Uh Clem's Admin World

I've had about 4 users now call me to complain about their inbox text turning a pale gray as if all the entries are ghosted.  The background stays white.  Additionally it seems the scroll bar doesn't work properly.   The problem goes away if they close their inbox and reopen it.

Just one of those strange quirks.  Anyone else have this problem?   I've opened a PMR to try to get more info.

Got an email from IBM Tech Support with a link to their ftp site to download the Notes 8.0.2 client CCH1 hotfix.  This hotfix supposedly fixes the hang on startup and maybe a few other SPR's I blogged about.

Bad news is that you will have to contact tech support to get it.

So my testing of DWA 8.0.2 has gone pretty well, and I'm moving forward with deployment.   I blogged about a bug with nested groups in the Sametime Contact List here.

But I have run into another bug that might be a little more troubling for the user.    Apparently the use of the up/down keys to navigate the inbox do not work if you have both the preview pane open, and logged into Sametime.   THIS one is going to be really annoying to my users.  I didn't think this was a common method for inbox navigation.  I would have guessed that users would use the mouse more.  But I've been given feedback that the up/down keys are used quite a lot.  Go figure.

This bug has been reported as SPR XMXL6XCA5D.   They could not give me a timetable as to when they were going to address this bug.  If you want this fixed sooner rather than later open a PMR with tech support and subscribe to this SPR, and tell them this is impacting your users.   This will give higher weight to the SPR, and maybe they will address it sooner.

Since I never saw any posting of an 8.0.2 "Revised" client they told me about 3 weeks ago I decided to call them.   The latest word is a Cumulative Client Hotfix (CCH1) is scheduled to be released this Friday (10 Oct).  The CCH will be a download that you will install over top the 8.0.2 install.   They were not sure whether it will be posted on the Passport Advantage website, or whether you have to call tech support and request it.

So this means you can not go straight to the hotfix for now.  You will have to install/upgrade to 8.0.2, then apply the hotfix.   I will have to investigate the Smart Upgrade option for this one.

I completed my last mail server upgrade just now.  Yes, I am brave enough to do it on a Friday!  So all mail servers are now Domino 8.0.2.  I still have my ST, QP, and BES servers to do, but the hard part is over.

Next week I start piloting the client upgrades and the DWA (iNotes) upgrades.  Fortunately 75% of my users are DWA users only.

I'm still waiting for the 8.0.2 "revised" client to be released that fixes the bugs I mentioned here.

I opened a PMR this morning about some Notes 8.0.2 client issues I've been having.   Some of my test installs are hanging after login.   Most of my test installs were getting multiple Sametime interfaces.  I blogged about both of these.

IBM tells me they are aware of these problems and they are planning to release a CCH (Cummulative Client Hotfix) hopefully later this week.  They told me it will show up in Passport Advantage under something like "8.0.2 Revised".

They also gave me a work around for the hanging issue.  They told me to try the notes.ini parameter enable_early_authentication=0.   I'm off to test this now.  I'll let you know how it works.

Here are some of the SPR's they are targeting for this CCH:
KUMA7FWPXR -  Prompt to log into basic client on clean install.
TMDS7HWT9G -  Getting multiple Sametime login interfaces.
LKIM7JCMB6 - Client hanging after login.

Is this reminiscent of the 5.0.3 release? 

The first production server upgrade is always the scariest.  You are told that the directory and other system databases are backward compatible, but for some reason you are never quite sure.

I upgraded my first production Domino server this week from 7.0.3 to 8.0.2.  I must say it went amazingly smooth.  I followed the recommendations in technote 1303385.  However I did take one other precautionary step.  I disabled the replication of the directory (names.nsf) to the other 7.x servers.  Once I got the first server (the admin server of course) up to 8.0.2 I then opened up replication of the directory to the 7.x servers one at a time.  I would let it replicate, then perform an updall on names.nsf on the 7.x server.   I waited an hour between each 7.x server and gradually let the 8.0.2 names.nsf out to each of the other 7.x servers.

This went smoothly on all the 7.x servers including a Sametime server, Quickr server, and BES server.  The only minor glitch was the typeahead in email addressing was a little confused on user machines for a little while, but it straightened itself out.   I'm not quite sure why this happened since I updated the view indexes right after replication.

Once again I give the upgrade process of a major release of Domino an "A".  It amazes me every time how smooth these upgrades go.

I hope to continue to blog my progress as I role out 8.0.2 to the rest of my servers and then to my users.  Stay tuned.  Feel free to contact me directly if you are getting ready to go to 8.x and need a little input from someone who has been there.

I loaded 8.0.2 on my laptop yesterday.  The upgrade went smoothly although I'm still amazed it takes 10 minutes and the progress bar goes across like 50 times.

I'm having a small issue with the integrated Sametime.  I'm noticing that the floating ST buddy list window (as in the R7 client) keeps loading.  The integrated version also is connecting.

I'm getting the following error in the status bar:

You cannot use IBM Workplace instant messaging because Notes is already logged on to the IBM Lotus Sametime server.

What?  "IBM Workplace instant messaging"??  Hey IBM,  I think you need to scrub your error messages a little better.

Anyway,  my upgrade was from 8.0.1, but I also noticed the old, floating buddy list window is still popping up on upgrades from 7.0.3.

I have my first Domino 8 server upgrade (from 7.0.3) scheduled for next week.   I have been planning to use 8.0.1, but now I hear that 8.0.2 might be out in the next couple of days.  I am considering just using 8.0.2, but one of my co-workers asked me if I'm crazy.

In the past I have waited at least 30 days after a point release to put it in production.   So why has my thinking changed?  Have I been lulled into a false sense of security with ND point releases?  The last point release that I remember being a disaster was 5.0.3, which has been, like, 7 years.

How fast are you planning to put 8.0.2 into production?