Session slides and documentation from my MWLUG presentation

Thanks to all the folks that attended my session on InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes at MWLUG in Cleveland today.  Below are both the slides and the documented steps to walk through creating your own custom Lotus Notes installation.

Click here for the slides from my presentation. (In .PDF format.)

Click here for the step-by-step documentation. (In .PDF format.)

Thanks again for attending!

Forgetting something?

Toby and the sky lantern
Originally uploaded by Macian

On Saturday of this past weekend our friends, Joel and Shannon, had their yearly anniversary party at their house. It was also a double celebration as our other friends Craig and Mandi were celebrating their anniversary as well. As has become the custom anytime the clans come together in celebration, my camera goes with me and Flickr usually looses another gig or two of disk space from all the pictures I take. It came time to cut the cake for desert and someone yelled, "Hey Andy! Grab your camera!". I went for my camera bag, unzipped it, pulled out the camera and that's when it happened. **insert whooshing sound here**
Flash back to Friday night. I'm watching "Boondock Saints 2" on the laptop via Netflix and I notice my SD card in the laptop. "Oh, I can't forget that tomorrow", I think to myself. **reinsert whooshing sound here**
Flash back to Saturday afternoon. Damn it. I forgot the SD card. I was mad. As Joel and Shannon live out in the countryside of Northeast Ohio, the closest store that may have one is 15 minutes down the road, at least. So after much razing from my wife and friends, I headed out. Luckily, the Dollar General had 2GB SD cards for $10. And I got the last one. Seriously, what modern day photographer worth their salt would forget taking "film" with them? Well, what has two thumbs and forgot their card....this guy.
So, I missed the cake cutting and didn't get any of those. But the pictures I did get later in the evening was worth every cent of the $10 I spent on the card.
Shannon had purchased some sky lanterns online to launch after sunset. If you have never seen them in action before, they are truly amazing. So with some adult supervision, the kids were able to launch them. And that's when the magic happened. Had I not gone and grabbed a card, I would have missed moments like this.
So the moral of my long winded story.....don't forget film. You never know what you might miss.

Seven years in cyberspace, my Bloggerversary.

Seven years ago today, I wrote this:

Friday, August 15, 2003

Greetings. My name is Andy, and I will be your host into my psyche. So please, sit back, relax, and enjoy what I have to say.

Posted by Andy Donaldson at Friday, August 15, 2003

Well, after 766 posts, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  My posts have gotten better I think.  Well, at least the grammar has I hope.  And, I hope I've been able to give back to a community that has given me so much over the past years.  The main reason I got into blogging, especially about Lotus, was to give back.
So here's hoping to many more collaborative years.  With how far it's come since I started, I can't wait to see what the next seven years holds.

iNotes Ultra-light mode on the Android

Tripped across a really neat thing this morning that I wanted to share with the class.  As you may have heard, Lotus Traveler support for Android devices is currently in beta mode and is expected out later this year.  But with the growing number of Android users in the corporate populace, the requests for supporting for the device are mounting.  So that led me to a little bit of playing around this morning.  While the browser on my Droid X is pretty cool, getting into iNotes just wasn't going to happen.  Sure, when I went to the URL for our iNotes access, I did get the log in screen. (Photos courtesy of my BlackBerry Storm, since there is not screen capture utility on a non-rooted Droid)

And after entering my credentials, I was taken to my Inbox, but nothing loaded

So that's when I started wondering if Android could use the iNotes Ultra-light mode.  I did some Goggling to find information about this and there were some sites that had the direct link you could use.  But I was looking for the answer to how could the user just login into iNotes Ultra-light like we did on the Apple devices before Traveler was a real thing.  So being the good geek that I am, I started messing around and found rather quickly that it works by following the steps below.

**Caution-You are about to make changes to how your users interact with iNotes. Just because this worked for me, doesn't mean it will work 100% for you. Test! Thank you.**

-  Open your IBM Lotus iNotes Redirect application on your Domino server.

-  Click on the Setup button.

-  Select the Ultra-light/Mobile Settings icon

-  In the section"Mobile Device User Agent Keywords", add a comma after that last entry you have there and type in android.  Must be lower case.

-  Click Save & Exit
-  Now, restart the HTTP task on the Domino server.

-  On your Android based device, type in the URL of your iNotes site.  You should note that the login screen will look different then it did before:

 

-  After typing in your credentials, you should see this:

Tada!  You have now become the hero of your Android loving minions!  Give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy the rest of your day!

