I had a badly behaving Netware 6.5 SP7 server that absolutely would not allow clients to authenticate or connect. It ended up being a problem with a NIC driver gone wild, but I had to do some troubleshooting to determine that fact.
During the troubleshooting process I wanted to backup several directories before I altered their contents. I figured I’d just copy those folders to a safe location, but couldn’t remember how to do it from the server console. I had used the copy command from toolbox.nlm in the past, but of course toolbox wasn’t loaded on this server. I don’t use the BASH shell often enough to use it coherently, so I decided to look for an alternative shell.
I did a quick search and came across the Novell Script for Netware shell. To start the shell, from the server console type:
nsninit
and then
nsnshell
which should bring you to a screen with a prompt that looks like
SYS:\>
From that point I was able to use the copy command just like I would from a DOS command prompt, i.e.
copy sys:\system\dsr_dib sys:\system\dsr_dib2
To exit from the shell, just type exit
June 18, 2009 at 5:14 pm
When I try this solution I can only see directories in the SYS volume. How do I cd to the DATA volume? Or run nsnshell from the SYS console and have the shell root be DATA:\>
—pat