Novell yesterday issued a patch for a little-known synchronization glitch in the version of Novell Directory Service (NDS) that ships with NetWare 5.0.
Officials say that the bug - of which only six incidences have been reported since NetWare 5.0 began shipping last September - sometimes causes replicas of the directory to decline timed directory updates. This condition would result in portions of the NDS deployment containing outdated information. The glitch can be a result of how an administrator has scheduled replication to occur across the NDS tree or when servers in a replica ring are down and force replication sequences to change.
Novell says the bug could lay dormant for some time and is therefore recommending users apply the patch even if they have not experienced any problems with NDS synchronization.
The NDS version affected by this bug is No. 723. Novell has made a directory update - No. 724 - available on its Web site under the name NetWare 5.0 Support Pack 1a. For those NetWare 5.0 users who have already downloaded Novell's recently posted NetWare 5.0 Support Pack 1, an incremental update is available also available.
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Get the NetWare 5.0 Support Pack 1a
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