I'd like to expand this question a bit. What is Legato's/EMC's official
position on supporting the backup of Netware? I don't think fixing problems
should be based on the popularity or percentage of problem reports. If
Legato is going to provide a service to their customers, then they should
support it at the same level as they do for all their services, period. If
they aren't going to fix problems, then they shouldn't be offering the
service. When I have a problem, I need it fixed now, not when the vendor
feels like getting around to it or based on how many complaints they are
getting.
If Legato is planning to drop development and support of a Netware client,
then I wish they would be up front about it. Just tell us so that I can't
start shopping for new software. If you are going to support and develop a
client for Netware, then please tell us your plans for doing so, and when we
can expect to see some a new or updated product. Point me at web links if
they are available.
As a user of Legato, I've been extremely disappointed in the functionality
and reliability of the Networker client for Netware. There has been no new
release or update in almost 2 years. The 4.21 client is still the latest
version. I gave up on Arcserve almost 2 years ago, and moved our Netware
and Windows systems to Networker, because there was at least some hope of
using a single product for all our systems (which also includes Solaris and
Linux). It literally took months to get some of our systems working
reliably, and technical support (via Sun, since they are the vendor of
Solstice, which is Legato repackaged) has been poor. From what I've
observed on this list, I'm not convinced that purchasing direct support from
Legato would be any better. If I'm wrong, please tell me.
Our Networker server is still at version 6.1.1 on Solaris, and an upgrade to
7.x has been discussed. However, I'm not going to be supportive of an
upgrade, if I'm going to lose even more functionality, or the Networker
client for Netware is a dead product.
Legato Networker as a product has serious short comings in several areas
that I've observed.
1) The GUI is not consistent across platforms. I use it on both Linux and
Windows, and to my knowledge, you can't do all the same features on either
client, especially with regards to a tape library (depositing and
withdrawing tapes is one example). Currently, our other admin does this via
command line on Unix, or you can do it by running to the tape library. On
Windows, you just point and client, and its all done. Why can't it just
work the same on all platforms.
2) Networker for Netware lacks a GUI. The text based interface stinks, and
as of late, doesn't appear to even be stable when you try to do more
complicated browsing and marking of files to restore..
3) Documentation for Netware support is quite lacking. Several tricks I
discovered to make things work properly came from this list. If I had only
followed the documentation, I would have dumped the product completly,
because I would never have gotten it to work properly.
4) Restoring files is not straightforward, compared to other products I've
used. Also, it appears you can only restore files from a like client
(Netware files can only be restored from the Networker client on a Netware
server, same for Windows and Unix). I could be wrong about this point, as I
don't restore or support Unix systems.
On Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:10:14 -0500, Dave Gold - News
<dave2 AT CAMBRIDGECOMPUTER DOT COM> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Has everyone who wants to be able to do netware saveset restores with
networker server 7.x+ opened a tech support cases and gotten your name added
to the list of people waiting for a fix?
>
>As with any software company, Legato bases the priority of a fix on both
the effect and the number of customer's who have opened cases regarding the
issue. While this issue does have a moderate effect, it doesn't strictly
cause a restore issue, and there is a clear workaround (merge or scan in
CFI, and do a browsable recovery). What'll make this get fixed quicker is if
those who want it fixed open up a tech support case.
>
>Dave.
>
>...
>Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 16:16:31 +1000
>From: Ryan Tassotti <LSS5 AT BRISBANE.QLD.GOV DOT AU>
>Subject: Re: Need to confirm steps to upgrade to 6.1.4
>
>This is also preventing us from moving to Networker 7.x. Inability to perf=
>orm saveset recovers w/Netware clients is a showstopper for us.
>
>.... which bites, because 7.x has some pretty nice backup-to-disk functiona=
>lity.
>
>Ryan.
>
>
>>>> mooney AT DOGBERT.CC.NDSU.NODAK DOT EDU 02/21/04 01:25am >>>
>In regard to: Re: [Networker] Need to confirm steps to upgrade to 6.1.4,...:
>
>>Can you elaborate on the Netwware client issues?
>
>The main issue is LGTpa50711, which is the inability to do a saveset
>recovery for NetWare clients once your server goes to 7.x. It could make
>a disaster recovery situation a complete failure, especially when you
>couple it with other long-standing issues for the NetWare client. One
>such issue is that selective recovery (browsing) will fail if you mark
>more than N files for recovery at once. I don't think Legato's ever said
>what N is, but their recommendation used to be no more than 200,000 files
>at once, if you wanted to be sure that selective recovery will work.
>
>--
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Note: To sign off this list, send a "signoff networker" command via email
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