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****************************** WarpCast ******************************
Source: Esther Schindler (esther@bitranch.com)
Moderator: Dirk Terrell (admin@os2ss.com)
**********************************************************************
 
Peeking at Aurora
 IBM's Steven King at Phoenix OS/2 Society
 December 8, 7:00pm

by Esther Schindler

As you surely know by now, IBM is readying a new version of 
OS/2 Warp Server. Although they've announced that the 
"real" name will be OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business, that's 
quite a mouthful; in conversation, everyone seems to stick 
to the company's code name, "Aurora." We're tempted to call 
it The Operating System Formerly Known as Aurora.

Whatever its name, we'll be delighted to get a preview of 
the software at the Phoenix OS/2 Society's general meeting. 
On Tuesday, December 8, our special guest will be the IBM 
Network Computing Software Division (NCSD)'s NCOS Services 
Manager, Steven King.

No, not *that* Steven King. This one has been around OS/2 
since its earliest days, and really cares about the OS -- 
and particularly about server issues. I've publicly given a 
pound of dark Lindt chocolate to this Steven King, and I 
don't do such things lightly.

Steven's enthusiasm for OS/2 and OS/2 Warp Server is 
infectious, and he's a techie's techie. You really can't 
miss this meeting!

Aurora is scheduled to ship in Q1 1999, or maybe it's Q2. 
Steven will bring us up to speed on the progress of the 
beta, and explain the enhancements in this new version.

So what's in Aurora?

Dick Krueger gave his initial impressions of Aurora in an 
earlier issue of extended attributes (October, 1998), but 
here are a few of its promised features to bring you up to 
speed.

To make OS/2 Warp Server even more robust and eliminate 
lengthy file system recovery times after a system crash 
with a current file systems, Aurora includes a Journaled 
File System (JFS). Using database journaling techniques, 
JFS can restore a file system to a functional state in a 
matter of seconds or minutes. In contrast to a 
non-journaling file systems, Aurora's JFS provides a 
quickly-restartable, transaction-oriented, log-based, 
scaleable file system. JFS is key to improving server 
availability.

The performance and reliability that JFS provides makes 
Aurora ideal for Web serving. Furthermore, JFS raises the 
previous file size limitation of 2 GB to 2 terabytes. 
Partition size is raised from 64 GB to 2 terabytes allowing 
a file to be the same size as a partition.

Aurora is also enabled to work with Vinca Co-Standby 
Server, an IBM Business Partner solution that provides 
safeguards for companies that cannot tolerate down time. 
Vinca uses a server-mirroring technique which defines 
clustered resources on two nearly identical systems, 
creating high availability for both servers. The backup 
server takes control if the primary system experiences a 
hardware failure.

With Network File System (NFS), included with Aurora, a 
RISC (AIX/UNIX) drive can be mounted and made a sharable 
resource to OS/2 Warp Server's clients.

Aurora's remote connection services give users full, secure 
access to the LAN from home or on the road, using the 
integrated Virtual Private Network function of the TCP/IP 
stack and its PPP server function.
Aurora includes Year 2000 and euro currency readiness.

The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in Aurora will make it 
easier to to manage dynamic DASD requirements. Many 
terabytes of data are added to the Internet every month. 
This growing volume of files and databases requires 
expandable system DASD. Logical drives can now span 
multiple physical hard drives. With permanent or sticky 
drive letter assignments, hard drives can be moved or added 
without changing their drive letter designation. Partitions 
can grow without reformatting.

One of the ways in which technology causes change is by 
constantly providing the means for engineers to create new 
devices. These devices are good for business -- they make 
things run faster, better, and easier. The difficulty is in 
integrating this growing spectrum into the corporate 
network. Aurora helps to simplify this with support of the 
Intelligent Input/Output Architecture Specification (I2O).

Aurora supports the Light Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), 
a standards-based Internet directory protocol, and offers 
IBM's OS/2 LDAP Client Toolkit for C and Java Version 1.0 
for C and Java programmers who want to enable new or 
existing applications to access, search, and update LDAP 
servers, using LDAP V2 or LDAP V3 protocols. OS/2 LDAP 
Java/C Toolkit supplies the libraries, files, 
documentation, and samples needed to develop C or Java 
directory-enabled applications that can access a variety of 
LDAP-based directory servers.

There's plenty more, of course. But you'll need to show up 
at the meeting to see it in action!

When and where

The meeting is held on Tuesday, December 8, at the Mountain 
Preserve Reception Center, 1431 East Dunlap. You can find a 
map to the meeting site at http://www.possi.org. A random 
access Q&A session begins at 6:30pm, and the general 
meeting gets underway at 7:00pm.

Non-members are welcome to attend general meetings... 
though we try to make the evening so enjoyable that you'll 
feel compelled to join the Society! (Besides, we tell good 
jokes. If this isn't fun, after all, why should we bother?)

The Phoenix OS/2 Society is the world's largest OS/2 user 
group, with members in 46 U.S. States and 12 countries. 
It's the publisher of the print magazine, _extended 
attributes_, the magazine of the OS/2 community, which 
includes technical tips, product reviews, industry analysis 
and even an occasional cartoon. You can request a sample 
issue at the user group's Web site, http://www.possi.org.





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