Bruce's Blog

In the past, it was easy to move a Domino server to new hardware - just install the Domino server software on the new box, copy the data folder over and viola it worked.  Since I now have a Domino 8.5 server with transaction logging and DAOS turned on, is there anything special I need to know?  Do I just copy the transaction log folder and the DAOS folder over as well?  Do they need to be re-built from scratch?  Any one who's done this and is willing to share the secrets, I would appreciate it.

Currently, we have a SameTime 6.5.1 server running on top of Domino 6.5.2 on Windows 2000.  All my other servers are Domino8.5HF1 running on Windows 2003 SP2.  We currently only use the IM function.  With the certificate expiration issue this past weekend, we've decided to look into upgrading our Sametime environment.  It looks like I have a server I can use for this (it's previous function has been retired).  My question is, should I install SameTime 8.02 on top of Domino 8.02 now or wait for SameTime 8.5 so it can run on top of Domino 8.5?  How long is it going to be before SameTime 8.5 arrives?

I've read a few post on how to hide a single user from being visible in the Domino Directory.  Has anyone come up with a way to hide everyone from a single user?  We have a new business we are looking to get into.  We will have a "sales force" (they aren't our employees, they're agents or brokers or something) that need to have a company email address for our business.  Would like to have them in our existing Domino domain (so I don't have to set something new up).  They are going to be INotes only users.  We're running V8.5 on the servers.  It's almost like we have a wholly owned subsidiary where we're going to be running their infrastructure, but don't want them fully integrated into ours.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

    To set the stage.  We have been on Domino 7.02 for awhile.  Recently updated our servers to 8.02 then 8.5.  Clients are all running 7.02 with 7.02 template except me, I'm now on 8.5.  I'm the admin.  We've been using an explicit policy that used the registration and archive policy settings for awhile, bit have never implemented any of the others.  After upgrading to 8.5, I decided to started plating with all the other policy settings again.  I had another explicit policy (called test) for this.

  So far so good.  After discussion with my boss, we decided it was time to start seriously considering implementing the other policy settings.  I created a brand new explicit policy and assigned the test desktop, mail, and security settings to it.  Now for the mayhem part - I called it the same as our domino domain because after some testing, we were going to make it an organizational policy.  Looks like this is a BAD idea.  Even though all my policies were explicit, it looks like it treated the new one as organizational and rolled it out to all my users (without warning).

   So now, they were getting configuration changes made which were very obvious (like popping up new message warnings, locking client every 15 minutes, etc) and were set to not allow the individual to change them (these were test polict settings after all, not what we would actually necessarily want to use in production).  OOPS!!!!!!  To make it worse, one of those horrible bugs that is going around caught me and I've been home sick as a dog part ofg this week while we're trying to work our way out of this one.

   Looks like (hopefully) the worst is over and next week will be better.

   Hopefully this will be a little safer topic then my last two posts.  I was thinking that with the advent of XPages, all kinds of new and exciting applications are going to either be created and/or updated on OpenNTF.  I'm am currently playing with TaskJam, XPages Phonebook, & XPages Wiki on a test V8.5 server.  I'm loving what can be done with them and how they look.

   However, there is one issue I would have with moving them into my production environment (once I had a production V8.5 server that is).  The current design of all three applications (at least it looks likes it to me) is based on them being standalone websites (like IdeaJam.net is).  I would like to have some common branding across all of my internal website (which is currently Domino-based, although the code is atrocious V6 0, I hacked alot of it together so I should know - lol).  If we had some kind of central Theme Manager Application that could hold "global" css and images resources that other applications could reference it would be easier to make everything look like it was all part of the same website.

   I was thinking this would be done in similiar fashion to how a number of OpenNTF applications are now coming with the ability in the configuration of the application to choose wether to use the OpenLog application for all logging functions.  I know this would be more difficult because the application would have to be designed so it could either run as a standalone website or as part of a whole enterprise-wide website.

   I think I'll leave this idea for now and come back later with some thoughts on what the Theme Manager application would need to do.

