

NetWare’s traditional file system was designed at a time when hard drives shipped in the hundreds-of-megabytes range. When Novell first designed the NetWare 3.x and 4.x file system, the system looked almost limitless. The file system originated back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, with the introduction of NetWare 386. NetWare 3.x and 4.x basically share the same file system. But then again, until recently, it didn’t really need to. It hasn’t changed much since Novell first introduced NetWare 386.

If you’ve used NetWare 3.x or NetWare 4.x in the past, you’re probably pretty used to NetWare’s file system. In this Daily Drill Down, I’ll look at some of NSS’s features. If you’re comfortable with the file system that came with NetWare 3.x and 4.x but you’re new to NetWare 5.x, you may be unfamiliar with the benefits of NSS. With NetWare 5, Novell introduced Novell Storage Services (NSS).

In the last decade, as the numbers and sizes of files increased, the traditional file system quickly began to show its age. When Novell first introduced what it now calls its traditional NetWare file system with NetWare 386, the file system appeared to be limitless. NetWare’s strongest feature has always been file sharing. In this Daily Drill Down, John Sheesley examines some of NSS's features and benefits.
