May 8, 2008

SnTT - InstallShieldTuner Ver. 6 with Lotus Notes 8.0.1

For a couple of months now I, along with others, have been waiting for Lotus to release a new version of InstallShieldTuner for Lotus Notes (IST for use in this blog) to use with 8.0.1 and create some custom installs using the "Response Transform" option. Well guess what.

WE'VE HAD IT ALL ALONG!
IST is reliant upon the .mst file that is packaged with the installation software to tell it what options are available. In 8.0, the option for creating the response file was not there but as promised at Lotusphere2008, it was for 8.0.1. So with that confusion out of the way, I have gone ahead and written up an updated document giving the steps that I use in my environment to use the application. This by no means is the end-all document on IST, but may help you open the door to some of those troubles you've had in the past.
IMPORTANT NOTE!: I ran into a problem trying to create a response for the client install on my laptop that had the "All Clients" installation installed on it. I kept getting the "The upgrade you are attempting is not supported" prompt. So, to follow these steps, you must create it on either a machine running Lotus Notes 7.X or with no Lotus Notes installed.

Click here to access the document in PDF format.

April 16, 2008

Oh where oh where have the downloads gone?

I got an email tonight from a reader of the 'ol House O' Blog inquiring if I had heard anything about the updated InstallShieldTuner for Lotus Notes 8 that was talked about at one of the Lotusphere sessions. So far, the only version available on the Passport Advantage site for us, the unwashed masses, is the same version that was released in August of 2005. Add to that the still missing Quickr Entry edition and I am feeling the post-Lotusphere momentum slowing even further.

Come one IBM, let's keep that train rollin!

March 12, 2008

Okay, so 8.0.1 is released....

But where oh where is the new version of InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes? Still not up on the PA site yet. Harrumph! Back at Lotusphere, the product manager in charge of the Notes client and also InstallShield Tuner said that they were putting back the "wizard" option to assist with quickly making a response file with the 8.0.1 release. But it's still no where to be found. If anyone knows anything, let me know!

In other news, the awesomeness that is Chris Whisonant gave me a great idea on using nupgrade.exe for converting users with local .PST files to Lotus Notes. Hopefully will have time to do a SnTT post on it!

So much to do, so little time.

November 8, 2007

I've started on it

**If you are looking for information on IST with 8.0.1, click here**

In my opinion, one of the cool things about having a blog like this is having one of those Mapstat apps running within the page. They let you see where people are hitting your site are from and what they are looking for. Without a doubt, the biggest thing that brings people to my blog, aside from my witty commentary and dashing good looks (see profile pic), is the document I created on using InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes to create a custom setup for use with SURunas.exe or just plain installation. Well, I'm now starting to see several hits as of late from people looking for an updated version of the steps for use with Notes 8. I haven't had a whole lot of time to spend on it, but I did take a first stab at it today. Looks like it's going to be a whole lot different then the version 7 steps. For example, version 2 of ISTfLN will not work with Notes 8. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'll have a chance to try and put together a document on how to do it. I have learned through trying it, that version 2 of ISTfLN, (the one that I used for the R7 documentation), does not like the R8 install, so I wasn't able to create a response file out of the chute.
Hopefully after a get a few things done over the next two weeks I will be able to spend some time working on it. Stay tuned true believers! (Yes, I stole that from Stan Lee. But, he is the man!)

Update 11/30/2007
After doing a lot of looking into it, I still cannot find anything new on how to create a response file for ISTfLN version 6 with Lotus Notes 8. But, I know I'm not the only one having this problem. I did a search in the Notes 8 forum on Notes.Net and found this. I'm going to try and call Lotus next week to see if there is a fix for this. Stay tuned!

