Domino Blog

News, views and directions on IBM Lotus Domino

I was going through my list of things to blog about and I realized something... the things I want to blog about are some of the best topics covered at Lotusphere 2009!  All the discussions I've had with the developers on more of the cool stuff coming out in Notes/Domino 8.5 as well as some of the case studies about topics I've already blogged about will be sessions you can attend yourself!  

So, rather than spoil the surprise, I decided I'm going to provide a brief list of some of the sessions I think you might be interested in.  These sessions cover the topics I've already blogged about, but might give more detail or provide case studies for how to implement the features.  Overall though, there are a TON of great sessions planned for Lotusphere 2009 and I just can't highlight them all (much as I would like to!!).  You'll just have to go to Lotusphere to learn more!!

JumpStart Sessions:
JMP 102 - IBM Lotus Domino Administrator Quickstart
( a GREAT overview of all the new stuff and more!!)

Show n' Tell Sessions:
SHOW 101 - ID Vault, Roaming and DAOS: Get Ahead of the Curve with IBM Lotus Domino 8.5
(a GREAT session where you can see it all in action!)

Track Three: Planning & Managing Your Collaboration Infrastructure:
ID110 - New Single Sign-On Improvements for your IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Windows Environments
ID202 - Release the Power! Deploying New Features in IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5  
(this one will go over a GREAT case study about how IBM implemented ID Vault, dynamic policies and Auto-Populated groups together to create an ultimate experience!)
ID203 - IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 Server Performance Improvements
ID204 - How to Help Reduce Your Disk Costs Using IBM Lotus Domino 8.5
ID207 - How to Get the Most out of the Lotus Domino and Attachment Object Service
(a session that's near and dear to my heart, Gary and Dave will outline the lovely details of DAOS)
ID209 - Getting the Most Out of Your IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 Messaging Servers
ID210 - ID Vault in IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5
(I've blogged about ID Vault, but in this session, David and Gil give you the skinny in detail!)

So there are a few that really caught my eye (sorry - as you can tell, I'm an Admin at heart!!).  BUT - Like I said, there are many, many more great sessions lined up, so please take a look at the session abstracts!

Hope to see you at Lotusphere!

As I've been talking to more customers about the features in Notes 8 and 8.5, I've been noticing a feature that is somewhat going overlooked in terms of how powerful it can be to your end users.  Then, a recent "Tips and Tricks" email from a colleague prompted me to write this entry (Thanks, Lisa)!

How are you doing Notes personal contact synchronization for your end users?  

If you remember, in previous versions of Notes, the way to get personal contacts to synchronize over-the-air with your Blackberry was to have the end-user manually select "Action -> Synchronize Journal" and/or "Action -> Synchronize Contacts" in the menu.  This would synchronize the contacts with the mail file (also used for Domino Web Access).  Then, your end-users would have to do this regularly in order to get any updates.  Most of my customers found this more than a tad bit annoying, and therefore found other "interesting" ways to get contacts to synchronize.  Not fun, right?

One work-around that I'm finding more and more people using is the use of Roaming Profiles instead.  Now, the use of roaming profiles has its own implication in ND8 (roaming is not supported with the Standard client until 8.5) as well as implications for administration, etc.  It's a heck of an undertaking just to get contacts to synchronize!

So...there's a MUCH easier way to do it in ND8!

You may have noticed that in 8.0.2, the menu options mentioned above for "Synchronize Contacts" are gone.  Well - they've been replaced by a much better option for your end-users!  To enable the new, improved and EASY way of synchronizing your contacts (so you can get over-the-air synch with your BB), just do the following:
1.        From the Notes client, select "File -> Preferences" (or other options to get to your preferences, depending on your O/S)
2.        Click on the "Contacts" header in the navigation pane on the left to get to your Contacts preferences.
3.        Make sure you select the option for "Enable Synchronize Contacts on the Replicator...".

If you switch to your replicator tab, you will see a "Synchronize Contacts" icon added to your replication.  Now, when you replicate, your contacts will replicate too!  You can even setup a schedule to replicate them on a regular basis!!  It's THAT easy!  No more manual synchronization tasks for your end users!

