CentOS virt - Sep 2011 - P2V of NEtware 3.12 working server to Centos >=5.x

Greetings,

I would be grateful if anybody can kindly give a pointer to port a
Working netware 3.12 server using Centos >=5.x KVM howto?

-- 
Regards,

Rajagopal

On Tue, 2011-09-06 at 23:20 +0530, Rajagopal Swaminathan
wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I would be grateful if anybody can kindly give a pointer to port a
> Working netware 3.12 server using Centos >=5.x KVM howto?
> 
  There are so many variables that aren't mentioned...

  Do you currently have a CentOS box running KVM?

  If no, this is your first step.  Since a virtual server can run
multiple virtual machines, it is only useful if you intend to run
multiple virtual machines.

  What does your Netware server currently do?

  If it does more than file and print services, you will have to
determine how you would replace those other services.

  Netware 3 defaulted to using the IPX protocol for sharing file and
print services.  Are you still using IPX?  If so, you are looking at a
significant network reconfiguration.

  Netware 3 could integrate with a variety of client OS's; Unix, DOS,
OS/2 and MS windows.  What method is your server using to provide
services?  There might be lots of changes to client setup and software,
but look at Samba.  It can be setup with a workgroup for file and print
services that might be sufficiently similar to how you are currently
working.  The differences between a physical CentOS server with Samba
and a virtualized CentOS server running Samba are minimal and don't
directly effect Samba configuration.

  There might not be a simple document or a series of simple documents
to point you at.  It might be easier to setup a new network with the new
server and a few clients to work out the concepts and any issues you're
going to run into.  Once you have everything working well on your new
network, do a last copy of current data and migrate all your
workstations.

  I hope I'm mentioning use cases that don't apply.  Hopefully, you
already have significant CentOS experience.  Hopefully, this might be a
simple file and print server migration for MS Windows clients.  The
broad wording of your request might just be language barrier.

On Thu, 2011-09-08 at 02:35 +0530, Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> >  I would suggest setting up a CentOS server with Samba and convert the
> > DOS network stack, if you can.  Samba appears to be much more
> > supportable, currently.  Take a look at the FreeDOS project, too, as
an
> > example of getting DOS to work in a more recent environment.  The
> > biggest concern (after getting the clients to talk to Samba) is that
> > there have been a few choices made in Samba with respect to file
> > sharing/locking mechanisms.  With old software, you may have to look
at
> > those settings.
> 
> I am not sure about freedos as there is a Piece of custom built ISA
> hardware and the forget about replacing it. there is a budget(was
> there any?) constraint at clients end.
  Just suggesting looking at the docs for ideas.
> > I google'd netware virtual machine and saw a few
> > links to virtualizing Netware 3 under VMWare which might give you some
> > insights.
> 
> No additional cash flow for software :p ..... :)
  Just another suggested reading for ideas.
> >
> >  Either way, do it in a separate test environment to work out any
> > issues prior to production deployment.
> >
> 
> Even buying is a hard disk is a constraint. (Cash outflow constraint,
> remember :) )
  If you can't buy hardware, then you already have a Linux box running
KVM?
> >  If I hadn't been strongly encouraged (successfully) to de-clutter
my
> > software repository, I'd pull out my old Netware 3.12 disks and
try
> > installing on a virtual machine.
> >
> 
> If only I had that luxury of having those original _working_ floppy disks.
> 
  If I had to virtualize an existing machine, I'd boot the equipment
with a Linux Live CD and copy (using dd/ssh) the raw disk data to a
virtual disk on the virtual machine server.  Verify the copy is accurate
with md5sum.  Then, make another copy to start a virtual machine with.

  I'd still suggest your best option would be to take one of the DOS
clients and get it to connect to a Samba server and migrate the data.