SMS and Novell NetWare

This page details problems and issues relating to SMS and Novell NetWare.

Clients connecting remotely to Other Servers [3/1/01]
Experiences from the Field: SMS 2.0 and NetWare 4.11 [25/6/02]
Novell Attachments (NOT-LOGGED-IN)

Clients connecting remotely to Other Servers

I am using the Novell client running on Windows 95. My clients are connecting to several other Novell servers on my network however the clients are not logged into the network. They are sitting at the Novell login window.

I have modified the registry, using 'PREFSERV.EXE' and can confirm that the client is not connecting to other servers after doing an 'Update Configuration' in the Systems Management Icon in Control Panel. Yet I can still see a client periodically browse out when they are sitting at the Novell Login Window. Has anyone seen this before? Does the 'PREFSERV.EXE' not work until after the client logs into the network?

Perhaps this is the work it always did work and I never have seen it until now.

Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
The clients while sitting at a Novell Login Window will continue to browse the WAN attaching to other Novell servers and the detaching after a few seconds. Once the clients have logged into the network the registry (NAL Section) is read and clients no longer will chat across the WAN.

Microsoft says there is no way to stop this chatter since the SMS services start upon startup. Due to Windows 95 security there is not a way to stop the 'chatter'. Microsoft solution is to upgrade to Windows NT where there is better control over the chatter.

Experiences from the Field: SMS 2.0 and NetWare 4.11

Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
For those of you out there that need to use SMS 2.0 in NetWare 4.11 environments, this article details John Waghorne's experiences and how he got SMS 2.0 to work with NetWare 4.11, including both 16 and 32-bit clients ... [Go to article]

Novell Attachments (NOT-LOGGED-IN)

I deployed the SMS client to install at several locations all connecting to Novell Servers as the CAP and DP. The Novell Clients were not setup as a CAP or DP. Once the client installed all the clients now want to connect to remote Novell Servers that have a CAP and DP.

I have since deployed the CAP and DP to all the Novell Servers is this something that will straighten itself out or have I already screwed something that can't be fixed. All the clients now have a registry entry that points them out to a different server. Yesterday all the clients were attaching to those remote Novell sites that had DP's and CAP's setup on them and never disconnecting. Today all the clients will attach for a few seconds and then disconnect. One thing I have noticed is that the clients all have a registry entry that points them to different servers as their CAP's and DP's.

Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP SMS]
This is a known issue. Referring to Knowledge Base Article 235873 'SMS: Specifying Preferred Servers in Systems Management Server 2.0', SMS 2.0 assumes that you are using fast links to every site and clients attempt to make connections out to remote Novell Servers. In Windows NT this is fine because they use per seat licensing vs. per server as you would in a Novell environment.

Microsoft is aware of this problem. In the Novell environment SMS 2.0 clients go out and make connections to remote Novell servers until all user license have been used. Causing strain on the Novell servers. The solution was using the 'PREFSERV.EXE' command to correct the clients from going out and making connections to remote servers. Microsoft has since updated the Q article with new info.