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Date:         Wed, 19 Aug 1992 21:34:00 MDT
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
From:         "Dean R. Brunson" <DBRUNSON@NSC.UTAH.EDU>
Subject:      NetWare Lite 1.1 bugs...

I dabble in NetWare Lite on the side, and I've found a serious problem with
the v1.1 upgrade.  I'd be interested to know if others are experiencing the
same problem.

I downloaded the v1.1 upgrade from NetWire, and installed it on a
three-machine network with one server, and three clients.  This network had
been stable since it was put together nine months ago.  I ran it with Norton
Cache v6.0 with cached writes disabled (the only way any of the caches we
tried could run with Lite).

The new cache included with v1.1 was sorely needed.  It caches both reads and
writes, and more than doubles the benchmarked speed of writes on this system.
I've also noticed that the cache seems to be more efficient than Norton
(unless there's some subtle difference in how each measures cache hits).
After twelve hours of typical operation, this system would report 80-85% read
hits.  The new Lite cache always reports over 95% read hits after similar
operation.  Write hits vary more widely, depending on the operation, but has
ranged from about 45% to over 80% (heavier use means a higher hit rate).  But
then Norton was always 0% on writes.  The cache also seems to get along well
loaded high via QEMM, and with Windows 3.1 as well.

Server 1.1 has some new things that we want -- nothing revolutionary, but
some improvements in more complete information, better printing
configuration, can load high with Client, and can unload.  A serious problem
has surfaced, however, and it has caused us to drop back to Server v1.0, and
Net v1.0 (we're keeping the cache, and Client v1.1).

When Server v1.1 was installed, several applications refused to run from
network directories.  Many hours of testing revealed that Server network
rights were not right.  Some apps couldn't find their overlays unless the
user was granted all rights to the directory, AND the read-only DOS attribute
was removed -- meaning that the file was no longer sharable.

These apps had all run successfully under Server v1.0, with the directory
rights set to read, and the read-only DOS attribute set as well (the only way
a DOS server can share a file).  After trying all the configuration
combinations we could cobble together, we verified that Server v1.1 was
causing the problem, and the only way to restore operation of the network was
to drop back to Server v1.0.

We did, and it runs fine (better than before, thanks to the new cache).
Since Server v1.1 has some new configuration options, the companion Net v1.1
is equipped to change those options.  Because of those changes, it doesn't
interface cleanly with Server v1.0 -- we needed to drop back to Net v1.0, as
well.

Has anyone else tried this upgrade yet?  Have you seen the same problems?
Incidentally, I had a very similar problem when I did a test evaluation of
DR-DOS 6.0 on this and other networks last spring.  I removed DR-DOS, and the
problem went away.  It makes me wonder if the Lite team ended up borrowing
some technology from the DR-DOS team.

Any comments/fixes, Novell?



     Dean R. Brunson
     Network Support Center
     University of Utah
     Salt Lake City, Utah  84112

     (801) 581-3323
     Internet: DBRUNSON@NSC.UTAH.EDU
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU