[CentOS] Connecting to a Novell Server

Fri Apr 6 16:24:56 UTC 2007
Rob Lines <rlinesseagate at gmail.com>

So it took a while to get a few days free to test this and work up our
internal documentation (thank you vmware)

Paul, your process was excellent.  We were able to change a few things in
our environment because we are not using IPX for communication.

For our users the process has been condensed down to:
------
How do I access the Novell Servers?

Open a terminal window and su - root to get a root shell.

Go to the directory with the yum configuration files with cd
/etc/yum.repos.d and open the CentOS-Base.repo file.

Find the [update] section and add the line exclude=kernel kernel-smp to the
bottom of the entry.

Find the [centosplus] section and change the enabled=0 to enabled=1 and add
the line includepkg=kernel kernel-smp to the end of the entry.

Check what kernel type you are using. Run the command uname -r and look at
the end of the output for the tag smp

If there was no smp in the last output update the kernel with the command
yum update kernel. If the output had smp update the kernel with the command
yum update kernel-smp.

Download the IPX utils and NCPFS rpms.  (We rebuild the two srpms once and
house them on an internal web server)

Install the rpms with the command rpm -i ipxutils-2.2.6-5.i386.rpm and rpm
-i ncpfs-2.2.6-5.i386.rpm

Reboot the machine so that it boots with the new kernel and log back in.

Make a directory in your home directory for the NW01 server with the command
mkdir nw01

To actualy connect to the novell servers use the following command ncpmount
-S NW01 -A x.x.x.x nw01 -U USERNAME.users.tree -P PASSWORD replace the
USERNAME and PASSWORD with your Novell username and password.

It will give no output if it completes sucessfuly. To check it go into the
nw01 folder with cd nw01 and list the files with ls it should display the
shares that you have access to on the main file server.

This command can be added to a script so that you do not have to type it
every time. Make a new file in your home directory called novell.sh with the
command touch novell.sh then open it in an editor. Add the following lines
to the file and make sure to replace the username and password with your
username and password

    #!/bin/bash

    ncpmount -S NW01 -A x.x.x.x nw01 -U USERNAME.users.tree -P PASSWORD



Now make the file exicutable by you and remove the permisions for anyone
else to read the file with the command chmod 700 novell.sh

Now you can just run your script novell.sh to connect to the novell servers.
-----



We did find that due to the use of the IP based servers that gtknw2
application would not properly mount those servers.  The simple script above
does the same thing.


Paul, and everyone else thank you for the help.

Rob


On 1/27/07, Paul <subsolar at subsolar.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2007-01-19 at 08:45 -0500, Rob Lines wrote:
> >
> >
> > On 1/18/07, Paul <subsolar at subsolar.com> wrote:
> >         On Thu, 2007-01-18 at 11:50 -0500, Jay Lee wrote:
> >         > Mike Fedyk wrote:
> >         > > Rob Lines wrote:
> >         > >> I am trying to connect our centos 4.4 machines to our
> >         Novell Netware
> >         > >> 5 servers.
> >         > >>
> >         > >> The goal is to allow the centos 4.4 clients to connect to
> >         the server
> >         > >> and access shared folders.  We are not looking for a
> >         single sign-on
> >         > >> style solution just the ability to connect.
> >         > >
> >         > > Check into using ncpfs with centos.  If not, then see if
> >         netware can
> >         > > serve to nfs or smb/cifs clients.
> >         > ncpfs is only in the centosplus kernel I believe.  I also
> >         found it buggy
> >         > and horribly slow.
> >
> >         Yes, you need to be using the CentOS Plus kernel and build the
> >         NCPFS
> >         rpms from fedora so you can mount the volumes.
> >
> >         It also does not hurt to have IPX enabled on Netware &
> >         Linux ... we have
> >         IPX enabled yet because we still use DOS and the old moldy 2.x
> >         client
> >         still seems to work best for our use.
> >
> >         I can see if dig out the information on what I did for the one
> >         C4
> >         station I setup
> >
> > I definatly would like to see that info if you can find it.
> >
> > The one question that I do have is what effect the move to the CentOS
> > Plus kernel would have other than allowing us access to the ncpfs?
> > The users are power users that mostly maintain their own machines and
> > handle their own updates.  What issues could come up by using the new
> > kernel rather than the base one?
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Rob
> >
>
> OK here is what I've done so far ...
>
> == Configure the CentOS Plus repository on the workstation ==
>
> Edit the /etc/yum.repo.d/CentOS-Base.repo file and make the following
> changes:
>
> Find the [update] section and add the following line:
> exclude=kernel kernel-smp
>
> Find the [centosplus] section and change
> enabled=0
> To
> enabled=1
> Then add the line
> includepkg=kernel kernel-smp
>
> Install the CentOS Plus kernel with the command "yum update kernel",
> once the new kernel is installed reboot the machine.
>
>
> == Compile and Install the networking utilities ==
>
> Download the ncpfs source RPM from the fedora core 6 repository
>
> Install the ncpfs source rpm and edit the following lines in the spec
> file
> change  the line
> chmod 755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin/ncpmount
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin/ncpumount
> to
> chmod 4755 $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin/ncpmount
> $RPM_BUILD_ROOT/usr/bin/ncpumount
>
> Build the actual RPMs using the command "rpmbuild –ba SPECS/ncpfs.spec"
> after which you will have ipxutils and ncpfs RPMs under the RPMS/i386
> directory.
>
> Install ipxutils & ncpfs RPMs built above
>
>
> == Enable IPX Networking on the System ==
>
> Edit /etc/sysconfig/network and add the following lines
> IPX=yes
> IPXAUTOPRIMARY=off
> IPXAUTOFRAME=off
> IPXINTERNALNODENUM=0
> IPXINTERNALNETNUM=0
>
> Edit /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth0 and add the following
> lines:
> IPXACTIVE_802_2='yes'
> IPXPRIMARY_802_2='yes'
> IPXNETNUM_802_2='0xb0320002' (the netnum needs to be the correct one for
> the facility)
>
> Restart the networking subsystem with the "service network restart"
> command, and then test IPX connectivity by issuing the "slist" command.
> If the workstation has IPX connectivity you should receive a list of
> local servers.
>
>
> == Building and Installing GUI client for Novell Netware ==
>
> Download the source file gtknw2-0.3.tar.bz2 for gtknw2 from
> gtknw2.sourceforge.net and then untar the application with the command
> "tar jxvf gtknw2-0.3.tar.bz2".
>
> To build the application you will need the gtk2-devel package and it's
> requirements besides the compiler and usual requirements.
>
> To build the application, perform the following commands:
> cd gtknw2-0.3
> ./configure
> make
> su –c make install
>
> Keep an eye out for errors during the configure & make steps.
>
>
> == Configuring the GUI client to auto launch at login ==
>
> Login as the user you want the login front end to automatically launch
> for and go into "Applictions|Preferences|More Preferences|Sessions"
> configuration tool and click on the "Startup Programs" tab and
> add /usr/local/bin/gtknw2 to the startup program list.
>
>
> I still have not figured out how to have it automatically log out of
> netware when the user does ... anybody with suggestions I'm all ears.
>
> Paul
>
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