Sanity Check

About two weeks ago I was promoted out of the IT Dept, where I was the Lotus Notes Dev-Admin, to work in the profit center, driving the business. What I am finding, which I am positive is not unique to my company, is that the default response to just about any business requirement is to create a new spreadsheet, even for completely non-numerical data like marketing plans, schedules, task lists, and even meeting minutes. Then, what's worse is you're told to go fill in your portion on a dozen spreadsheets stored on a Windows file server with long nested folder hierarchies. Further, these spreadsheets are tweaked and tweaked till they grow out of control where printing them is just a joke and they are not truly usable on-screen either. Its a real problem for me because I cannot take off my Systems hat which causes me to think that everything should be stored in a database where it can be properly managed, access controlled, workflowed, integrated with related data, and reported on. This paragraph in an IBM Cognos brochure sums it up accurately:

With the growing number and complexity of marketing initiatives—especially managing vendor compliance—many chains have turned to a tool they know and trust: the spreadsheet. While spreadsheets may serve as a passable shortterm departmental fix, the widespread use of spreadsheets has effectively sabotaged successful implementation of consolidated, coordinated planning. Spreadsheets exist as pockets of information, typically using local assumptions and leveraging data that is isolated in a silo and seldom up-to-date.

That said, there are certain tasks that even I as a former Lotus Notes developer don't really know how to do in Domino. For example,  take a spreadsheet that has a time line across the top (weeks, quarters, years) and a list of categories along the Y-axis. The data is checkerboarded in the intersecting cells (e.g. under the Christmas week column you list a sale on XYZ product). Horizontal reporting just doesn't work in Notes. So, I am afflicted on one side by spreadsheets galore and on the other side afflicted by the realization that I just can't solve this with Lotus Notes. Or can you?

For the last 6 years I've been the "Notesguy" at my company (my official job title was "Application and Process Specialist" ). In this role I was responsible for both Domino administration and development plus special projects here and there.  Its been incredibly fulfilling, but like everything, nothing lasts forever.  It saddens me in a way to exit the field at this point because in many ways all the things I'd hoped for Notes is starting to come together with incredible synergy  (e.g Eclipse clients maturing in 8.5.1, revolutionary XPages, Domino server has blown past the competition, The "Lotus Knows" advertising campaign starts in a month or so).

I've accepted an offer, effective a week from today, to manage the marketing of the core imaging services category at my company. Before being the "Notesguy", I had a similar job, though this was back in the old days when imaging was called photofinishing and film was king. This is a promotion in that it provides better compensation (especially if I meet my targets) plus it will force me to grow in my analytical and presentation skills. Further, this role will likely provide better access to upward opportunities if I do well. I am definitely not exiting the Yellowverse or going to let my Domino chops completely fade away (I run Foundation servers outside my company). In fact, I hope I might eventually be able to combine my experience in both technical and marketing fields and take Ed Brill's job (but only when he retires of course....but he's younger than me so how's that going to work  ;-).  For some reason, and I know some will think its weird, I've alway wanted to be an IBMer one day, even for a season (my co-workers will probably say I already was one undercover). I don't know what the future holds (does Lotus Know?). But one thing's for sure; right now I need to focus on research and planning, realizing that my responsibility has shifted from the company's cost centre to their profit centre. I need to drive now, not just support.

In this role, I'll be kicking up Eric Mack's eProductivity application to the MAX as as the number of things I'll need to track and act on will grow significantly. It's going to be incredibly challlenging and probably quite stressful at time with more deadlines and time demands. I'll console myself when things get tough that there is no gain without some pain (probably praying will be more effective).

My home page is staying on Planet Lotus and I'll continue make the usual nuisance of myself commenting on the Yellowverse blogs and issuing my own perspective now as a Notes' Power User.

Thanks for reading.

I really put on my marketing hat again the last couple days. It will be interesting
to see how IBM uses user input for ads over the next years. Too bad some of my
best ideas were put in too late to really get many votes.

