Open Enterprise Server (OES) is a

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

published by

Novell Novell, Inc. was an American software and services company headquartered in Provo, Utah, that existed from 1980 until 2014. Its most significant product was the multi- platform network operating system known as Novell NetWare. Under the le ...

in March 2005 to succeed their

NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The original NetWare product in ...

product. Unlike NetWare, Novell OES is a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

—specifically, one based on

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SUSE Linux Enterprise (often abbreviated to SLE) is a Linux-based operating system developed by SUSE. It is available in two editions, suffixed with Server (SLES) for servers and mainframes, and Desktop (SLED) for workstations and desktop com ...

. The first major release of Open Enterprise Server (OES 1) could run either with a

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

(with a

compatibility layer In software engineering, a compatibility layer is an interface that allows binaries for a legacy or foreign system to run on a host system. This translates system calls for the foreign system into native system calls for the host system. With s ...

) or Novell's

kernel (with a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

compatibility layer). Novell discontinued the NetWare kernel prior to the release of OES 2, but NetWare 6.5 SP7, and later SP8 can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor (Officially supported until 7 March 2012, Novell self-supported until 7 March 2015).

OES 1 and OES 2

Novell released OES 1, the first version of OES, on 25 March 2005. Since some users wanted

backward compatibility Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especiall ...

with NetWare, Novell offered two installation options: OES-NetWare and OES-Linux. These are two different operating systems with different kernels and different userlands. OES-NetWare is NetWare v6.5 equipped with

NetWare Loadable Module A NetWare Loadable Module (NLM) is a loadable kernel module (a binary code module) that can be loaded into Novell's NetWare operating system. NLMs can implement hardware drivers, server functions (e.g. clustering), applications (e.g. GroupW ...

s for various Novell services (such as NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint) and

open-source software Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. ...

(such as OpenSSH,

Apache Tomcat Apache Tomcat (called "Tomcat" for short) is a free and open-source implementation of the Jakarta Servlet, Jakarta Expression Language, and WebSocket technologies. It provides a "pure Java" HTTP web server environment in which Java code can also ...

, and the

Apache HTTP Server The Apache HTTP Server ( ) is a free and open-source cross-platform web server software, released under the terms of Apache License 2.0. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache S ...

). OES-Linux is based on the

(SLES) with added NetWare services ported to the Linux kernel: e.g. the NetWare Core Protocol, Novell eDirectory, Novell Storage Services, and iPrint. Novell released OES 2, the second version of OES, on 12 October 2007. It was the first SLES-Linux-kernel-only OES, but it retained the OES-NetWare operating system option, as NetWare 6.5 SP7 can run as a paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor. The SLES base of the OES 2 was later updated to SLES 10 SP1. Features introduced in OES 2 include: *

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calculati ...

system or

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit CPUs and ALUs are those that are based on processor registers, address buses, or data buses of that size. A ...

system supporting 64 bit and 32 bit applications * Hardware virtualization * Dynamic Storage Technology, which provides Novell Shadow Volumes *

Windows domain A Windows domain is a form of a computer network in which all user accounts, computers, printers and other security principals, are registered with a central database located on one or more clusters of central computers known as domain controll ...

services (from OES 2 SP1) * Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) with Cross Protocoll Locking AFP-NCP-Samba (CPL) (from OES 2 SP1) See also (based on different OES editions): * Novell Open Workgroup Suite * Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition

OES 11

OES 11 was released on 12 December 2011 based on SLES 11 SP1 64-bit (From OES 2 no NetWare kernel any more). This is the first version of OES to be 64-bit (x86_64) only. NetWare 6.5 SP8 was still possible to run as a 32-bit only paravirtualized guest inside the Xen hypervisor. * Introduces Novell Kanaka for Mac client * Uses Zypper tool to patch up to 100 times faster than OES2 * Added Automated / Unattended Upgrades from OES2 * New Novell Linux Volume Manager ( NLVM) provides easier storage management Novell released a

service pack In computing, a service pack comprises a collection of updates, fixes, or enhancements to a computer program, software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. Companies often release a service pack when the number of individ ...

, OES 11 SP1, on 28 August 2012. Novell released a

, OES 11 SP2, on 28 January 2014. Novell released a

, OES 11 SP3, on 26 July 2016.

OES 2015

* OES 2015 was released on 31 August 2015, added new features and improved performance. * OES 2015 SP1 was released on 14 June 2016.

OES 2018

* OES 2018 was released on 28 November 2017, based on SLES 12 SP2. * OES 2018 SP1 was released on 7 February 2019, based on SLES 12 SP3. * OES 2018 SP2 was released on 5 May 2020, based on SLES 12 SP5. * OES 2018 SP3 was released on 15 Jul 2021, based on SLES 12 SP5.

Release summary

* OES, released on 25 March 2005, based on NetWare 6.5 SP3 and SLES 9 SP1. ** OES SP1, released in September 2005, was based on NetWare 6.5 SP4 and SLES 9 SP2. ** OES SP2, released in January 2006, was based on NetWare 6.5 SP5 and SLES 9 SP3. * OES 2, released on 12 October 2007 based on NetWare 6.5 SP7 and SLES 10 SP1. ** OES 2 SP1, released on 1 December 2008, based on NetWare 6.5 SP8 and SLES 10 SP2. ** OES 2 SP2 was released on 11 November 2009, based on SLES 10 SP3. ** OES 2 SP3 was released on 7 November 2014, based on SLES 10 SP3, SLES 10 SP4 (as of April 15, 2011). * OES 11 was released on 12 December 2011, based on SLES 11 SP1 (64-bit only). ** OES 11 SP1 was released on 28 August 2012, based on SLES 11 SP2. ** OES 11 SP2 was released on 28 January 2014, based on SLES 11 SP3. ** OES 11 SP3 was released on 26 July 2016, based on SLES 11 SP4. * OES 2015 was released on 31 August 2015., based on SLES 11 SP3. ** OES 2015 SP1 was released on 14 June 2016, SLES 11 SP4. * OES 2018 was released on 28 November 2017, based on SLES 12 SP2. ** OES 2018 SP1 was released on 7 February 2019, based on SLES 12 SP3. ** OES 2018 SP2 was released on 5 May 2020, based on SLES 12 SP5. ** OES 2018 SP3 was released on 15 Jul 2021, based on SLES 12 SP5.

End-of-support schedule

Components

* Automatic Client Upgrade (ACU) - automates the upgrade of Novell client software on existing workstations

References

External links

Open Enterprise Server product page
{{Novell 2005 software

Novell operating systems Proprietary software X86-64 Linux distributions Linux distributions