Try it out!  And, you may make your end-users happier and your life easier!

Clarification NOTE: At this time, this only works for the Contacts - not the Journal.  To Synchronize the Journal, you would still have to do it manually or through some other method.  

Well, many of you have asked about how to provide training on Notes 8 to your end-users.  While there are some GREAT 3rd party tools available (I won't go into them here), Lotus has just announced the Learning Plug-In for Lotus Notes!  It's a publicly available side-shelf plug-in that you can provide your end-users so they can view and filter Notes 8 Learning materials!  Once installed, your users will have access to:

• Task-based demonstrations
• Videos
• Tutorials
• Product Tour
• Web Seminars
• Self-paced e-learning
• Reference Cards

Go take a look, download it and try it out today!!

In my last post, I asked you to please provide information on how your company uses Domino policies.  You all provided some GREAT information about how you use policies today and what kinds of things you would like to see in the future - from additional documentation to additional functionality.  Thank you so much for your responses!

And, I know I promised a quid pro quo.

Well, I like to make good on my promises - so here you go!!  ;-)

The wonderful developers of Domino policies were listening and read your comments.  They have come to your rescue!  In the Notes/Domino Wiki, there are now 2 different Policy entries!  And, yes, there will be more!

The first entry is a general Domino Policies FAQ.  In this entry, Mark Skurla does a great job of answering some of the more pressing questions about policies such as the different types of policies (organizational, explicit and dynamic) as well as what to be aware of when creating policies and how they get applied to the client.  It's a great overview of some of the more pressing questions!  Great stuff!

The second entry goes into much more detail and is one I think you will really like a lot.  This entry explains Policy Precedence.  I don't know about you, but some of my customers have been asking questions about policy precedence and policy hierarchies.  Why is this important?  Well..think of it this way:

Many of you outlined that you have one big (or a few big) policies for the organization.  I haven't seen or heard of a lot of implementations of policies that really go down to the deep, detailed level for end-users to take advantage of some of the more detailed settings that are now available in ND8.  As you know, you now have the ability to set specific settings for a small group of users (executives for example) and can do that through the use of hierarchical policies.

In the policy precedence entry, Mark outlines how the three levels of policies (explicit, group and organizational) can work together to apply various policies with broad or narrow scopes for end-users without too much difficulty.  His entry provides some great examples of how to set these and it's a great read for anyone looking to better understand policies and how powerful they can really be.

So - go out to the Wiki and take a look!  And, comments and questions are encouraged!  It's through your help and your interests that postings like those come about - so let them know what you think!!  Happy Reading!

So I have a question for you.

I believe it was back in Notes/Domino R6 that we introduced policies.  But, I know most of my clients didn't really "leverage" them until the R7 timeframe - if at all.  As we move forward with ND8 and then with ND8.5, the Lotus developers have done even more with making things available via policies.

So...a little background on policies:

A policy is a document that identifies a collection of individual policy settings documents. Each of these policy settings documents defines a set of defaults that apply to the users and groups to which the policy is assigned. Once a policy is in place, you can easily change a setting, and it will automatically apply to those users to whom the policy is assigned.  You can use policies to help with things like

• Registration
• Desktop settings
• Lotus Traveler
• Lotus Symphony
• Roaming
• Security
• and much, much more!

So, policies can really help make your administrative life much, much easier and can help you control a significant portion of your environment.  So let me ask you a couple questions...

1. Do you use policies in your organization today?
2. If so, how do you have them implemented?  Is it by OU?  By groups of users?  Or just one big policy?
3. What do you leverage policies for?
4. What would you like to see done with policies?
5. What questions do you have about policies and/or how they work?

I promise a quid pro quo as well on this!  If you have questions, I will do everything I can to answer them and hopefully we can help get you to embrace policies in your organization!

Let's talk about the creation and storage of Notes ID files for a moment.  

