In yet another move to try to convince Windows NT users to turn the administration of their networks over to NetWare and NDS Novell Directory Services, Novell Inc is set to release a utility for NetWare and IntraNetware administrators to manage mixed NT and NetWare-IntraNetware networks this week. The Novell Administrator for Windows NT is going to be available freely from Novell’s Web site for at least the next six months, and tentatively $6 per NT domain user after that. It’s essentially a server control version of Novell’s previously released Workstation Manager for managing NT Workstation from within NetWare. Administrator works by synchronizing NT users and groups with the Novell Directory Services database, creating a single directory for users in multiple NT domains and NetWare/IntraNetware. Novell Directory Services then acts as the master repository for both the NT and NetWare networks – which is of course Novell’s goal. In theory it means users don’t know whether they’re logging on to an NT or NetWare network. Ironically though, Novell’s latest move could spur additional sales of Windows NT. Currently, converting from Novell Directory Services to NT directories can be a confusing, time-consuming and pricey task for administrators of large networks, where users number in the tens of thousands. Novell now boasts that with Administrator no conversion is needed – just plug in NT Server and play. That should make it a lot cheaper and more attractive for NetWare users to at least partially adopt NT. Novell’s next trick in its struggle to stem the Windows NT tide will be, as reported, the release of Novell Directory Services for NT, as a replacement for Microsoft Corp’s own native directory.
