CrashTestChix

SANs or storage area networks, were a topic of discussion at this Lotusphere’s Gurupalooza.  See Paul Mooney’s post.

My comments included:

·         Educate yourself about SANs – you don’t have to be a hardware or a storage geek to learn the basics.  When you go into the next hardware meeting your eyes won’t glaze over when the SAN administrators start talking about controllers, and LUNs, etc., etc. 

·         Find out what Domino needs to run best on a SAN.  Here’s one IBM Technote 7002613.  The Storage Network Industry Association is a good source or contact your SAN vendor for advice.

·         Start keeping track of I/O statistics.  If you suspect that I/O is causing an issue with Dominoperformance begin recording statistics.  SAN architecture changes require planning, and can be expensive. Do your homework; have your statistics ready in order to justify your request.

You can run Domino on a SAN.  In our environment, we currently run everything, but the Notes data directory on our SAN.  This includes archive transaction logs.  So with careful planning and monitoring you can do this!

BOOT103 Running with Scissors: Sharpen Your Skills for a Pain-Free IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 Upgrade

Francie Tanner, Gabriella Davis, Marie Scott

BP103 “Top Chefs” Share Recipes for Avoiding Everyday Server Disasters

Francie Tanner, Marie Scott

SHOW106 Configuring The Tivoli Directory Integrator for IBM Lotus Domino and Active Directory

Tom Duff, Marie Scott

As a first time speaker at Lotusphere 2010 - here’s my insight.

Speaking at Lotusphere 2010 was a great, great experience.  Scary?  Yes! Was it a lot of work? Yes!  Anyone who even remotely thinks that speakers don’t put a lot of effort into preparation, please come talk to me.  The speakers who have been speaking for years in a row with many sessions, who are able to make it seem “easy” -- are “repeaters” for several reasons.  They do their homework, they are knowledgeable in their field, and they are good at what they do (speaking included).  My co-speakers: Gabriella Davis, Tom Duff, and Francie Tanner are prime examples.

A gleaming highlight of the Lotusphere 2010 week was sitting on the Nerd Girl’s Revenge panel with the following panelists:

·         Sandy Carter, Vice President, IBM Software Group Channels

·         Akiba Saeedi,  Program Director, Unified Communications and Collaboration, IBM Software Group

·         Mary Beth Raven, IBM Senior Technical Staff Member, Lotus Product Design

·         Eileen Fitzgerald, Vice-President Product Management and Customer Delivery at GSX

·         Kristen Lauria, Vice President, Marketing and Channels, IBM Software Group

·         Moderator: Gabriella Davis, Technical Director, The Turtle Partnership

To sum it up – WOW! What an extraordinary group of women - each bringing a unique perspective to the panel.  I certainly gained a lot listening to the experiences shared amongst the panel and the audience.  There has been some chatter in the community about why such a panel or BOF is even necessary.  Do women really still have issues of equality in the IT industry?  Are women passed over for promotions or treated differently with regards to job performance than men?  Sadly - yes.  And not just in the Americas, but all over the world.  But the panel discussion wasn’t just about equality issues.  The topic of establishing mentoring relationships and the different types of mentors was discussed. The panel also touched on how women might become more effective leaders or managers and ensure that young girls might follow their interests and pursue careers in information technology, engineering or science. [See WITI – Women in Technology International.]  For a transcript see Lotus User Group for Celia Hamilton’s write up of the discussion.

I also attended the BOF Thursday morning.  Again the need for networking and the use of social network tools like Twitter, Facebook, Skype, or LinkedIn to establish informal or formal mentor relationships.  [A LinkedIn group – Nerd Girls – has been created as a follow-up.] Be sure to check out the group, contact me or the panel moderator if you have any suggestions for further discussion topics.

So you’re going to Lotusphere. You may have had to beg, borrow or pay the devil to get there this year due to the economy.  Maybe you’re a speaker, a vendor, an IBMer, a return Lotusphere attendee.  Whatever your role, you’re going back to the sunny spot in Florida for what has become in many ways a big family reunion.

