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By Don Gathers (dgathers@network-services.uoregon.edu)
The 1999 list of New Year's resolutions for most departmental computer support staff must surely include checking for Year 2000 compliance of the computing software and hardware being used or purchased before the year's end.
To assist in this task, here's some information on the Y2K compliance of server operating systems.
Novell Netware: Departments running Novell's Netware need to be aware that version 3.11 and version 4.10 are not Y2K compliant. This means most of the more than 60 Novell servers on campus will require an upgrade by year's end. Novell has blurred its upgrade path considerably by adding versions 3.2 and 4.2 to its product line, along with the latest addition of Netware 5.0.
While the 5.0 release is a very new and different product for Novell, Version 3.2 is little more than Netware 3.12 with the complete set of available patches applied. If you are running a Netware 3.12 server with patches, you will not need to upgrade to version 3.2.
Similarly, the 4.2 release is little more than version 4.11 with all available patches applied. Netware 4.11 servers need only to be patched rather than upgraded to 4.2.
Netware 5.0 is, of course, year 2000 compliant. Departments may want to consider 5.0 for some of its other features, but as a Y2K fix alone it is the most expensive Netware alternative, both in terms of the operating system cost and hardware requirements. Network Services is currently testing the functionality of Netware 5.0; the results of these tests will be published in a future issue of Computing News.
Windows NT 4.0: Departments running or considering Microsoft's WindowsNT 4.0 server platform should be aware that it can be made year 2000 compliant with the addition of Service Pack 4 (SP4). This is contrary to Microsoft's earlier announcement that Service Pack 3, along with the latest hotfix patches, would be enough to assure that your NT 4.0 server was year 2000 compliant.
The good news here is that Service packs are free and downloadable from the Microsoft web site. The bad news is that Service Pack 4.0 has been known to cause some erratic behavior that is difficult to troubleshoot. Testing of SP4 on a non-production server is recommended if at all possible.
Departments are encouraged to share Y2K information on the Departmental Computing mailing list. As departments begin to upgrade to Y2K compliant network operating systems, this list should become a valuable forum for sharing tips. To subscribe, send email to mailserv@oregon.edu and type subscribe deptcomp in the body of the message.