When you create a Notes ID for an end user, where do you put it?  Do you keep a copy of it somewhere so that you have access to it in the future?  What about the password?  Do you use a generic password so that if a user forgets it you have a copy with a known password to give them?  And when a user requires that original copy (because of a lost password or such) how do you deal with any changes that occurred from the time the id was created until the time they requested a new one?  Things like name changes, certificate changes, encryption keys, etc?  And what about users with multiple versions of the ID file - on shared computers or such?

A lot of questions, I know.  But these are also questions I get asked all the time by my customers wondering how to handle things like this.

Over time, many customers have dealt with this issue in many ways - from using a file server to implementing a complex and expensive 3rd party tool to manage Notes IDs.  Unfortunately, you usually have to compromise one thing for another - security vs. usability.  It's easy to place the ID file on a file server or in a Notes database and use generic passwords - but it's not very secure.  Or, some of the 3rd party tools make it very secure, but they aren't particularly easy to use or manage.  We're often left with a solution that is cumbersome and/or expensive to manage.  

It's pretty much been the only thing you can do to manage those id files and provide some level of password or id file recovery for your end users.  Is it easy?  NO.  Is it secure?  Not usually.  Is it a pain in the administrative you-know-what?  YES!  This has led many of you to ask "Why can't we just get rid of the id file?"   But then, you stop and think about the security infrastructure the id file gives you and you wonder - "Well, maybe there's a better way."  THERE IS!

Domino Administrators Rejoice!

There's a new feature in Domino 8.5 that will help to ease your Notes ID file woes.  It's called the Notes ID vault.  The Notes ID vault is meant to help you manage and maintain Notes ID files without compromising the security of the ID file itself.  Imagine if you will, a world where:

• During registration, the Notes ID file is automatically stored in a secure database
• End users can recover their password on their own
• Multiple copies of the Notes ID file are automatically synchronized
• Specified auditors have access to encrypted data for litigation and other purposes

Shouldn't you be able to manage those ID files without compromising the security of them?  Shouldn't end-users be able to recover their password on their own - maybe without even having Notes Administrator intervention?  And what about during those messy litigation efforts when you need access to someone's encrypted mail file without knowing their password..shouldn't you be able to do that easily too?  Anyone who's been a Domino Administrator has got to be saying "Yes, Yes, Yes and YES!"

That, and much more is what Notes ID vault provides.  Essentially, Notes ID vault is implemented with your certification hierarchy and policies.  When you register a new user ID (you can even get all your existing IDs, so don't worry), you have a new option to place the ID file in the vault.  Then, using the Domino Administrator client, you can configure the vault settings like password recovery, setup vault auditors, configure vault security or extract the ID from the vault when needed.  And, once everything is configured, end-users can now access the recovery configured in the vault and get it back themselves.  Then, through the beauty of policies, those multiple copies of ID files, etc. is synchronized and very nicely managed.  How much cooler can you get??!!

So there you have it, folks!  I think ID vault is going to make life a lot easier for many people!  Watch this space for upcoming posts on more details like security and implementation.  And..I'm hoping to get a nice case study for you from IBM's own implementation of ID vault!  Stay tuned!

Having been a Notes/Domino Administrator for a number of years (and then being a consultant in ISSL for 6 years), I know how important it is to make sure your Domino environment is running well.  You're constantly bombarded with questions like - do I have enough capacity?  Am I utilizing the memory/cpu, etc. effectively?  What things could I be "tweaking" to make the system perform better?

Often, questions like these result in discussions with consulting groups like IBM's Software Services for Lotus (ISSL) or the Lotus Field Support organization (FSS).  These organizations focus on best practices and do a great job of coming on-site and giving you a detailed, thorough review of your environment and a nice report on what you could do better.

While these detailed reports are great, and should be performed on a regular basis, what about those in-between times when you just want to get an idea of where you are?  What if you are a self-service kind of organization who wants to make sure you have done everything you possibly could before bringing in the experts??

Well, Domino Configuration Tuner is for you!!

In a nutshell, Domino Configuration Tuner (DCT) looks at your server settings and compares them to a pre-defined catalog of "best practices".  It then generates reports that explain any differences between your settings and "best practices" and suggests changes you can make, as well as providing you with references to supporting publications that give more details about those settings.