What are you hoping to see and hear?  Is there any session you are hoping to attend? What’s your favorite party?  Where’s your favorite hangout when you’ve hit that period of the day when you’ve brain is fried and all you want to do is unplug and have a cold beverage with some new friends?

For me, this will be an entirely new Lotusphere experience, despite the fact that this will be my 12^th Lotusphere.  I’m going to be a speaker for the first time (may the speaker gods be at my side) and I’m going to be meeting in person many of the folks I’ve come to count as friends via Twitter and Skype over the past year.  I’m sure there are not going to be enough hours in the day.  I’m also proud to have been invited to participate in the Nerd Girl discussion panel.  So it’s a year of firsts in so many ways.

And then there’s Lotusphere Spotto!  I’m not sure what to say about all that, but if you do find me, please introduce yourself.  I’ll be sure to chat you up about our upcoming Sametime user’s guide that will be published later this year.  And I may have some really cool buttons to give away!

So remember to pack your walking shoes, your various gadget chargers, and be prepared for a great week! See you there!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that you’re going to to be attending Lotusphere in a few weeks!

In July 2009, I posted an article titled:  “These Boots are made for…Admin Boot Camp.”  It suggested a track targeting administators at Lotusphere 2010.  Well, as it turns out, people really do read this stuff, including Kristin Keene (Lotusphere Goddess) and Bob Balaban.   They approached several individuals about including their sessions to be featured in a new program at Lotusphere this year – ADMIN BOOT CAMP!!!

I blogged earlier this week about our implementation of Lotus Notes Traveler.  We sent around an notice today to all faculty/staff regarding the availability of Traveler in the university’s daily electronic newsletter. 

For a Friday, and the last day of exams, we’ve added eight (twelve as of last check) new users.  Or let me rephrase that.  They added themselves, with almost no interaction from the support staff.  Which is just goodness all around wouldn’t you say?!  We’re hoping that the faculty and staff will find this a useful tool over the university’s two week winter break.

Our internal marketing team (thanks to Gary Garbett and Sam Kennedy) also came up with a super graphic for use on the web page which I’d like to share here!   

As we have lots of Apple devices in our environment, we were eager to install Notes Traveler.  We installed Traveler 8.5.1 over an existing Traveler 8.5 server.  The install went smoothly, and Windows Mobile users connected and installed the new cab files.  Our iPhone users were able to connect – and they simply LOVE Traveler!  However, during our test phase, we discovered that the Domino Directory lookups were not completing as expected on the iPhone. No directory data was being returned at all, and the request was timing out.

Lotus Support suggested the following:  Shutdown Traveler.  Rename the NTSConfig.xml file to NTSConfig.bak and restart Traveler.  This recreates the NTSConfig.xml file from the original template.  Once we did that, the Directory lookup was fully functional. 

Additionally, further information about the customization of the NTSConfig.xml file can be found here if you need to customize those fields to be included in the Domino Directory lookup.

As you may know, I’m co-authoring a book on Lotus Sametime for Packt Publishing.  Chapter 1 went off to the publisher on time.  (Wipes forehead in relief).  Lots of authors have remarked on how “difficult” the first chapter is to write and finish.  And because I don’t have any other experience but my own, I would have to agree.  I occasionally flashbacked to those “all nighters” writing college term papers  or the angst involved in finishing work project plans/white papers on a deadline.  My coauthor, Tom Duff, and I did find our “collective” voice and agreed on how we would outline the chapter, which was a huge plus in the effort.

Well, we received good news this morning.  The editor/publisher liked the first chapter and we have only minimal (and I mean minimal) changes to make.  Whew!  I am reminding myself that this is the shortest chapter in the book,  and that we have more technically oriented chapters ahead, I at least feel like I made that first 10 foot hurdle!

Tom Duff and I are presenting a Show ‘n Tell Session at Lotusphere –  SHOW106 “Configuring the Tivoli Directory Integrator for IBM Lotus Domino and Active Directory”

Now you may think that with a product name that includes “Directory Integrator” as part of its name that this is only a tool for directories and therefore maybe a tool for admin types only. Not so! 