Salvaging Lotus Notes' reputation is an ongoing battle. A few weeks ago, I was in  the board room of a prospective customer selling Lotus Notes (Foundations actually) and I was challenged to update their IT Director, who had ancient experience with Notes about 12 years ago (R4, R5?),  on how Lotus Notes has not stood still but has evolved, especially in the last few years to to embrace open source technology like Eclipse. I knew this org leveraged Linux  in their Data center so knew that focusing on how Notes leverages Open Source projects as large as Eclipse and Linux would be the right play. The proof of concept was my demonstrations of modern Notes applications. An added bonus was the fact that applications can be built once using XPages to run in the client, browser, and even Blackberry. Since I approached them positively, without being defensive, and showed a true current and future value propositions,  I believe talks with them will be ongoing after their upcoming strategy sessions. Another situation: This last weekend, I had breakfast with a very experienced Java Developer from a US Investment firm who remarked, "Oh Lotus Notes...I recall that clunky interface. You had to click on squares to launch things". I countered, focusing on the evolution of Notes, especially its leveraging of Java Server Face technology (aka XPages) as well as the port into Eclipse for both the Client and Designer. Seeing his iPhone, I added that clicking on squares to launch applications seems to be exactly the interface he appreciates on his iPhone. Even the old tabbed interface, rather than the windowed interface, appears to be in vogue for many successful applications today, especially web browsers. So there! His objections were rightly countered and since I did it respectfully and targeted what was important in his world, I know that he will not so quickly dismiss Lotus Notes as an option if it comes up through a company acquisition or future change of his CIO or IT Director.
 
So, my point is that Lotus Notes reputation can be salvaged if you focus on how Notes has not stood still, but has evolved to meet and exceed modern infrastructure requirements. But it seems that so often we have some hump to get over due to the very fact that Notes is 20 years old (or  young if you're a glass half full type) and people simply assume, without actual knowledge, that Lotus Notes has become legacy software.

In marketing, old recognized brands are both a value and a curse. You can probably think of brands have made a break with the past by consciously rebranding themselves (e.g. Kentucky Fried Chicken>>KFC). The last time someone called me in an attempt to rope me into the Amway MLM scheme, they used every brand name except Amway because they knew that would throw up too many red flags. I am not suggesting Lotus Notes has to rebrand in order to hide past sins, but a fresh incremental brand name might be useful. Perhaps that is what the Workplace branding was all about, though it failed for other reasons. Successful rebranding needs to preserve the best of the past and associate it with a positive direction. In a way, when a product evolves as much as Notes has, especially as we're on the cusp of a major expansion of capabilities with XPages, there comes a point where a product has metamorphosed to the point where you no longer refer to the creature  as a caterpillar, but as a butterfly.

I am thinking that Lotus Expediter Collaborative Development Plafform (the long fully descriptive name), or just Lotus Expediter for short is a catchy rebranding option. I can live without referencing the term "Notes" personally as the XPage multi-client, develop-once-play-anywhere applications is a very appealing paradigm, especially done in the JSF framework. Putting the primary emphasis on Lotus Expediter as a collaborative development platform which also happens to offer an out of the box bleeding edge email experience on the front end with a technically superior back end (think DAOS) would sell and also  be resistant against the smear campaigns by large competitors who succeed, not through innovation, but by pigeon-holing Notes in customer's minds as a legacy email application. So, though I can overcome FUD with targeted current facts today, it would be nice to make an end run around the "Notes" legacy baggage and sell the benefits of this metamorphosed product which has a bright future, solid direction, and rooted on the most successful concepts of Lotus Notes from the past.

I followed the link to Notes Domino Fixpack 1 published by several fellow  bloggers and downloaded the 8.5 Fixpack 1 for the Notes Client on Windows (I believe this works for client only or all client installs). For some odd reason, this FP is not listed on Fixcentral or in Passport Advantage. Also the file names for the download are back to the cryptic old code names of the past. There is a preliminary fix list published on IBM, but as to what is actually contained in this fixpack I have yet to see as there is nothing final on the site or in the actual download. If there is one thing I could magically change about IBM is consistency in how they do product maintenance releases. Anyway, I digress...I installed the client fixpack without any errors and maybe its just me, but the client seems to be starting faster. Perhaps its because I have gotten used to the client crashing on startup about 25% of the time where the progress bar slowly makes its way across the splash screen, then vanishes without any explanation. So maybe there's no actual speed improvement, but there's now less problems in the startup process that makes it appear to start faster...don't know, but I'm happy that I don't have to resort to the task manager and kill Notes processes as well as tell end users to log off/on and try again.