DCT is currently available as part of the Notes/Domino 8.5 Public Beta program and is implemented as a template that is included with the Domino Administrator client install.  The first "official" release of DCT will ship with Notes/Domino 8.5 and is designed to evaluate Domino 7.0 and later.  

How Does it Work?
First off, DCT is a template.  It's implemented as part of the Domino Administration client and does not run on the Domino server itself.  On the "Server/Analysis" tab of the client, you will see the option for "Domino Configuration Tuner" in the left-hand selection outline.  When you choose that, a local copy of dct.nsf will be created.  Then, simply click "Run New Scan" and you are off!  DCT will look at settings in server documents, the notes.ini and database advanced properties.  Individual configuration settings are flagged when their values are known to cause problems.  Out-of-range and unexpected values are also reported so that undefined behavior can be prevented.

What Does it Look For?
During the scan, DCT leverages a set of Rules that are based on accumulated knowledge about Domino Configuration collected from Lotus Support documents and known customer issues.  In the current beta release of DCT, there are 90+ rules that are evaluated.   Also, you can disable individual rules if they don't apply to you or your environment.  In addition, all details about Domino, the O/S and hardware variations that apply to a configuration option are posted and the DCT rule will honor those variations.  For example, the absence of an ini parameter that does not apply to Windows will not be reported when DCT is run on a Windows server.  And...the great part about these rules is that they will be updated by Development and Support on a regular basis and can be "downloaded" into your client.

What Do You Do With the Report?
After DCT runs, you will receive a report that outlines any discrepancies between the rules and your configured settings.  The report will outline the current setting, what server(s) it is on, and an explanation of the setting and associated "best practice".  Most of the rules that are evaluated have a wiki post in the Notes/Domino wiki and DCT will point to that wiki posting in your report.  In addition, the report will outline any additional references for the setting such as links to relevant documents and on-line reference material.

I think DCT is a great tool for every customer and should help answer those little "nagging" questions about your environment.  There's much more to tell (like some details about some of the rules), but I'll save that for another blog post!  So - what do you think?  Think it could be helpful???

I feel bad.  The Notes 8.0x client has gotten a lot of press.  The Domino 8.5 server has gotten a lot of press.  We all talk about things like improved UI, DAOS, Configuration Tuner, XPages and all that jazz!  Everybody loves them!  (and rightfully so, I should add)  But what about Domino 8.0.x?

What about the server you can deploy NOW?  What does that give you?  We all know that the ".0" releases are typically for clients, so we often forget to mention the server things that get done then too.  Well, thanks to Domino product management, developerworks and some great articles out there, the Domino 8.0x server is finally getting it's due!

Did you know about the server performance enhancements in Domino 8.0x?  Even better, did you know you can get those performance improvements incrementally - even if you didn't deploy BOTH the 8.0.x client and server at the same time?  Tests show that even with the 7 mail template, a 7 ODS and a 7 client on an 8 server, you should see improved CPU and disk I/O.  And, of course, those numbers only get better when as you add in some V8 variables  In fact...

From the measurements reported in this article, upgrading to Lotus Domino 8 and the new Lotus Notes 8 client should be a very positive experience. We see CPU reductions across the board as well as I/O reductions on most platforms when compared to Lotus Notes and Domino 7. We see some increase in network and memory utilization, so installations that are sensitive to those parameters should plan accordingly. We showed the incremental improvement in performance as you upgrade Lotus Domino 7 and Notes 7 to a Lotus Domino 8 and Notes 8 infrastructure on the Microsoft Windows platform.

Now, some of you may say that benchmark results don't really represent the facts - the workloads aren't high enough - they don't simulate what "real" users do - and that's been taken into account!  In fact, NotesBench and Server.Load workloads were modified recently to be more like what "real" users do!  So, while your mileage may vary, it might not be by that much!

But...don't take my word for it.  Check out these great articles that show all the technical details!  I promise, the Domino 8.0.x server will deliver - NOW, Today, without delay!

