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Novell NDS is one compelling reason shops havent totally abandoned the Novell network operating system in favor of NT. A Novell server is nothing more than a fancy 32-bit DOS program, but its lean-and-mean paradigm translates into you getting more oomph out of your hardware investment. The server program acts as a broker between the various NLMs that make the system work; therefore, the server itself is basically a conglomerate of NLMs. The modularity of the system also means that one malfunctioning NLM can ruin your whole day, but take hearttools exist to manage what can seem to be a daunting NLM tracking and upgrading task.
The Monitor can help you with tough troubleshooting jobs, because it keeps track of every resource available to the server. In addition to keeping track of server connections, it keeps track of memory and CPU resources, as well as what each NLM process utilizes.
IPX/SPX is a reasonably easy protocol to configure, but most shops need TCP/IP. Both are configurable through INETCFG.NLM. TCP/IP applications can be configured through UNICON, and many statistics and internal tables can be viewed through the TCPCON. Whats more, Novell now includes standard tools such as PING and IPTRACE (traceroute) in its TCP/IP distribution.
Q Why doesnt Novell just get rid of the concept of ABENDs?
A Every operating system, whether its UNIX (kernel panics) or NT (the Blue Screen of Death), has unrecoverable errors. Its just the nature of the beast. Nobody wants an operating system to keep running after the foundation has been undermined. The thought is: its much better to reboot than to have to restore all the lost data due to the server not showing the good judgement to stop playing with the data.
You can type the following command on your Novell server to make it reboot automatically after software ABENDs, which at least automates the recovery process most times (set it to 2 if you want it to reboot after hardware-related ABENDs, as well):
SET AUTO RESTART AFTER ABEND=1
Q My friend who runs a Novell server says that sometimes when he tries to unload an NLM, the console prompt never comes back. Isnt there any way to recover from this?
A Glad you asked. Novell IntraNetWare 4.11 and higher will allow you to type Ctrl+Alt+Esc at the console. This generates the following prompt:
Down server and exit to DOS?
The answer to this question is yes. Although I wish there were a way to run another console prompt, or at least to free up the console prompt when this happens, so far Novell hasnt obliged.
If you still have NetWare 3.x around, you can use the FCONSOLE program to down a server thats not responding; the Ctrl+Alt+Esc key combination wont work.
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