Question : Novell Basics for Beginners

In a Windows Networking experts, and I've recently landed a position that is on a Novell network.
in a scramble to understand the different types of softwares related to Novell, would someone please give me some comparision info regarding the following windows software?
For instance, ConsoleONE would be the equvalent of Active Directory Users and computers (in a sense).
And Zenworks would be the equivalent of SMS (from what I've been told)

What would be the equivalent of:
-Windows Server Update services (WSUS)?
Reason: I'd like to deploy windows updates, but I'm not sure if the computers have to be on a windows domain for this to work.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer : Novell Basics for Beginners

To risk repeating what alextoft already said, but in a more wordy fashion (because I'm wordy) rather than nice and succinct:

1)  ConsoleOne is a Java-based admin tool for eDirectory and NetWare.  Depending on what version of NetWare you have, you probably also have web-based tools like iManager, iMonitor and Novell Remote Manager (NoRM).  Yes, there are purely web-based administration tools for NetWare/eDirectory and many of the other products Novell provides - all you need is a browser, and it doesn't have to be IE.

2) Unlike the multi-gazillion MMC programs you can run in the management console to manage various aspects of Windows networking, ConsoleOne does almost all of it in one place with one interface (hence the "one")  iManager is the way of the future, though, and ultimately, the road map is that all Novell products would be managed from iManager.

3)  Much unlike the combination of AD users and groups and NTFS ACL "permissions," you can manage your users' rights to servers, volumes, directories and files all through ConsoleOne.  In fact, you can see exactly what your users have explicit rights to, from the user object's properties, and can grant explicit rights to volumes/directories from that single interface.    Rights management in NetWare/eDirectory is via dynamic inheritance, and more than just users and groups can be security principals.  OU membership can confer rights.  Association with an application object can confer rights.  Those rights are dynamically inherited, and the rights are calculated (with very low overhead) at access time, so if you have to give your CFO write access to a folder NOW, you can - and it will be immediate, and will flow up and down the tree dynamically.  No going to the specific server, browsing to the folder within the "share," and forcing child folders and files to inherit newly granted permissions.

Yes, the Windows way of handling filesystem access sucks rocks in comparison.  If you gain an understanding of dynamic inheritance and how the rights mask works, you should be happy as a pig in slop and wondering what you'll do with all your spare time.

Those rights are actually VISIBLE too!  None of the crap you had to put up with trying to keep track of who's getting rights from another domain in your forest, or who some loose-cannon admin granted explicit permissions to what shares/folders, or so many other goofball ways you can get things royally bolluxed in the goofy AD/NTFS/static ACL world.

4)  ZEN is what SMS wishes it was.

5)  GroupWise can do everything Exchange/Outlook can do - except infect your whole network if you miss patching the next zero-day exploit.  According to CERT, GroupWise has had fewer critical vulnerabilities in the past several years than Exchange/Outlook had in the first six months of 2007.  It's enterprise-class from square one, can handle a much higher message load and much larger message store, without requiring you to pay extra for an "enterprise" version.

6)  The NetWare and GroupWise licensing scheme is far superior and economical to that of Windows / Exchange.  First off, you can 2-node cluster NetWare without paying extra - and if you want or need a larger cluster, you buy an add-on license.  You don't have to spend 3 times as much per server to get the "enterprise" version like you do with Windows Server. Second, you can install pretty-much as many NetWare servers in your network as you need, without paying another dime for server licenses, because NetWare is licensed "per active user object" - not per server, like Windows is.  Third, you can install as many GroupWise servers as you need, located wherever you need them in your enterprise, without paying dime one for a second, third or umpteenth GroupWise server - unlike Exchange server, GroupWise is licensed per active mailbox user, not per server.  No user CALs on top of Exchange CALS, either.

7)  NetWare as an OS is going away - the services are almost all ported to Linux already, and you can leverage XEN virtualization and run virtual NetWare servers in Linux VM's with the latest offering from Novell, OES2.   eDirectory can run on NetWare, Linux and Windows Server, among other OSes.  GroupWise can run on NetWare, Linux or Windows Server.  No single-OS lock-in, no single-vendor lock-in.  

That should hold you for a few minutes...  Glad you're getting involved in a real network!  I'm sure you'll come to appreciate it quickly, once you get a good understanding of what you've got and what it can do.  Please keep in mind that it's pure FUD when you hear folks say you have to *move to* Windows to do whatever.  NetWare/OES/eDirectory can coexist quite happily with Windows/AD, so if your company gets sold a product that only works with Windows/AD, that does NOT mean they have to toss out their investment in NetWare/eDirectory and other Novell products.  

It's also FUD when you hear people talking negatively about the Novell client32, or any other aspect of Novell networking.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask away.  We're here to help.