Current Operating Systems
Depending on the application, CNS employs a range of operating systems to meet demand. Our basic three are Netware, Windows server and Linux. At this time, we are using Novell Netware 6.5, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Standard and Enterprise), Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8,9 and 10, and VMWare ESX Server 3.02 and 3.5.
We are using Netware 6.5 for our campus file and general print services (Causeway) and Novell GroupWise email, In addition, some of the Netware servers provide eDirectory authentication via the Novell client or via LDAP for other network applications.
We are using our various Microsoft Windows servers for our Microsoft Active Directory environment, our clustered database servers, and various campus application servers - AdAstra, Pharos Uniprint, Raiser's Edge, Sirsi Unicorn, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Macromedia Breeze, etc.
We're using Linux for our campus DNS and DHCP network services, our "legacy" campus web servers (users.drew.edu, depts.drew.edu, etc.), Moodle, EZ Proxy, and many other applications.
Between movement in the industry and Novell's aggressive push to offer its traditional file, groupware and directory service products on Linux, we expect that more services will be shifted over to Linux over time.
In the past
CNS, and the Academic Technology (formally Academic Computing) department that preceeded us, ran a range of operating systems in addition to our current mix, discontinued in years prior to the reorganization. These included: Digital (DEC) VAX/VMS and OpenVMS/Alpha, several varieties of Unix: including DEC Ultrix, Digital OSF/1 - later known as Digital Unix and Tru64 Unix, OpenBSD, and SunOS. The legacy Netmail system used to run on Sun Solaris Unix before the reorganization when it was under Administrative Computing, and that continued for a time in CNS until we switched to Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1.
Our current practice of reducing to three operating system platforms on Intel-based hardware and picking Netware, Windows or Linux based on the application in question has allowed us to run a lot of systems (currently about 32 physical, 20 virtual) with relatively few administrators.