For example, one of the new connectors in TDI 7.0 is an XML parser.  Now while I can’t speak for my fellow administrators, when I hear XML parsing my eyes glaze over.  But I know developers who will just squeal over the opportunity to manipulate XML between external sources and Domino databases.  Remember that TDI has a connector for Domino databases – not only the names.nsf.  And with connectors to relational DB’s like SQL wouldn’t you dev’s like to have a way to move that data back and forth between Domino?

TDI is available as a free download with your Domino server license.  And you’re entitled to use it as long as your assembly line (TDI process) includes Domino as a component of that process.  So whether you’re synching, pushing or pulling data, doesn’t FREE appeal to you?  Check it out for yourself.  And better yet, if you’re attending Lotusphere be sure to attend our session.  We’ll help you get started on building your own “integration engine.”

“Slide, slide, slide…”I've been humming this to myself to the tune of Aretha Franklin’s Chain of Fools.  I’m working on materials for the slide decks for our presentations at Lotusphere 2010. 

For those who may in any way think that preparing for Lotusphere is easy.  THINK AGAIN!  I am a new speaker, but I’m presenting with experienced Lotusphere speakers, and from my bird’s eye view it looks like hard work no matter if you’re a newbie or if you’ve been a Lotusphere speaker for ten years!

My sessions are running the gamut from Jumpstart, Best Practices to Show ‘N Tell.  And each session definitely has its own nuances for preparing slides.  And the thoughts running through my head include - what would I have like to see if I was sitting in the audience? How can I best connect with the attendees without having 32 bullets on one slide?  How can I make the content informative and engaging at the same time?

A lot of work is going into session prep over the next two weeks.  So gear up and be ready in January for another great Lotusphere!

Okay, I'll admit this post does not have anything to do with server administration or client builds, etc., etc.  With Thanksgiving a little more than week away, I'm starting to think about holiday baking.  I love to make holiday treats.  I was looking through my recipes and found one of my favorites as they have a wonderful lemony yellow curd topping.  And as some of you may know - yellow is Mary Beth Raven's signature color!  So here are some virtual cookies for you Mary Beth! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to all next week!

Lemon Butter Snowbars

Crust:   1 c softened butter

2 2/3 c all purpose flour

½ c sugar

Filling: 4 eggs

6 TBsps lemon juice

1 ½ c sugar

4 Tbsps flour

2 TBsp lemon zest

Combine – butter/flour/sugar, blend until finely crumbly and press into ungreased 13x9 pan.

Bake at 350 F degree oven 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Mix eggs/lemon juice/sugar/flour/zest and pour over crust.  Return to oven 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.  Cut when cool.

It all started with the Nerd Girl BOF at Lotusphere January 2009.  A little nudge to start a blog.  And now many months later as a result of that blog – CrashTestChix – a huge opportunity has surfaced.

Packt Publishing contacted me (out of the blue) about writing a user guide for Lotus Sametime.  It turns out that the editor had read my blog and liked my writing style.  Wow!  Once I realized that this was not a caffeine induced hallucination,  I had to think about whether such a large project was practical for me.  Three hundred pages? WOW!

After talking with family and friends, I realized that it was a chance I could not pass up.  It also occurred to me that I would be wise to seek some assistance on this project.  So I asked Tom Duff to join me as a co-author.  He was stunned and flabbergasted.  I had to pour water on him (figuratively) a few times to revive him, but convinced him that since we had worked well on the TDI blog articles that we could work through a larger project.

So here we are at the very beginning of a new opportunity.  Thanks to the Nerd Girls for that initial nudge.  Thanks to Connie and Joni (the original Domino Divas) for your daily support.  Thanks to Packt Publishing for finding my blog and giving us this opportunity.  Thanks to Paul, Warren, and Gab for agreeing to provide a test environment (we will endeavor not to crash servers).  Thanks to Tom for acting as co-pilot in this venture.  And finally thanks to the larger Lotus community/family.  I look forward to seeing many of you in January 2010! Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!

