr/bin/nwpasswd
/usr/bin/nwprint
/usr/bin/nwqstat
/usr/bin/nwsend
/usr/bin/nwwhoami
/usr/bin/xnwboadmin
/usr/bin/xnwbocreate
/usr/bin/xnwborights
/usr/bin/xnwborightsDD
/usr/bin/xnwbotrustees
/usr/bin/xnwdsadmin
/usr/bin/xnwdscreate
/usr/bin/xnwdsrights
/usr/bin/xnwdsrightsDD
/usr/bin/xnwdstrustees
/usr/bin/xnwmanageq
/usr/bin/xnwprint
/usr/sbin/nwamd
/usr/sbin/nwclientd
[root@world /root]#

This includes also a graphical front-end called: "xnwdsadmin".

Before to start is necessary to activate the "Netware Client" Service and reboot your system.

To activate these services on Caldera OpenLinux, you need to launch "lisa".

We can also simply run the command:

[root@world /root]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/nwclient start
Starting the NetWare client: module device nwclientd nwamd
[root@world /root]#

In any case we can check running the command:

[root@world /root]# ps ax | grep nw
991 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
992 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
994 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
995 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
996 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwamd /NetWare /.nwamd
998 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
999 pts/0    S      0:00 /usr/sbin/nwclientd
1717 pts/0    S      0:00 grep nw
[root@world /root]#

The IPX service is provided by the Kernel

However is important to know that its configuration file is located in "/etc/sysconfig/ipx". This file generally is included in Caldera OpenLinux, because is public, you can install in any other system.

[root@world sysconfig]# pwd
/etc/sysconfig
[root@world sysconfig]# more ipx
IPX_AUTO_PRIMARY=on
IPX_AUTO_INTERFACE=on
IPX_CONFIGURED=no
IPX_DEVICE=eth0
IPX_FRAME=802.2
IPX_INTERNAL_NET=no
IPX_NETNUM=0
[root@world sysconfig]#

Administering a Novell server from Linux

After we launch and activate these services we can login from Linux, on the NetWare Server.

Note that after the launching of the service "nwclient" we will visualize two directories on the server:

[root@world /root]# cd /NetWare/
[root@world /NetWare]# ls
NDS bindery
[root@world /NetWare]# ls -al
total 2
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 Apr 4 01:11 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root     root         1024 Apr 4 00:35 ..
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 Apr 4 01:19 NDS
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 Apr 4 01:19 bindery
[root@world /NetWare]#

We can use the command "nwlogin" for these purpose:

[root@world /root]# nwlogin jmcperson

We can be more specific and add infomation about the Novell server, if we prefer:

[root@world /root]# nwlogin .jmcperson.robinson.acme.com

We can also login directly to a specific tree.

[root@world /root]# nwlogin -t MyDir .jmcperson.robinson.acme.com

or if we have different servers, we can loggin into a specific server:

[root@world /root]# nwlogin -s Server1 .jmcperson.robinson.acme.com

To logout you can run the following commands:

[root@world /root]# nwlogout

Other valid commands are: "nwlogout -t MyDir" and "nwlogout -s Server1"

We can also run the command: "nwwhoami"

NDS Tree Name: MYDIR
NDS User ID:       Admin.Server1
       Server:         Server1 (Netware 4.10)
       Connection:     5 (Directory Services Authenticated)
       Login Time:     Fri Jan 3 09:40:23 1997

There are a complete of set commands for the most sophisticated Novell Netware Administrator, that we only comment here. There are: "nwbpadd", "nwbprm" to work with the binary, etc.

Is also possible to change the password on the Netware server using the command: "nwpasswd".

Printing from Linux to the NetWare printer.

In the same way we log we can also print from Linux on the Netware server printer.

The basic command is:

nwprint -s Server1 -q Q1 Myfile.doc

If the file is on the Netware server we can run:

nwprint -d /Netware/NDS/Caldera/Q1 MyNetwarefile.doc

Caldera NetWare for Linux -- transforming a Linux server into a NetWare Server

As commented before is possible to transform a Linux system in a Novell Netware system.

