What about NetWorker 5.7. What's up with THAT?

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This is a bunch of questions about W2K that John E. Johnston found somewhere and posted.

A: NW 5.7 is an NT family release. It supports both Windows NT 4.0 (Intel & Alpha) - SP5 & SP6a and Windows 2000 (Intel only) - Build 2195.

Q: What NetWorker configurations do 5.7 support?

A: Server- Workgroup Edition (2906), Network Edition (2902), and Power Edition (5902), as well as Storage Node (2081 & 5081) and Client Pack (3304 & 3302)

Q: Do upgrade customers need a server "Update Enabler Code"?

A: No, as long as they are on 5.5x they will not. If upgrading from 5.1 need to apply the 5.5x Update enabler code.

Q: Is there a different "ClientPak" required for Windows 2000?

A: No, The ClientPak enabler for PC Desktops (3302) supports Windows NT 4 Workstation and Windows 2000 Professional. The ClientPak enabler for Windows NT (3304) supports includes Windows NT 4 (Server, Workstation, and NT 4 Enterprise Edition, as well as Windows 2000 Professional, Server, and Advanced Server support.

Q: Are NW 5.7 clients supported to my existing NW 5.x backup server?

A: Yes, NW 5.7 supports down-rev servers based on the NW 5.x releases.

Q: What about mixing and matching storage nodes?

A: Yes, mixing 5.5.x storage nodes and 5.7 storage nodes is supported.

Q: What about support for Windows 3.51?

A: No, as of Q1'00 & 5.5.1, NW no longer supports Windows 3.51 as a server or a client.

Q: Can NW 5.7 backup other NetWorker platform clients, such as NW 5.5.1 on Solaris and NW 4.15 on NetWare 4 & 5?

A: Yes.

Q: What's the difference between NW 5.7 and NW 5.5.2 running on the Windows platform family?

A: NW 5.5.2 on Windows NT 4.0 delivers NetWorker library-sharing feature (within a datazone). NW 5.5.2 does NOT support Windows 2000. The corollary, NW 5.7 supports Windows 2000 but does NOT support library sharing in a datazone. These two features will come together in NW 6.0.

Q: Legato announced the availability of Open File Connection (OFC) to replace Open File Manager from St. Bernard Software Software. When can I expect to see Open File Connection?

A: The Open File Connection (OFC) is an integrated solution NW 5.7and above, and was scheduled to ship with NW 5.7. We were unable to complete the testing in the required time frame to make the Q2 media kit. Therefore, we had no choice but to ship NW 5.7 without Open File Connection and release Open File Connection on next available release train, with support for NW 6.0. Until then, continue to recommend our Complementary Product Open File Manager until we release Open File Connection.

Q: How then do we backup open files on Windows 2000?

A: Legato 's OFM (Open File Manager) from St. Bernard Software (as of version 6.2, available on www.legato.com/eval) supports Windows 2000. 6.2 OFM is compatible with version 5.5.2 and 5.7 NetWorker NT.

Q: Open File Connection for NW 5.7 was announced as a Windows NT 4.0 product. Will we produce an Open File Connection on Windows 2000 and NetWare platforms?

A: Yes, however Open File Connection for Windows 2000 & NetWare will be a "post NW 6.0" release, subject to change.

Q: Does Windows 2000 support MS Exchange 5.5? Does our Exchange Application module support this combination?

A: Microsoft does support Exchange 5.5. on Windows 2000. Legato NWM for MS Exchange 2.0-002 is currently on the product support patch download area, and is supported on Microsoft Windows NT & Windows 2000

Q: What is the value proposition of the various logo programs to my customer and does NetWorker 5.7 meet the requirements to be Microsoft 'logo' certified?