The case for upgrading to IBM Lotus Domino 8 for better server performance
IBM Lotus Domino V8 Server with the IBM Lotus Notes V8 client: Performance
IBM Lotus Notes V8 workloads: Taking performance to a new level

Well, the cat's out of the bag.  Ed Brill blogged today that Notes 8.0.2 is scheduled for eGA release on August 26, 2008 in English.  This is certainly a long-awaited release, as we've seen phenomenal numbers on increased performance enhancements, etc.  Plus, this brings the long-awaited release of iNotes Ultralite, which provides support for Safari on the iPhone.

So now we have 8.0, 8.01, 8.02 and 8.5 is around the corner.  You may be asking yourself (at least, many of you have asked me) "Which version should I deploy??".  GREAT QUESTION!  While everyone is different, and each of you should certainly perform your own tests and validations prior to upgrade (read...regular caveats and disclaimers apply), hopefully I can give you a little bit more information about each release to help get you thinking about which is right for you.

UPDATE - Matt Babaian shares the details on the performance improvements in 8.0.2 and how they are applied to 8.5 here!

First, let's talk about the major features in each release:

Notes/Domino 8.0.1
This version is available NOW and has been for some time.  It was the first point release, which as we all know usually translates to added stability over the .0 version.  Many of you who are early adopters have probably been testing with this version and you may be near completion of your testing.

Notes/Domino 8.0.2
This comes out next week, but provides the MAJOR performance improvements on the client side for the Eclipse configuration.  
On the client side:

• Those of you concerned about the load time for the Eclipse client, the amount of memory used when it's running, etc. are happy about this release  
• In addition, this brings Office 2007 viewers and
• The all-important iPhone browser support.

On the server side:

• There are a number of bug fixes in this version that many of you 7.x users have been waiting for before testing your 8.0.x server upgrade

Notes/Domino 8.5
While there will be some client-side enhancements for this version, for all intents and purposes this release is ALL about the server.
On the client side:

• Same features as 8.0.2
• Roaming user support for the Eclipse client
• Calendar federation (iCal subscriptions, teamroom calendars, activities/to-do's)
• Notes Share Logon
• Citrix 64-bit support
• Macintosh support
• Ubuntu Linux support
• Eclipse-based Designer client and Xpages!

On the server side:

• Domino Attachment and Object Storage (DAOS)
• Domino Configuration Tuner (DCT)
• Web Application templates
• Dynamic Policies
• and much, much more!

WOW!  Lots of great stuff there!  So now that you know the highlights, which is right for you?  Well, let's jump to 8.0.2 vs. 8.5.  The reason I want do do that is this - if you are already testing 8.0.1, chances are you are not going to change your test plans for 8.0.2 - especially if you are almost done with your testing.  If you still have time for 8.0.2 in your test plans (read, you are early in testing), then read on!

Deploy Notes/Domino 8.0.2 if...
Let's face it - if you haven't started your Notes client deployment yet, are still fairly early in testing and want to get started or done by the end of the year, you should probably deploy 8.0.2!  The performance enhancements alone are SUCH a difference that it's well worth the additional week or so wait to continue (or begin) your testing.  We have seen that the amount of time to load Notes has been decreased by 50% - yes, 50%  that's AMAZING!  And, the amount of RAM used has been decreased by 20-25%.  Also, if you have iPhone users or are using Office 2007, this is the release for you!

Deploy Notes/Domino 8.5 if...
If you haven't started your testing of ND8 or are planning on starting later in the year/first of next year, think hard about waiting for 8.5.  While this is mostly a server release, there are some show-stoppers on the client side like...Roaming user support!  That's a BIG one for my clients who want to roll out a single configuration but use roaming user - and it's there in 8.5.  Also, Mac or Ubuntu users - yup - gotta wait for 8.5.  

For the most part though, 8.5 is very server focused, and you probably don't need to wait for this release to start your client rollout.  I would ask yourself though, about upgrading your servers to 8.0.x before this release.  Is it worth it?  Remember..8.5 has a different ODS from 8.0.x, and most of the big server features in 8.0.x came with an ODS update - do you really want to go through an ODS update TWICE??  If not, but keeping the server on the same version is compelling to you..upgrade the server, but not the ODS until 8.5 - then do both!

So, think about the following:

• What about deploying Notes 8.0.x clients now with 8.5 server later??

