TaskMaster v5: Beta Site Application Information
(Last Updated: 29 March 2010)

TaskMaster v5 Beta is available for limited distribution to select test sites.

Test site selection is limited to those sites with a registered copy of TaskMaster v4 which also meet the following minimum criteria:

• Must be able to actively utilize TaskMaster v5 ("the Software") on a daily basis with preference given to the following environments:
  • Mixed language and / or extensive Unicode-16 / UTF-8 entry names.
  • Numerous large files (+4GB) to be replicated / synchronized.
  • Non-production or test Servers available for evaluation purposes. (Note: Production environments can apply but will be integrated later.)
• Must have Annual Software Maintenance (ASM) coverage on the Software for at least six (6) months following selection as a Beta site. (Note: Three months to cover anticipated Beta cycle and three more months for subsequent updates after general release.)
• Must be willing to immediately report any issues encountered during testing, as well as operational and technical information requested by Avanti pertaining to such issues. Must also be willing to respond to periodic inquiries by Avanti during Beta cycle regarding testing status and results.

IMPORTANT NOTICES:
• IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED THAT THE SOFTWARE RELEASE BE INSTALLED ON MISSION CRITICAL OR LIVE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS WITHOUT SIGNIFICANT ADVANCE TESTING IN A SIMILARLY CONFIGURED ENVIRONMENT. While every attempt has been made to thoroughly test the Software on various configurations and environments, some anomalies and / or conflicts may still be encountered.
• All Servers used as part of the Beta testing must be running the same release of the Software. It is not possible to mix and match the versions of the Software and perform Server-to-Server operations between them.
• Avanti Technology, Inc. reserves the right to terminate the Beta program at any time and for any reason.
• Avanti Technology, Inc. reserves the right to terminate any participant's involvement in the program if, in Avanti Technology, Inc.'s sole opinion, a reasonable and valuable level of testing and feedback is not being provided or a violation of the End User License Agreement (EULA) for the Software has occurred.

Notice: The primary means of communication will be by eMail. Registrant must provide an eMail address that will remain active during the Beta cycle. It is important that Beta participants white list the avanti-tech.com domain for any eMail or SPAM filtering software used at their site so as to receive any communications regarding the process.

Product Development Plans For Avanti's TaskMaster
(Last Updated: 29 March 2010)

Avanti's TaskMaster was originally released in 1994 as a NetWare Server centric utility. Since then, support for network centric (Server-to-Server) operations, Mac/NFS Name Spaces, and the NSS File System, as well as many other features, including Replication and Synchronization capabilities, have been added to the product. TaskMaster's support for the myriad of NetWare specific File System features, including multiple Name Spaces, Extended Attributes, and Trustee Rights on both the TFS and NSS volumes, have been widely embraced by Novell users. However, these NetWare specific features have also tied TaskMaster closely to Novell's proprietary API set. TaskMaster v4 is highly dependent upon the legacy CLIB based NetWare API which provides its base of support but also limits it to supporting the Code Page based file naming conventions (i.e., no Unicode-16 or UTF-8 characters) and 32 bit File I/O (i.e., files under 4GB in size).

It is our intention to offer a version of TaskMaster for OES 2 Linux, and possibly other OS platforms, and we are working aggressively towards that goal at this time. We began work on this first step several years ago following a direction suggested by Novell's developer support engineers which proved to be wrought with API delivery delays and bugs that hindered our progress. After it became apparent that the direction was not ideal for our objectives and would significantly limit portability of the final product, we stepped back and re-evaluated the project. Unfortunately, we easily lost 12-18 months of productive development time in the process of having to start over.

After careful consideration, we determined the project was best approached as a multi-step process. The first step in the process is to incorporate support for both UTF-8 file naming conventions (i.e., global name support) and 64 bit File I/O (i.e, files greater than 4GB in size) while also converting as many of the NetWare specific APIs as possible to more portable APIs in the NetWare version of the product. The second step is to create an OES 2 Linux agent that is compatible with and an extension of the NetWare platform. The final set is to then merge and port the combined code set, once proven stable through testing in the field, to the OES 2 Linux platform. Attempting to convert from legacy NetWare APIs and port to OES 2 Linux in one step would create so many potential design and debugging issues as to actually delay the final release much longer than if approached in stages.

Unfortunately, this has proven more challenging than expected as the port is far from a simple recompilation as represented by Novell. One of the first issues faced is that fact that there is no direct map (or port) between some of the NetWare Legacy APIs and the newer ANSI/Posix API set which requires code design and logic changes, often requiring multiple ANSI/Posix APIs and additional code to be substituted in place of a single NetWare Legacy API. In addition, though many of the NetWare Legacy APIs do have a corresponding ANSI/Posix API counterparts, they do not perform identically or require changes in the parameters being passed.