September 26, 2007

SnTT - BlackBerry Manager won't install

I've had an issue for a while where I could not install the BlackBerry Manager software onto my workstation and the workstations of those on the Help Desk. If you're not familiar with BlackBerry Manager, it's the remote administration piece of software, (provided by RIM), that can connect to your BES and allow you to administer user accounts without having to go to the server and do all the work.
So without that software installed, it's been a real headache at times for the Help Desk folks to get accounts created. Here's a breakdown of what happened when I would try to install the software:

  • Downloaded server install software from RIM.
  • Extracted zip file and ran setup.exe.
  • After filling out the user information and accepting the license information, I click next.
  • On the install options, BlackBerry Manager is not one of the available options to install, yet other server options were there.
So I finally had a few minutes this morning and called up RIM support. I explained what was occurring and had them stumped too. That is until I told them that I was trying to install this on machines that had either the Lotus Notes 7 or Lotus Notes 8 client. That's when I was told to do the following:
(WARNING - YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING TO YOUR REGISTRY IN THESE STEPS, SO MAKE A BACKUP OF IT BEFORE YOU BEGIN!)
  • Open Regedit
  • Drill down to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Notes\7.0 or 8.0
  • Rename 7.0 or 8.0 so that the line reads HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Notes\6.0
  • Save and close your registry
  • Launch the BlackBerry Setup
  • Type in appropriate user information and accept your regional license information, click Next.
  • Hazzah! You should now see an option for BlackBerry Manager. Select that and continue your installation.
  • Reboot your computer at the end of the installation steps
  • Log back in and finish the last couple of things for the installation.
  • Now go back into Regedit and put the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Notes\6.0 line back to what it should be.
  • Save and Close
  • You're done!
The lovely RIM support person had also told me that the BlackBerry Manager software was not supported on a machine with Lotus Notes 8. Well, it works for me, but your experience may differ.

November 20, 2006

More fun with InstallShieldTuner for Lotus Notes

A while back, I posted a series of blogs about using the InstallShieldTuner for Lotus Notes to create a custom install. Well, since then traffic to my blog has picked up big time, which is pretty cool. One of those visitors has a question that I can't figure out completely.
I got an email from John over the weekend asking the following

Hi.

I was trying to google some information about redirecting notes.ini in a MST
file and trying to get some information about creating a MST with
installshield and I came over you site.

Maybee I'm lucky that you wil anwser and that you know some tricks or a
place to find them. :D

I have created a MST file for local installation but I need to create an MST
file where the Program files is in c:\lotus\notes and the data dir is
h:\lotus\notes\data (where h:\ is a network drive).

I then need to get the notes.ini in the h:\lotus\notes\ directory.

Maybee you can help here ? Maybee you know a guide to create a MST file and
the thing I need to know is listed.

Take care.

John
Now, my first thought would be to use IST and create a response file telling the installation where to put the program and the data folders. No biggie. It's the last part that has got me thinking. Is there a place in all the options to redirect the notes.ini to a separate folder?

Ideas peoples?

October 25, 2006

SnTT - Using InstallShield Tuner Ver2 with SuSetRunasWizard.exe

**If you are looking for information on IST with 8.0.1, click here**

(Okay, I know it's not officially Thursday here in Ohio, but just over the International Date line, it is, so this counts)

In the past, I have had several posts regarding the use of InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes and how well that product works with creating and implementing custom Notes installs for your organization. The only problem however is when you have a situation where your company has an IT policy in place that does not allow end users to install new software as themselves. In that case, you've had to rely upon something like Microsoft's SMS product to push the upgrade out and run it as a local or domain administrator. Well, not any more! With the release of Notes\Domino 7.0.2, IBM has released the SuSetRunAsWizard that will allow you to take your installation files, package them, and run it on a machine with whatever domain admin account you tell it to. So now, you can use the Smart Upgrade feature that is in Domino and leave SMS behind! WooHoo!
There is one thing that I want to point out that is also included in my documentation. InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes is available on both the R6 and R7 CD's. They are however two different versions. The version that shipped with Notes 6 CD is version 2 and on the R7 CD is version 6. For these steps, you need to use Version 2. The Version 6 IST, will create and run the installation without packaging it with the SuSetRunAsWizard.exe, but as soon as I package it, it will not run. I, along with my open PMR at support, are still trying to figure that out.
For now, you can download the .PDF I created here.

On a side note, OpenOffice rocks! You can use your OpenOffice Writer to open your Word documents, update them, and save them out as a .PDF without having to install the converter. Nice! An all running from the same USB drive that I'm using for Nomad!