Well, according to Notes/Domino Fix List, the Gold Build of 8.5 Fixpack 1 is complete. I guess what's left now is the bureaucracy of getting authorized signatures (electronic no doubt) and pulling the right  levers and pushing the right buttons to get the incremental fixpack loaded up on Passport or Fix Central. One thing that surprises me though is the fix list presently lists zero fixes. It appear that the developer group has abandoned the Fix List application. No doubt they've moved on to some new internal facing system that does a better job for their purposes, but I miss the ability to review all the bug fixes as they were squashed. By the time a release was ready, I already had a good idea if it was a benefit to us or not. I also keep a list of SPR numbers that affect us and check these against the list of fixes to see if they are addressed. Not this time. Is it possible that the number of bug fixes was too embarrassing to post in public? What is the reason?
 

Yesterday my boss approved the purchase of the brand new course "Developing XPages using Domino Designer 8.5" from The Learning Continuum Company (TLCC) . Its on sale for the next 2 weeks at $699. TLCC courseware uses Notes to teach Notes. The content, exercises, and demos are all contained in NSF's. TLCC leverages Notes functionality like few other courseware vendors I've experienced. For example, they make provision for you to replicate the lessons and course discussion databases with the TLCC servers to obtain course updates/fixes as well as to participate in discussions with other students and the course instructors (requires sending a safe copy of your Notes ID to TLCC). This is probably the 7th or 8th TLCC course that we've downloaded through the years beginning in Notes Domino 5. 

Now I am not really an XPages neophyte as I've created a few simple applications, but there are certainly a number of walls that I need to break through before I can be confident that I can produce an XPage app with the same or better functionality as a Notes application in the same amount of time. With all the blog posts, tutorials, wikis, and sample databases out there on XPages, plus the fact that I was fortunate enough to attend Lotusphere this year (won a ticket) and attend many XPages sessions, you could argue that I have exposure to more than enough information out there that anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out XPages. Well, we all learn differently and personally, I tend to prefer a gradual systematic learning process which TLCC provides. I've found that once I've got a solid foundation with a tool, I can tear through the wikis and other resources as well as anyone.

I'm only about 20% through this 28 hour course and already I am psyched up, energized, and creating a list of mini and medium size XPage projects that I'd like to start tackling in the weeks and months after completing the course. Most of the projects are to add web functionality to existing Notes apps as well as refreshing some tired old web front ends. One of the first ones will be to replace the defunct web interface to a Notes Helpdesk application that never quite passed user acceptance. That was one of my first Domino web projects around 5 years ago and I never really got the interface fully working to my (or user's) satisfaction. Fortunately, along came Notes on a stick (Notes Nomad) and the customer found it very convenient to just continue using the rich Notes interface in the field and so I abandoned that effort. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. This time I'll be armed with XPages.

Adding external RDB access to XPages has been promised for a future release of  Notes Domino (post 8.5.1) making it a much more flexible, powerful, and even potentially mainstream platform for Web Dev. However, these sort of promises, as we have seen with other desirable features, have a way of slipping into the next next release or later if they don't make the list of priorities. If this is a priority for you, I highly recommend voting on John Mackey's Idea Jam submission here.

How many people still have their birthday celebrated after 500 years?

Looks like Microsoft's marketers have not have done the most thorough job in coming up with the branding name for their new search decision engine Bing!
At Lucky Chinese Restaurant, their fortune cookies have the usual fortune on side A and on side B they throw in a Chinese language lesson plus your Lucky Numbers for FREE!!!! :-)  Here is a scan of side 2 of my fortune cookie slip:


I guess that makes Bing a decision "disease" engine.

First the good news.

