There's no doubt that Bindery mode is much easier to support - PROVIDED you're running NetWare 3.x. I definitely wouldn't recommend using Bindery mode under NetWare 4 or later, because NDS's bindery emulation is just too flaky to trust.
That said, NDS mode isn't hugely more maintenance-intensive, and it does give some neat advantages, such as true domain separation within your tree (you can have multiple domains pointing to different segments of your NDS tree), and considerably easier backup (I assume you're backing up your users' home directories, so they get their mail backed up for free).
Since you say you're using NetWare 6.5, I believe that on its own is a compelling reason for you to change. The problem is that any time the NDS database needs to be rebuilt, all users' bindery IDs are unilaterally changed, and the system makes no attempt to associate the new IDs with the old SYS:MAIL directories, making the cleanup process a real bear. This was a real problem under NetWare 4 and 5, where NDS rebuilds were depressingly common, but it seems to be much less an issue under NetWare 6.5 (which I regard as the best server operating system the world has ever seen, and I am at a loss to understand its decline).
It's your call in the end.
Cheers!
-- David --
<p>There's no doubt that Bindery mode is much easier to support - PROVIDED you're running NetWare 3.x. I definitely wouldn't recommend using Bindery mode under NetWare 4 or later, because NDS's bindery emulation is just too flaky to trust.
That said, NDS mode isn't hugely more maintenance-intensive, and it does give some neat advantages, such as true domain separation within your tree (you can have multiple domains pointing to different segments of your NDS tree), and considerably easier backup (I assume you're backing up your users' home directories, so they get their mail backed up for free).
Since you say you're using NetWare 6.5, I believe that on its own is a compelling reason for you to change. The problem is that any time the NDS database needs to be rebuilt, all users' bindery IDs are unilaterally changed, and the system makes no attempt to associate the new IDs with the old SYS:MAIL directories, making the cleanup process a real bear. This was a real problem under NetWare 4 and 5, where NDS rebuilds were depressingly common, but it seems to be much less an issue under NetWare 6.5 (which I regard as the best server operating system the world has ever seen, and I am at a loss to understand its decline).
It's your call in the end.
Cheers!
-- David --
</p>
