Hybrid Networks Running Multiple Operating Systems

 

Multiple Operating Systems.  Multiple operating systems can arise on a network operating system and/or on client machines.  This results in the following three possibilities.
  • multiple network operating systems are deployed
  • one server operating system with multiple client operating systems
  • multiple network operating systems with multiple client operating systems

Multiple Server Operating Systems.  It definitely can be the case that your network has something that the developers thought would be no problem, but you have Windows 2000 and Windows NT servers.  Or maybe it is more complicated because there are Linux web servers.  The possibilities are almost endless.

Fortunately, the server operating system developers and outside vendors have developed software to help sys admins and users transcend the disparities between server operating systems.  The following list contains several useful integration oriented products.

  • CSNW - Client Services for NetWare
    • allows most Microsoft clients to access NetWare servers
    • included in Windows 2000 client software releases
    • included in Windows NT workstation releases
  • Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks
    • allows most Microsoft clients to access NetWare servers
    • included in Windows 9x client software releases
  • GSNW - Gateway Services for NetWare
    • allows clients logged into a Windows server to access resources on a NetWare sever
    • it works by going through the gateway in the Windows NT or Windows 2000 server
    • included in Windows 2000 releases
    • included in Windows NT releases
  • Novell Client for Windows 9x/NT/2000
    • available as a free download from Novell
    • allows Windows users to access files on NetWare servers
  • Samba
    • available as third party freeware
    • allows SMB clients to access files on UNIX servers running Samba
    • available for Windows clients
  • SMBFS - SMB File System
    • distributed with Samba
    • allows Linux computers to map a network drive to an SMB share
  • Microsoft Services for Macintosh
    • allows Macintosh clients to access resources on Microsoft networks
    • included in Windows NT server releases
    • included in Windows 2000 server releases
  • Linux Services for Macintosh
    • allows Macintosh computers to access resources on Linux computers
      • need to add DDP - AppleTalk Datagram Delivery Protocol to the Linux kernel
    • available through third party products
      • Columbia AppleTalk Package
      • Netatalk

Multiple Client Operating Systems.  We discussed this in the last series of web pages on Desktop Operating Systems.  Littlejohn Shinder contains some walkthroughs in chapter 12.

Multiple Server/Multiple Client OSs.  The sys admins need to make sure they have all the latest software, service packs, hot fixes and whatever for all operating systems!  This is dangerous in terms of security or network downtimes.