What are a Network Operating System's Features?

Every network operating system has a number of functionalities and features in common with every other network operating system. The manner of their implementation is where the major differences lay. Below I have listed some of these features, services, support and capabilities.

Network Operating System Basic Services and Features

The basic feature sets are very hardware oriented. These include support for CPU(s), Protocols, Automatic Hardware Detection, Network Interface Cards (NIC) which should come as no surprise and support for multiprocessing of applications.

Today we also need to concern ourselves with support for multiple core CPUs and multi multi-core CPU support. Even bottom-end server offerings come with the features and capacity to install multiple multi-core processors.

Memory support is another big consideration. In this area, the 64-bit network operating system support features leap ahead of the 32-bit network operating system. The 32-bit NOS can only address up to 4 GB whereas the 64-bit versions support considerably larger physical memory arrays.

Network Operating System Security Services and Features

The network operating system is very heavily network oriented as you might expect and this translates into the provision of features with far greater security awareness and natively supported security features then a general-purpose workstation, desktop or mobile platform operating system does.

Authentication, authorisation, logon regulation and access control are all “must have” security features that the security conscious network operating system cannot do without today.

Network Operating System Name & Directory Services and Features

These core and very basic networking functionalities and features are at the bare minimum involved with logical naming and addressing structures that every network operating system must have. Without them, a network operating system is useless at fulfilling any of its intended roles especially the security capabilities we all demand today.

Network Operating System Core Services and Features

Some of the basic “server roles” features that a network operating system is usually capable of fulfilling include file & common file system support, Distributed File System (DFS) support, printer and print server support, web server and web support services, back-up and replication services and some basic security services.

Network Operating System Resource Sharing Service and Features

A network operating system also has the capabilities of “sharing” services such as database, applications, files serving services, print server resources management and allocation, processing resources, storage assets and resources and many more.

Network Operating System Networking and Internetworking Support Features

Basic routing, Local Area Networking (LAN) and Wide Area Networking (WAN) support are all necessary for today's network operating systems.

Network Operating System User Management Services and Features

Logon, logoff, remote access, system management, administration, auditing tools, & GUIs are all functions that a network operating system of today will natively support. Many of these are bundled into the directory services category by some NOS today.

With the capabilities of the modern processor, we are seeing a return to a more centralized distributed form of computing. Examples of this include the new terminal services and virtualisation technologies that are such a huge buzzword today.

Network Operating System Clustering Capabilities, Services and Features

Fault tolerance & high availability systems have long been the network operating system's bread and butter. It is through superior robustness and versatility in adversity, which network operating systems have always delivered right from the get-go that set them apart from the “general-purpose” and multi-purpose operating systems.

Traditionally server platforms provide the greatest stability with the maximum redundancy of features to ensure the greatest failover and single-point-of-failure protection value for money possible. Clustering and load sharing are two key elements of this ethos, which rely heavily upon the capabilities of a networking operating system for support.

Network Operating System Communications Services and Features

It is the role of the network operating system to provide many automatic administrative and general-purpose network housekeeping type functions. These include:

• Network messages e.g. machine-to-machine messages such as authentication requests
• Operator assist visual cues such as reminders to the human operator that they need to logon before getting underway
• All round traffic & queue management functions such as print queue management which is something most users are only semi-aware of
• Security duties
• Updating and patching, system restore, user data backup and restore functionalities
• Auditing and accounting services
• Logging, event notification and warning services
• Scheduling, batching and automation
• Resources, processes, threads, handles and services management and allocation
• As well as a whole host of other administrative & housekeeping functions & aspects of a network

Network Operating System (NOS) Deployment Scenarios

Common Network Operating Systems deployment scenarios are in Local Area Networks (LAN), Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN) and Internetworking.

Network Operating Systems and the OSI Reference Model

The core functionalities provided by network operating systems come courtesy of the upper five layers of the OSI Reference Model - the application, presentation, session, transport and network layers.

This holds true for Ethernet based networks because the physical and data link layers are directly associated with the Ethernet hardware (the firmware of the NIC, the NIC and the transmission medium).

This is the reason why Ethernet networks are not operating system dependant. The operating system will supply the appropriate incarnation of the TCP/IP protocol stack and generally some generic hardware drivers, which most Ethernet compliant NIC (at least the Realtek™ 1394 compliant varieties) seem to be happy to work with.

All versions of Microsoft Windows® come with generic drivers that are suitable for the Realtek™ 1394 compliant NIC. Yes, this does include Windows® Vista. The non-compliant species of NIC and some chipset-integrated solutions seem to be at the heart of the Windows® Vista's network driver issues. Note I said non-compliant not incompatible. There is a big difference.

Network Operating System Models

To keep things simple we will look at computer networks from the fundamentalist perspective where we can say that there are two models for networks:

• The peer-to-peer network
• The client/server network

It is from here that the fun and games will begin when we will pick up the story in the next article “Network Operating System Models” by having a look at what goodies; each brings to the networking party. Until then enjoy!

What is a Network Operating System (NOS)?

A Network Operating System (NOS) is a special type of computer operating system (software) primarily designed to support workstations, PCs, and, in some instances, older terminals that are connected on a Local Area Network (LAN).

