mtidgewell@eagle.wesleyan.edu (01/10/91)
We are adding some new servers around are campus. We have about six aready running on different brands of PCs. Some has suggestted that we buy only Novell certified hardware for these severs. I talk to alot of hardware people, both technical and sales. So far, I've been told certification cost alot of money, but doesn't guarantee anything. If anyone out in networld can shed some light on this for me, I would be grateful. I would love to see something from Novell stating the methods and benifits of certification. Thanks in advance. -- |------------------------------------------------------------| | Matt Tidgewell | "The bigest man was a baby | |MTIDGEWELL@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU | one time. So I don't know | | | where him get all these big | | | ideas, wanting to be rulers | | | over people." | | | Robert Nesta Marley | |______________________________|_____________________________|
yetsko@interlan.interlan.com (Mike Yetsko) (01/10/91)
If you don't think certification is worth anything, just get a hold of a copy of the certification suite, and try running your stuff through it yourself. Then, when items fail specific portions of the test, ask yourself if that area of the test is important to you. It may not be. What you buy when you get the certified stuff is a frame of reference, as a LOT of stuff, even certified, doesn't pass all test 100%. Usually there are exceptions, little 'addendums in fine print' that really aren't THAT important to some users. But the main thing is Novell will not grant certification to things that crash and burn, and they seem to have a knack for brings that behaviour out. I got my driver certified, and it was a BITCH. These guy would find little nit-picking stuff, then ask if I wanted a note on the certification, so I'd make a change and resubmit. Took 4 changes to the code AFTER I was sure it would breeze through and pass with no problems! Mike Yetsko InterLan
jamesp@world.std.com (james M peterson) (01/11/91)
Well----Novell certified hardware means that it runs netware w/o anything
really weird happening. does it run it well? Maybe.
As an alternative (my process) is to get a written guarantee from the
vendor that the server you are buying will run netware and not do
weird things. I.E. "We guarantee that computer X is 100% compatable
with netware versions a,b,c (and VAP..NLM...). If customer finds this
is not the case we will refund/replace... the machine with (an ALR or what
ever - maybe a compaq)"
This seems to work fairly well. If your vendor sez that its 100% compatable
but wont put it in writing then he does not believe in his product.
jamesp@world.std.com
PS. Northgate systems are good servers, compuadd good wks (iffy servers),
ALR & Hertz (intel sys) good servers too. IBM PS/2 aaahhhhhhhhh......jbreeden@netcom.UUCP (John Breeden) (01/11/91)
In article <1991Jan10.183900.22664@world.std.com> jamesp@world.std.com (james M peterson) writes: >Well----Novell certified hardware means that it runs netware w/o anything >really weird happening. does it run it well? Maybe. > >weird things. I.E. "We guarantee that computer X is 100% compatable >with netware versions a,b,c (and VAP..NLM...). If customer finds this Now if a VAP or NLM can bomb a server (the 'ol ring 0 thing), how can any hardware vendor (or even Novell) CERTIFY that each and every possible COMBINATION of MULTIPLE VAPs and NLMs won't do "weird" things. Seems pretty streight forward to say "vendor X's NLM" works fine but it gets a little more complicated when it's "vendor X & Y's" or "X, Y & Z's" etc. -- John Robert Breeden, netcom!jbreeden@apple.com, apple!netcom!jbreeden, ATTMAIL:!jbreeden ------------------------------------------------------------------- "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from. If you don't like any of them, you just wait for next year's model."
douglas@wybbs.mi.org (Douglas Mason) (01/12/91)
In article <YETSKO.91Jan11084848@interlan.interlan.com> yetsko@interlan.interlan.com writes: >But with 'certified' hardware/software you put the panic on Novell to get >a solution. Novell in turn can put the panic on the involved parties, >or else they can pull certification. (Yes, they DO pull it for later >discovered bugs until they are fixed!) > Ah... "Panic Novell"? Jesus, we had tried everything short of taking some reps hostage in order to get the TCP/IP NLM. Not too much panic shown there. With some of our "Novell Certified" machines, we installed such "panic" in the technical support people that it barely took a WEEK for them to call us back. By then the problem was so old that it took a discussion to figure out what they were calling about. Sure, I bad-mouth the support, but I DO love Netware 3.1. Really! :-) -Doug Douglas Mason | Network Administrator | ITM Corp. | Grand Rapids, Mich