I went to the Lotusphere 09 session on the new Domino 8.5 ID Vault feature and have read a number of articles about it like this one at Dominoblog.  In all the technical descriptions I've read / heard I think they miss the easiest way to describe it. In a nutshell, ID Vault  makes Notes Domino function as if there were no ID File. If you are in the habit of logging into Notes from multiple workstations (e.g. a desktop and a laptop) no doubt you've experienced the occasional pain when your Notes ID passwords get out of sync, especially if your administrator has turned password checking on as they should. Addressing this pain, the ID Vault will synchronizes your ID files automatically. Secondly, if your ID file was deleted or damaged, the Vault can be configured to automatically download a copy of your ID file to your workstation (great when setting up new users). Third, ID Vault simplifies the Help Desk when users forget their passwords. Just call your help desk and an authorized person can reset your ID password in a jiffy with a couple mouse clicks in Domino Administrator. Then the user simply logs in using the new password and all is well. In effect, your users could just forget the ID File even exists. That said, obviously this lowers security to some degree, but as long as your org isn't an army or a bank, it should be a good compromise for most. Its optional and you can continue using the existing ID recovery process for all or any subset of your users.

Setting up the ID Vault was a little hairy. Access to your Cert.ID file is required and the the copy I had on disk didn't match any password I had written down. Fortunately, if you've migrated your certifier to the CA process there is a copy of your Cert.id along with a computer generated password in a document in the ICL NSF used by the CA process. If you can accurately type the mega-long automatically generated password, properly distinguishing the ambiguous characters 0 and O as well as 1 and l (I suggest using a monotype font to display the password) you can recover access to your Cert.id and change the password to something humans can type. I was lucky. And I count this as one of my nine lives expired. This post would have stopped right here otherwise as there is no recourse except to recertify your entire environment which I imagine would not exactly be the most fulfilling experience and I quite honestly can't say I would have pursued that option turning a deaf ear to any talk of the ID Vault forthwith.

After finally setting up the ID Vault on the administrative server, I created a test security policy and using Dynamic Policies (another new Domino 8.5 feature I just learned about) I applied the Security policy to just me and my Director. I was impressed that both our ID's magically appeared in the vault within seconds of restarting Notes.

Now the ultimate test. I bravely and confidently deleted my ID file (Ok, I'm not that reckless. it went into the Windows Recycle Bin plus I have copies on a couple USB sticks , just in case). I started up Notes not knowing what would happen next. I entered my password and with only a slightly longer pause than normal up popped the Notes homepage. Checking in my Data directory, there was my user id restored, as if it never left. Cewl.

Now the bad news, part A.

I noticed that the date of our ID files inside the ID Vault was never more than 10 minutes old. I guessed that our ID files were being uploaded over and over. Lotus Support eventually confirmed this was the case and asked me to check for anything unusual in the Administrative database (Admin4.nsf) used by the AdminP process. Boy was there ever. There were thousands of HTTP password change requests in there, as frequently as every 10 minutes. I was informed that there was a conflict between the security policy setting that automatically syncs the Internet password in your person document when your Notes ID password changes. I was given SPR  JRED7SNU25 as a reference but not told in which release this issue would be addressed. I was hoping for 8.5.1 but nobody knows. That's not good as many of our users also rely on iNotes from home or when traveling. In effect this is two steps forward one step back; replacing the password sync issue between copies of Notes ID's with a new sync issue between Notes and HTTP passwords. In our case, this will prevent us from implementing ID Vault until this SPR is addressed.
I  temporarily changed the test security policy turning off the HTTP password sync and otherwise everything works with ID Vault as expected.

Bad news, part B.

Next, since we have 4-5 users on Macs runing Notes 8.5, I targeted one of them with the same policy.  His ID never uploaded to the vault. Another PMR and a few log files later it seems clear that ID Vault isn't functioning for MAC, at least not for us. If anyone knows any different, let me know.

UPDATE re Mac & ID Vault (June 30):  Since I am not getting much timely assistance from Lotus Support, I went ahead and applied this security policy to two other Mac users and their ID's uploaded the following day, so it does not appear to be an issue where the Mac8.5 client is not working with the ID Vault. It could be a case where the Mac users where it worked were clean installs and the one where it was not working was an upgrade install...just a guess, but I want to make it clear that if you have Macs, don't not implement because of my report of a problem with my initial test.

