Getting NetWare and NT to co-exist
I have an all Novell (5.X & 4.X) environment. I want to install an application in the same environment on a Windows NT server (this application is only supported by NT). Currently all users are logging in on Novell servers but I want my 300+ users to have access to NT and NW without changing anything on their desktops. Is there any way I can use Loginscript for NT authentication or any other application as a gateway to NT from NW servers?
--Jaffar Ali
The company I work for during the day ran into this same problem. Since you are using the NetWare client, the Novell side logs in first before the NT side has authenticated. This prevents mapping a drive in the login script on the Novell side. In our case, we had to put a batch file in the Netlogon directory on the NT server in order to map a drive letter to the NT server. We then needed to go into each user's NT account to associate the login batch file. Now it runs for the user each time they log in, regardless of where the login is from.
By introducing an NT server into your NetWare environment, you are creating an additional administrative task. Because NetWare and NT don't share user account lists, you are looking at some degree of dual administration between the servers. There are, however, some other options that can save you some or all of this work.
NDS Account Manager from Novell links the two operating systems together so that when you create a user on one side, they are created on the other as well. Most of the user level stuff (such as the batch file I described above) can be associated when you create the user on the NT side. I am not aware of a Novell NetWare to Windows NT Gateway but other readers of this column may know about another product similar to what I have described from Novell. I have left your email in the column so they can send those options directly to you.
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