A: There are at least three different logo programs currently promoted by Microsoft. BackOffice 4.5 - Promotes Windows NT 4 and Windows BackOffice Application family (SQL, Exchange, etc) interoperability and exploitation. For a technical reading of the spec, see: www.microsoft.com/backoffice Promotes platform exploitation of newest Windows 2000 Server technologies such as Active Directory, Security Services, etc. For a technical reading of the spec, see: http://msdn.Microsoft.com/library/specs/w2kserve.htm Application Specification for Windows 2000 Client, promotes client side acceptance of server technologies listed above as well as general Windows look and feel issues: For a technical reading of the spec, see: http://msdn.Microsoft.com/library/specs/w2kcli.htm NetWorker, as a heterogeneous (cross Platform) product, has significant technical challenges to meet these marketing requirements. It is a fundamental requirement to attain core backup & recover competency before extending the product feature set to meet additional requirements in logo programs. While some Logo requirements have been met, with 5.7 there was insufficient time to meet both NetWorker fundamental storage management requirements as well as all logo program market requirements. Over time, NetWorker will endeavor to attain all logo program goals, however it is currently unclear how long this will take, and how quickly we can respond to changes by Microsoft in these specifications.

Q: What is RSM (Removable Storage Manager)? Does NetWorker 5.7 support it?

A: RSM is a service included with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows 2000 that facilitates communication among applications, robotic changers, and media libraries. It enables multiple applications to share local robotic media libraries and tape or disk drives, and manage removable media within a single-server system. A group of libraries, drives, and media that are managed by RSM is called an RSM system. RSM can help you create an application that makes effective use of the media resources in an RSM system. NetWorker 5.7 does not currently utilize RSM for media resources. If a system uses RSM, NetWorker cannot share this autochanger resource, and that that if the system does not intend on using RSM, that the autochanger be manually disabled from RSM's use in order to co-exist with NetWorker. We are well underway to providing integration between NetWorker and Microsoft RSM, in a future release, "post NW 6.0".

Q: How do we position against RSM?

A: RSM provides application level sharing of an autochanger on a single Windows 2000 system. In contrast NetWorker Smartmedia enables application sharing to connect dissimilar systems, on potentially dissimilar platforms to share libraries. Tape Library sharing, shipping with 6.0 will only allow for application sharing within NetWorker. Additionally, plans are underway for integration between Smartmedia and RSM, in a future release, "post NW 6.0".

Q: What about SmartMedia on Windows 2000? Does it work with NetWorker 5.7?

A: No, Not yet, SmartMedia version 1.4 is required to support 5.7, and it is targeted for release in May.

Q: What is RSS (Remote Storage Service)? Does NetWorker 5.7 support it?

A: "Remote Storage is a two-tiered remote storage solution. Third-party software developers are able to develop multitiered remote storage solutions that make use of the new system infrastructure such as the high-latency file attribute. The Windows 2000 operating system provides an efficient and user-friendly platform for hierarchical storage management-by running Remote Storage on the Windows 2000-based computer, and by supporting the development of ISV products." Legato HSM for NT 4 is not supported on Windows 2000. We expect to have a better understand of our HSM roadmap, and possible options such as continuing with OTG solution to provide HSM technology, or other alternatives, in the coming quarters. It is unlikely we will be able to deliver an HSM solution feature before 1H'01.

Q: Does NetWorker 5.7 support Windows "Thin Clients" (Terminal Server/Services/Citrix)? When?

A: Not in 5.7, target is NW 6.0, 2H'00

Q: Have Disaster Recovery procedures been tested and updated for 5.7?

A: Yes, the new procedures are documented in the Disaster Recovery Guide.

Q: Can we do a "Bare Metal" Recovery on Windows 2000 with NetWorker 5.7?

A: No, During the development of NetWorker 5.7, Microsoft is positioning ASR (Automatic System Recovery) as the Windows 2000 bare metal solution, and NW 5.7 had support for ASR. With Beta 3-RC0, MS dropped this feature, so we had to as well. ASR will likely be re-introduced by and we will re-evaluate the work required to provide NW ASR support.

Q: What kind of licensing changes for clustering does NetWorker 5.7 introduce?