Everything old is new again - The Handheld Wars

After reading Gregg's post today and the follow-up conversation on his entry, it got me to thinking about all of the conversations that I've had recently at work. You see dear readers, I believe that we are at the dawn of the post-modern PC era.  (Like most techies don't know that already.)  But what's funny to me is, that just like how things were back in the early 90's with the PC revolution, we are seeing that today with handhelds.   I remember one of the fun things we used to do back then was to go to "Computer Shows" that were either at a Shriner Hall or at the local Holiday Inn.  They were sights to behold.  Mind you, this was back before the public Internet explosion and this would be the place to buy shareware software.  I can remember the first version of Castle Wolfenstien 3D bought at one of those...and the ensuing headaches and nausea from playing the game non-stop.  But the shows were usually broke down into distinct areas.  First, and always most populated, was the MS-DOS based apps and hardware area.  Those consumed the largest area.  Then came the Apple and Amiga areas.  They were usually surrounded by people that smelled earthy and wore tie dye shirts.  Again, another story.
So how does that fit in to today's explosion of gadget pr0n?  Easily.  I'm going to use the example we've been using at work and build upon the ones I used on Gregg's site, but with an addition.
Android - The Android/Google OS is the DOS of the day. It can run on many different devices and is pretty solid. You are not just stuck to one piece of hardware.  Multiple vendors with multiple devices from phones to the eventual droid pad devices.  I even read late last week that in India, the government is subsidizing a computer that runs the Android software and will only cost $35 each.  How much longer will it be until something like that hits the States?
iOS - Just like back in the day, Apple doesn't play with anyone.  If you want an Apple branded OS, you bought an Apple computer.  If you want the iPhone/iPad device functionality, you buy one of their devices.  Period.  While their fan base is both loyal and growing, I don't think it will really grow until Apple is able to shake free the shackles of AT&T.  When one of them show up on Verizon or Sprint, then the party really starts.  Us in the hill country outside of the big cities don't have the GSM coverage like the city folk do.  But CDMA coverage is usually pretty good, even 3G in some places.
WebOS - Like the Amiga, people who have it, love it.  But, with HP still getting their house in order from the acquisition of Palm, I fear this platform is losing ground fast.  I know HP has already said that they are not going to use the next version of Windows Mobile on their mobile devices moving forward, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.  Is it too late for the platform I wonder?  Only time will tell.  For now though, I will continue to keep my Palm TX by my bedside as both an alarm clock and RSS reader.  I love that old thing.
BlackBerry - Has this become the modern day analogy for the mainframe?  What did mainframes do?  What they were told and they did them well.  That's why it's taken forever for them to go away.  What does BlackBerry do? What it's suppose to do, and does it well.  But like mainframes, they lack the sexy factor.  I know BlackBerry 6 is around the corner, but I am also hearing that devices like the Curve 2 and the Storm 2, two heavily sold devices, will not support the next sexy OS.  So will that alienate users who would rather spend their money on a new Droid or iPhone rather then a new BlackBerry that may or may not do what they want it to?  Again, time will tell.  But I really do hope that RIM is able to pull it together, bring the sexy back and put out devices that are rock solid like they used to be.  As of late, we are seeing a large number of devices coming back to HQ that are broken.  Just like how the latter day Treo's were.  Time will tell.

For now, I'm just hoping that Lotus is able to keep up with the non BlackBerry devices and get support for them on Traveler ASAP.  I know we've had a huge win with the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch as well as the left over Windows Mobile devices on Traveler.  I just hope they are able to keep that win going!  I know they will, I'm just impatient.

The Droid X Camera

It's pretty nice. Still getting use to doing thing Android rather then iPod Touch or BlackBerry. Cool device and the camera is a win!

Fort Laurens Revisited

_MG_6479
Originally uploaded by Macian
A salute to the Unknown.

A few years back, I blogged about an event that occurs every year at the site where Fort Laurens once stood.  This outpost, often forgotten about in the annals of history, was manned for close to a year by brave men and women whose dream was that our country would one day be free from British rule.  There was nothing glamorous about their existence at the fort.  Often harassed by local tribes and cut off for months at a time, these brave individuals did what they had to do to make their dream become a reality.  And some of them took their last breath on these grounds.  Again, this is the ONLY site in the United States where there is a "Tomb of the Unknown Solider" for the American Revolution.  Not at Arlington.  Here.  So, if you're ever cruising through Ohio on I-77 on your way south, jump off at exit 93 and stop on over to the site.  If nothing else, to say, "Thanks".
You can click here to see all the pics I took on Saturday.

