Mailbag: How you’re using OES

Welcome to 2006! There were times during 2005 that we didn’t think Novell would survive to see the new year, but it did. The financial report that came out in December still wasn’t rosy, but the company did try to put a positive spin on it.

As I mentioned last month, the company tries to count all Open Enterprise Server (OES) revenue as Linux revenue. I pointed out that NetWare customers who upgraded to OES and are running it on a NetWare kernel are being counted as Linux customers, and I asked you to tell me about your use of OES, and which kernel you were using.

I’m very heartened that a couple of dozen of you found the opportunity in the busy pre-holiday period to write and let me know how you were using OES. Here’s what some of you had to say:

* “We currently have 16 servers running the NetWare kernel and none running SuSE Linux. We will probably go to Linux at some point as a matter of support (survival), not as a matter of choice.”

* “Why did I buy OES? Just part of my annual license renewal for NetWare. What kernel am I running? NetWare. I have a test OES/Linux box up and have not been very impressed so far.”

* “We will be upgrading to OES so that we can specifically get the Linux kernel to use on servers that would be better off in Linux than NetWare… Specifically, we will be converting our NetWare Web server to Linux.”

* “Of all customers I’ve upgraded this year, be it from 4.x or 5.x, it’s always been to OES on a NetWare platform (and I’m talking 65,000 user base sites here).”

* “Of our 47 NetWare servers, 20 are OES – NetWare 6.5 sp4. The rest are NetWare 6.0. We will probably migrate to Linux or Windows next summer.”

* “We upgraded none of our existing base, but use it only on new machines. And, yes, we run the NetWare kernel (being old-timers, we like stuff that actually works….).”

* “We are running OES NetWare kernel (SP1/NetWare 6.5 SP4a), just as an upgrade from previous versions of NetWare. We are not planning on going over to OES Linux. So we still hope NetWare is going to live for a while.”

* “We are running OES on the NetWare kernel. We installed it to stay current with NetWare.”

* “We are in the process of upgrading our NetWare 6 servers to OES. We will likely run our file/print services, Zenworks, Virtual Office, etc. services on the NetWare kernel, but bring in iFolder on a separate box and use Linux. If unsuccessful, we will convert that to the NetWare kernel too.”

* We are almost migrating our NetWare servers to Linux. We have installed three SLES servers in our infrastructure this past year. They are production servers running Web filtering, spam filtering. We are getting our feet wet with SLES and will implement a Linux-based OES server into our environment in about a month. After we are comfortable with that, we will move ahead in transitioning to NetWare services on Linux.”

* “We have been keeping up on the upgrade path with Novell, and are currently running OES using the NetWare kernel. We will be moving to the Linux kernel over the next 6-12 months after we upgrade our [hardware].”

* “We run OES on the NetWare kernel because: 1) we are comfortable with NetWare; 2) we count on NetWare’s reliability; 3) it is included as NetWare 6.5 SP4; 4) we have very limited knowledge and experience with Linux.”

* “I am upgrading a 45-server NetWare 6.0 tree to NetWare 6.5. NOT Linux. I have been upgrading 1 or 2 small business servers from NetWare 4, 5 and 6 to NetWare 6.5. I am forced to buy the OES licenses but am really installing NetWare. I am not installing Linux anywhere.”

* “Out of seven servers we upgraded to OES, only one is running on Linux kernel as a DNS and DHCP server.”

So there are some folks running OES on Linux now, with some planning to do so in the future. But even most of those are running more NetWare kernels than SuSE kernels. I think it’s time Novell gave us honest numbers on who is running SuSE Linux, and why.

Next issue, I’ll take a look at one troubling theme which come up frequently in the correspondence – what the future holds for NetWare, Linux and Novell in these longtime, loyal NetWare shops.