1.0 Hands-on Evaluation Options

You have two options for evaluating Novell Filr in a Windows AD environment:

Figure 1-1 Evaluating Filr on the Novell’s Online Demo System

Novell hosts the Filr hands-on VMs on the Novell Online Demonstration System (NODS).

If you are interested, go to the Novell.com How to Buy page and request that a Novell Sales Representative contact you.

To evaluate Filr on your network, you must choose a deployment type.

Small Deployment: Might be your best option if
- Your interest in Filr is casual.
- You want to invest minimal time and effort.
Large Deployment: Definitely your best option if
- You might want to deploy Filr inside your organization.
- You want to investigate what that requires.

Detailed comparison of Small and Large Deployment Types

	Small Deployment	Large Deployment
Production Capabilities	Designed for evaluation environments. Not recommended for any but the smallest production environments.	Supports all production environments.
Capacity and Scale	Capacity is fixed because it cannot be upgraded to a large deployment.	Can grow to include multiple, clustered Filr appliances.
Software Required	Requires downloading two files: A zip file that contains the exercise files Filr appliance software	Requires downloading four files: A zip file that contains the exercise files Filr appliance software Search appliance software MySQL appliance software (unless using an existing SQL database)
Deployment Effort Required	Offers a streamlined, quick installation and configuration of Filr that is documented in this guide. Test user creation and test file and folder setup are the same as a large deployment.	Requires a more involved installation and configuration of Filr that is summarized in Quick Start: Filr Hands-on for Windows. Test user creation and test file and folder setup are the same as a small deployment.
Integration with Existing Systems	Cannot leverage an existing MySQL database (all functionality is contained within the single appliance).	Can leverage an existing MySQL or Microsoft SQL database in place of the MySQL appliance provided with Filr.

This Guide Covers a Small Deployment: Because the purpose of this guide is to provide a simple hands-on experience, it only covers a small Filr deployment. If you want to set up a large deployment for the exercises, see the Quick Start: Filr Hands-on for Windows.