Apple fesses up on signal issue...kinda

In an open letter published by Apple today, they claim that their signal issues with the new iPhone is based on a bad algorithm and AT&T told them how to "fix" it. Ok, I might buy that, but, what about the signal strength on the upgraded iPod Touch? As I stated in my last post, since I had upgraded it to the new iOS 4, I can sit close to the access point and the signal indicator will still show low signal. I'll be curious to see if the patch is available for that device too when it's made available. Until then, I'm just going to keep playing with the iPad that I borrowed from work for the next week. In fact, I'm writing this blog entry on it right now. Of the iPad I can only say one thing. It's techno crack. I'm going to have a hard time giving it back when my week with it is done.

I don't think the iPhone is the only thing having reception problems

A lot of news has been generated this past week about the iPhone 4 and it's reception issues.  I, like many, was all excited last week to download and upgrade my iPod Touch to the latest and greatest from Apple.  After the upgrade, I started to notice something goofy.  My signal strength meter started showing low reception.

This was taken on my iPod Touch at work sitting right under the access point.  

Now is it hardware related?  I don't think so.  Having used the device for some time before the upgrade, I never have seen that low of a signal.  And being right under the access point at work and across the room from my router at home, I shouldn't be having that low of a connection.  So is it really the device or the software?  Like I stated in Tweets last week, I like iOS 4.  But on an 8GB iPod Touch, it's not multi-threaded available and with all the folders, it's like I'm back to Windows 3.1 days.  Oh well. Lotus Traveler works like a champ on it, and that's all that matters to me.

It's official, I'm a speaker at MWLUG2010!

I received word yesterday that my abstract was accepted for MWLUG2010 that will be held in Cleveland, OH on August 19 and 20th!  Not sure yet as to what day I will do the presentation, but I am looking forward to it.  My presentation will be an updated version on using InstallShieldTuner for Lotus Notes that I presented at the Northeast Ohio User Group meeting a few years ago.  So, if you're in Cleveland in August on those days and have nothing better to do, stop on by!
Click here for more info on Midwest Lotus User Group Conference.

Guess I better get to work on the presentation then ;-)

Multiple Notes/Domino address books on your BlackBerry

Long has been the problem of having multiple address books sync to a BlackBerry hand held device.  In the past when we used Palm Pilots and Palm based solutions, we were able to have the users personal address book as well as a department directory, (based on pernames.ntf and shared with the department), sync to the Contacts section of the handheld.  In earlier versions of BES, users clamored for this same feature.  Well, one of the unexpected gems I picked up at BlackBerry admin training a couple of weeks ago was the ability to synchronize public contact lists like a department directory down to the Blackberry handhelds.  From what I was told, that Exchange thing was able to do it, but the functionality was not there in Domino.
New to BES 5 is the ability to provide to users this same option on Domino.  Win.  To configure the option, open your browser and log into the BAS server.  Follow these easy steps:  (Stolen from the online help!)

In the BlackBerry® Administration Service, on the Servers and components menu, expand BlackBerry Solution topology > BlackBerry Domain > Component view.

Click Email.

Click Edit component.

In the Published contact servers section, in the User synchronized public contact servers maximum field, type the maximum number of public contact databases that users can access from their BlackBerry devices. The default value is 20.

In the Contact server name field, type the name of a contact server.(Servername/org/cert)

In the Database name field, type the name of a public contact database.(database.nsf)

Click the Add icon.

Repeat steps 5 to 7 for each public contact database that you want to add.

Click Save all.

After you finish: To permit BlackBerry device users to access the public contact databases that you specified, use the BlackBerry Administration Service to control which public contact databases users can access, or instruct users to use the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager or BlackBerry® Web Desktop Manager to select the available public contact databases.

There is one IMPORTANT bug with this process that I discovered with the help of RIM's support desk.  Like most Domino databases, you have the default security in the ACL set to No Access and users rights granted through the user of groups.  It doesn't work that way with this process.  The default ACL access must be set to reader OR the users must be listed in the ACL individually.   While it's kind of a pain in the butt doing it this way, it does work.  After RIM pinged away at it for a couple of weeks, I heard back Friday that it has listed it as a bug that will be fixed in a future release....but no word on which release. 
Still though, a great new feature for the product!

Oh, the things that DDM finds

This was too funny not to share.  My cohort in all things Domino here at the office , Candice, was going through DDM to take a look at things and found this:

Either:
A:  We're now hosting mail for Hogwarts.
B:  Someone is really bored this week.

Either way, I thought it was a funny surprise on a Friday afternoon.

