Table A-1 compares the features and capabilities of Novell Cluster Services on Open Enterprise Server (OES) 2015 SP1 and NetWare 6.5 SP8.
Table A-1 Comparison of Novell Cluster Services for Linux and NetWare
|
Feature or Capability |
Cluster Services for Linux |
Cluster Services for NetWare |
|---|---|---|
|
Operating system |
OES 2015 SP1 |
NetWare 6.5 SP8 |
|
Two-node cluster with OES license |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Up to 32 nodes in a single cluster with additional license |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Guest servers on Xen VMs as cluster nodes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Guest servers on KVM VMs as cluster nodes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Guest servers on VMware as cluster nodes |
Yes See OES 2015 SP1 Beta: Novell Cluster Services Implementation Guide for VMware. |
Yes, where NetWare is supported by the VMware product |
|
Novell Business Continuity Clustering support |
BCC 2.0 for OES 11 SP1 |
BCC 1.1 SP2 for NetWare 6.5 SP8 |
|
Administrator users |
The administrator user whose credentials you provide during the installation is the cluster administrator. The tree administrator user is not automatically given rights. Rights must be granted manually. See |
The administrator user whose credentials you provide during the installation is the cluster administrator. For NetWare, rights are automatically extended to the tree administrator user. |
|
OES Common Proxy User |
Supported |
Not applicable |
|
NCS_Management Group |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
Preferred list for LDAP servers |
Yes; in the /etc/opt/novell/ncs/clstrlib.conf file |
No |
|
Directory-based cluster configuration |
Yes; common schema for NetWare and Linux |
Yes; common schema for NetWare and Linux |
|
Directory schema extension during the first Novell Cluster Services installation in a tree |
The user who installs the fist instance of Novell Cluster Services in a tree must have schema extension rights. The schema extension can be performed separately from the Novell Cluster Services installation by a user with schema extension rights. See Afterwards, any administrator with sufficient rights can install Novell Cluster Services. See. |
The user who installs the fist instance of Novell Cluster Services in a tree must have schema extension rights. |
|
Forward migration for Novell Cluster Services |
OES 11 SP2 to OES 2015 SP1:
Down cluster and rolling cluster upgrade are supported. See OES 2 SP3 to OES 2015 SP1: Down cluster and rolling cluster upgrade are supported. Special handling is required for Linux POSIX file system cluster resources. See |
NetWare 6.5 SP7 to NetWare 6.5 SP8: Down cluster and rolling cluster upgrade are supported. NetWare 6.0 to NetWare 6.5 SP7 or later: Down cluster and rolling cluster upgrade are supported. NetWare 5.1 to NetWare 6.5 SP7 or later: Only the down cluster upgrade is supported. |
|
Cluster conversion from NetWare to Linux |
NetWare 6.5 SP8 to OES 2015 SP1: Down cluster and rolling cluster conversion are supported. After all nodes have been converted, use the cluster commit command to finalize the conversion. |
Not applicable |
|
mixed-mode Linux and NetWare clusters |
Supported only for rolling cluster conversions from NetWare to Linux. |
Supported only for rolling cluster conversions from NetWare to Linux. |
|
SBD (split-brain detector) |
Yes; during the install on the first server in the cluster, or by using the sbdutil after the install and before adding a second node to the cluster. |
Yes; during the install on the first server in the cluster. |
|
Mirrored SBD |
During the install. After the install and before adding a second node to the cluster by using the sbdutil and specifying two devices. Mirroring an existing SBD by using NLVM. |
During the install on the first server in the cluster, or by using the sbdutil after the install. |
|
Shared disks |
Fibre Channel SAN LUNs iSCSI SAN LUNs SCSI disks (shared external drive arrays) |
Fibre Channel SAN LUNs iSCSI SAN LUNs SCSI disks (shared external drive arrays) |
|
Cluster-aware shared devices |
Share devices by using NLVM, NSSMU, or the Storage plug-in to iManager. |
Share devices by using NSSMU or the Storage plug-in to iManager. |
|
Requires Novell Storage Services (NSS) |
Required to use NLVM and NSSMU to manage devices, and to create NSS pools as cluster resources. |
NSS is the default file system on NetWare. Novell Cluster Services is not supported on NetWare traditional volumes. |
|
Volume manager for NSS pools |
Novell Linux Volume Manager NLVM |
NetWare Segment Manager |
|
Volume manager for Linux POSIX file systems |
Novell Linux Volume Manager NLVM |
NetWare Segment Manager |