Some examples of a Network Operating System (NOS) include:

• Artisoft's LANtastic
• Banyan VINES
• Novell's NetWare - Novell Netware and Novell Netware servers can still be found out there but Novell are now firmly behind SUSE Linux for their network operating systems
• Microsoft's LAN Manager, Windows® NT, Windows® 2000 Server, Windows® Server 2003 and now the new Microsoft server flagships Windows® Server 2008 and Windows® Server 2008 Core Edition, as well as the recently arrived Microsoft Windows® Server Home Edition
• Sun Microsystems' Solaris Operating Systems - Solaris 10 is now open source and freeware. Big iron computing for those with the hardware to run it is now free. A word of warning though; Solaris takes a considerable time to install and boot but once up and running it will stay that way for like ever.
• IBM's OS/2 and OS/2 Warp - Both of which are still very capable network operating systems. When released they were definitely head and shoulders above most other network operating systems for small business and the individual. IBM also provided considerable support, which was another big plus in their favor.

Unfortunately, IBM blew the marketing and advertising campaign to such an extent that OS/2 never saw the market penetration that many say it deserved. I will agree that it certainly left Microsoft's Windows® 95 offering, which it predated for dead. Along with Novell Netware these were the “big three” of the day sorry Apple and Linux was still a toy (most definitely not a network operating system then).

IBM having some faces on the TV saying “WOW” did not sell product. Maybe they should have shown a picture of what they were saying, “WOW” about instead. Millions of dollars spent advertising an operating system without showing even one screen shot of it. Big mistake I think.

There are still quite a few systems running OS/2 or OS/2 Warp particularly today. IBM has only just announced that they intend to cease all support but when they have given no definitive date. Compare that to Microsoft's record. They, Microsoft killed all support for Windows 95, 98, ME along with the early versions of Windows NT (pre-NT4) some time ago.

• Cisco System's Internetworking Operating System (IOS) - Cisco have traditionally had a very special internetworking focus and no surprise their IOS is for use with their networking devices. Its internetworking capabilities are right up there.

Most of the larger routers in the world, at least until recently were the nearly exclusive domain of Cisco Systems and their IOS. The Internet runs on these massive and incredibly powerful routers. The Cisco IOS is proprietary software. Cisco does not license clones.

• BSD - Particularly implementations such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD deserve mention if only due to their reasonable installation base. You will come across this OS more often than you might think.
• Plan 9 - A distributed OS from Bell Labs
• Multi-purpose Operating Systems, such as Microsoft Windows® NT & Digital's OpenVMS come with capabilities that also enable them to be include in this list as a Network Operating System (NOS)
• Linux - Linux variants that have had massive additional support added by various groups deserve inclusion as well. Unfortunately, there are just too many of them for me to include them all here in this list of Network Operating Systems (NOS).

However, one that does stand out is Novell's version of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.1 and above. Novell have incorporated an incredible array of networking capabilities and tools supported straight out of the box. No big surprise really since networking has always been Novell's forte.

As already mentioned Novell have had their own network operating system called Novell Netware but with this SUSE Linux offering, I think they have lifted their game considerably. Believe me I am not easily impressed but Novell's efforts with SUSE Linux Enterprise 10.1 I can definitely recommend as being worth a look. This includes support for dual Graphical User Interfaces (GUI).

You have the option to install both the Gnome and the KDE desktop environments at the same time. Even more exciting is the fact that you are able to run them simultaneously. Switching from one desktop environment to the other is seamless. So much so that at times I almost forgot, I was running the two.

The reason you might do this is simply that each desktop environment has its strengths and weaknesses. They also come with different tools. One tool may be better at a task or even because you just like it better. Well you can now have the best of both worlds. Novell have definitely gone to town on this one.

• UNIX - UNIX is definitely not for the average person and remains nearly exclusively in the realm of the mainframe and some supercomputers. Note that Linux is in many ways very similar to the UNIX OS. UNIX was reportedly firmly in Mr. Torvold's mind when he wrote the original Linux kernel but that was a long time ago.

Note: Microsoft Windows® XP Pro has limited network aware capabilities (workgroups, print sharing, Internet, & domain connectivity) but it is not a true fully blown network operating system even though many people do mistakenly think so due to the presence of the network neighborhood & My Network Places icons found on their desktops.

It still depends on and requires a true Network Operating System (NOS) to be fully network capable. Microsoft built their Windows® Server 2003 for this exact reason. To provide the network operating system functionalities that Windows® XP lacks.

Their new server flagship Windows® Server 2008 continues this trend of Microsoft building a general-purpose operating system and then providing a more beefy server network operating system to plug all the holes that businesses complain they want fixed.

“Knee-jerk” it may be but sure as hell, it is easier than supplying a network operating system with bells and whistles to compensate for failings that nobody would have screamed about in the first place. At least not as loudly as all the other issues, they consider more pressing.

What are a Network Operating System's (NOS) Features?

All network operating systems have a number of functionalities and features in common. The manner of their implementation is where the major differences lay. In “Network Operating System Features”, I have listed many of the most common of them.