Migrating Traveler

We've all come across it.  There comes a time in an admins life when you have to move a server instance from one piece of hardware to another piece of hardware.  Usually it's an EOL situation, hardware upgrade or even for DR testing purposes.  Moving Domino is usually an extremely easy task.  Shut down Domino on the old server, install the application on the new server to match your old server, copy/paste, rename servers, reboot, smoke cigar.  But when another Domino based add-on into gets in the mix, things could get a little tricky.  Or at least, a heightened paranoid level.  But as I found today, moving Traveler to a new server because the old one was EOL, was really pretty straight forward and simple.  And didn't require the users to have to do anything.  Here's my steps:  (Mind you, YOUR mileage may vary so test or have a good backup on hand, just in case.)
1.  Shut down old Domino server, not the hardware.
2.  Copy/paste all Domino .nsf's from old server to new server.
3.  Copy over the servers .id and .ini
4.  Don't forget the .kyr and .sth files too!
5.  On the old server, access the folder \Lotus\Domino\Data\traveler
6.  Copy all of the folders that exist there.
7.  Paste the folders to the new server under the same folder structure.
8.  Finish renaming and readdressing the servers as needed.
9.  Don't forget to disable the Domino service on the old server before you reboot!
10.  Reboot servers and launch Domino on the new server.
That's it.
Once the server came back online, I did a sync with my iPod touch and whamo-o!  Instant sync.
Earlier in the week, I had opened a ticket with Lotus support, and they had informed me that move to a new server was not a problem, but the users may have to resync all their data and that could take a while.  That's when I got to thinking and found that all of the current sync data exists in the above folder structure.  Copying those folders to the new server made the first sync to the server appear like it hadn't missed a beat.  I love it when Lotus makes things nice and simple.  Time for that cigar.

Damn you, NetBackup!

Had a really interesting issue this morning at the office.  Got a call from my colleague that a mail file was having all kinds of corruption issues.  Everything that could be done against the mail file could had been done, and it was looking like it was time to bring the server down to fix the mail file.  The error that kept flying by on the console was
[1E90:02D3-14D8] **** DbMarkCorrupt(Folder ($Inbox) corrupt), DB=g:\Lotus\Domino\data\mail\user.nsf  TID=[1E90:02D3-14D8] File=dbfolder.c Line=672 ***
As Domino kept seeing the error, it would try to run a consistency check on the database, thus making it difficult for us remove the database.  We operate in a clustered environment so deleting the database and recreating the replica from the cluster mate is the normal mode of operation for us.  But after repeated fixups, updall and compact commands with every imaginable switch thrown in, nothing would either fix the database and no amount of "drop all" and "dbcache flush" commands would release this database.
So after almost giving up on it, I asked the backup administrator if she could check that the backup had completed on the database.  She said it had.  But, I wanted to try one more thing.  I logged into the server console and stopped the Windows service "NetBackup Client Service".  After another "drop all" and "dbache flush" command, the database deleted.  Now we were able to recreate the database from the cluster mate.  So if you ever come across an issue like this where a database appears to be held onto by something, check the backup service.  It saved me from having to explain why I would have to reboot the server to fix a mail database, when it wasn't even Domino's fault. 

SnTT: A Lotus Traveler Memory Issue, but there is a fix!

Let me start off by once again saying how much I love Lotus Traveler.  I think any admin that has set it up and rolled it out to their users has the same warm feelings for it.  But after returning from Lotusphere and installing the 8.5.1.1 CF1, (to allow for meeting acceptance on the iPhone), that love hit the rocks a little.
I started getting phone calls from people saying that mail was not syncing down to their devices.  Seeing the same issue with myself, I quickly jumped on the server and saw the following errors go flying by on the server console:
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
Thinking the problem was with a corrupt Domino Directory, I stopped the Domino server, ran ncompact -C -d -i names.nsf, followed by a nupdall -R names.nsf, and restarted the Domino service.  Once the server was up and running, mail started flowing back to the devices and all was well once again.  But then the problem started happening again....and again.   No real reason that I could see, just the weird error.  So today, I finally got around to opening a ticket with support and I'm glad I did.
It seems that there are known memory issues that have been recently uncovered.  When Traveler starts running into low memory issues, it starts causing issues like mine.  Support sent me a link (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24019529) to the fix.  If you have already downloaded 8.5.1.1 CF1 for Lotus Traveler, make sure you download and implement 8.5.1.1 IF1.  Lotus support told me that they have had good luck with this patch solving the memory issues and returns Traveler to its happy, running state.
I won't be able to install the patch until my planned downtime on Saturday, but at least my issue is a known one and not something too weird.  I hate getting those "it ain't working again" phone calls.
Stay tuned for results!