ADSM List Folks:

I asked our ADSM/Novell client support person to respond, and here is his
response:

     I do think the current specification should be changed.  Although I
     prefer the format in example #3 (it is the most logical, "traditional"
     way, that has become second nature to most of us) I don't think we can
     use it.  I wish Novell would have done it that way, but they didn't.

     In my view the format has to conform to whatever Novell has specified.
      We use the Novell admin tools all the time, and are used to the
     Novell way of specifying things in the NDS.  For the sake of
     consistency, I believe the ADSM format needs to conform to that.

     Although Novell does have alot of redundancy and tools for protecting
     and moving the NDS and parts of it, we like to know that it is also
     backed up independently somewhere.  Our experience to date, at least,
     has shown that we use ADSM for backups of the complete NDS, never
     portions of it.  So it would be rare, I think, for us to ever be
     specifying portions of the NDS in ADSM, using wild cards, etc.  My
     point is, if all of this ends up being a little clumsy in ADSM (like
     it is with Novell's convention) that is OK, as we don't make those
     sorts of manipulations too often in ADSM.

Dale Beske - Univ of Wisconsin - Madison (608) 263-4006