UPDATE
My other related posts on this subject
Part 1 - Background
Part 2 - Signing Applications
Part 3 - Replicating Templates

   I have 2 questions.

   The first is I'm looking to implement transaction logging for the first time when I start implmenting Domino 8.5.  Is there any best practice/recommendation for the maximum logging size when you choose a logging style of circular?

   The second is more comlicated.  Currently, I have a 8.02 server environment that is clustered.  I want to install a new Domino 8.5 server on the Windoiws 2003 server that is running BackupExec.  This server would just have scheduled replication running to copy all the mail, archive mail, & application DB's to it so we caqn back them up.  The question is, should I put it in my existing domain even though it is not 8.5 yet or create a new domain just for this server?.  If I setup a new domain, it makes it easier to keep any of my users from accessing it, but I have to deal with drocss domain certification.

   Any thoughts would be appreciated/\.

   OK, so my last port started a little bit of a firestorm over in the IdeaJam area on OpenNTF.  If you thought that one was bad, wait for this one.  I'm actually not decided on this one myself, but I feel it's kind of a logical outgrowth of Part 2 - Signing Applications.  I'm not going to create a IdeaJam entry for this at the moment.  I should also say up front, that both this idea and the last one were meant for environments where you have experienced administrators running the show and/or a test/development environment you can use these two ideas in (not straight into production).

   So, what is the big deal you ask?  Well, how about the ability to replicate an application's template from OpenNTF to your test/development Domino environment directly.  I was thinking that this would let the new versions get to you easier.  Obviously, there would have to be alot of thought put into this (ie. who controls the replication, what is the schedule, etc).

   Well, there it is, have fun!

UPDATE
My other related posts on this subject
Part 1 - Background
Part 2 - Signing Applications
Part 4 - Theme Manager

Since I'm a Domino Administration is only part of my job responsibilites (and Application Development is even less) and we don't have anyone to do Application Development, I've had to rely on finding code and applications wherever I could find them.  The easier they are to move into production the better.  One thing that would make this process easier (for me at least) is for OpenNTF to have a single signing ID that applications are signed with before being released.  This would let me change my ECL's to allow these applications to just be dropped into my production environment (after testing) and work.

   I've added this on OpenNTF's IdeaJam space.  If you think this is a good idea, please go vote for it here.

UPDATE
My other related posts on this subject
Part 1 - Background
Part 3 - Replicating Templates
Part 4 - Theme Manager

   Over the last week or so, I've had a number of thoughts about OpenNTF.  I finally decided  I might as well share them and see if anyone else thinks they have merit or not.  I thought this was a good time for this because of a couple of things.  The first is the changes taking place at OpenNTF (IBM providing resources, adding/changing the functionality of the site, etc).  The second is the release of V8.5 and XPages.  I think these two items will mean alot of new applications being released on OpenNTF, existing applications getting a "facelift", and new functions and processes being implemented on the site.  What better time to suggest some changes I thought of.

   I want to start by saying I hope no one thinks I'm putting OpenNTF down in any way.  That is not my intention (it just might come across that way because I'm not a most tactful person or the best writer).  I happen to love what OpenNTF has done.  I use 4 applications in production at my job (Password Tracker, Vacation Request, Domino TeamMailbox, & OpenLog). I've looked at the code behind a bunch of other applications to see how they work to learn how to do things better myself.  I've also recently started playing with TaskJam, XPages Phonebook, & XPages Wiki on a test V8.5 server I installed.

   Well I think this pretty much sums up where these next few posts are coming from.  For info on my background, you can check out My First Post.  Have fun agreeing, disagreeing, or ridiculing any of my ideas over the next few posts.

UPDATE
My other related posts on this subject
Part 2 - Signing Applications
Part 3 - Replicating Templates
Part 4 - Theme Manager
  

  

We are looking for options for an outsourced BES environment for a SMB.  We have between 25 & 50 Blackberry users.  Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!

