Novell aims to simplify directory management
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ATLANTA - Novell is expected to bolster its directory management tools this week with enhancements that let will IT staff more easily manage their NetWare, Windows NT, Solaris and Linux networks, as well as consolidate directories.
At NetWorld+Interop 2000 in Atlanta, the company will announce several directory products grouped under the code name Tao. These include Novell Directory Services (NDS) 8.5, Account Management and new drivers for Novell's recently released metadirectory, DirXML. They will ship next month.
NDS 8.5 will include filtered replicas, federated directories and faster directory search capability. Filtered replicas let companies decide whether they will replicate an entire directory or only portions to other directory replicas on the network. Federated directories let companies form virtual merged directories among themselves and their trading partners that can be managed from a common interface. For instance, a user in Company A can access resources in Company B by signing into Company A's directory and using the Domain Name System to locate Company B's directory.
"The benefit of filtered replicas is they let us share some information over the rest of the network while reserving data we don't want to send," says Rocco Esposito, chief technical officer for Hunter Douglas in Upper Saddle River, N.J. "We could keep pictures from being replicated over our Frame Relay network, but allow other, more data-oriented text. Or we could take two different NDS directories and build an extranet and manage the individual directories from a single site."
While users agree that the ability to share subsets of directories on an intranet is valuable, they question that Novell will have much success getting companies to share confidential directory information with trading partners. They are further put off by the fact that only directories built on NDS eDirectory can be merged, and not directories from the likes of Microsoft or iPlanet.
"While [federation] would potentially be very useful, I think it is a tough, almost intangible sell for Novell," Esposito says. "Not all directories are going to be Novell's. If [a trading partner's] ASP is using Active Directory and I have NDS, can I manage those two directories together and treat portions of their directory as mine and vice versa? That is not going to be available in Tao."
Novell will also announce it has renamed its directory synchronization and management tool, NDS Corporate Edition, and extended it to Solaris, Linux and Windows NT platforms. The new product, called Account Manager, lets network administrators manage directory resources and objects from within a common application and replicate those changes among the servers on the network. Account Manager for Windows 2000 will be available early next year.
The company will also ship additional drivers for DirXML. In addition, Novell will announce a certification program for Consulting Services partners that will let them use and integrate DirXML with customer applications. Other customers wanting to use DirXML may do so by contracting with Novell Consulting Services, a requirement few users appear happy with.
"We are in the process of developing a common directory for the university and will be using NDS eDirectory and DirXML," says Jeff Johnson, senior network engineer at Georgia State University in Atlanta, who plans to do the integration of applications and the directory in-house. "We have a license agreement with Novell and are authorized Tao testers, so I assumed getting DirXML would be a no-brainer.
"If we have to get a third party to deploy DirXML, I can most probably say it won't happen and we'll have to look for another solution," Johnson adds. "We have been on NetWare since 2.X and currently have implemented an 89- server 51,000-user object directory. Why [Novell would] suddenly think we are inept is beyond me."
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