Novell calls NetWare a NSE (network services engine), It provides a wide range of built-in services, including directory services, security, routing, messaging, management, file and print services, TCP/IP support, and SMP (symmetric multiprocessing). It also provides a platform for expanded services such as telephony, multimedia services, Internet and intranet browsing and publishing, and more. NetWare version 6 was released in early 2001.

Through NDS (Novell Directory Services), NetWare provides a single view of the network. NDS is a distributed database that holds information about network users and network resources everywhere on the network, even global networks. Users log in once to access resources anywhere, as opposed to having to log in every time they attempt to access a resource. See "NDS (Novell Directory Services)" for more information.

Accounting features let administrators track user access to resources and charge users for use of those resources. The services can be used to collect real charges from users (such as students in an educational environment) or to simply collect usage information. A licensing service lets administrators monitor the use of licensed applications.

NetWare uses a highly secure logon sequence that implements public-/private-key authentication schemes, and an auditing feature that monitors and records networkwide events. The security features are handled through the NDS directory services tree.

NetWare performs automatic file-by-file compression to increase storage capacity. Compression is performed as a background process that has minimal effect on server performance. NetWare also supports automated data migration to transfer infrequently accessed files from expensive online storage to nearline or offline storage devices such as optical disk and tape. See "Storage Management Systems" for more details.

The latest version supports up to 32 systems in a cluster to provide a highly available system. The SMP feature supports up to 32 processors. Novell Storage Services (NSS) handles any storage requirements by supporting billions of volumes and directories, with each volume capable of holding billions of files, each one up to 8 terabytes in size. It also takes advantage of all the processors available in the server.

There are many additional features of NetWare, too numerous to mention here. You can get additional information by visiting Novell's Web site at the address listed on the related entries page.