So, ID Vault in summary....great feature, we want it. But there's an SPR to address before we can use it in production here.
 

Truthfully, there is not a single human being that multi-tasks. We're all creatures who occupy time and space, with single-thread of primary consciousness. Like a computer CPU that processes instructions sequentially, albeit at a blinding pace, about the best we can do is switch tasks quickly and appropriately, and re-orient ourselves on the fly to each task's current state and data. In other words, multi-tasking is really just illusory. The efficiency of task switching is the real skill that enables some people to get much done in an 8 hour day and others, well...not so much. I prefer the feeling at the end of the day that I have spent my time wisely and moved the needle forward on the projects and tasks that matter. This is why I follow the principles of GTD.

The GTD principle is keep a list of ALL pending projects tasks in an external system (i.e. not in your head) and to define the very next action for all of them. Its so simple, yet profound. When I complete a next action for a project, I take 20 seconds and record the next next action that is required. Doing this consistently means that when I switch to the next project displayed in my Today view, having already defined its next action, I save on valuable re-orientation time and I can go straight into execution mode.

Using eProductivity for my Lotus Notes mail file (same tool David Allen uses) keeps me disciplined to "next action" all my projects. But further, eProductivity leverages Lotus Notes' main document / response document architecture so that you can organize and link all the related emails, calendar items, and reference documents to the relevant project or next action. The result is that whenever you view your project or next action document t all the related linked documents are visible in an embedded view. Context is everything.

For example, take a typical server upgrade project that has a life of one month. Let's say in the end, this project requires 50 emails, 5 meetings resulting in 5 minutes documents, and 20 reference documents. When you switch tasks and focus on the next action, you may need to refer to some particular information contained in one of those 75 documents. How much work is involved in searching out that info? In eProductivity,  if you've been linking pertinent documents to the action or project document as you go, the document you need is sitting right there in the embedded view. Can you accomplish this same thing using a folder created for that particular project? Yes, but you will have to go to your folders and find it. The power of eProductivity is that what you need is where you need it...in context.

I am addicted to eProductivity and am proud to admit it.

About two years ago I inherited the voluntary IT Admin role at my church. My predecessor, a Microsoft Business Partner, left behind an Active Directory infrastructure consisting of an MS2003 server, 4 XP Pro workstations, XP laptop, permanently mounted projector used for Powerpoint during services (songs, sermon outlines), Panasonic copier/printer, and all the networking peripherals connecting the whole domain together wired and wirelessly. Having training primarily in Lotus Domino Administration and Development with a little exposure to Windows infrastructure at work, it took me a while to document and fill in the missing gaps of knowledge in maintaining an AD environment. In time I implemented some needed efficiencies, like printing cheques through Quickbooks, and moving a few functions to the cloud such as the church directory, tracking donations, and generating tax receipts (see ChurchEquip.com).

My first priority was to assume the worst and put together the essentials of a disaster recovery plan. I needed to get an image of the server, all the workstations, and implement an automated backup. Apparently, backups were previously done manually  and sporadically and by the time I inherited the infrastructure, there was no backup for a good year. This was scary because a church is designated by the government as a charity (this is Canada) and there are many financial regulations related to maintaining records and annual audits. If you don't comply, you risk losing your charitable status. Finding the MS ASR backup to be a rediculously ancient method of backing up (you need a floppy disk?), I imaged everything using Acronis and setup a Carbonite.com online backup.

Learning the AD infrastructure was my next challenge. There are many sensitive files related to benevolence, counseling, payroll, and donations, and there are many volunteers and roles with varying degrees of access, so its essential to have a good handle on system security. Although I found it fascinating adding many of these Windows admin skills to my toolbelt, the whole system seemed quite kludgey and non-intuitive. The whole security aspect of a Windows domain is just way more complex than it needs to be. I found it incredulous how much effort was required to determine a user's total access to their PC and all the resources on the domain. I think the "Active" in Active Directory refers to the active administrators to maintain such a system. I had a DR plan which I was not comfortable with due to its complexity. Further, being in a volunteer position with limited hours to devote to maintaining the domain and vet all the all-too-frequent OS and application patches, I was actively looking for a simple alternative. There had to be a better way.

