Migrating from NetWare to NT

One potato, two potato, three potato, four. NetWare? NT? NetWare? NT? Sound familiar? If so, you're one of a growing number of network administrators wrestling with the Novell NetWare vs. Windows NT Server dilemma. As NT Server comes of age and NetWare's market share falters, more of today's small, midsize, and large network sites are asking themselves which network operating system will take them into the twenty-first century. This decision is complex, but if your company decides to switch from NetWare to NT, as the network administrator, you will need to find a way to make it happen. (For an overview of NT and NetWare coexistence, see Michael D. Reilly, "Living with Novell NetWare,"October 1997.)

Enter Migration Tool for NetWare. Included with NT Server 4.0, Migration Tool for NetWare lets you transfer your existing NetWare 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x file servers to an existing NT Server environment. In addition, with a few clicks of the mouse, Migration Tool for NetWare lets you transfer your NetWare users, groups, individual volumes, files, and directories. Even if your site has only a few users and files, Migration Tool for NetWare can greatly reduce the time and effort required to successfully migrate to NT. Without Migration Tool for NetWare, you must manually add each user and group account to the NT server and selectively copy each file and directory--a daunting prospect.

If the destination NT server is running Microsoft's File and Print Services for NetWare (FPNW) you can also migrate user logon scripts. FPNW lets an NT server function as both a standard NT server and a NetWare file-and-print server. Therefore, NetWare 2.x and 3.x clients can access both servers without additional software or configuration changes to the client. (Note: FPNW is an add-on for NT Server that you must purchase separately. For a detailed description of FPNW, see John Enck, "Behind the Scenes of FPNW," December 1995.)

Let me take you step by step through a sample migration from NetWare 4.11 to NT Server 4.0. I will tell you how to configure user and group information, handle duplicate names, assign passwords, and migrate individual files and directories. Most important, I'll show you how to perform a trial migration before doing the real thing.

Before you start the migration, you need to get a few things in order on the NT Server side. First, the destination server must be either a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or a Backup Domain Controller (BDC). This requirement makes sense because NT application servers don't participate in logon authentication and don't know or care about user or group accounts or how to handle them. Second, the destination NT server must be running the NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible Transport and the Gateway and Client Services for NetWare (GSNW). IPX/SPX is the default network protocol in the NetWare world and lets NT communicate with the NetWare server. Finally, as an option, you can install NTFS on the destination server. NTFS grants NetWare trustee rights for files and directories that you want to migrate. Because the migration process makes significant changes to the destination server, be sure you have a solid, verified backup before continuing. With these preparations complete, here we go.

Migration Tool
You can run Migration Tool for NetWare from three locations: the destination server, a remote NT server, or a system running NT Workstation. To run Migration Tool for NetWare on a remote system, you must copy the following files: nwconv.exe, nwconv.hlp, logview.exe, and logview.hlp from the %systemroot%/System32 server folder. You start the migration on the NT system from which you are running the migration. If you choose to run the migration from a remote NT system (server or workstation), make sure you have a valid connection to the destination NT server. In addition, you must run the Microsoft NetWare client on the system where you run nwconv.exe. I ran this sample migration using NetWare 4.11 as the source and NT Server 4.0 as the destination. I ran Migration Tool for NetWare on the destination server, not a remote system.

To begin the migration, from the Start menu, select Programs, Administrative Tools, Migration Tool for NetWare. The first time you run Migration Tool for NetWare, the Select Servers For Migration dialog box appears, as you see in Screen 1. Use this screen to select a NetWare file server to migrate and a destination NT server. If you have run Migration Tool for NetWare before, the program saved your configuration information and automatically loads it when the program starts. The Select NetWare Server dialog box appears and lists all NetWare servers it finds.

An important fact about Migration Tool for NetWare is that it does not work with Novell Directory Services (NDS). This limitation is significant because in a NetWare 4.x environment, NDS is how you manage objects or resources. Migration Tool for NetWare handles connections to NetWare 4.x servers running NDS through bindery emulation. Older NetWare 2.x and 3.x servers maintain a flat file database called the bindery. Unlike NDS, each bindery server is a separate entity and knows nothing about the outside world. In these circumstances, Migration Tool for NetWare treats 4.x servers the same as 2.x and 3.x servers.

This serious shortcoming leads to some interesting issues during the migration. For instance, when you select a 4.x server from the list, you will see the name of your current context. In Novell terms, your current context is your position in the NDS tree; your current context is the same as your current directory in DOS. You can see files only in the current directory, and you can see objects only in the current context. Also, be aware that you cannot change your context from within the NetWare server selection screen. If you do not see any NetWare servers listed, check to make sure you have NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible Transport and GSNW loaded on the NT server.

When you have selected your source and destination servers, click OK. If you have not already been authenticated to the NetWare server when you logged on to the NT server, the program will ask you to provide a Supervisor-equivalent account name and password. Notice that NetWare uses the term Supervisor and not Administrator. Because I connected using bindery emulation, the NetWare 4.x systems did not recognize the Admin account but interpreted my Admin logon as a Supervisor-equivalent account. The account must be Supervisor equivalent because you need complete NetWare system access and control. Similarly, for NT you must log on as Administrator or equivalent.

At this point, you will see the main Migration Tool for NetWare screen, shown in Screen 2, page 116. The screen lists all NetWare and NT servers selected for migration. (You can have multiple source and destination servers.) From this screen, you can make all necessary migration configuration modifications. You can add servers to be migrated, delete servers, set user and group options, set file and folder options, view log files, run the migration, and most important, run a trial migration. From the File menu, you can restore a previously saved configuration file, save current configuration settings, or clear everything by selecting Restore Default Config. By default, the configuration files have a .cnf extension and are located in the %systemroot%/System32 directory. You can't read the configuration files with a text viewer--I tried.