NetWare 4.11 Install Advice

[Lovello Novello]

I would appreciate any direction and advice either directly from the
knowledgeable and helpful people in this newsgroup, or pointing me elsewhere
online to documents which would suggest configuration ideas and pitfalls to
avoid when installing a NetWare 4.11 server.

Please note that anything other than 4.11 is not an option, I regret.

To give an idea of the complexity, the current tree is divided into many
areas, such as printers, print servers, print queues (one of each of these
for each printer!), users (students, teachers), workstations (with each lab
in a separate container), and software.

I have been managing this server I inherited for two years, and its tree/DS
is a mess, as are rights. I've had it, so I am starting over. I have never
installed a NetWare server, and will have some expert assistance. Outside
unbiased input is desired! I am going to practise on a simple PIII this
coming week.

I am in a secondary school servicing ~1500 users, and the primary purpose of
the server is printer and file storage, some app distribution and of course
online access. Our network supports 200+ client machines (classroom labs of
60-PI, 52-PII, 75-PIII, and a mix of others) all running Win98 2e, with 16+
HP LaserJet printers of varying ages (LJ4 to LJ2300) all with JetDirect
cards. We use PCounter (highly recommended) to manage printing accounting.
The server is a Compaq with a Xeon processor with 1GB RAM and 5-36GB SCSI
RAID and tape backup. Nice system, very reliable and capable. Our wiring
infrastructure supports full 100Mbps throughout the building. Overall, our
hardware and software systems are stable and in fairly great shape. Just the
server configuration is poor.

What I am ideally looking for is words of advice that come from experience
on the best way to set up a server in this environment, as well as Novell
client configuration ideas (for best security).

Here is what I am planning:
- sys vol
- data vol (apps and misc public and private file storage areas)
- user vol

I intend to lock down this system so users can basically run an approved
app, save/open a file, and print. I need to give special permissions to club
groups, for example, digital photography so they can have a shared area only
they can access. Same with yearbook, newspaper, etc. Storage controls have
not been in place previously, but will be in the new configuration. Users
will have personal storage limited to 5MB (students), in an effort to curb
file (such as mp3) downloads and app installers. Some students in video
courses will need more for the size of video editing files, which I'll have
to manage individually, as I do not believe I can apply this exception to a
group. Can I?

There is also the public area where teachers can create class/course
folders. These are open to all users. There are two folders within the
course folder: Submit and Handout. Students have read and file scan access
to the Handout folder, but can only save to the Submit folder (no file scan
or read access currently; would like to change this so they can file scan,
but not read, open or copy; couldn't get the rights right, since the DS is
so complicated and rights are not inheriting properly, hence the stripdown,
for one of many reasons).

FWIW, I manage this system on 75 minutes of release time per day (one
period). I try to do my best, and I unfortunately do not have Novell
training, just many years of IT experience, and a willingness to learn.

Sorry for the length of this post. I look forward to responses, and thank
you for input.

Larry

[Dave Lunn]

Set up your Sys: volume so that you are the only one with access to anything
but Public. Set your users volumes based on making rights management
simple. Create a queues volume and keep all queues in it.

Reserve a few gig (say 6-8) of space in the partition but not allocated to
*any* volume so you have someplace to use in the inevitable emergency.
Create a second Admin and lock it's name and password away. Do not create
the second Admin using equal to. Delete the guest and Supervisor users.
Supervisor will be there with the original Admin password. Flag the
student's queues purge immediate.

Get yourself a copy of JRBUtils, with 75 minutes/day you'll need the help.

Patch to SP9 before you start building the users.

Learn to use cron to schedule jobs.

Get Adrem free console 4 to sneak a little time on the server when you can.

Set up trustees to administer groups so you don't have to mess with user
names/passwords.
--
Dave Lunn
NSC SysOp
http://support-forums.novell.com