I’ve worked with email in some shape or form for more than 22 years.  From 3270-terminal based clients, early text PC-based clients, Windows clients, Mac clients, Web clients, mobile clients, etc., etc.  And one common thread I've observed is that email ranks up there as a discussion topic with religion and politics.  You better be prepared for the answers you receive when you ask someone a question about email.

You might think that you’re asking a simple question to which you’ll receive a simple answer when you ask -- “what do you use for email?” Uh, NO!  The person will launch immediately into a discussion about their likes or dislikes about the email client they use.  “Oh I just love Outlook, and I use it at home.” Or “I’ve been using Eudora for years, couldn’t live without it.  My whole life is in Eudora.”  “I use Entourage and I have it synching between multiple Macbooks and my iPhone.”  And of course nearer and dearer to my heart are those comments about the love or hate for Lotus Notes.  And when someone says they absolutely hate Lotus Notes, of course I want to know why!  “So why do you ‘hate’ Lotus Notes?”  “It’s slow.”  “How much memory do you have on your PC?” “512 Mb.”  Simply amazing!  It wouldn’t occur to the average user that performance could be improved if additional memory were added to their workstation.  And memory these days is cheap!  Or you’ll find someone who used Lotus Notes R4 and based their opinion of the product on their experience with a product 12 years ago! Or “my cousin told me that Lotus went out of business.” WHAT?!

My point is that people form opinions about email clients and they seem to stick to them.  What is it about email as a technology that makes someone form such an emotional bond?  Is it because it is a mode of communication?  Is it because their “life is stored in email”, e.g., that it provides a sense of electronic history for them when technology all around us is changing so quickly?  Is it because they as individuals aren’t geared to handle change from product to product?  Or do we as software engineers need to be more sensitive to the idea that email is a somewhat “religious” experience for the user?  That perhaps users may like to think that the choice of an email client is personal somehow?  Would customization of the client interface help?  Or is it because one client does something slightly different than another?  Maybe there’s a correlation between email client preference and political party preference?   Interesting notion!  What do you think?! ;-)

TECHNOTE: 1317667 Macintosh: Full-text indexing of file attachments is not supported

Problem:

For Notes 8.5 on Macintosh OS, full-text indexing and search of file attachments is not supported.

Resolving the problem

This is a third party software limitation

Sometimes Domino Administrators can find joy in a simple NOTES.INI setting – especially when it might makes our lives easier!

There is a change in LOG_SESSIONS=2 with 8.5.1 that now includes IP address in the logging of user sessions.  Why might this be significant?  Well let’s say a user calls days after the fact and wants some assistance with an issue – you will now be able to identify the IP address of the Notes workstation that they were using at the time.  IP address has been available for IMAP sessions, but was not included for Notes client connections.  Additionally, your auditors might also find this setting to be of use in the course of an investigation.  And we know we like to keep auditors happy!   So if you’re running 8.5.1, be sure to take advantage of this setting! :-)

Opened session for ‘Imaadmin/LovesDomino' (Release 8.5.1) SessId 00090AC2 Ip '999.9.999.i999' 'Auth' 'C'

With the exciting news about Notes/Domino 8.5.1 going gold on Monday October 12^th, don’t forget that with 8.5.1 you're now entitled to Tivoli Directory Integrator V.7! 

TDI can be found in the “Associated Products at No Charge” section of your Passport downloads.  And remember you may use TDI as long as a Domino or Notes process is part of a TDI assembly line.

TDI 7 features a new interface and is loaded with additional features.  Be sure to visit the Tivoli Directory Integrator Version 7 Information Center for more details! :-)

We’ve seen a lot of numbers lately including how many of the Fortune 100 companies are using Notes/Domino.  And I for one am thrilled to see all the press.  But, what I’d really like to see are those same rankings for universities. 

The Center for Measuring University Performance publishes a report each year ranking universities in terms of research.  This includes federally funded research, faculty who are nationally/internationally recognized, endowments, etc., To be in the top 50 of this list of course is very prestigious.  And university presidents/chancellors/provosts all look at these lists and ask “what are top research universities doing in terms of information technology?” And I would ask, “what are they using for collaboration?” 

