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Whether you run a large enterprise or a small business, OS/2 Warp Server offers you a strategic network platform, for today and for the future. With OS/2 Warp Server, you gain a complete, fully-functional application server, a highly reliable network operating system, a systems management server, backup and recovery services, and more...all in a single, cost-effective solution that's easy to install and manage.
You can implement networked applications such as e-mail, Lotus Notes, and relational database systems. Or you can start with traditional file and print services and add more function when the time is right. If you have an existing NetWare LAN, you can run OS/2 Warp Server concurrently and add such essential capabilities as Internet access, application services and remote access.
OS/2 Warp Server supports clients running a variety of desktop operating systems, including OS/2 Warp, DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, AIX and Macintosh. Plus, OS/2 Warp Server delivers the protocol independence you've asked for, concurrently supporting NetBIOS, IPX, TCP/IP and 802.2.
Building on the winning combination of OS/2 Warp Version 3 and IBM's LAN Server 4.0, OS/2 Warp Server incorporates new capabilities, including:
•Sophisticated systems management tools •Worry-free backup and recovery •A full set of remote connectivity facilities •Advanced printer functionality •Support for up to 1000 users on a single server (advanced version) •Higher performance for file and print sharing and Lotus Notes (advanced version) •Seamless, secure Internet access, providing high-speed connections to the Web.
•Assigning IP (internet protocol) addresses, host names, and other network information at individual computers. •Tracking changes every time a computer is either added, removed, or relocated in the network. •Manually configuring computers for network access. These tasks are time-consuming, error-prone, and can disrupt network operations. IBM has addressed these challenges with a new networking technology called Dynamic IP (DHCP and a Dynamic DNS Server).
Introduced in OS/2 Warp Server, Dynamic IP implements a true TCP/IP "plug-and-go" network solution, greatly simplifying both IP network access and IP network administration. Furthermore, Dynamic IP is well suited for networking mobile hosts and is compatible and interoperable with existing IP network hosts and routers.
IS organizations are finding that the benefits of DHCP alone provides remarkable savings on cost of TCP/IP administration. The savings can be remarkable. Boeing Aircraft (Seattle), which uses DHCP to manage its 40,000 nodes, figures they save a half hour of administration time per node. For example, machine subnets are changed on an average of three times a year. The administrator has to go out to each node three times just to deal with the subnet configuration. If the DNS server is changed, the administrator can make one entry in the DHCP server. With 40,000 nodes, Boeing saves an estimated $2.4 million a year.
Dynamic IP is the integration of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Dynamic Domain Naming System (DDNS), both new features to OS/2 Warp. Each implements half of the TCP/IP "plug-and-go" network solution. DHCP centralizes and automates the configuration of IP hosts, including IP addresses, while Dynamic DNS automatically records the association between IP hosts and their DHCP-assigned addresses.
Using DHCP and DDNS, a host automatically configures itself for network access wherever it "plugs-in" to the IP network. That host can then be located and accessed using its permanent, unique DNS host name. Mobile hosts, for example, can therefore freely move about a network without knowledge of the local IP network addresses, or services, and without end-user or administrator intervention.
The OS/2 Warp Server software package includes:
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Standalone backup strategy:
This is usually a small standalone network with a single server providing most of the services on the network. In this case, a OS/2 Warp Server standalone backup strategy simply writes the data to a tape or a second disk for safekeeping. This can be done during off-shift hours with the scheduling feature. As the network grows, you may choose to implement separate, standalone backup strategies for each server.
The remote client and remote control support are shipped with OS/2 Warp Server's systems management. System management's remote client capabilities allow access directly by a dial-up connection. OS/2 Warp Server's remote access service utilizes remote node technology and is complimentary to the other two technologies, adding function and versatility.
The remote access service is a software-only solution. It is a simple procedure to install the support during the OS/2 Warp Server installation. It will run over a standard COM port on a PC. If you are running any dial out software, you can utilize that same port and modem to provide dial-in access to your LAN.
OS/2 Warp Server remote access has two components: a remote client that essentially turns your remote communications adapter (COMX) into a logical LAN Adapter and a LAN connection server that allows access to the network for one to 128 concurrent remote clients. The connection server, besides providing connectivity, enforces security, provides audit trails, and LAN-to-LAN bridging connectivity.
The starting point of any discussion of OS/2 Warp Server has to be its base operating system, OS/2 Warp. IBM OS/2 Warp is a 32-bit preemptive, multitasking operating system that allows it to run multiple applications concurrently in a stable, reliable manner. Many of the applications that have been brought together to form OS/2 Warp Server were previously existing OS/2 applications. They have been modified and tested together to improve their interoperability and stability as a single application. These applications provide multiple services to the network. This was possible because OS/2 was designed from the beginning to provide a safe execution environment for applications.
Because OS/2 Warp was one of the first Intel database platforms, much of that market place is still OS/2 based. The same is true of Workgroup servers. OS/2 has a significant market share of the Lotus Notes server install base.
File and Print
File and print was designed for today's environment, and is commonly referred to as "client-server"--although when IBM LAN Server was being designed, it was not put in those terms. The vision was a world of complex, sophisticated applications all running concurrently on a single PC. And because file and print services would only be one of these services, it needed to work in unison with other applications. But from the user's point of view, this network of resources would appear as a single set of resources.
IBM OS/2 Warp Server is one step closer to achieving that vision. In addition to being an outstanding application server, OS/2 Warp Server's file and print services perform the functions of a network operating system, managing the file and print resources on the network.
Novell's NetWare defined the term "network operating system" (NOS), and gained market share by being the first to provide file and print capabilities between PCs. However, performance tests by multiple groups shows that OS/2 Warp Server is a superior performer with equivalent networking functionality. For example, in performance tests conducted by LANQuest Labs in 1994 and PC Week in 1996, IBM LAN Server (the file and print functionality in OS/2 Warp Server) was found to be a better performer than either NetWare 4.1 (with SMP) and NT Server 3.51 (with 4 way SMP).
OS/2 Warp Server comes in two packaging schemes: OS/2 Warp Server and OS/2 Warp Server Advanced.
- Adds the High Performance File System - 386 (HPFS386).
- Surpasses NetWare and NT Server performance as measured in BAPCO measurements.
- Adds local security, requiring a login at the server to access files on the server and fault tolerance features such as disk mirroring.