Novell and IP only

Nutter helps a user with NetWare IP

Could you tell me the correct load and bind commands to install IP on a Prosignia 300 using a NetFlex-L ENET/PCI NIC? Is there a reference for these older commands? Will I have problems connecting to the tree? The server was token ring using SPX until it was moved to a location running IP only. I’m trying to load the integrated NetFlex boards with IP using Ethernet II for the frame. The other servers are running NetWare 4.x also.

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You will use INETCFG.NLM to configure the NetWare 4.x servers. Out of the box, the servers won’t support running in an IP-only environment as NetWare 4.x didn’t know how to run NCP over IP the way NetWare 5/6 does. To enable the servers to do this you’ll have to install a product that ships with NetWare 4.x known as NetWare/IP (NWIP). You will need to have one server designated as a Primary NWIP Server. What NWIP does, at a basic level, is encapsulate the IPX traffic inside an IP packet.

Before trying to go to a total IP-only environment, you will also want to look at the NLMs that are on the server to see if they will run without IPX present; you’ll do the same for any applications the workstations are running from the server. You may find that you have to leave IPX installed. If you can go totally IP, you will need to make an addition to the Novell client so the IPX encapsulation can occur at the client side as well. If you have applications that require IPX but you really want to remove it from the network, you can try using the SCMD.NLM (software compatibility mode) to help you get there. Officially, it is only supported on NetWare 4 as a migration agent to help you get to NetWare 5/6 and not as a long-term situation.

Another option to consider is going to NetWare 5 (if you already have it) or NetWare 6. You may need to add some additional memory in the server but you will have a NOS that can run IP natively out of the box without looking at some of the configuration that can be involved with NWIP. I set up NWIP for a national water utility when it implemented NetWare at its offices because NetWare 5 wasn’t available yet. It offered a cost savings over having to support IPX on the routers between offices.