Enter Lotus Foundations. Naturally, through the yellowverse and Lotusphere 2008, I learned about the IBM's Nitix acquisition, a Markham, Ontario company, the same city where I work. I took the 2 day training course and was amazed by both its simplicity and power. Why MS allowed their system to evolve to such a complex, non-intuitive mess that is both hard to administer and hard to recover is beyond me. I convinced the powers that be to invest in a software-only Foundations license, selling the benefits of a solid, autonomic, and easily managed infrastructure. Another church in the same denomination had previously worked with Nitix to create a case-study which helped with the credibility.

Due to other priorities and tasks, I took my sweet time writing the migration plan over several months. I filled in my gaps of knowledge considerably by purchasing a not-for-resale version of Lotus Foundations software for myself, and installing it at home (see my previous postings). Having confidence through hands-on experience at home and with confidence in IBM support who beat all other industry support satisfaction levels, I was ready to upgrade the church's domain. It really went quite smoothly. I was moving to new (used) hardware so I could just set aside the existing server keeping it intact just in case I had to revert back. In a nutshell here was the process:

1. Copied all data off the old server to a USB hard drive
2. Searched all the workstations for data that the users may not have saved to network drives and copied this to appropriate directories on the USB drive.
3. Disjoined the workstations from the domain. I also cleaned up the workstations deleting the old user accounts, running  Windows cleanup, defragging the drives, and replacing the ancient Symantec AV with Kaspersky 2009 for Internet Security.
4. Server Setup: Connected the new server with Eth0 (nic) going to the hub for the LAN and Eth1 going directly to the DSL modem. Installed Lotus Foundations from CD. The software found 3 drives, two of which I raided, and the third became a hotswap backup drive. It automatically figured out the network, found the Internet, and activated the firewall isolating and protecting the entire LAN. I was up and running in 20 minutes with the RAID building silently in the background while I continued configuring. Under File services, I configured the server as the domain controller. I turned on AV, and scheduled backup.
   
5. Added user accounts and teams (aka groups) and set appropriate access and drive mappings.
6. Joined the domain from each workstation and confirmed all the appropriate drive mappings were perfect.
7. Setup the other resources like Projector (static IP) as well as the network printers.
8. Reset the Logmein.com remote access for the key PC's so users could continue to access workstations from home.
9. Copied data back from the USB drive into the appropriate team and individual file shares.
10. Testing and backup.

(Post install: Made DNS changes to enable dynamic DNS resolution between the org's Internet Domain name and IP).

All this was accomplished between 10 AM and 4 PM and I was not moving quickly either. Being my first migration, I expect if I were to do it again, I could accomplish it in half the time. The plan was the most important thing of course. I've now got a revised template I can use for other organizations that want to make the switch.

A quick side note: As everyone who has installed an OS knows, after you install, there are always patches and upgrades that need to be downloaded and applied. This can easily triple the install time for a Windows OS which seem to have a never-ending stream of updates and updates to updates. With Foundations, after installing the OS, it went out to the Internet and found a new release. Since the core Linux OS is so small (only a few hundred MB) their methodology for updates is replace, not patch. Clean, reliable, simple. The entire new OS was downloaded and installed with a single click in 10 minutes. After rebooting the server, the previous OS is available if you choose to revert to it, again with a single mouse click. How cool is that!

Additional functionality I'll be deploying over the next little while include the Domino add-on server, as well as the VMWare add-on, both included in the base price. I've also got a Quickr server I'd like to integrate somehow with the same accounts. Need to research that one. 

Onward and upward.

As I posted almost two weeks ago, I setup a Lotus Foundations server as my home server. I believe in the expression and practice to "eat you your own dog food" which simply means to use what you make or sell. Though IBM told me after 2 days of training I was ready to go out and make some money selling Foundations (wishful thinking) I know that I need to have intimate experience not only with how Foundations works, but also with how it doesn't work. I need to know how to troubleshoot the platform. After years supporting and developing for Domino on an AS/400 I have hundreds of indispensable tips and tricks, learned through innumerable trials, that get me out of a bind when things go wrong. "But things are not supposed to go wrong with Foundations because its...autonomic!" Or so they say. Well I have never seen nor expect to see PERFECT software this side of eternity.
 
