For the greater part of the past 5 years I’ve worked mostly with Novell’s eDirectory and related services. I thought it was a great combination but I’m starting to realize how much better Active Directory is.

Now, as I get settled into my new position at my new company I’ve started to realize how much I actually missed working with Active Directory.

In the past I thought that eDirectory and NetWare was the way to go. It seemed reliable, fast, and easy to administer. For the most part I guess it was but Active Directory works that much better.

In my old environment we had NetWare servers, eDirectory for authentication and user related stuff, and GroupWise email. My new company uses Windows servers, Active Directory and Outlook/Exchange for email.

One of my main complaints about Novell was that it required client side software to connect to the services (Novell Client) where as Windows already has a built in client for Active Directory logins (I don’t care about Client Services for NetWare). What is the point of using a system that requires extra overhead of another client when there is already one built in. Not to mention the endless problems that arise because of NDPS/iPrint, NMAS, NICI etc that have to also be installed for the use of a lot of NetWare/eDir services.

With NetWare based services you have to use three different tools to administer everything, ConsoleONE, Netware Administrator and iManager just to accomplish simple tasks. And most of the time they never work right to begin with. With Active Directory most of it is done in the Active Directory Users and Computers console.

Working with printers in NetWare can be a nightmare. You have to manage the Broker, Manager, and printer agents. In Windows you just set up the printer and connect it to the print server (usually by creating an IP printer port on a dedicated print server). There’s not as many components to deal with or to fail in a Windows environment.

Those are just a few things, I could probably go on for quite a while about all the short falls of NetWare but I won’t. I’m quite happy re-learning all of the things associated with Windows and Active Directory. The one thing that makes Windows so much easier to work with is Remote Desktop. It’s much easier working in a GUI session on a Windows machine than it is to muddle through the NetWare console and it’s text based interface.

I’m not saying that NetWare and eDirectory is all bad but now that I’ve re-experienced a Windows environment I’m hard pressed to find a lot of good to say. Maybe it’s because I’m enjoying the challenge and the new environment but I suspect these feelings won’t go away anytime soon.

One might wonder why I would like using such a dying technology. The answer is not that simple but I will try to explain some of the reasons I like using NetWare and OES as well, I will describe some of the drawbacks associated with it.

I may as well start off by saying that I am not a network tech or server admin. I work on a help desk where some of my duties include user administration, file management/maintenance, tech support, and other stuff.

So here goes. What do I like about NetWare, OES, eDIR, etc.?

1. Printing with NDPS or iPrint works very well
2. eDirectory is logically designed and the types of objets are easy to understand
3. File management is a breeze
4. eDir and OES can be integratd with other services such as Active Directory and LDAP.
5. User account administration is very straight forward
6. Zenworks for Desktops is great for keeping an inventory of computer systems and software
7. NetWare 6.5 may be the last of the NetWare family but it’s still support fairly well
8. GroupWise is a very good email system
9. Since NetWare is not as popular as MS Windows, there aren’t near as much malware or vulnerabilities directed at it
10. In my experience, people who work with NetWare (and other Novell services) know it well. Probably more than most of the folks who work with Windows based products.

Now that I’ve talked about the good stuff here are some things that I don’t like.

1. ConsoleOne is junk but is needed to administer GroupWise
2. The DNS/DHCP console is also junk but is needed
3. Anyone who’s ever used NetWare knows what happens when it can’t synchronize properly
4. Novell has been promising an “all-in-one” tool for years but has yet to produce it
5. Novell is more focused on Linux now
6. Drivers for new hardware are getting harder to find
7. There are limited online resources where one can find information to help solve problems
8. Less and less software vendors are creating software that is compatible
9. When consulting is needed for big projects it’s harder to find qualified people than it was in previous years
10. Having the extra overhead of the Novell Client on the desktop. This gives us one more piece of software to upgrade, manage, and troubleshoot.

I am sure that there are people out there who will disagree with my pros and cons but keep in mind these are just things I have noticed over the past fours years while employed in the IT sector. If you have been living under a rock and have no idea what NetWare, eDirectory, Zenworks, or anything else I mentioned is click here to get to a Wikipedia article that explains more.