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March 30, 2006

SnTT - InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes

**If you are looking for information on IST with 8.0.1, click here**

InstallShield Tuner for Lotus Notes was always a source of great confusion for me. But over time, I have found it to be easy to use and an awesome tool in my Lotus Notes toolbelt. Below is the steps that I use to create a silent client installation for workstations in my company. One thing that is important to remember for the installation to work correctly, you have to run the installation as a local administrator if the desktops are locked down via policies. Once the SURunAs is released, that will get us beyond that! Installation of the program is simple. It is located on the Lotus Notes client install CD under the Apps folder. Enjoy!

- Create two folders on your computer. One folder will store the uncompressed files from Lotus used for the Lotus Notes client installation(C:\Folder1). The second folder will be used for the new package you are creating with InstallShield(C:\Folder2).
- Extract all files from the install package to C:\Folder1.
- Click Start-All Programs-Lotus Applications-InstallshieldTuner for Lotus Notes.

- When InstallShield launches, you will be stopped by this prompt:
You need to select the file LotusNotes.itw, and click Open.

- When the application opens, click "“Create a new transform file…"” from the middle pane.
- In the “Select MSI file” box, click Browse, and browse to C:\Folder1\ and select the file LotusNotes 7.0.1.msi. Click Open.
- In the section "“Provide a new project name and location…."”, type in C:\Folder1\R7.mst. You can give it any name or location you want. I just like to keep my stuff all in one place.
- The easiest thing to do at this point is select “Create Response File”. This will launch the Lotus Notes client installation. All you have to do is select what options you want to have available for installation. I won'’t go through this part step-by-step.
- Once you have completed this step, you should see this prompt:

Click OK.
- You will now be able to tweak your installation as you see fit. For this example, I am going to remove the icon for Notes Minder, and then add some configurations so that the following will be added to the users Notes.ini:

$STActiveToAwayEnabled=1
$STAwayToActiveEnabled=1
$STActiveToAwayTimeout=5
**If you are setting up 7.0 or less, do not include the three lines above, just the one below if you don't want the Sametime setup to launch on first run of the new client install**
IM_NO_SETUP=1

- From the left-hand column. Click on Table Editor.
- In the middle column, find the entry call Icon, and click once on it.
- In the right-hand column, locate the entry for Nminder_1.exe. Right click on it, and select “Drop Row(s) Del”. Left click on that option.

That will remove the Notes Minder icon when the application is install.

- Now under option 3, Target System Configuration, click on IniFiles.
- In the middle column, right click on Destination Computer, mouse-over Show Folder, and select ProgramFilesFolder.
- Expand the folder tree until you reach Lotus-Notes-Data. In the list under Data, click on VDIR_INI.
- Right click on VDIR_INI, and select New IniFile.
- By default, the new entry will appear as IniFile1.ini, but since its in edit mode, you need to rename it to notes.ini.
- Click on the + sign next to notes.ini, and right click to rename the NewSection to Notes.
- On the right-hand column, double-click on NewKey to remove that name, and replace it with $STActiveToAwayEnabled. In the Value field, replace “NewValue” with 1.
- Hit Insert on your keyboard to add a new “NewKey” line in the list. Repeat the steps above for your next value, and any other that you desire.
- When complete, it should resemble this:

- Now, click on the Package Wizard icon
- Change the Network Location field to C:\Folder2, and click Next.
- Check “Create Installation launcher (Setup.exe)”, and also check the two options for Windows 95/98 and NT, and click Next.
- If required, check both options for SMS, and click Next.
- Click Finish. This will copy all of the installation files and your customizations to Folder2.
- To make it so that we can push this new installation out without user intervention, I create a file called upgrade.bat. In the batch file, I have only one line that says:
msiexec /i "Lotus Notes 7.0.1.msi" TRANSFORMS="R7.mst" /qn /qb
- To install the application on a workstation, run the upgrade.bat.
- If the workstation is locked down administratively, this installation will not work. You need to have local administration rights to install Notes.

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