Chapter 1. General Information

1.1 What This Configuration is For

IBM's strategic PC operating system for the last 10 years has been OS/2. The software to run a Local Area Network was called LAN Server. In 1995 these two products merged together, forming OS/2 Warp Server. Other IBM products, like the LAN Distance Connection Server or Personally Safe and Sound, have been added to the package. The benefit to the customer is that he/she gets a powerful product that is easy to install because it has an integrated configuration and installation process that he or she performs.

The creation of the Warp Server package split the development process for the operating system into two different threads:

• The server thread has the goal of creating the most powerful server combination possible. This has been achieved with the OS/2 Warp Server 4 SMP for symmetric multiprocessors that is available as a free upgrade from OS/2 Warp Server Version 4 Advanced. This version not only has the availability to run on multiprocessor machines, but it also provides SMP optimized code, such as the TCP/IP protocol stack.

• The client thread evolution had to optimize usability and become the first step to Network Computing. So when OS/2 Warp 4 came to the market, it was the first operating system with built-in Java support. It also had a much improved user interface.

However, OS/2 Warp 4 came to market after OS/2 Warp Server Version 4. Although both packages have the version number 4, OS/2 Warp Server is still based on the OS/2 Warp Version 3 code. As a result, several customers raised the question of whether they could use the OS/2 Warp Server Version 4 components on OS/2 Warp 4. There have been two major obstacles:

1. This configuration had not been tested and was therefore not supported.

2. Using this configuration, you cannot get the benefits of the improved SMP server support.

Obstacle one is not valid anymore, because this configuration has now been tested (and therefore supported) and also documented with this document. Obstacle two was only a reason for those lucky customers with multiprocessor servers.

There are some advantages for the customer using OS/2 Warp Server components on OS/2 Warp 4, primarily when the server itself is also used as a client (which is one of the promoted advantages of Warp Server compared to other server operating systems from that time). In this case, the user only has to deal with one type of user interface, which also means less educational expenses. Also, when fixing base operating system problems, you only have to deal with one base operating system level, not with different ones.

In an effort to provide customers with the possibility of running the same operating system on their clients and servers, IBM has tested the installation of Warp Server on Warp 4. This documentation gives you a basic description of all the components involved, as well as detailed installation instructions.

1.2 Benefits and Limitations