Well here it is day 3 for me and 4 for everyone else. Just like yesterday I overslept, but since I wanted to eat breakfast, I speed dressed and made it in time to grab some cereal and still get to my first session. eDirectory Best Practices(TUT255) was another long but excellent session with the theory of eDirectory processes and how to maintain the system. The functions in eDirectory 8.6.2 and higher are definitely worth it and as I mentioned the other day, get at least one 8.6 box on the network to get iMonitor functionality. Disaster recovery was mentioned but the techniques and changes for the new version were left to another session(which I also attended today!) After a good review of the obituary process in eDirectory 8.7, the second speaker covered partition operations, bindery issues and how to fix some of the high utilization issues related to eDirectory. The last speaker ended the session with demonstrations on troubleshooting synchronization and the schema with iMonitor as well as how to avoid the "oops I lost my trustees when I went to NSS volumes" issue. Check out this presentation for some good links and TIDs.
As always Laura Chappell's Hot Tools for TCP/IP Troubleshooting (TUT280) session was a treasure trove of information. I regret to inform you that using any of the tools she discusses in a work environment will probably get you fired though! We need to find a way to get Laura to talk at a combined PANUG/BIZNIX meeting someday. You should definitely check out her site at www.packet-level.com. Laura gives out a lot of cool tools on CD and if you sign a waiver, I will come to your site and "play" oops, I mean use them! As an extra bonus she had a funny video at the beginning of a Canadian comedian doing a tech support call. I will try to get the URL for you later. Oh and if you see Laura in a park with a Pringle's can, shut down your wireless connections FAST! You may want to check out WWW.ALL.NET and try the hacking exercises too. Web Services 101 and XML(TUT 161) turned out to be off my area of interest and expertise so I have to admit I left early. But I did go back and hit the climbing wall! Well actually I fell off and hit the ground but they use safety lines!
After too much lunch and some wandering, I headed back for End to End Message Security with GroupWise and S/MIME(TUT332.) This session reviewed the Public Key Infrastructure and S/MIME in relation to the GroupWise implementation. With the level of security required for business information, private records and government restrictions, you need to seriously consider secure messaging to protect yourself and your employers/customers. One challenge to using S/MIME mentioned is how do you get the public keys out to those who need them outside your system and have them know they are from the desired key source. Inside the system the users have access to eDirectory and Certificate server but even then the certificate process is not easy. One attendee even commented that after attempting to document and provide detailed directions to users to set up certificates, he found they could not do it. Apparently the methods to enter certs into the certificate store on the GroupWise client is still to cumbersome for users to actually do it! So you can give them all the tools, but they still have to have the skills to use it. Maybe a nice MacIntosh is needed? The speaker did admit this is an issue that Novell continues to work on with the goal of simplifying the process.
Tips and tricks for using eDirectory Tools(TUT354) was next on my list . Boy you think I would get smart by now! The old tools and processes were discussed briefly and then the new tools and architecture was introduced. One thing to know is that iManage and iMonitor are the ways to go and you need to get to eDirectory 8.5 or better yet 8.6/8.7. The older tools may still exist but all the old problems and concerns are addressed much more effectively by use of the new tools. In addition you can do repairs, find options, see problems and even get information to send to tech support so much easier than with some of the old server centric tools. eDirectory 8.7 includes the new backup for eDirectory called "hot continuous backup" and it is hands down the fast way to get crashed servers back up and running with the least amount of pain. The session wrapped up with discussions of LDAP, the Import Convert and Export Utility and of course our new "old friend" iMonitor.
Novell Account Management Introduction and Overview(IO145) included lots of details on the architecture and functions of this product. As is often the case these introduction sessions can concentrate on aspects of the product that help to describe its use and feature set. Since it was late in the day, I threw in the towel about half way through and decided to hit the Brainshare network and the climbing wall one more time! I found out today that attendance is down by about 200 people from last year. Considering the market and the economy that is not to bad but I really thought it looked like more were here rather than less! As for sponsors the numbers are still low but maybe more of the lower level sponsors than last year. When you see a company like Veritas not showing up though(I didn't see them at least!) it makes you wonder about their commitment to support Novell products.
Well the Ask the experts session starts in an hour so time to run! Tomorrow is the last day for BS 2003 then it's home for me!
;-{)