So how did my implementation go? Well, last I wrote, I was getting my two drive RAID setup. That went flawlessly, though slow, but that's normal from what I've read about RAID.

Having already setup Teams (aka Groups) and Users, I was ready to move data. I simply mapped drives to the new server from my various home workstations. Already having a backup (via Carbonite.com) I did a cut paste to move data over as you normally would copy files. That worked except I had some files locked (probably by my workstation AV scan) which caused a little bit of havoc in getting things in sync again. First lesson learned: Use FTP and alway COPY, not MOVE files when doing a migration. Learn from your mistakes. Another issue was that the transfers took much longer than expected...warning sign that I did not heed. More on that in a second.

After my 70-80 GB of personal data was slowly migrated (not including video which I'm not going to move for now), I was ready to setup backup. I setup the Intelligent Disk Backup (called idB) which was simply a matter of clicking a button and accepting the defaults (it is more intelligent than I am). I am using an External Sata drive and I was quite amazed by the speed of the backup compared to USB.

Now I began to use the server from the mapped drives to my Vista and XP workstations. It was immediately recgnizable that there were file access speed issues, For example 1-2 MB pictures were taking 30 seconds or longer to open.

Seeing no explanation, nor errors in the logs, I opened a PMR with Lotus Support. Would I experience the same level of service I am used to from IBM?

First level support was what I expected, and I had done most of the troubleshooting already. For example, I had eliminated all the points of failure outside of the box and NIC card by replacing the cable, switched to a backup hub with just foundation and my laptop on the server, uninstalled Antivirus and turned off the laptop firewall. No change. The first level support person gave me a few Linux commands to check the network routing, and to obtain driver info and logs. Fascinating! I am not a Linux guy (yet) so I absorbed the learning and added this to my furture T/S toolbox.

I got passed to second level support, not quite as quickly as I had hoped (2 days?), but I wasn't losing any money or anything. It turns out that I knew the second level support engineer from Lotusphere and even before that at my two days of Foundations training at IBM in Markham. Let's call him Allen. He took charge and helped me forward my ports so he could access the Foundation server over the Internet. In the process, his advice was invaluable in helping me setup my Firewall and network properly using 2 NIC cards in the server. Eth0 was for the internal network and Eth1 went to my modem. Networking is fun...seriously.

When he logged in, apparently all checked out. Next, since I had a LogMeIn remote desktop account he was able to log into a workstation on my network and hit the server as a user would. He concurred...definitely something wrong. Now since this was a "white box" server (though its actually black) that I invested very little in, I was a little concerned that I would be told, "Sorry this is not a supported PC" and I'd then be stuck having purchased this PC without Windows from a local store over 2 weeks ago. But my fears were alleviated. You see, I had prepared well by running the burn-in compatibility test on the Foundations CD and those tests concluded this box was supported. To make a long story short, there was some incompatibility between the integrated NIC and the Linux driver. According to Allen he found similar reports from other Linux users dealing with the same card. The workaround: Switch to a more generic external card. To start with, all I need to do was disable Eth0 (integrated card) through the BIOS, disconnect the Internet from Eth1 and a move my LAN to the external card. After booting up, file transfer was like lightning. So, after a quick trip back to the computer store for another $20 Gigabit NIC, I was back up and running with my dual-NIC setup, firewalled, without any issues. My wife was relieved as her pictures are precious to her (to me too, but I am more of a stoic I guess).

Update: Turns out my second customer (my church) where I am installing a Foundations Server has the exact same issue with their integrated NIC. Well, I know how to solve that one thankfully.

Over all, it was good I had issues. I started with a good attitude, a teachable spirit, and full confidence IBM would be able to resolve this issue. After all, its a very typical setup. Through it all I learned a wealth of knowledge. The only stress was from my "customer" whom I had heard others refer to their counterpart as SWMBO (she who must be obeyed).

