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Storage Driver Development Policies for Certification
introduction
To be considered Novell certified, a NetWare storage driver must follow the guidelines detailed in the NWPA (NetWare Peripheral Architecture) specification. In addition, there are other policies to which drivers need to conform to be considered certified, and they are listed on this page. The NWPA spec compliance requirement is listed for completeness. The policies are not necessarily listed in any order of importance or priority.
the policies

  1. The driver must conform to the NWPA specification rules. This implies that the driver filename must have the .HAM or .CDM extension. This also implies the following for each driver:

    1. Uses a unique Novell Assigned Module ID
    2. Implements Scatter-Gather
    3. Properly handles priority requests
    4. Is accompanied by a functioning installation/message (.DDI) file

  2. The installation/message file must conform to the DDI (device driver information) file specification rules. This implies that the filename of the installation/message file must have the .DDI extension.

  3. The driver must pass all appropriate tests in the Storage Driver Certification Tests under the applicable test suite. This also implies the following for each driver:

    1. Must not call the assembly IN, OUT, CLI, or STI instructions
    2. Able to reject unrecognized or invalid command line parameters without adversely affecting server operation
    3. Able to be unloaded during I/O execution without adversely affecting server operation
    4. Will not allow the loading of more instances than there are hardware instances available

  4. If a driver had been certified in the past, an updated driver by the same name must be linked with a later date, and, greater major version, minor version, or revision than that of its predecessor
  5. The driver must not import any symbols (APIs) that are not described in the NWPA specification
  6. The driver must not export public symbols
  7. The filename of the driver must be compliant to the ISO-9660 filename format; that is, it must not contain hyphens, spaces, or extended ASCII characters
  8. The filename of the driver must not be offensive or problematic; if you have questions regarding the appropriateness of your driver filename, don't hesitate to contact us
  9. The internal (link) date and external (DOS stamp) date of the driver must match, and they must be a date that has already passed
  10. Only drivers written by Novell are permitted to use the name "Novell" in the text of their copyright strings