New Tools Simplify Novell NDS to Active Directory Migration

The newly released Services for NetWare (SFN) 5.0 now provides tools to migrate files and directory data from most versions of Novell NetWare, including those running Novell Directory Services (NDS), to Windows 2000 Server. These tools allow large organizations with complex networks to move their NetWare servers and applications to Windows 2000 gradually without disrupting services. However, many caveats apply and large migrations must be carefully planned and tested.

SFN 5.0 marks Microsoft’s return to a strategy aimed at further penetrating the Novell NetWare market. Windows NT won substantial market share in the mid-1990s from NetWare 2.x and 3.x users, but has had less success wooing customers from more recent versions of NetWare, particularly those using Novell’s very popular NDS. NDS was superior to anything available on NT, and NDS data could not be migrated to NT domains. With the release of Windows 2000 and Active Directory (AD), Microsoft has caught up with NDS, but it needed to update its NetWare migration tools before NetWare shops could switch to Windows 2000.