Another list is the U.S. News and World Report Best College Rankings.  Again, decision makers ask “what are these top universities doing differently than my university?” 

Faculty and administrators also read the Chronicle of Higher Education -- both online and in print.  I’d love to see some LotusKnows ads planned for Chronicle.

And if colleges and universities aren’t using Lotus – why aren’t they?  Is it because they have bought into the Google cloud model? Or have they committed to Microsoft?  You might be surprised as to how many universities are only now beginning to use collaboration tools.  Many still rely on open source IMAP systems for faculty/staff email only.   So why not get some numbers in print -- work the network and use a little peer pressure!

And please don't assume that just because these same universities have many grants and endowments that they want to spend lots of money on collaboration.  Faculty almost universally believe that  - “free is better.”   So instead of asking the question how are the competitors making money with their cloud solutions, perhaps it’s time to think outside of the box with IBM/Lotus’ own solution for higher education.  Perhaps, the long term advantage is faculty/staff and students who may be decision makers in the future and who recognize the value of the Lotus family of products and want to stay with them.  Folks in the yellowverse -- do you know what is your school using for email? ;-)

By Marie Scott and Thomas “Duffbert” Duff

In this installment, we’re going to delve a little deeper into Tivoli Directory Integrator by demonstrating how to update an external LDAP server with Domino Directory [Duffbert - Notes Address Book aka NAB or names.nsf using LDAP – for us developer types] data using a TDI LDAP connector.  This particular AssemblyLine will also stretch our TDI skills by require some JavaScript to parse the Domino data into the format needed by the external LDAP server. 

Before we begin this process, we need to have a Domino server that is running the LDAP server task.  We’re using an LDAP type connection for Domino for our demonstration.  We only need reader access to the Person documents in the Domino Directory because we are not updating fields in those documents.   Likewise, we are going to update records in the external LDAP directory, so we need the appropriate login credentials and update authority in the LDAP tree.  We are not deleting attributes, so we do not need delete authority in this example.

 In this particular AssemblyLine, our goal is to update some Domino-related attributes in our external LDAP server.  We’re including these values in our external LDAP entries for each person, so that Domino can be later configured to use the external LDAP as the source for HTTP, IMAP, and Sametime authentication. [Marie – Domino admins out there will note that Directory Assistance will be used on the Domino side for authentication…this is a handy trick!  Duffbert – yeah, yeah… get to the good stuff!] The attributes have already been added to the schema on the external LDAP server, as they did not previously exist.  What is important to note is that we need a unique key to match the records from Domino to LDAP.  In our example we use unid (which is an LDAP default identifier) and an employee id number.   The AssemblyLIne does not require two keys to link data attributes, but in this case we are using two, and as you’ll see the AssemblyLine will allow you to use multiple keys.

The attributes we’re going to work with are the following:

To get started we create a new TDI Configuration.  

Sometimes you can't always believe what you read.  For example, The Commonwealth Times, the student newspaper at Virginia Commonwealth University, posted the following article. If you take the content for what it says, it does sound like the entire university is moving to Google.  However, this is not the case.  Then another blogger posted this blog.  And in the context of his blog he made some assumptions which really weren't accurate.  I responded to those assumptions in kind. 

As a result, I've learned several valuable lessons.  Make sure that content posted on the web is accurate.  Secondly, don't assume that the author is an expert in the field of the content material or that they have vetted their sources.  With today's web commentary -- that is not always the case.  And for some reason Google seems to hit a hot button with everyone these days -- whether it be with migration from one email system or another or Google vulnerabilities, etc. etc., we all like to find something newsworthy to post about Google.  Well maybe we need to step back and make sure the information we have is accurate.  I include myself in that "we" as I have blogged about Google as well.  I would also caution those blogging as to the reasons why a company moves to Google.  With firsthand experience, I can say that the decision making process to move to any new messaging platform is complicated and not as straightforward as it may seem.  So the collective "we" should not shoot those managers who have had to make those difficult decisions or those technologists who have had to implement those decisions in the foot, because who knows "we" might be next.

Hi my name is Marie, and I've had a Lotusphere anxiety attack.  Well, truth be told I've had several of them.