|
Requires NCP (NetWare Core Protocol) |
NCP Server is required for all storage resources that use NCP, including NSS pools, NCP volumes, and Dynamic Storage Technology shadow volume pairs. NCP is optional for clustered Linux LVM volume groups and volumes. |
NCP is the default file access protocol on NetWare. |
|
NSS pools as cluster resources |
Yes See Shareable for Clustering Multiple-Server Activation Prevention (MSAP) Cluster volume broker; Linux kernel module handles NSS pool events. |
Yes See Shareable for Clustering Multiple-Server Activation Prevention (MSAP) Cluster volume broker |
|
Linux POSIX file systems as cluster resources |
Yes See For information about managing resources migrated from OES 2 SP3 to OES 11 or later, see |
Not applicable |
|
NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems as cluster resources |
Yes See |
Not applicable |
|
Dynamic Storage Technology shadow volume pairs as cluster resources |
Yes; by combining the load and unload scripts for shared NSS pools and managing the pair as a single cluster resource. See |
Not supported by Dynamic Storage Technology. |
|
Xen virtual machines as cluster resources |
Yes See |
Not applicable |
|
iManager |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Clusters plug-in and Storage Management plug-in for iManager |
Yes |
Yes |
|
My Clusters and My Resources feature of the Clusters plug-in |
Yes |
Can be used to manage NetWare 6.5 SP8 servers, but cannot be run on NetWare servers. |
|
Cluster-enabling NSS pools by using the Storage plug-in for iManager |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Cluster-enabling NSS pools by using the NSS Management Utility (NSSMU) |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Creating cluster enabled NSS pools by using NLVM commands |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
Creating cluster enabled LVM volume groups by using NSSMU |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
Creating cluster enabled LVM volume groups by using NLVM commands |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
Command line interface |
Yes; using the terminal console as the root user |
Yes; using the terminal console |
|
XML-based API |
Yes; same as NetWare except that it uses the /_adminfs path on Linux. |
Yes; same as for Linux except that it uses the _admin volume on NetWare. |
|
Load, unload, and monitor scripts |
Yes Script commands differ. Scripts are automatically translated from NetWare commands to Linux commands during the cluster conversion from NetWare to Linux. For a comparison of script commands, see |
Load and unload scripts; no monitoring |
|
NCP support for accessing files on shared NSS pools |
Yes |
Yes |
|
NCP support for accessing files on shared NCP volumes on Linux POSIX file systems |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
NCP support for accessing files on Dynamic Storage Technology volumes made up of two NSS volumes |
Yes |
DST not available |
|
Novell AFP support for accessing files on shared NSS pools |
Yes; cross-protocol file locking available with NCP and Novell CIFS, or with NCP and Novell Samba |
Yes; with cross-protocol file locking |
|
Novell CIFS support for accessing files on shared NSS pools |
Yes; cross-protocol file locking available with NCP and Novell AFP, or with NCP and Novell Samba |
Yes; with cross-protocol file locking |
|
Novell CIFS support for accessing files on Dynamic Storage Technology volumes made up of two NSS volumes |
Yes; cross-protocol file locking available in NCP |
DST not available |
|
Linux Samba/CIFS support for accessing files on shared NSS pools on Linux |
Yes; with cross-protocol file locking available in NCP Requires users to be Linux-enabled with Linux User Management. Requires Universal Password. |
Not applicable |
|
Linux Samba/CIFS support for accessing files on shared Linux POSIX file systems |
Yes Requires users to be enabled with Linux User Management. Requires Universal Password. |
Not applicable |
|
Leverage Heartbeat 2 resource agents |
Yes |
Not applicable |
|
LAN fault tolerance |
Channel bonding See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/bonding.txt |
NIC teaming See |
|
Multipath I/O |
Device Mapper - Multipath I/O, or third-party MPIO solutions See |
Media Manager Multipath I/O, or third-party MPIO solutions See |
|
Cascade failover prevention |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Master node election process |
New master election process as described in |
Old master election process |
|
Monitor script |
Yes |
No |
|
Resource Mutual Exclusion Groups |
Yes |
No |
|
NCS-level monitoring of the NDSD daemon |
Yes, OES 11 SP2 or later |
No |
|
STONITH |
Yes |
No |
|
VLAN support |
Yes |
No |