A: Clustered NetWorker Server (NT 4 EE Only) requires Power Edition. Clustered NetWorker Clients do not require PE, and can be backed up with NetWorker Network Edition

Q: When is Service Pack 1 expected for Windows 2000? Will NW 5.7 support it?

A: Microsoft has announced Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000 as becoming available in June. We will of course support SP1, however official support may lag by a quarter while test resources are brought to bear. It is not expected to be a significant test effort or risk.

Q: When will Microsoft ship Data Center Edition? Will NetWorker 5.7 support Data Center Edition?

A: Microsoft estimates availability within 120 days of the Feb. 17 release of Windows 2000. We are working with Microsoft and selected hardware partners to beta test our solutions against the Data Center Edition. Support for some DCE features, such as 4 node clustering, may not be initially available, but are being evaluated and planned for subsequent releases.

Q: I've heard that Microsoft is working on a 64-bit version Windows 2000?

A: Yes, Microsoft has announced this strategic direction. NetWorker is well underway to becoming a fully 64 bit application and positioned to exploit this environment in the second half of 2000.

Q: How can I get a copy of W2K?

A: Legato IT controls what OS versions are sanctioned and officially supported, so until they officially bless Windows 2000, each department is on their own to obtain and support Windows 2000 to meet individual product support and training needs. Additionally, as part of the Q2 Release Train, there will be an electronic training made available to the field, and technical support has received beta level product training.

Q: Will NW 5.7 be given as a customer training?

A: No, Customer training classes will be designed around NW 6.0 and therefore will cover NW for Windows 2000 concepts. For more information please contact training@legato.com

Q: Does NetWorker 5.7 backup individual records in AD?

A: No, currently Microsoft only recommends a monolithic approach to AD backup and recovery.

Q: On Windows 2000 what happened to the Repairdisk: and Registry: savesets?

A: The rdisk.exe program has been eliminated, as its meaning has been changed see http://support.Microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q216/3/37.ASP. The registry saveset is now included within the "system state:" saveset on both NT 4 and Windows 2000. Please see NW 5.7 Release Notes for more information

Q: When will NetWorker 5.7 SAN Ready or SAN Certified?

A: Legato certifies in a SAN environment with some form of library sharing. Built-in NetWorker Library Sharing for NT 4 was provided with 5.5.2, and as SmartMedia version 1.4 is required for NetWorker 5.7, today, we are not yet SAN certified. We intend on having NetWorker for Windows 2000 SAN certified in Q3'00.

Q: What is a Reparse Point? Does NetWorker 5.7 support Reparse points?

A: See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/psdk/winbase/fsys_2nsj.htm NetWorker 5.7 does support reparse points.

Q: What is DFS? Does NetWorker 5.7 support DFS?

A: See http://msdn.microsoft.com/isapi/msdnlib.idc?theURL=/library/psdk/network/ntlmapi_0i9f.htm No, NetWorker 5.7 does not support backing up data across the DFS mount point.

Q: What are Volume Mount Points? Does NetWorker 5.7 support Volume Mount Points?

A: See http://msdn.microsoft.com/isapi/msdnlib.idc?theURL=/library/psdk/winbase/fsys_0rhv.htm. Yes, NetWorker 5.7 supports volume mount points

Q: The Installer looks different? Why is there a new installer?

A: Yes, we implemented the new MS installer, an MSI (Microsoft Installer) compliant installer for Windows 2000 Logo certification efforts. This installer offers improved ease of use and some degree of fault tolerance over previous Microsoft approved install methodologies.

Q: I've just installed NetWorker and noticed the default path for install is "Program Files. What happened to \win32app?

A: To meet logo specified path all application directories should be offered within "Program Files". Please consult NetWorker 5.7 and Application Module Release Notes for any caveats relating to directory paths.

Note from Curtis: These questions and answers look like they may have been on an internal document at some point, but I cannot verify that. If this was a confidential internal Legato document, it probably should be here. If anyone in Legato has an opinion on this document, feel free to drop me an email.