Another scripting environment for NetWare

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been talking about some scripting environments for NetWare (mentioning RexxWare, TaskMaster and the Perl language) and (as I’ve noted many times) others keep popping up.

Today I want to mention a workstation-based, eDirectory enabled scripting tool called AdmWin (I’ve no idea how that’s pronounced, by the way – perhaps ADAM-win or AdMaWin or maybe it’s just called “that scripting thing”). It’s a product of Sweden’s Wennstrom Software, and appears to have been created initially as a user and computer management tool for Windows networks based on Active Directory. Evidently enough customers were using eDirectory in their Windows network that the company added support for the Novell product.

Simply put, the product allows for scripted, automated account creation and maintenance for both NetWare and GroupWise (and Windows servers, come to that, if you have any).  Among the procedures you can perform are:

* Generate short and unique account names.

* Generate completely random and pronounceable easy-to-remember random passwords.

* Create, edit and delete NetWare accounts, aliases, containers and Ous.

* Create, edit and delete GroupWise accounts.

* Create home directories.

* Set volume permissions.

* Set disk quotas.

* Set space limit on subdirectories.

* Copy files.

* Print password sheets. 

* Change NetWare and GroupWise passwords.

* Copy properties and group membership between objects.

* Rename NetWare and GroupWise objects.

* Edit object properties based on the value of other properties.

* Copy account properties from eDirectory to/from Active Directory.

* Export data from eDirectory to a clear text file.

* Import data from a clear text file, a POP3 server, an FTP server or a local directory to eDirectory.

That’s just some of the features of the SetupBatcher part of the utility, and it can all be automated. There’s also the SetupExplorer, which claims you can:

* Get any combination of eDirectory properties at once from one server.

* List all existing properties for one account.

* Compare all properties for two accounts.

* Supports all standard NetWare, GroupWise and user defined properties.

You can download a trial version from http://www.admwin.com and, for as little as $99, turn it into a fully licensed version. That’s a reasonable price for the power it can give you – you should try it out.