THAT's what is very compelling!  You may want to leave your servers where they are, deploy the 8.0.2 client, and then upgrade your servers to 8.5 when it's available.  There are 3 main features on the client that require an 8.x server and so won't work (ghosted meetings, message recall and enhanced out of office), but otherwise, you'll get a BIG bang for your buck if you move the clients sooner!

Like I said...a LOT of choices, but that's the great thing about it.  You can pick and choose what works best for you and your organization - and make everyone happy!!


Credits
Special thanks go to Dwight Morse for pulling this information together!

The questions and comments just keep pouring in, so here's some more on DAOS.  In this post, we'll talk about how it works with replication, clustering and backups.  I'll also mention a little bit about transaction logging.

So - as I mentioned before, DAOS is server-enabled.  Therefore, in a cluster situation, each Domino server or partition would have to be DAOS enabled.  Also, each server in the cluster set would have its own data store - sharing is not allowed.  There is really no way to share DAOS stores across servers, as the current configuration of the feature has specific ways it stores things.  If you used the same share across servers, DAOS would get confused, so to speak.  So, please don't do it - bad things will happen!

Because of this, it's also not a good idea for you to restore a DAOS store from one server with the DAOS store on its cluster mate.  While in theory, this should "work", as a rule it's not supported and again, "bad things can happen".  To restore a DAOS store, do it from backup.  There will be tools that will, in conjunction with backups from the transaction logs, restore and resync the DOAS store with its DAOS catalog and .nsf files.  One such tool is the DAOS manager which will determine which attachments for a given .nsf will need restored.  In essence, it will provide a list of missing attachments so you know what to pull from your backups and transaction logs.

Also, you might ask, why can't I just do an O/S level copy/paste of the .NSF files across clusters that are DAOS-enabled and not have to worry about restore procedures?  Well, even though you can think of DAOS as just another storage device, you need to understand the "rules" of how it works.  Because there are pointers to the .NLO files in more than one place, the best thing to do is to procedurally "repack" the attachments with the .nsf file.  There is a compact command switch for this that will put the .nsf back into native form (putting the attachments back in).  If you don't repack it and you move it to another DAOS server that is a replica or cluster mate, you can in fact run the resync tools to sync with the attachments on that cluster mate, but for 8.5 this will be a very long process.  So if you need to restore an .NSF file, one way to do it is to repack it on the cluster mate and then create a new replica on the missing server.

I'm not sure if that explains the DAOS store very well, but we really don't have the "dirty details" to give right now about exactly how it works - "it just works"!   As for your backup, well - the .NLO files will be treated like any other file on the file system, so as long as your backup program can backup transaction logs, you should be fine - no additional backup utilities needed.  Please note that development is in process of writing a very good and thorough white paper on backups and restores that will describe best practices and procedures, more details on pruning, how you should do your backups, etc.  As soon as I get the latest copy, I will provide more information.  Again, suffice it to say, development will make sure that you can backup the files correctly and restore them without issue!

Also, I want to point out that DAOS should not interfere with all your 3rd party add-ins.  At this point, DAOS works at a level below the add-ins, so they should not be impacted.  So, all Domino applications on the server can use DAOS (including web apps) and not have an issue.

We've also had questions on if there is a CPU impact to running DAOS and the answer is yes - but a minimal one.  For example, suppose you have an application that is used by a ton of users and has very large attachments.  One of our readers pointed out that DAOS would have to compute a checksum against the attachment (thus reading it entirely).  And, it's true that checksums are computed as the object is being written, so there will be a small CPU hit as that is done.  However, it has not been shown to be significant at this time - and development has tested with some very large (and plentiful) attachments!  Also, since it's all done in memory, there is no I/O hit to the server either.   Oh - and the same goes for if you encrypt the DAOS store - memory and CPU hit, but no I/O hit.  Let's face it - CPU and memory hits are usually not an issue to most of you out there!

That's it for today!  Hope this has answered some of the other questions about DAOS!  I think this also concludes my DAOS rant!  Hopefully, next up in the lineup will be Configuration Tuner!!