Network Preparation

Complete the applicable steps to properly prepare your network before installing or upgrading to NetWare* 6.5 or OES NetWare, or before installing an OES Linux server into an existing NDS* 6, 7, or 8 tree.

Step 1: Back Up Data

If you are upgrading a server on your network to NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare, you should back up the server data and the eDirectory* data. Follow the instructions in this step to back up your NetWare server.

Step 2: Search Tree for eDirectory/NDS versions

The NetWare 6.5/OES NetWare server installation installs a new version of eDirectory. Before you upgrade or install your first NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare server, you must have a compatible version of NDS/eDirectory running on all servers in your tree.

This step checks the NetWare and NDS versions of all servers in your tree and updates NetWare 4/NDS 6 and NetWare 5/NDS 7 and 8 servers to be compatible with eDirectory. It does not update NetWare servers already running eDirectory.

Step 3: Prepare for New eDirectory

This step extends the core schema to ensure that a NetWare 6.5, OES NetWare, or OES Linux server can communicate with the existing NDS tree. This step requires that you update NetWare 4/NDS 6 and NetWare 5/NDS 7 and 8 servers to be compatible with eDirectory as described in the previous step. It also requires access to a server with a Read/Write replica of the Root partition.

Step 4: Generate GUIDs on NetWare 4 Servers

If you have NetWare 4 servers in your tree, complete this step to generate GUIDs for any objects on those servers that need them.

This step requires that you update NetWare 4/NDS 6 servers to be compatible with eDirectory and extended the core schema of your tree as described in steps 2 and 3.

Even though the new GUID generator for NetWare 4 helps to avoid GUID compatibility issues, problems still might occur. Be sure to always back up all file system trustees before any upgrade or migration to NetWare 6. If a problem does occur, see TID# 10078892 - Trustee assignments appear to no longer work after NetWare 4.x to NetWare 6.x upgrade for more information.

Step 5: Prepare a Server for Upgrade

This step runs a health check utility on an existing NetWare server to ensure that there is enough memory, a SYS volume is in place, and that the server meets the minimum requirements for the upgrade. This utility will report if problems are detected that could cause the upgrade to fail.

Step 6: Prepare Cluster for Upgrade

If you are upgrading Novell* Cluster Services* from NetWare 5.1 and your cluster has shared storage, you must prepare your NetWare 5.1 cluster servers before upgrading them to NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare and before upgrading Novell Cluster Services. This preparation is necessary to ensure existing shared-volume trustee assignments can be used after the upgrade. This preparation is only necessary if you are upgrading from NetWare 5.1 to NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare, not if you are upgrading from NetWare 6.0.

Step 7: Update Certificate Authority Objects

NetWare 6.5 and OES NetWare include an integrated Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) called Novell Certificate Server*. During the installation process, Novell Certificate Server is used to create a Certificate Authority (CA), if one doesn't exist, and to issue certificates for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security. This step provides instructions on how to update and use Novell Certificate Server.

Step 8: Prepare for Universal Password

NetWare 6.5 and OES NetWare feature Universal Password Services to simplify the integration and management of different password and authentication systems into a coherent network. Universal Password Services are not turned on by default. This is to avoid problems with users logging in who may have international characters in their passwords and/or who had used case-sensitive passwords. This step provides instructions on how to successfully enable the Universal Password feature in NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare.

Step 9: Prepare for CIFS/AFP

If you have CIFS (Microsoft* Windows* native networking workstations) and AFP (Apple* Macintosh* native networking workstations) users in your network and you want them to log in to your new NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare server, you must ensure that Novell Modular Authentication Service (NMAS) is properly installed in the container that the new server will reside in. This step provides instructions for how to prepare your network so that your CIFS and AFP users can log in to the NetWare 6.5 or OES NetWare server and enjoy all of the benefits it provides.

Step 10: Verify NICI Keys

This step is recommended to check your eDirectory tree for SDI key consistency. It describes how to fix invalid keys by running the SDIDIAG utility at the server console.

Step 11: Schema Update

This step extends the eDirectory schema for all of the products and services that are bundled with NetWare 6.5 and OES NetWare. Doing so eliminates the need for future server installers to have Admin rights to the root of the tree.

 

*Novell trademark. **Third-party trademark. For more information, see Legal Notices.