Further complicating the process is the requirement to use Novell's new zAPIs for full NSS and Name Space support, especially for the Macintosh AFP file system. Most of the zAPIs are poorly documented and lack code examples. These new APIs utilize a completely new methodology for accessing files (keys versus handles) which requires additional design, coding, and testing which is complicated by a critical lack of documentation and examples for the bulk of these new zAPIs. Further compounding the zAPI issues is the fact that Novell has relocated its NSS development and support offshore creating crippling delays in communications on technical support matters.

We have been aggressively re-writing the base code in TaskMaster to utilize as many of the more portable ANSI/Posix subset of the LibC based APIs for NetWare as part of our development on the TaskMaster v5 Beta release. Due to the delays outlined above, it was decided to submit TaskMaster v5 to the Beta cycle as soon as UTF-8 and 64-bit File I/O support was deemed stable then to continue the development and enhancement effort during the field testing. The initial Beta release eliminates issues with directory and file names that contain Unicode-16 / UTF-8 special characters or other characters not within the Code Page defined for the Server and the processing of files larger than 4GB in size. Additional enhancements and new features planned for TaskMaster v5 will be incorporated during the Beta cycle, as well as fixes for any problems reported from the field or encountered in development.

Once TaskMaster v5 completes the Beta testing cycle and is officially released, we plan to use the portable base code design to create an OES 2 Linux Agent for TaskMaster v5 which will make replicating and synchronizing data from the NetWare platform to the OES 2 Linux NSS platform much simpler. Concurrent with the TaskMaster v5 OES 2 Linux Agent release, we plan to aggressively focus our development efforts on the full port of TaskMaster to the OES 2 Linux platform. Unfortunately, we do not have a specific release date to which we can commit at this time for the release of the OES 2 Linux port due to the multi-step process involved. However, the more sites we have involved in the process of testing and implementing the various releases, the faster the process should proceed and the more rapid the final release date should approach.

We appreciate the confidence in TaskMaster for NetWare and interest in TaskMaster for OES 2 Linux expressed by its user base. We look forward to working with TaskMaster users towards further enhancing TaskMaster and broadening its platforms of support. ASM subscribers should keep an eye on the eMail In Box for further announcements in this regard.

Census revs up 10,000 systems
Bureau spins IT web for 2000 count
Government Computer News
February 7, 2000 (Volume 19, Number 3)

Excerpts:

Each of the 520 local offices, opened over the past year, has one Dell 2300 server...
....
Twelve regional Census centers supervise the local offices.
...
Each regional office has a Dell PowerEdge 6100 server running NetWare for production processing, plus a PowerEdge 4200 failover server. Another PowerEdge 2300 distributes software to the local offices.
....
A Novell NetWare 4.11 network connects the regional and local offices to headquarters.
...
"It's a very large Novell installation," Doyle* said.

The bureau manages NetWare 4.11 with Novell ManageWise and ZENworks 2.0 products. TaskMaster 3.0 from Avanti Technology Inc. replicates the servers every night and guards against unauthorized activity such as posting games on the bureau's servers," Doyle* said.

* J. Gary Doyle, Census 2000's manager for systems integration

TaskMaster v3: The NetWare Task Scheduling Tool (White Paper)
A document covering TaskMaster v3, some of its uses and how it is being used at some sites, is available for download.

TaskMaster v3: White Paper (Adobe Acrobat .PDF format)
To download Adobe's free Acrobat Reader, visit: http://www.adobe.com

WEB Site Hits Gold!
Avanti WEB Site Awarded GOLD Site status by NetGuide. The Gold Site Award recognizes Web sites that meet stringent criteria for overall excellence. NetGuide screened over 100,000 URLs and reviewed more than 50,000 sites while making their selections. "Thanks for giving us a great site to review." NetGuide

WEB Site Is Hot!
Avanti WEB Site Placed On InfoWorld'S WEB HotList. This site was reviewed and selected by InfoWorld as a "site worth checking out" on their WEB HotList (as of July 8, 1996).

TaskMaster v2
TaskMaster hailed as impressive by Networking Solutions Magazine. "The TaskMaster server task scheduler automates virtually every task normally peformed at the server through a powerful, easy-to-use scripting language" wrote Patrick Corrigan, a prominent author, columnist, consultant, and speaker on NetWare management issues. Mr. Corrigan went on to say "If Novell executives were smart, they would license Avanti Technology's TaskMaster and include it with every copy of NetWare and IntranetWare sold."

NConsole v2 wins award!
Avanti technology, inc., developer of network management utilities for NetWare, received one the highest honors when PC Magazine selected its Server Trends Analysis utility, NConsole v2 for NetWare, as one of "The Best Products Of 1995" in the Networking and Communications Software category.