This past week, I installed Domino (which is the "START" in Foundations START). Really, it couldn't be simpler. Installs for Foundations are packaged a certain way so that all you need to do is FTP the *.PKG folder  into the server's autoinstall folder. In minutes it shows up on the console as an installable package. Click on install and in 20 minutes or so your Domino server is installed, configured with your user accounts, optional Notes ID's created, and ready to send/receive mail via web mail or your choice of mail client  I fired up iNotes and after some DNS changes and niggling issues over the fact that my ISP makes running your own mailserver difficult, I proved it  worked. Eventually, I'm going to get a proper ISP that allows me to serve up my web pages and run my own mailserver without hassle.

What's next?

• Setup my church on Foundations (next weekend)
• Learn more about PHP & MySQL
  
• Learn how to package a Notes NSF app to autoinstall on Foundations (my own apps of course)
  
• Learn XPages. I want to be a value added reseller with a full toolkit.
  
• Start selling
  

Finally, 6 months or so after taking the two day Lotus Foundations workshop and purchasing an NFR (not for resale) server software package for business partners, I got the incentive to deploy my first home server. Why a home server? Well, besides getting experience which I'll use in time to actually make money selling this technology (along with my Domino Applications of course), I have some very real needs at home for a server. My needs are not that much different than a typical SMB. Let's look at my starting point. I think my current situation is very typical: Two PC's in a workgroup, plus my work laptop which I connect to the wireless router when I am home. Before my 4 kids became computer savvy, I had just the one computer and kept all my important files on it (pictures, accounting records, email archives, MP3's, etc.). Life would have been simple except I'm a paranoid freak about backup, always have been. My backup media has gone from floppies, to QIC tape drives, to Iomega ZIP, to external USB drives and now, since life is too busy, I landed on using an online backup service from Carbonite.com for the past 2 years. But with 70+ GB of personal data and growing, plus the extra workstation and anticipation of more coming within the next year (netbooks for the kids? Don't tell them), I just dread the thought of a mega-long restoration and bandwidth issues I'll experience if/when my main hard drive dies and I have to restore from the cloud. In addition to my backup/restore concerns, we also need a much more disciplined process to keep the files for each kid, my wife and I separate. Beyond that, what a pain it is to manage passwords on two or more computers without central management. So, I figured its time to do it right and have a central server to manage all that. I have the know how, let's do it. Lotus Foundations as a package meets all my requirement for the perfect home server...not just for SMB's. I can't think of an easier system to deal with. Will I install the Start components (Domino/Notes) or the VMWare goodies? Probably eventually. But first things first. I need to get a system up and running, create user accounts, move my files over, and  ensure backup is running.

So off I went last Saturday to my local computer store within walking distance and I  found a nice duo core system for $429.99. Its not the latest, greatest, but more than meets my needs. I won't detail the specs here because that's all relative to your personal needs and economic priorities. It was bundled with Windows Vista Home so my first question to the sales guy was how much can you knock off if I don't need Windows. I got $80 off, more than I was expecting. Wow! 20% off! I felt like a rebel. My receipt clearly states "NO WINDOWS - less $80". I showed that around at work proudly.

The store had to build my system, possibly due to my no-Windows request and I brought it home yesterday. This AM I burned a new  Lotus Foundation CD and popped it in. Within 20 minutes I was up and running. But then I thought, "Hey, let's go all the way and get a second hard drive and RAID it". Why be just safe, when I can be paranoid safe? So back to the store I went again and bought 2 more identical SATA drives plus one external drive housing. My plan is to use the second drive as a mirrored RAID and the third drive, in the external housing, as my iDB backup drive. The external drive has both USB 2.0 and eSata connectors. Nice! This is my first computer with SATA and wow, what a difference that makes for ease of installation. Snap it it, turn it on and its online.

Once I booted up again, Lotus Foundations saw the new drive and asked me if I want to use it as my iDB backup drive or add it to the RAID. I chose RAID and that's where we're at right now. Foundations is spreading the data from my original install across both drives. I'm not sure how long  this is going to take...seems like it might take a few hours based on the 10 minutes it took to get to 4%, but the ease of setup more than compensates. 
 
 More to come...

Update: 30 Day Lotus Foundations Trial