4.13. Novell Network Operating System Family

One of the first firms to start producing both hardware and software for local area networks was Novell. She is currently focusing on the local area network software. The most famous company Novell brought the network operating systems of the NetWare family, which are focused on networks with dedicated servers.

Novell focused on the development of high-performance server-side NetWare OS in order to ensure the highest possible speed for remote access to files for this class of computers and increase data security. For the server part of their systems, Novell has developed a specialized operating system optimized for file operations and using all the capabilities of Intel processors x386 and higher. There are several steps to the evolution of Novell's network operating systems:

1) 1983 - the first version of NetWare is developed;

2) 1985 - Advanced NetWare v 1.0 appeared, expanding the functionality of the server;

3) 1986 - version 2.0 of the Advanced NetWare system, which differs from the previous ones in higher performance and the ability to combine various networks at the link level. This OS provided the ability to connect to one server up to four networks with different topologies;

4) 1988 - NetWare OS v2.15, which added support tools for Macintosh computers to NetWare;

5) 1989 - the first version of the 32-bit OS for servers with a microprocessor 80386 - NetWare 386 v3.0;

6) 1993 - NetWare OS v4.0, which in many ways became a revolutionary new product.

NetWare v4.xx versions have the following features:

• have a specialized network resource management system (NetWare Directory Services - NDS);

• memory management is carried out only in one area;

• A new data storage management system (Data Storage Management) contains three components: block fragmentation, or partitioning data blocks into sub-blocks (Block Su-ballocation); file packing (File Compression); data movement (Data Migration);

• include built-in support for the Packet-Burst Migration Protocol;

• all system messages and interface use a special module;

• NetWare v4.xx OS management utilities are supported by a DOS, Windows and OS / 2 interface.

The flaws in NetWare v4.0x did not allow it to conquer the market. A more widespread version of NetWare v4.1. The NetWare v5.x and NetWare v6 lines are the evolution of NetWare v4.x OS.