I imagine this will be a controversial topic in this forum, but I still wanted to ask.
We're a small operation running a single OES-NetWare server and about 25 clients. The server is used for file sharing and for our accounting database (MAS90). We use it for nothing else-- the printers are not managed by the server, and they work perfectly fine for our needs.
Currently, we're in a precarious situation regarding compatibility, since MAS90 only supports Windows and NetWare servers, and appears to have no intentions of supporting future (linux-based) versions of OES. It is also pretty rigid regarding the Novell Client versions we can use.
Additionally, we have had problems with Kaspersky Antivirus and our Novell Client (causing BSOD on some machines).
At the very least, we will have 1 Windows server for MAS90. But, I'm trying to decide what to use for our file server. I like a lot of aspects of Novell (pricing, security, stability, etc), but then I face the issue of synchronizing between AD and eDirectory. I have set up a test environment using Identity Manager to do so, but so far it seems to introduce another level of complexity that we may not want.
If we were a large enterprise with hundreds or thousands of servers, I would absolutely stay with Novell, because it clearly scales more gracefully than an AD network. But, at our size (and no large growth in the foreseeable future), I'm tempted to just get another Windows server for file sharing and have a pure AD environment with no Novell Client issues and no need for synchronization.
Am I missing something? I acknowledge that Novell is superior in a lot of ways, but I'm thinking that, for our needs, we would not reap those benefits.
Thank you.
We're a small operation running a single OES-NetWare server and about 25 clients. The server is used for file sharing and for our accounting database (MAS90). We use it for nothing else-- the printers are not managed by the server, and they work perfectly fine for our needs.
Currently, we're in a precarious situation regarding compatibility, since MAS90 only supports Windows and NetWare servers, and appears to have no intentions of supporting future (linux-based) versions of OES. It is also pretty rigid regarding the Novell Client versions we can use.
Additionally, we have had problems with Kaspersky Antivirus and our Novell Client (causing BSOD on some machines).
At the very least, we will have 1 Windows server for MAS90. But, I'm trying to decide what to use for our file server. I like a lot of aspects of Novell (pricing, security, stability, etc), but then I face the issue of synchronizing between AD and eDirectory. I have set up a test environment using Identity Manager to do so, but so far it seems to introduce another level of complexity that we may not want.
If we were a large enterprise with hundreds or thousands of servers, I would absolutely stay with Novell, because it clearly scales more gracefully than an AD network. But, at our size (and no large growth in the foreseeable future), I'm tempted to just get another Windows server for file sharing and have a pure AD environment with no Novell Client issues and no need for synchronization.
Am I missing something? I acknowledge that Novell is superior in a lot of ways, but I'm thinking that, for our needs, we would not reap those benefits.
Thank you.