Operating system interoperability

Rather than use the same network operating system on all servers, modern networks often work in multivendor environments, meaning that you might encounter more than one of the major network operating systems functioning on the same network. In such a scenario, you might, for example, have a NetWare server that handles authentication as well as file and print services, a Windows 2000 server that hosts the corporate e-mail system, and two Linux systems-one acting as a server and the other providing firewall services. It is possible to use a single operating system for all these tasks, but in some situations a more flexible approach is required.

To facilitate such environments, network operating system manufacturers build in features and services that allow their operating systems to coexist on networks with other vendors' operating systems. In some cases, the manufacturers appear to do so grudgingly, but in the IT environment of the 21st century, it would be a bold move indeed not to provide such services. The following sections take a brief look at how well some of the major network operating systems "play" with each other.