For the first year in a long time, it may not be a given that I will be able to attend Lotusphere.  Now for those of you who have only attended one or two Lotuspheres this may seem rather silly.  Having an anxiety attack? Come on now.  But given that Lotusphere 2010 would be my twelveth Lotusphere, it truly has become an annual event.  My year would not be complete without the "family reunion" in Orlando.  As the Virginia State government budget is in crisis right now, all travel expenditures are being reviewed. My fingers are crossed that my trip will be approved.

Secondly, for the first time I am working on some abstracts to submit as a speaker.  While I have fantastic possible co-speakers, I'm still so, so nervous about being on the other side of the stage if accepted.  It sounds like there is a lot of great material going to be submitted this year, so we should have the best Lotusphere yet!

Thirdly, Lotusphere registration is later than usual.  And don't we all like to have our registration in hand by now?  Some of you may not remember those years when you had to be poised the ready on the first day because registration filled up.  Again...why should I be nervous?  I just am!!!

In sum, in case you can't tell -- I am looking forward to Lotusphere this year, probably more so than any other year.  As a new blogger, I can't wait to meet all the folks I've met through my blog and through Twitter.  And I'm also anticipating all the great content we have to look forward to with 8.5.1 and beyond!

January 17, 2010 here we come! :-)

By Marie Scott and Thomas “Duffbert” Duff

So now that you’ve got TDI set up and running on your workstation, the question becomes how to make it do something useful.In this installment, we’ll take a CSV file containing some data and use TDI to load a Notes database on a local Notes server. This is a very basic example, but it’s something that all Notes developers and administrators have had to do numerous times. And our hope is that it will start to acclimate you with the basic steps to set up a TDI AssemblyLine.

So first, start up TDI as well as your Domino server and Notes client.  In this example, we have a CSV file of book titles that Duffbert has read, and we want to import that into a Notes database (so he can keep track of what he’s already read). 

Nothing fancy here… We’re just looking to get the basics in connectivity down.

So begin by starting Tivoli Directory Integrator.  When it first loads, you’ll see a blank command screen (which is the Java background task loading), then the TDI GUI will load.  To begin, you’ll want to create a new configuration. That’s done by using the File > New menu option, which will present you with a dialog screen.For this example we’ll call this configuration blogExample01.xml.

That will create your entire project you’ll use going forward.  The next thing you need to do once this is done is to make sure you have a particular entry in your java.library.path setting.  This is very important when you are running this in local Notes mode.  TDI will attempt to find the nlsxbe.dll file during the running of your import, so you have to be sure to have that path in the above java.library.path setting.  In this particular instance, we added c:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Domino.  Without that entry, you will receive a number of errors when the import starts to run.

Creating your new AssemblyLine comes next by using the Object > New AssemblyLine menu option.  We called ours CSVToNotes:

With the AssemblyLine in place, we create our first connector to feed in data from the CSV file.  That is created with the Object > New Connector option, and you’ll want to choose the ibmdi.FileSystem connector type.  That’s the connector that can read a flat file from your workstation.  Give it a descriptive name (ReadCSVFile in our case) and put it in Iterator mode.  That means it will iterate through the entire file when used: 

Our input connector feed is now created!  On the file path field, point to where you have the CSV file stored:

The next step is where things get cool… if you click on the plug icon in the Input Map tab, TDI will automatically make a connection to your CSV file.Then if you click the forward icon next to it, TDI will iterate through the detail of the CSV file so that you can see the data you have stored out there.  These two steps will assure that you have connectivity to get to your data:

The final step you need to do here is to highlight all four of the entries, and drag them over to the Work Attribute column next to the field names.  This is what will allow us to map the CSV columns to the Notes field names:

Half your work is now done!  The next step is to create your other connector, the one that will allow you to write out to the Notes database.  This time, select the ibmdi.Notes connector wit h a mode of Add-Only.  We named our output connector OutputNotesFile:

Again, we’ll go to the connection tab under the Configuration tab and set up the connection information to the Domino server we have on the workstation.  This will obviously be specific to however you have your Domino server configured: