Copy Right : Ra i Unive rsit y

17C.102 21
N
E
T
W
O
R
K
I
N
G
LESSON 7
BENEFITS OF NETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM
Introduction
Network Operating System is also called a NOS. It is an
operating system which includes software to communicate with
other computers via a network and manages network resources.
It manages multiple requests (inputs) concurrently and provides
the security necessary in a multiuser environment. It may be a
completely self-contained operating system, such as NetWare,
UNIX and Windows NT, or it may require an existing operat-
ing system in order to function (LAN Server requires OS/ 2;
LANtastic requires DOS, etc.).
Objective
On completion of this lecture, students would able to know
the operations and benefits of networking operating system.
NETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM
One piece of the network operating system resides in each client
machine and another resides in each server. It allows the remote
drives on the server to be accessed as if they were local drives on
the client machine. It allows the server to handle requests from
the client to share files and applications as well as network
devices such as printers, faxes and modems.
In a peer-to-peer network, the network operating system allows
each station to be both client and server. In a non-peer-to-peer
network, dedicated servers are used, and files on a client
machine cannot be retrieved by other users.
In networks of PCs, NetWare is the most widely used network
operating system. Windows NT, Windows for Workgroups,
Windows 95/ 98, VINES, LAN Server, LAN Manager and
LANtastic are also examples.
UNIX, combined with TCP/ IP and NFS, VMS combined with
DECnet, the Mac OS combined with AppleTalk, and SNA,
combined with VTAM and NCP, also provide network
operating system services.
Along with file and print services, a network operating system
may also include directory services and a messaging system as
well as network management and multiprotocol routing
capabilities.
1.12.1 EXAMPLES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS
NetWare
A family of network operating systems from Novell that
support DOS, Windows, OS/ 2 and Macintosh clients. UNIX
client support is available from third parties. NetWare is the
largest installed base of LAN operating systems.
Except for Personal NetWare and NetWare ELS, which were
earlier peer-to-peer versions, NetWare is a stand-alone operating
system that runs in the server. Until NetWare 5, which natively
supports TCP/ IP and Java, NetWare has always been a
proprietary system. NetWares native communications protocols
are IPX, SPX and NCP. Its hard disks are formatted with the
NetWare format, and although DOS and Windows applications
reside in the server, they cannot be run in the server. All
programs that run on a NetWare server are typically written in C
and must be compiled using Novell libraries into executable
files known as NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs).
Introduced in late 1998, the latest version is NetWare 5. Fully
TCP/ IP and Java based, Novell added significant enhancements
to its flagship product, including a kernel that natively supports
symmetric multiprocessing (SMP).
Introduced in 1993, NetWare 4 was the first NetWare version to
use the much-acclaimed Novell Directory Services (NDS), which
provides directory services for a global enterprise.
Introduced in 1989 as NetWare 386 and then again in 1992 as
NetWare 3.11, it was the first 32-bit version of NetWare, which
has a limit of 250 concurrent users. Still being sold, it uses the
Novell bindery which provides directory services for a single
server unlike the global NDS directory. NetWare 2.x (originally
Advanced NetWare 286 in 1985) ran in a 286 and supported up
to 100 concurrent users. See IPX, SPX, NCP and MHS.
UNIX
Pronounced yoo-niks, it is a multiuser, multitasking operating
system that is widely used as the master control program in
workstations and especially servers. Myriads of commercial
applications run on UNIX servers, and most Web sites run
under UNIX. There are many versions of UNIX, and, except
for the PC world, where Windows dominates, almost every
hardware vendor offers it either as its primary or secondary
operating system. Sun has been singularly instrumental in
commercializing UNIX with its Solaris OS (formerly SunOS).
HP, SCO, IBM and Digital have also been major UNIX vendors
and promoters.
UNIX is written in C. Both UNIX and C were developed by
AT&T and freely distributed to government and academic
institutions, causing it to be ported to a wider variety of
machine families than any other operating system. As a result,
UNIX became synonymous with open systems.
UNIX is made up of the kernel, file system and shell (com-
mand line interface). The major shells are the Bourne shell
(original), C shell and Korn shell. The UNIX vocabulary is
exhaustive with more than 600 commands that manipulate data
and text in every way conceivable. Many commands are cryptic
(see below), but just as Windows hid the DOS prompt, the
Motif GUI presents a friendlier image to UNIX users.
Command UNIX DOS
List directory ls dir
Copy a file cp copy
Delete a file rm del
Rename a file mv rename
22 17C.102
Copy Right : Ra i Unive rsit y
N
E
T
W
O
R
K
I
N
G
Display contents cat type
Print a file lpr print
Check disk space df chkdsk
Change directory cd cd
The History of UNIX
UNIX was developed in 1969 by Ken Thompson at AT&T,
who scaled down the sophisticated MULTICS operating system
for the PDP-7. The named was coined for a single-user version
(UNo) of multIX. More work was done by Dennis Ritchie,
and, by 1974, UNIX had matured into an efficient operating
system primarily on PDP machines. UNIX became very popular
in scientific and academic environments.
