Operating System Interoperability

Rather than use the same network operating system on all servers, modern networks often work in multivendor environments, meaning that you might encounter more than one of the major network operating systems functioning on the same network. In such a sce nario, you might, for example, have a NetWare server that handles authentication as well as file and print services, a Windows 2000 server that hosts the corporate email system, and two Linux systems—one acting as a server and the other providing firewall services. It is possible to use a single operating system for all these tasks, but in some situations a more flexible approach is required.

To facilitate such environments, network operating system manufacturers build in features and services that allow their operating systems to coexist on networks with other vendors' operating systems. In some cases, the manufacturers appear to do so grudgingly, but in the IT environment of the 21st century, it would be a bold move indeed not to provide such services.

The following sections take a brief look at how well some of the major network operating systems “play” with each other.

Using Windows with NetWare

A typical combination in many environments is the use of Windows and NetWare servers. Unfortunately for NetWare, some of these situations are part of a migration to a completely Windows-based system. In other environments, organizations leverage the power of NDS (or eDirectory) and NetWare for file and print services and use a Windows server product for application hosting. Because it realizes that there will be such environments, Microsoft supplies a range of tools, including the following, to help in the communication between Windows server products and NetWare:

• Client Services for NetWare (CSNW)— CSNW is designed to allow Windows client systems to access file and print services on a NetWare server. CSNW is installed on a client system and allows only that client to connect to the NetWare server.

• Gateway Services for NetWare (GSNW)— GSNW is used to allow systems in a Windows domain to access resources on a NetWare server. GSNW is installed on the server and allows all permitted Windows clients to connect to the NetWare server through it.

• File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW)— FPNW is used for NetWare clients to access file and print services from

Using Windows and Linux Servers

In today's environments, Linux and Windows servers are commonly used together, and therefore, clients and the servers themselves must be able to communicate. One of the programs used to increase interoperability between Linux and Windows is Samba. Samba is a software package for Linux that allows Linux workstations to share resources with Windows workstations in a Windows-based network. Samba is available free of charge and is commonly installed by default during a Linux installation. Connection to a Samba server requires the use of the Microsoft network client, which is installed by default with most Windows client operating systems.

Using NetWare and Linux Servers

NetWare and Linux servers are fully interoperable and are often found together in network environments. For instance, a NetWare file and print server might coexist with a Linux firewall and proxy server. In addition, it is possible, by using eDirectory, to integrate the management of Linux servers into the directory services system in order to streamline administration.

To make these scenarios possible, Linux supports both IPX/SPX, which is required for NetWare 3.x and 4.x, and TCP/IP, which is used in the later NetWare versions. However, many of the Linux distributions do not natively support IPX/SPX. If you use one of those distributions, you need to download extra software and perform additional configuration.