Question : Netware 5 SLP/OES

Hello.
A few questions for the Netware experts; please excuse my fragmented thoughts :)

I've inherited an old Netware 5.x box. Very likely to be upgraded in the immediate future and I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on OES Netware 6.5 or SLES 9 (sp2)? I've tried the latter here and it seems to be a bit buggy. Is native Netware still recommended for a production environment?
Also, I believe the clients are all running TCP/IP but suspect IPX is still binded to the NIC and being used for tree advertisements, etc. What is the best way to check if this is case? I assume I could disable IPX (if it is still lingering) without any major repercussions and configure SLP over TCP in its place?
There are only about 30 users on this box, from an upgrade point of view would it be worth joining the new server to the tree to scavenge the user accounts or just starting afresh on a new install?

Thanks

Answer : Netware 5 SLP/OES

I think the asker means should he upgrade to OES/NetWare SP2 (NetWare 6.5 SP5) or OES/Linux SP2 (SLES 9 SP3?)

I'd go for OES/NetWare to make for an easier upgrade from NW5.  You would need to prep the NetWare 5 server and NDS environment for the migration.  What support pack level are you at with your NW5 box?  Type "VERSION" at the server console prompt and hit <enter>.  Report back exactly what it says, on all lines...

What Novell Client32 version(s) are you using on your client PC's?

Do you have any legacy IPX-only print servers?  You can't get rid of IPX completely unless that's been addressed.

Do you have any legacy applications that use old Btrieve, which would require SPX communication between the client software and the Btrieve server NLM?  Those would have to be upgraded as well, in order to get rid of the need for IPX/SPX - and any other legacy apps that might also have SPX calls hardcoded in the software.

Again, go for the OES/NetWare upgrade.  Be sure to download the latest overlay .iso images and burn them to CD, and use them for the pre-migration server install.  You will want to do this as an across-the-wire migration to a new server, not as an in-place upgrade.  That's not a question, by the way...  

That way you will be on the latest support pack for all of the products, and have the install CDs to install additional products after you complete your migration.  A pre-migration server won't have all the products you will want to use down the road...

Make sure you buy upgrade protection/maintenance/whatever they call it now.  OES2 is on the verge of being announced, probably at Brainshare in a couple of weeks, so you do want to be able to upgrade to it without extra cost.  That way, you can install a better-integrated OES/Linux, on the SLES10 kernel, possibly even with 64-bit processor support.  The DNS/DHCP services in OES2 on Linux are supposed to be eDirectory-integrated like those on the NetWare kernel today - they aren't in OES1, being essentially the standalone open-source DNS and DHCP available to everyone.

Regardless, for the best experience out of the chute, go with the OES/NetWare install to start out with.  You can install as many OES/NetWare servers as you want, by the way, without additional licensing costs - and can install at least 5 OES/Linux servers as well.  How many OES/Linux you can add depends on how many user licenses you have...