Considerable enhancements were made to UNIX at the
University of California at Berkeley, and versions of UNIX with
the Berkeley extensions became widely used. By the late 1970s,
commercial versions of UNIX, such as IS/ 1 and XENIX,
became available.
In the early 1980s, AT&T began to consolidate the many UNIX
versions into standards which evolved into System III and
eventually System V. Before Divestiture (1984), AT&T licensed
UNIX to universities and other organizations, but was
prohibited from outright marketing of the product. After
divestiture, it began to market UNIX aggressively.
Advantages of UNIX
Even with its many versions, UNIX is widely used in mission
critical applications for client/ server and transaction processing
systems. UNIX components are of world class standards. The
TCP/ IP transport protocol and SMTP e-mail protocol are de
facto standards on the Internet. NFS allows files to be accessible
across the network, NIS provides a Yellow Pages directory,
Kerberos provides network security, and X Window lets users
run applications on remote servers and view the results on their
machines.
Windows NT
(Windows New Technology) An advanced 32-bit operating
system from Microsoft for Intel x86 and Alpha CPUs. Support
for the PowerPC and MIPS platforms was dropped. Introduced
in 1993, NT does not use DOS, it is a self-contained operating
system that runs 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications as
well as DOS applications.
There are actually two versions of Windows NT: Windows NT
Server, designed to act as a server in networks, and Windows
NT Workstation for stand-alone or client workstations.
Features include peer-to-peer networking, preemptive
multitasking, multithreading, multiprocessing, fault tolerance
and support for the Unicode character set. NT provides
extensive security features and continually tests the validity of
application requests even after the application has been opened.
Windows NT supports 2GB of virtual memory for applica-
tions and 2GB for its own use. Windows NT and Windows
NT Workstation are the first and second releases of the client
version. Windows NT Advanced Server (NTAS) and Windows
NT Server (NTS) are first and second releases of the server
version, which supports symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and
provides transaction processing for hundreds of online users.
NT includes a dual boot feature.
NT Server is being widely implemented. NTs SMP capability
takes advantage of Pentium Pro and Pentium II systems that
contain two, four and more CPUs. As these multiprocessor
systems become mainstream, NT competes squarely against
RISC-based multiprocessor servers running UNIX. NT
Workstation is also gaining market share in high-end desktop
systems.
The last version of Windows NT with the Program Manager
interface was Version 3.51. Introduced in the summer of 1996,
Windows NT 4.0 contains the Windows 95 user interface.
There are differences in some of the dialog boxes as NT
contains features not available in Windows 95, and vice versa.
NT 4.0 also includes Microsofts DCOM interface that allows
applications to be distributed across the network. NT 4.0 does
not support Plug and Play, as does Windows 95.
NT Server 4.0 comes with Microsofts Internet Information
Server (IIS), which provides Web server capability.
NT Version 5.0, which was renamed Windows 2000, is expected
in 1999. It adds Plug and Play support, Direct3D support,
Active Directory, Zero Administration for Windows (ZAW)
and other enhancements.
Version Date/ Intro
3.1 July 1993
3.5 Sept 1994
3.51 Aug 1995
4.0 Aug 1996
2000 1999
1.12.2 Benefits of Network Operating System
A network operating system (NOS) causes a collection of
independent computers to act as one system. A network
operating system is analogous to a desktop operating system
like DOS or OS/ 2, except it operates over more than one
computer. Like DOS, a network operating system works behind
the scenes to provide services for users and application pro-
grams. But instead of controlling the pieces of a single
computer, a network operating system controls the operation
of the network system, including who uses it, when they can
use it, what they have access to, and which network resources are
available.
At a basic level, the NOS allows LAN users to share files and
peripherals such as disks and printers. Most NOSs do much
more. They provide data integrity and security by keeping
people out of certain resources and files. They have administra-
tive tools to add, change, and remove users, computers, and
peripherals from the network. They have troubleshooting tools
to tell LAN managers what is happening on the network. They
have internetworking support to tie multiple networks
together.
Redirection
At the heart of the NOS is redirection. Redirection is taking
something headed in one direction and making it go in a
different direction. With redirection, an operating program does
not know or care where its output is going.
Copy Right : Ra i Unive rsit y
17C.102 23
N
E
T
W
O
R
K
I
N
G
You are probably familiar with DOS redirection. For example,
the DOS command DIR > FILENAME will redirect a directory
listing to a file instead of to the screen. The > tells DOS to
give the results of the command to the entity on the right.
Network operating systems depend heavily on redirection, only
in this case data is being redirected from one computer to
another over the network cable, not over the PCs bus to local
files or printers. Nevertheless, the operation is similar. If you
type COPY C: FILEA F:, FILEA will be copied from your
local drive C: to the network drive F:. The NOS makes it appear
to the COPY command that drive F: is local, when it really
resides on another computer that is attached to the same
network. The COPY command doesnt know or care that drive
F: is across the network. It sends the file to DOS and the NOS
reroutes the file across the LAN to drive F:.
Redirection can be done with printers and other peripherals.
Thus, LPT1: or COM1: can be a network printer instead of a
local printer and the NOS redirects file to these devices. With a
NOS, users dont need to know about redirection; they just
type the drive designator or print from their word processors as
always.
