Topic: Novell OES vs SME Server

[cydonia]

Following on from another thread regarding the network i'm setting up;

I have been looking at Novell's Open Enterprise Server (running SuSE) and was considering this for our network to manage:

Administration of users
Remote and local centralised file storage/access
Possibly some application or webserving


I'm just finding that OES is not very transparent in its workings (not surprising since they make their money of training and paid support).  Without this though, I can't analyse if its suitable for my needs, so, I began to think that maybe I can just get away with using SME Server for this.  

I have been using SME server at home for about a year, but since it was for work, and I only started recently, I wasn't sure whether the vendor support and features are worth paying for with OES.


If any SME Server users have Novell experience and could offer ways to get the same functionality out of SME as from Novell apps such as iFolder, iManager, that would be great.  I'm trying to work out what it is these apps do from a technological perspective and its tough since there is alot of marketing hype surrounding OES.


Cheers.
Tristan

[kruhm]

The scope of the products are different. Novell is large enterprise and a true NOS, sme is well, sme.

Just about all novell products are fully functional for any lan. But it comes with a price.

Still, you got to know what you're doing before you dive into a Novell product. It's not something you can pickup over the weekend.

Application serving is dependent on the app you're trying to use.

[stefan24]

Hi!

I'm using and administrating Novell NetWare since version 2.2 and the latest NetWare 6.5 SP3 is identical with OES (with NetWare kernel).
I'm using both here, NetWare 6.5 for File and Print, SME for Mail, News and other Linux services.

In the future I may switch to the Linux version of OES, because Novell offers the NSS filesystem and the much better file access management on Linux, too.

NDS or eDirectory makes much sense with two or more servers, since all users, groups and other objects are automatically synchronized between servers.

Many other services like iFolder, ZENworks, GroupWise are already supported under Linux, so if you need these services, it may be good to switch to OES. Otherwise you may stay with SME.

[cydonia]

I'm using and administrating Novell NetWare since version 2.2 and the latest NetWare 6.5 SP3 is identical with OES (with NetWare kernel).
I'm using both here, NetWare 6.5 for File and Print, SME for Mail, News and other Linux services.

How steep do you think the learning curve is from SME to OES Linux?  I know they are completely different, but the basic concepts are the same for our purposes.  We need local and remote file access to the server.

My problem is that there is not the culture of helping and howto's with OES, as exists with SME, and that is how I usually learn.

Also, I thought iFolder worked remotely through a firewall by default, requiring only port opening, but it appears that is incorrect.


Thanks,

[stefan24]

How steep do you think the learning curve is from SME to OES Linux?  
My problem is that there is not the culture of helping and howto's with OES, as exists with SME, and that is how I usually learn.

Novell offers an own news server with many different groups and volunteers, who are keen to help you.
And the Novell Knowledgebase at support.novell.com is very good.

And if you understand german, there is an independent german news group de.comp.sys.novell and my own german NetWare FAQ at www.netwarefaq.de

Also, I thought iFolder worked remotely through a firewall by default, requiring only port opening, but it appears that is incorrect.

According to Technical Information Document TID10074604: iFolder Client Error: 105 (Connection error) (where a possible error is described) this should work generally:

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/10074604.htm