Information Technology Dept.
A Transition from Novell to Microsoft
August 8, 2008 was a very sad day in our I.T.
Department...
After twenty-five years, we pulled the plug on
our Novell servers. Novell served us well and we owe them a debt of
gratitude for all those years of safe, secure and ever diligent service. One
of our Novell servers ran for a two year stretch without a patch or reboot!
Our departure from Novell began with Novell's
change in direction toward Linux. Our tax software provider notified us
three years ago that they would not support the Novell/Linux platform. Our
tax software is the backbone of our operation and when we were forced to
decide whether to change tax software or server operating systems, our tax
software won out.
Background:
A three year transition away from Novell.
We were running four Novell servers; 1) Novell 6.0 File server, 2)
BorderManager firewall server, 3) Novell web server and 4) GroupWise mail
server. Early on we made the decision that the transition would be an "all
or none" proposition. We saw no reason to run a mixed environment (life is
already too complicated).
YEAR ONE:
Three years ago we purchased a
SonicWall device to replace our Novell firewall first. We kept the
BorderManager server in place and running during this transition just in
case. Fortunately we never had a problem with the SonicWall device.
YEAR TWO:
Next, we replaced our
Novell/Apache web server with a Windows 2003 server and IIS 6. We continued
to run the Novell web server with eGuide during the transition from Novell
to Microsoft.
BEGINNING OF YEAR THREE:
We migrated all
of our applications from the Novell 6.0 File server to a Windows 2003
server. We kept our Novell Client on all of the 18 workstations as we were
still running all of the Novell servers.
END OF YEAR THREE: We setup and installed
a Windows 2008 Server (64 bit) with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. It was
ironic that 08-08-08 (the date we flipped the switch) was the Twentieth
Anniversary of GroupWise.
The "Domino Effect"...
The transition from Novell to Microsoft
necessitated changes in the following areas:
1) Anti-spam and antivirus software had to be
changed (very pleased)
2) Tape back-up software had to be changed (very
pleased)
3) Internal instant messaging software had to be
changed (undecided)
4) We replaced PcAnywhere with Remote Desktop
(pleased)
5) Our GroupWise public document library was
replaced with SharePoint (not pleased)
6) All network services and administration
changed:
a) DNS
b) DHCP (wireless
laptops only, all wired network devices have static IPs)
c) Time Sync
d) We lost Novell
Distributed Print Services NDPS (very pleased)
e) Groups and Policies
(very pleased)
f) Battery conditioned
power supply backup software changed (undecided)
I will go into more details of each segment of
the changes later, but for now I will hit on the main points of interest as
I see them.
We had been utilizing Guinevere and GWAVA from
Beginfinite in conjunction with McAfee to stop spam and viruses. These two
solutions kept us 100% free of viruses and 99.87% free of spam. I can't say
enough good things about these programs. These programs were designed
specifically for GroupWise and neither would work with Exchange.
We found a great anti-spam and antivirus
solution in SonicWall Email Security software (which started out as Mail
Frontier years ago). Utilizing the hardware from one of the old Novell
boxes, we installed Windows 2003 server, loaded up the SonicWall software
and didn't miss a beat.
As it turned out, all my fears about the
possible degradation of our electronic mail system were unfounded. I love
the SonicWall spam solution even more than our old system. It has more
features and is easier to manage. The results are superior to the old system
(which I did not believe was possible).
NOTE: We are a small business with one office.
We have a computer room with three racks, ten servers and two very large
power conditioners/backups. We have eighteen workstations, all running XP
Pro SP3. We have four Konica Minolta BizHubs for faxing, printing and
scanning. We have one Network Attached Storage NAS from Synology.
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