Server Software
The computer with drive F: must expect data, if the output
from the users PC can be redirected successfully. To do this, it
must make its drive available to network users. This is part of
the NOSs function at the server.
A NOS is made of a redirector and a server. Not all machines
need to run the server software, because not all computers need
to share their resources. But all LAN workstations must run
redirector software because every client has to be able to put data
onto the network.
With some NOSs, the computer running the server software
cannot be used as a workstation. This is called a dedicated
server. Novells NetWare uses this kind of setup almost
exclusively (although the low-end NetWare Lite can use
nondedicated servers). With some other NOSs, all workstations
on the network can also be servers. This a nondedicated server
setup. This approach is used by Sitka and Artisoft, among
others.
The two server approaches have advantages and disadvantages.
Nondedicated servers allow for more flexibility, since users can
make resources available on their computers as necessary.
However, a nondedicated server approach requires that the users
are willing to take some administrative responsibility for their
computers and it necessitates that they be somewhat LAN-
literate. Backing up the shared data, setting up security, and
setting up access rights become more complicated and often
become the responsibility of the user, not the administrator.
Another drawback is that non-dedicated servers often suffer
some performance degradation when being used simulta-
neously as a workstation and as a server.
Dedicated servers have the opposite advantages and disadvan-
tages. They are easier to administer since all data is in one place.
They are faster because they dont have a local user to serve. On
the other hand, it is harder to make resources available on an ad
hoc basis, since setting up a server is more difficult and time-
consuming. If a dedicated server fails, all users are forced to
stop working because all resources are centralized. Your choice
of dedicated or non-dedicated operation will depend on the
work your network is doing.
File Service
A file servers primary task is to make files available to users,
although it also makes other resources available, including
printers and plotters. File service allows users to share the files
on a server. The server PC can make its whole disk, certain
directories, or certain files available. The file servers hard disk
becomes an extension of each users PC.
The NOS can let the LAN administrator determine which users
are allowed to use which files, for example, keeping the mail
clerk out of the payroll file. Suppose a user wants to use a file
residing on the file servers hard disk. Drive F: is set to corre-
spond with the file servers hard disk. The actual process of
setting up virtual drives has several names, including mapping,
mounting, and publishing.
Now, suppose a user wants to run WordPerfect. At the F:
prompt, the user types WP to load WordPerfect. WordPerfect
is loaded from the server over the network, and into the users
PCs memory. Meanwhile, other people can use WordPerfect
from the file server (assuming there is a license for multiple
users). WordPerfect makes sure no other user can get the
document file being used by locking the file. With many
applications, file locking allows other users to read the docu-
ment but not edit it.
File service is an extension of the local PC. Applications work
just as they would on a local PC. Some programs, however,
have been designed to take advantage of the network, rather
than just run on one. For example, some databases allow two
users to edit the same table but not the same record and each
user can see the others changes.
The NOS provides much more than just file service; it provides
security, administration, printer sharing, backup, and fault
tolerance.
Server Operation
The server software makes a single-user computer into a
multiuser machine. Instead of just one user, a server has many
users. But we must qualify what we mean by many users. A
NOS allows many users to share the servers peripherals,
printers, disks, and plotters, but it does not allow multiple
users to share its processor. For now lets see how the file server
allows users to share its peripherals.
In many cases, the file server is running the PCs native operat-
ing system (such as DOS or the Macintosh OS) as well as the
NOS. When users requests come in, the NOS receives and
interprets them, then hands them to the operating system for
execution. So if a request comes in to open a file, DOS opens
the file and gives it to the NOS, which gives it to the user. If
many users make requests at the same time, the NOS queues
them and hands them to DOS one at a time.
High-performance NOSs, including Novell NetWare, Banyan
VINES, and Microsoft LAN Manager, do not run DOS in the
file server. DOS is replaced with a multitasking operating
system, thereby gaining a performance advantage; however, they
24 17C.102
Copy Right : Ra i Unive rsit y
N
E
T
W
O
R
K
I
N
G
lose some compatibility and require dedicated file servers. In
NetWares case, it is a proprietary OS. VINES runs Unix; LAN
Manager currently runs OS/ 2 but eventually will use Windows
NT.
The OS/2 NOS
File service is a tremendous improvement over single-user
operation, it pales in significance to the enhancements that come
with the new NOSs based on multitasking operating systems
such as IBM/ Microsoft OS/ 2.
The biggest advantage of a multitasking operating system is a
server can offer a task. That is, the server can offer its processor
to other users while it is serving requests for files and printers.
A fast server can be used to do onerous chores like program
compiling, calculations, and database sorting. It also means new
types of programs can take advantage of the server processor.
Summary
In this lecture we have seen that Instead of just getting files
from the server, the server can run programs that work with the
programs users are running. The best example is a database
server. A database server does things like sorting, searching, and
indexing so the users program and PC dont have to. This cuts
down on network traffic since fewer items are travelling between
the user and server. It also improves security, since all data is
stored centrally.
Questions
1. Explain networking Operating System.
2. Explain the Advantages of UNIX.
3. Explain client and server operations.