NetWare Config Reader
The NetWare Config Reader is a tool that compares a NetWare 3.x or 4.x servers configuration with the configuration recommended by Novell. This includes checking patch levels, etc.
This tool does not come with a patch database. Instead it tries to download one from ftp.novell.com which is no longer around. And even if it was still arround Novell had a habit (policy?) of deleting "obsolete" things from the FTP server.
At least two copies of the patch database have been archived:
- netware-server.de has one dated 16-AUG-2001
- I have one on ftp.zx.net.nz dated 10-JAN-2002. This one originally came from archive.org
And thankfully the tool lets you configure where it downloads the database from. So you can just adjust the settings to download it from ftp.zx.net.nz and it will all work normally!
For NetWare 3.x and 4.10 the available patch database appears to be complete . For NetWare 4.11/4.2 they're only complete as far as Support Pack 8a (March 2000). They don't know anything about Support Pack 9 (released November 2000) which suggests Novell stopped maintaining the patch database somewhere in mid-late 2000.
Possibly the reason for this was the release of Onsite Admin Pro. This was apparently similar to Config Reader but a whole lot more polished (screenshot in this book) and didn't require any special work on the server (config.nlm) to make it work.
A number of betas of Onsite Admin Pro were released in 1999 (time-bombed and expiring at the end of 1999) with the final release happening sometime in early 2000. This lines up with about when the Config Reader database stopped being updated.
Unfortunately, unlike Config Reader, Onsite Admin Pro was only available to customers with premium support so it and whatever online services it relied on likely haven't been archived.
If you really want to it is possible to add your own patches to its patch database. It even has its own GUI so you could load in all the post-SP8a NetWare 4.11 patches.
Getting Config Reader
The latest version of Config Reader appears to be v2.67 which you can download here (readme file). To generate the config.txt file Config Reader uses you also need config.nlm which is available in config.exe (self-extracting DOS EXE). Config Reader needs a Windows 9x or NT4 PC to run (may work on newer versions of windows, I haven't tried).
Using Config Reader
The basic process is:
- Install Config Reader and update its patch database from somewhere
- Copy config.nlm into SYS:\SYSTEM on your NetWare 3.x, 4.x or 5.x server
- Run load config /sd
- Copy SYS:\SYSTEM\config.txt to your PC somewhere
- Load config.txt in Config Reader
If you try to open config.txt straight from the server Config Reader gives an error. This error doesn't prevent the app from working but it means the Config Text tab is blank. The app also seems to take out a lock on the file which it doesn't release when you exit so you've got to reboot your workstation before you can run config.nlm again.
You can see the full process in screenshot form here
Disclaimer & Comments
I'm not a netware expert, don't have any of those fancy novell certifications and have never administred a netware network; I've just played with it at home occasionally since 2004 or so. Email me if you've got any suggestions or corrections for this page or any extra information you think is worth including here. My address is david at this websites domain name (without the www bit of course).