Upgrade from 3.12

[skatz]

I have a customer with a fairly old 25-user 3.12 server. They are getting a new server and the old server will be tossed. The question is: can they save a ton of money by buying an upgrade to 5.1 (or 6.0) rather than a new license?

I know two scenarios that might work.

1. Upgrade in place on the existing server - if it can handle it, and I'm not sure it can. Then, use ghost or something like that to move over to the new drives on the new server. This second part might also not work if drivers for the new system don't load quite right.

2. Reinstall the old netware onto the new server. If we can find the old disks (I'm pretty sure) and it works, then upgrade in place to 5.1 (I'm sure that would be fine). At that point, copy the data over using migration wizard or something like that. Don't know if the licensing might be such that Novell prevents the two servers from coexisting during the transfer since they started with the same 3.12 license originally.

Does anyone have experience with this type of upgrade? I feel bad telling the customer to spend the extra money, though I know the transfer would be a slam dunk (which offsets part of the extra cost, of course, since I charge for less time). They really will be tossing the old server in the dumpster when we're done transferring. The quick answer I got from the Ingram Micro Novell person was that if I can do an inplace ugprade I'm fine. No clue as to what happens if I can't do an inplace upgrade.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[summoner]

You don't want to do an in-place upgrade. Netware 6 won't install onto an existing server that has netware 3 on it anyway. Plus you will be tossing the server anyway...so then you would ned to to do another migration of data from the old server to the new server.

You want a server migration, which uses netware migration wizard on a workstation. In a nutshell, this program prepares the source and destinatrion servers, copies the data from source to destination, then copies the network data (in your case, nw3 bindery objects are converted to nw6 NDS objects). When that's done, you can down the source server and the destination server should be able to resume operations from there. This is also less risky than an in-place upgrade, if you destination server bombs on the install, you will still have your data untouched on the nw3 box

 

[ChipsAhoy]

To upgrade to Netware 6, you must be running at least Netware 4.11 with Support Pack 8. The server must be at least Pentium II, 256 RAM, SVGA, 2GB available space on vol SYS, 200 mb of available space on DOS partition.

I do not believe that Netware 5.1 is currently sold. However, you might be able to buy the media and license from a third party - however this raises license issues. I have performed the 3.12 to 5 upgrade and it worked great.

Netware comes with a migration wizard that is good. A migration can be done "in place" or "across the wire". The across the wire sounds as though it might be good in your situation, however unless you have at least 100mbps NICs, it is a bit slow and will only work if you meet the above requirements.

See

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/searchtid.cgi?/10066060.htm

for detailed discussion

 

[skatz]

Actually, 5.1 is still being sold by Novell. The question is, if I do a migration "across the wire" can my 5.1 install (on the new server) be an upgrade version? Or will that not work because it is being installed on a new machine (MS does things to stop that, but I don't know what Novell does.) If I can install the upgrade version on a new machine, migrate the data across the network, then toss the old computer that would be perfect. Sounds like my next alternative (costs the customer more) is a new 5.1 install, and migrate the data.

 

[ChipsAhoy]

I have done this quite a long time ago. I believe that you can load the 5.1 as an upgrade on the new server. It will ask you for your 3.12 license info. However, it will install and you can then migrate. You cannot have the 3.12 on two machines on the same network at the same time or you will get an error message.

 

[marvhuffaker]

Really, it doesn't matter whether you have an "Upgrade" or a "Full license" when it comes to installing your servers.. You can even install the server without a license at all. You'll just be limited to 2 connections. Then you add the license and you're fine.

The deal with the upgrade vs. full license is a non-issue. The only problem with an upgrade license that you might have is when you try to activate it and don't have the serial number from your previous version.

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com

 

[skatz]

Thank you all for your help. I think I've got a plan now.

 

[skatz]

FYI:

It worked great - ordered, then downloaded/activated the upgrade licenses (server+5, 25addl), made the disks, ran the installation and set up beautifully. Then I used the migration wizard to migrate from the old server to the new server. It took all night (I didn't stick around), but when the users came to work it was done and everything was just where it should be.

The most time-consuming part of all this was updating about 20 workstations from Bindery (some Microsoft clients, some Novell clients) to the Novell NDS client.

The most aggravating part was the reconfiguring the printers - HP Web JetAdmin just didn't cut it. I found an old CD with the Windows based JetAdmin and used that to reconfigure - much easier.

Anyway, thanks for all your help.

- Seth

 

[marvhuffaker]

You should really look into NDPS, it's much easier to manage than the JetAdmin stuff. Not too difficult to setup either.

Marvin Huffaker MCNE, CNE
Marvin Huffaker Consulting

http://www.redjuju.com