We offer here our mirror: ftp://ftp.futuretg.com/pub/mirrors/Netware4Linux/netware/

Current directory is /pub/mirrors/Netware4Linux/netware

Up to higher level directory
.message                                                       Sat Apr 6 16:03:00 2002 Symbolic link
CHANGES                                                3 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
INSTALL.general                                       10 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
INSTALL.openlinux                                     10 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
INSTALL.redhat                                        15 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
LICENSE                                                8 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
README                                                 1 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
README.pserver                                        13 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
RPMS/                                                          Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
SRPMS/                                                         Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
clients/                                                       Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
col/                                                           Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
docs/                                                          Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
index                                                  2 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
patches/                                                       Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
rh51/                                                          Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001 Directory
update.NWS4L                                          39 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001

The installation is very simple. Would be necessary to install the RPM files that includes a own version of the kernel

Up to higher level directory
ipx-1.0-9.i386.rpm                                    16 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
ipxripd-0.7-4.i386.rpm                                21 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
isdn4k-utils-2.1b1-6.i386.rpm                        817 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-kernel-binary-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm               2547 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-kernel-build-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm               15255 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-kernel-doc-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                   359 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-kernel-include-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm               458 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-alpha-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                 199 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-common-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm               5209 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-i386-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                  186 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-m68k-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                  552 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-mips-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                  126 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-ppc-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                   129 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
linux-source-sparc-2.0.35-1.i386.rpm                 257 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
netware-4.10b-28.i386.rpm                           1661 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
netware-sysvol-4.10b-15.i386.rpm                   25438 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
nwclient-4.1.6-4.i386.rpm                           1259 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
pcmcia-cs-3.0.3-2.i386.rpm                           335 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
ppp-2.2.0f-14.i386.rpm                                92 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001
pserver-4.10.1-9.i386.rpm                            711 Kb    Fri Jun 1 00:00:00 2001

There are excellent advantages for Netware experts, however not all the classical .NWS files will run. These files are the Services that Novell offers for special purpose or to extend its services.

Some OpenSources tools

Opensource for a efforts made by volunteer developers.

In the previous section we cover basically Caldera expertise efforts in the field. However, there are also different programs to use Netware services from Linux.

The list here two:

The first is "MARS_NWE". This product stand for Martin Stovers Netware-Emulator. It is basically an emulator similar to Netware for Caldera.
The second is the set: ncpfs. This set is equivalent to the Caldera netware client utilities. More short and less professional.

We list here the Sunsite.unc.edu entry:

Begin3
Title:          ncpfs
Version:        2.1.1
Entered-date:   23. March 1997
Description:    With ncpfs you can mount volumes of your netware
                server under Linux. You can also print to netware
                print queues and spool netware print queues to the
                Linux printing system. You need kernel 1.2.x or
                1.3.71 and above. ncpfs does NOT work with any 1.3.x
                kernel below 1.3.71.
Keywords:       filesystem ncp novell netware printing
Author:         lendecke@namu01.Num.Math.Uni-Goettingen.de (Volker Lendecke)
Maintained-by: lendecke@namu01.Num.Math.Uni-Goettingen.de (Volker Lendecke)
Primary-site:   ftp.gwdg.de:/pub/linux/misc/ncpfs
Alternate-site: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/system/Filesystems/ncpfs
                  ~177k ncpfs-2.1.1.tgz
                   ~ 1k ncpfs-2.1.1.lsm
Copying-policy: GPL
End

In the days of KDE 1.X, a application called: kldap, actually very obsolete. However, we present here a screenshot.

Exercises

Install Netware for Linux. An OLD version of Linux, for example OpenLinux 1.2/1.3 may be requeried.

Tests

What is NetWare ?
What is IPX ?
What means NDS ... from Novell Netware point of view ?
What is the command to activate under Linux to browse the Novell Netware server ?
What does the command "nwlogin" ?
Is possible to print from Linux on a Netware server ? How ?
Are there some "opensource" products to mount and browse Novell Netware volumes from Linux ?
Is possible to visualize a novell volume and its users from a KDE program ?
Are there some product to "transform" a Linux system on a Novell Netware system ?
What does the product "ncpfs" ?

Read the answers to the exercises.

Check the Interactive Exam Cram Networking:

Internet Resources for this Chapter.