I downloaded version 1.1 today.   I ran it against one of the files which was hanging on Version 1.0 and it worked just fine.  I then started running it against our whole mail archive directory.  After it finished (it took about 8 1/2 hours), I got the results.  We have 213 NSF's taking up 214G with almost 1 million attachments.  If we implement V8.5 & DAOS, we will be taking up only 23G in the NSF files and 85G in the DAOS store.  This will give us an overall savings of almost 118G (49%).  That's awesome.  This feature alone may justify our upgrade to version 8.5 now instead of who knows when.  And the best part, is that I'll get the benefits of everything else (ID Vault, XPages, etc) as a "freebie".  Thanks IBM/Lotus!!!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded the tool and started looking at how DAOS would impact our environment.  We do server-based archiving, so I started with the archive mail files.  Currently (on Domino 8.02 servers with 7.02 clients & mail templates), we use a little over 200Gb of space.  It looks like we will be somewhere in the 35 - 40% space reduction range if we implete V8.5 & DAOS.  This is just great.  The only problem I have had is that the DAOS Estimator tool hangs on some of the mail files.   It ran against one 1.7G file for about 12 hours before I stopped it.  Anyone else run into anything like this?

   First, some background.  We have been a 7.02 environment for awhile (server, client, & mail template).  We have multiple partitioned and clustered servers across our wan.  We also have a 6.5 server running Sametime 6.5 for IM only.  Things have been working pretty well.  We have talked about migrating to V8, but a number of things have held us up.  First, V8.0 was quit stable enough for us.  Then when 8.01 & especially 8.02 came out, we had other priiorities (both other projects and finances).  Then the real financial crisis hit (rising energy costs, rising raw materials costs, and our major markets are automotive and housing so no new orders coming in).
 
   Well, last weekend, something happened that meant we couldn't stay on the sidelines anymore.  Last friday night all 3 of our mail servers crashed with "PANIC: Invalid pool free chain" faults.  Two of the server  re-booted automatically, but we had to manuaaly re-start one of the servers.  We didn't worry too much about it.  Things happen, ya know.  But when it happened again on Saturday night. it was time to take it more seriourly.  I started searching the forums on LDD.  I found a couple of entries with similoiar issues.  They referenced a technote about invalid internet messages crashing SMTP task.  The fix was to upgrade to a 7.02 hotfix, 7.03, or V8.

   Monday morning , aftertalking it over with my boss, we decided the most bang for the buck upgrade was to go to V8.02.  That evening, I started upgrading.  We have 9 Domino server on 4 physical servers at 3 sites.  The first 3 physical servers (3 Domino server partitions) upgraded fine in a couple of hours.  The last server's upgrade hosed in the middle with a JVM error.  It took me a couple of hours to resolve (finely had to manually remove registry entries and data folder and do a "fresh, clean" install).  This server has always had issues, so it wasn't terribly surprising that the upgrade hosed.

   Even with the problems.  my whole Domino environment (except Sametime) is now upgraded to V8.02 and running fine in one night.  I was already running the 8.02 client myself and now was able to upgrade my mail template to start utilizing all the new goodies (out od office service it great).  I used all the compression (LZ1 on attachments, design compression, & document compression) on both my mail file and archive mail file (we do server-based archiving).  Saw a 25% reduction in size.

   Now it's time to start planning the V8 client roll-out to our 150ish client users and 50-75 INotes users so they can see the same.

Since my entry in April about moving forward with a VMWare implementation to run Domino 8, Sametime 8, & Quickr 8, no progress has been made.  First it was a couple of higher priorities put this project on hold.  Then finance didn't want to spend that much money that month.  Then we've been working with a VAR on some other IT infrastructure projects and they mentioned going with VirtualIron instead of VMWare as our virtualization infrastructure to safe money.  Then the shake-up at VMWare happened.  So, now we are re-evaluating wether we should continue to go with VMWare or look at an alternative like VirtualIron.
My question is, has anyone used any of the XEN hypervisors (VirtualIron in particuliar) for their Domino environment?  If so, how's it worked out?
It looks like it should work OK according to what I've read so far, but it does introduce the question of application support. 

We are a Domino 7.02 environment.  We have a mixture of office & factory workers.  My question is - is there an easy way to provide internal mail but block internet email (incoming and outgoing) to a subset of my users?