🚀 go-pugleaf

	July 22, 1996	


IBM's OS/2 Warp Server 4.0

Computerworld via Individual Inc. : To know IBM's OS/2 Warp 
Server is to love it. At least that is what four 
users indicated in recent interviews with Computerworld.

Why are they so satisfied? Mostly, they said, because Warp 
Server 4.0 is easier to install than its predecessor, 
LAN Server. Administration is as simple as drag and drop, and 
many of LAN Server's add-in products, such asSystemView, 
are integrated in one package. And the only crashes the 
users suffered were caused by hardware failures.

Still, nothing is perfect. Warp Server 4.0's file 
system doesn't support journaling, and its remote access 
program doesn't support Unix or Windows 95 clients. And, ``it only 
runs on Intel platforms, and I really need a RISC-compatible 
version,'' one user said.

Computerworld interviewed four managers who have several 
months' experience with Warp Server 4.0. They rated the release, 
which went into general availability in May, on a 
five-point scale (A = very good, B = good, C = average, 
D = poor, E = very poor). Their grades appear in the 
following order:

Bob Sanders, director of technical services at Rabbit 
Enterprises in Peekskill, N.Y.

Josh Airall, systems analyst at Cincinnati Bell Information 
Systems in Cincinnati.

John Robinson, systems manager at South Carolina Department of 
Parks and Recreation in Columbia, S.C.

Bill Howey, senior systems consultant at AVCO Financial 
Services Corp. in Irvine, Calif.

Installation
A B+ A- B
``Warp Server's installation is nothing like LAN Server's,'' Sanders 
said. That could be among the highest of compliments, 
judging from what the other evaluators had to say about 
LAN Server. ``LAN Server was installed in pieces and was 
never this seamless or easy,'' Robinson said. ``Now you 
just answer about a dozen questions �in Warp Server 4.0�, go 
to lunch, come back, and it's running.'' But installation 
isn't foolproof. Warp Server 4.0 includes many drivers, but
not everything users may need. The four users said 
all hardware was detected, but Warp Server 4.0 didn't 
always configure it correctly. ``It insisted on giving the 
wrong interrupt and no shared memory to one of our systems 
with an IBM Ethernet ISA adapter,'' said Sanders, who manually 
corrected the problem.

Ease of use
A A A A-

``The best thing Warp Server has done for me is take away 
all my TCP/IP headaches,'' Robinson said. Version 4.0 
includes two utilities for managing TCP/IP, Dynamic Host 
Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Dynamic Domain Name System (DDNS). Robinson configured his server using DHCP so it assigns TCP/IP
addresses to systems as they boot up.

The DDNS associates IP addresses with corresponding English 
names, which lets remote users access any system, regardless 
of the IP address. ``This way the DHCP client comes up on the 
network, rents its IP address, and we're off and running,'' 
Robinson said.

Utilities aside, Warp's object-oriented administration tops the 
reasons why OS/2 loyalists consistently say Warp and Warp 
Server are easier to use than Windows and Windows NT. 
``�If� you want to give 100 users access to a printer, 
�just� highlight them, then drag and drop them on to 
the printer's icon. It's that easy,'' Airall said. He said 
he prefers to stay clear of NT's command-line administration. 

``You can also click the right mouse button on any object 
for a pop-up menu of options,'' Airall said. 

But Warp Server 4.0 doesn't include Network File Server 
or X Windows System. ``It would be a lot easier for our 
Unix people if they were included,'' Sanders said. X Windows 
is the standard Unix graphical user interface. The users 
interviewed are also looking for changes in the Microsoft 
Corp.- written high-performance file system (HPFS). 
Some want it yanked because it is from Microsoft; others want 
it replaced with a journaling file system 
(see ``IBM responds'' below).

Network and systems management

A+ A+ A A
The real jewels of Version 4.0 are the newly integrated 
products such as OS/2 Warp 3, LAN Distance for remote access 
and SystemView for systems management previously all 
separate add-ins. 

SystemView's scheduler flawlessly ran software inventory 
and distribution utilities and system backups after hours, 
according to the evaluators. ``Best of all, they're automated. 
You don't have to write scripts for these functions as in LAN 
Server�,'' Robinson said.

Performance

A A- A A-
``When you can hang as many as 1,000 clients off the �advanced 
edition server�, it's hard to complain,'' Airall said. ``We've 
easily connected 800 users concurrently'' when the server was 
used for print- and file-sharing only. As an application 
server, concurrent-user counts top out at about 150 to 200. 
But Airall claimed that with enough memory and the maximum 
eight Token Ring cards installed, he has successfully run 
1,000 concurrent users. The basic edition supports about 120 
clients, though Airall said it can run 300 to 400.

Warp Server 4.0's multitasking capabilities ``are smooth and 
time-slice very nicely,'' Sanders said. The lack of 
symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) support disappointed a 
couple of evaluators, but IBM expects to offer a free SMP upgrade 
later this year.

``The one beef I have is with the CHKDISK program, which is 
still a 16-bit program,'' Robinson said. Until IBM writes a 
32-bit version, ``I have to keep drive volumes low so partitions 
are manageable'' (see ``IBM responds'').

Reliability

A+ A- A A

``I wake up confident every morning knowing everything is going 
to be running,'' said Robinson, who blames his only server crash 
on a bad power supply.

This level of reliability, coupled with Warp Server's Safe'n'Sound 
backup and recovery system, is why the evaluators entrust 
their critical applications to Warp Server 4.0. Airall said 
his environment, which includes a variety of client/server 
operating systems, runs seamlessly. ``As a client, you can't
tell if you're talking to the Warp Server or the Novell 
server,'' he said.

IBM responds Answers from Gary Hunt, IBM's technical lead for 
OS/2 Warp Server: 

File System

``HPFS386 originated from Microsoft, but we haven't taken any code 
from them since 1990. We now have intellectual ownership of 
the technology. We are looking into journaling as a technology 
for Warp Server.''

CHKDISK

``We realize walking through all the directory trees in a large 
partition can take a long time with the �16-bit� CHKDISK program. 
We are looking for ways to speed it up but don't have any dates 
for changes.''



�07-21-96 at 15:10 EDT, Copyright 1996, Computerworld, File: x0721615.1dc�
Entire contents (C) 1996 by INDIVIDUAL, Inc., 8 New England Executive Park
West, Burlington, MA  01803.