Dan Silva

Recent discussion on Brent Peters’ blog about the possibility of IBM/Lotus developing a Linux/Mac Admin client and a pre-Lotusphere post by Paul Mooney on the same subject got me thinking today on the future of the Domino Administrator client.

The basic consensus is that IBM will not be focusing on developing a Mac or Linux client unless there is significant market share to be gained, or in other words, unless it is customer-driven.  And I have to agree.  Before seeing a Mac OS X Domino Administrator client, I would like to a Linux version developed.  Working as a Domino Administrator at IBM, and previously having been one all my life, I would certainly enjoy consolidating everything on Linux.  Macs, both abroad but specially here in Brazil due to the import taxes, are outrageously expensive.  Yes, they are gorgeous, rock-solid hardware, and I would love to buy one in the future, but it has no place for me at work.

Paul describes his setup as running a stand-alone Mac Notes 8.5 client and running Domino Administrator in a Windows VM.  And that in itself is an advantage that we do not have with the Domino Administrator in Windows (not without significant hacking at least): independence between the Notes client and Domino Administrator. This to me is the biggest thing that needs to be taken care of in the Domino Administrator client.  Have the Domino Administrator client working standalone from the Notes client.  Make it a separate install.  Make it be multi-threaded. I would much rather see a multi-threaded stand-alone Domino Administrator client on Windows than try to repurpose/repackage/rebuild any of its features and functionalities as composite apps/expeditor plugins to the Notes client.  Call me what you will, but having experienced the Sametime integrated client on the Notes 8.x client (which is great to have for the integrated awareness), I have to say I am constantly firing up the standalone Sametime to get independence from the Notes client. 

For  me, as a Domino administrator, it is counter-productive to work when I’m on a group chat discussing a server outage to wait to get my chat window back while I am working on some other dialog box in Notes or Domino Administrator.  IMHO, do not provide any eclipse-based Administrator functionality inside the Notes client.  This is bad.

Instead, give me a truly independent, multi-threaded Domino Administrator client on Windows that lets me:

• connect to multiple Domino server consoles (not doing the Java console here, sorry) at the same time;
• connect to different Domino Domains without loosing connectivity to my current domain while switchings ids
• use filter commands to filter out specific keywords from the console in the same that grep works in Unix/Linux (believe me, it is impossible to try to read the console output of a mail server with 4,000 users on it)

I’m guessing some of this could be achieved by separate installs and hacking registry settings and windows shortcuts, but since we’re on the topic of improving the Domino admin client, that’s a few of my wish list.

A IBM/Lotus, seguindo com sua excelente iniciativa do time que dá suporte à América Latina baseado em Austin, Texas convida todos os interessados para participar de uma conferência em português para sobre NSD – Notes System Diagnostics:

Você está interessado em aprender mais sobre o uso do NSD para analisar seu ambiente IBM® Lotus® Domino? Você sabia que o suporte técnico da Lotus pede esse arquivo quando você tem um problema de crash ou performance no seu servidor? Você percebe que o arquivo é gerado quando o Domino ou Notes caem. Você sabe que você pode gerar um NSD manualmente? Quer saber mais sobre o conteúdo desse arquivo? Se sua resposta é sim, participe da apresentação:

Essa apresentação será feita em Português e será seguida de uma sessão de perguntas e respostas.

* O que é NSD?
* Sessões mais importantes do NSD
* Como analisar o NSD
* Boas praticas para solução de problemas
* Entrando em contato com o Suporte Técnico da Lotus

As informações necessárias para participar da conferencia é o seu nome e o nome da empresa.

Reunião: IBM Lotus Domino Tech Exchange webcast: NSD for Administrators (presented in Portuguese) [NSD para Administradores (apresentado em português)]
Quando?: Terça-feira, 29 de abril de 2008 das 11:00AM até às 12:30PM (Brasília)
Duração: 1.5 horas

Webcast (video)

1. Before the conference, test your web browser using Unyte Meeting System Check – taking care to click the option “Particpant Only”.
2. Click Log-in at the following URL: http://www.webdialogs.com/join
3. Type the Conference ID: 812632
   Type the requested fields in the Meeting Login.
   Click LOG IN

Telefone: 0800-891-4391 (gratuíto do Brasil)
Código/Senha: 2923466
Título: NSD Para Administradores (NSD for Administrators)

When working in the “Files” tab of the Domino Administrator client, there should be an option to right-click on a database and “Copy database location to clipboard” to be able to paste it in a console command if necessary.

Link: Files tab should have a “copy database location to clipboard” to paste it into a console command.

Yes, for those in North America (or in my case, who administer servers in the Northern Hemisphere), Daylight Savings Time is creeping up on us again.

To be better prepared, IBM will be hosting this coming February 27 a second Notes/Domino Open Mic Session this month to discuss all things DST:

IBM will host an Open Mic conference call with Lotus Development and Support Engineers to answer your questions about DST issues in Lotus Notes/Domino® on Wednesday, February 27, 2008.
Title: Notes and Domino: Daylight Saving Time
Date: February 27, 2008
Time: 10:00 am Eastern US time

Questions can be posted in advance of the call as a response to the Invitation to Notes/Domino DST Open Mic call in the Notes/Domino 8 forum.

DST in the United States is scheduled to start on March 9 and end on November 2.

Link: Notes/Domino Open Mic special session for upcoming Daylight Saving Time transition

Additional resources:

Notes/Domino Open Mic conference call: Impact of Daylight Saving Time changes
Knowledge Collection: Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Notes/Domino

Just attended a webcast today on the new Service Pack 5 to Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1, which will be adding support for Domino 8.0. It was good to hear Valerie Wang from RIM talk about the new features, and as every Product Manager will do, she did not commit to any release dates, but said “it’s a matter of weeks, not months.” Hmm… doesn’t that sound familiar?

So anyways, BES 4.1.5 now will add support for Windows 2003 64-bit. This led me to a few questions which Valerie answered in the Q&A session after her presentation:

1. Will BES 4.1.5 support Lotus Domino 8.0.1 on Windows 2003 Server 64-bit?
   No. BES 4.1.5 will only support 32-bit Domino 8.0 and 7.0.3. Support for Lotus Domino 8.0.1 will come in a future service pack.
2. Is BES 4.1.5 64-bit enabled?
   No, it still runs as a 32-bit app. Work is being done to port BES to 64-bit, but nothing is ready to be discussed in public yet. Valerie mentioned that if ISVs/Customers/anyone would like to get further details on this, then this can be discussed individually via a signed NDA.
3. How many simultaneous users will BES 4.1.5 support on 64-bit Windows 2003 Server?
   RIM is still estimating around 2,000 users/BES server, but work is being done to improve performance further.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Scalability
Also another good tip on Blackberry Enterprise Server scalability given by the folks at RIM:

• To increase scalability, decrease the amount of mail servers your BES talks to – the more mail servers you point your BES servers to, the less it will scale.
• Keep your BES server as close to your mail servers as possible – try to keep your corporate/headquarter mail servers on the same datacenter as your BES server. The fewer network hops, the better.

Interesting to hear Valerie mention how few people at Lotusphere were aware of these 2 performance/scalability tips.

The PDF slides from the webcast are available for download.