Installing NetWare for Macintosh on NetWare 3.12 (in a VM)

Installing NetWare for Macintosh on NetWare 3.12

This page documents my initial attempt at getting the copy of NetWare for Macintosh that comes with NetWare 3.12 up and running. For proper instructions on installing and configuring this product, read the manual.

Installing

The first step is loading the MAC namespace and adding it to all volumes that will support mac clients. I already did this when Setting up my Server but the process is basically:

                LOAD MAC 
                ADD NAME SPACE MACINTOSH TO VOLUME SYS

Now we need to install the actual product. Mount the MW_MAC floppy disk image in the VM then at the server console run load install

Select Product Options

And then hit the Insert key

As we've already mounted the NW_MAC disk image, just hit enter.

The default STARTUP.NCF drive and path should be correct so just hit enter.

Then choose Install NW-MAC

Files are copied...

Then we're given the option to edit some configuration files. I'm setting up a variation of the most simple example (Example 1) on page 46 of the manual. So we start by choosing the first option - C:\SERVER.312\STARTUP.NCF:

And add the line set minimum packet receive buffers=100 to the end fo the file (and make sure LOAD MAC.NAM is present too). Hit Escape when done.

And choose Yes to Save.

Now pick SYS:\SYSTEM\AUTOEXEC.NCF:

This is the AUTOEXEC.NCF file I'm starting with:

To this file we're adding four lines:

            load appletlk net=55000 zone={"Admin"}
            load C:\server.312\pcntnw slot=2 frame=ethernet_snap name=esnap
            bind appletlk esnap net=101-105 zone={"zxnet"}
            load afp

The first line is loading the AppleTalk protocol and setting the internal AppleTalk network number and name - this is the AppleTalk zone the server will appear in. The second line loads the AMD PCNet network driver with an additional frame type (ethernet_snap). The third line binds the AppleTalk protocol to the NIC and sets some more AppleTalk zones (for clients I guess). The final line loads AFP, the Apple Filing Protocol. Once you're done hit Escape and choose Yes to save the file.

There are no further files we need to edit so just hit Escape here.

And hit Escape again.

And escape again to exit install.

From here restart network by running the DOWN and EXIT commands then from DOS running the SERVER command:

Once the server is back up you can run load atcon at the server console

Choose View Router Interfaces

And confirm that the appletalk networks and zones are all setup as required

NetWare for Macintosh is now setup! You can now go connect a real (or emulated) macintosh to try it out!

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 suggestsions 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).

ZXnet