[CentOS-virt] P2V of NEtware 3.12 working server to Centos >=5.x

Wed Sep 7 15:17:55 UTC 2011
Ed Heron <Ed at Heron-ent.com>

On Wed, 2011-09-07 at 19:54 +0530, Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 12:34 AM, Ed Heron <Ed at heron-ent.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, 2011-09-06 at 23:20 +0530, Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> >
> >  There are so many variables that aren't mentioned...
> >
> >  Do you currently have a CentOS box running KVM?
> 
> I have used centos with KVM,brctrl etc.
> 
> >
> >
> >  What does your Netware server currently do?
> 
> Just just pure and simple file storage. The worst part of it is The
> client has to be a DOS6.22 with some custom ISA base hardware.
> 
> >  Netware 3 defaulted to using the IPX protocol for sharing file and
> > print services.  Are you still using IPX?  If so, you are looking at a
> > significant network reconfiguration.
> >
> 
> Indeed. with 802.3 frame etc :)
> 
> > There might be lots of changes to client setup and software,
> 
> > but look at Samba.  It can be setup with a workgroup for file and print
> 
> Now, How to access Samba with Dos 6.22? :p

  There was a workgroup client for DOS that used TCP/IP.  I can't vouch
for it's working, but try
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/BusSys/Clients/MSCLIENT/

> One main thought that first came to my mind is about the NIC Driver
> under KVM I do understand that the Centos5 can present it as different
> types of NIC (Intel, Realtek etc.)
> 
> I am investigating it further.
> 
> > Hopefully, you already have significant CentOS experience.
> 
> Last 6 years or so I have worked only Fedora/Centos/RHEL. Since then I
> have tried avoid taking calls windows etc.
> 
> But this call I took because I have significant experience in netware
> too about 10 years 2.2 to 4.10 with NDS etc

  I, also, supported Netware 2 and 3.  I avoided 4 due to NDS and the
availability of Samba.  It was a big deal when the Internet was gaining
momentum.  At first, we had multiple protocols and multi-protocol
routers.  My memory is vague but I'm pretty sure Netware 3 could run
NetBIOS on a TCP/IP stack.

> 
> > The broad wording of your request might just be language barrier.
> 
> I realised that.
> 
> I will experiment further share my experience sometime later.
> 

  So, are you looking to move your existing Netware 3 server into a
virtual environment?  Or, are you looking to replace an existing Netware
3 server with a CentOS equivalent?

  I would suggest setting up a CentOS server with Samba and convert the
DOS network stack, if you can.  Samba appears to be much more
supportable, currently.  Take a look at the FreeDOS project, too, as an
example of getting DOS to work in a more recent environment.  The
biggest concern (after getting the clients to talk to Samba) is that
there have been a few choices made in Samba with respect to file
sharing/locking mechanisms.  With old software, you may have to look at
those settings.

  If you attempt to virtualize Netware, you may run into issues, though
it'd be an interesting exercise.  I don't know if a Linux hypervisor
will handle IPX packets without IPX support installed.  You might need
to check for an ipx kernel module.  Also, my version of Virtual Machine
Manager running on CentOS 5 with Xen doesn't give me any sort of Netware
OS option when creating a new virtual machine, so you'll probably have
to play with settings.  I google'd netware virtual machine and saw a few
links to virtualizing Netware 3 under VMWare which might give you some
insights.

  Either way, do it in a separate test environment to work out any
issues prior to production deployment.

  If I hadn't been strongly encouraged (successfully) to de-clutter my
software repository, I'd pull out my old Netware 3.12 disks and try
installing on a virtual machine.