* Portlock Software's Storage Manager
One of the many great things about NetWare 6.5 is that you can install an unlimited number of servers on your network without the need to purchase additional licenses. Of course, one of the drawbacks is that you actually have to sit down and go through the installation process for each server. Then again, maybe not.
In a NetWare Cool Solutions article (link below) Novell System Test Engineer Glen Davis points out that Portlock Software’s Storage Manager, along with scripted response files, can be used to fully automate installation in an almost assembly-line fashion.
Building a software image of a server has been a relatively easy task for a number of years. The problem was that each server was then a mirror image of every other server – down to its name, IP address and all other parameters. That’s not good. You complained and Novell listened. The result was the ability to use what are called “response files,” essentially formatted scripts that provide the input to the questions that the server installation procedure calls out.
So rather than sit at the keyboard ready to respond to every last question that install can think up, you can use NWDEPLOY to create a response file. Use this as a template and change those items that are unique to a particular server and you’re ready to go. Start INSTALL, point it to the response file and sit back and relax (or, more likely, start on the next item on your TO DO list). Still, you do need to check the server screen periodically to see if an error has cropped up, and to know when the install is finished. That’s where Server Manager might help.
Portlock’s product allows you to create an image of your prototype server, both the DOS and NetWare partitions. Store this along with your response files on a master staging server and you’re ready to go. You’ll need a floppy with the Novell DOS IP Client (see https://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools/1561.html) to boot your new server hardware, then simply attach to the staging server, restore the image, download the response file and re-boot. That’s it; you’re done. How easy is that?
I’ve always believed that it’s bad practice to run multiple services on one hardware server – there’s usually competition for resources. The cost of server licenses and the pain of installation has always told against that feeling, though. Now that the licenses carry no additional cost and now that the installation part can go so easily, there’s little reason not to re-evaluate and split your servers so that each has fewer tasks (therefore fewer conflicts). Then, with all those hardware platforms, you can begin to consider the benefits of clustering.
