Later this year HCL will be releasing the first major updates for Domino, Sametime, Traveler and Verse on Premises for several years. We've already heard about developments on the way such as a Notes client for tablet and phone as well as structural changes like the removal of the 64GB file limit. The more up to date and well designed your infrastructure is, the easier these upgrades are going to be so In this session Gab will explain how to audit, evaluate and fix your environment as well as what changes you can (and should) do in preparation so you can be fast to move when the products arrive.. Presented At CollabSphere 2018 in Ann Arbor, MI

1. July 2018
GuideTo A Perfect10 - Advance Preparation
Gabriella Davis - IBM Lifetime Champion for Social Business
Technical Director
The Turtle Partnership

2. CollabSphere 2018 Sponsors

3. • IBM Lifetime Champion
• Admin of all things and especially quite complicated
things where the fun is
• Working with the design, deployment and security of
IBM technologies within global infrastructures
• working with the real world security and privacy
aspects of expanding data ecosystems
• Stubborn and relentless problem solver
• http://turtleblog.info
• Youtube #Perfect10 playlist https://bit.ly/2IVPkOn
GAB DAVIS

4. Preparing forV10
✤ Understand your existing environment so you can plan
✤ Building a plan
✤ Beta testing
✤ Priorities and Dependencies

5. UnderstandingYour Environment

6. Auditing
✤ You’re going to do an audit - but one where you set the scope of what you
want to discover
✤ What servers do I have?
✤ Where are they?
✤ Can I access them all?

7. Domino - Applications
✤ Where are the applications?
✤ Are they used by Notes clients (which version) or web browsers?
✤ You have time and should plan to test support for the latest / newer Notes clients once the beta arrives
✤ Are the applications actually in use?
✤ DDM (Domino Domain Monitoring) can help identify applications that aren’t being used
✤ So can activity trends
✤ If you want the most detailed view of application activity and code, consider Panagenda’s Application Insights tool
(or one from another Business Partner)
✤ If you have maintenance for Domino you can download and use AI at no cost
https://bit.ly/2GfNCoL

8. Access
✤ Open each of your Domino server documents and verify what domain they
are in so you know which directories to find and check
Different domains
mean different names.nsf to
check
Standardising
on versions would be
good but that’s for
another day

9. Routing & Dependencies
✤ You need to understand if there are dependencies (where one server only works if another is
working) so you don’t break them
✤ Verify if the server either allows passthru access or is accessed via passthru from another server

10. Configure DDMTo Review Usage
✤ Open events4.nsf on your server (there are other ways to do this but
opening the database gives you the most screen real estate to work with)
✤ DDM configuration in events4.nsf gives us “starter” probes to work with

11. Database Usage Audit
✤ Right now you’re doing an audit so you simply want to get some idea of
what databases are being used (or not)

12. ActivityTrends
✤ Configure in the server configuration document
✤ It will take at least 24hrs to start gathering data
✤ The activity trends database can get huge so don’t turn it on permanently

13. Traveler Users & Devices
✤ Tell Traveler Status on the console
[0A80:0028-1690] 15/05/2018 10:34:30 Traveler: The IBM Traveler task has been running since Tue Jan 02 16:07:02 GMT 2018.
[0A80:0028-1690] 15/05/2018 10:34:30 Traveler: The IBM Traveler availability index is currently 100 while servicing 114 users.
[0A80:0028-1690] 15/05/2018 10:34:30 Traveler: The last successful device sync was on Tue May 15 10:33:31 BST 2018.
[0A80:0028-1690] 15/05/2018 10:34:30 Traveler:
[0A80:0028-1690] 15/05/2018 10:34:30 Traveler: The overall status of IBM Traveler is Green

14. Traveler Users
✤ Are you using HA or local data store?
✤ Easiest way to check is to try opening LotusTraveler.nsf on your Traveler server
✤ it will tell you to use the XPages application if HA is enabled
✤ Or go to https://<travelerhostname>/lotustraveler.nsf and login
✤ if you have a “Servers” menu then high availability is configured

15. Traveler Users
✤ In either case you should be able to see
✤ a list of users authorised on the server
✤ a list of devices they are using
✤ when they last synced
✤ This screenshot is from the web interface of lotustraveler.nsf

16. Sametime Instant Messaging
✤ What hostnames are your users configured to use to access the Community server
✤ A change in hostname will be interpreted as a “new” Community even if pointing to the same server
✤ That new community will have an empty buddy list
✤ There are ways around that but bear it in mind
✤ STLog.nsf on the Community Server has views that show logins/logouts and user activity via the Notes
client. These views are also available via the web admin interface

17. Sametime Instant Messaging
✤ You should also use the Sametime monitoring and logging tools via the web administration interface
✤ http://<serverhostname>/servlet/auth/admin - note the server hostname must match what the
server is configured for or you won’t be able to login.

18. Web Based Mail
✤ Are your servers configured for iNotes? Verse On Premises?
✤ Are they even configured for HTTP?
✤ If your servers are configured for HTTP it’s possible you have iNotes
users at least that you may not be aware of
✤ “sh config servertasks” - is HTTP listed there?
✤ “sh ta” - can you see anything listening on standard ports like 80 or 443?

19. DoYou HaveVOP Installed?
✤ Simplest check is to go to the hostname configured for HTTP for your
server
✤ found in the configuration settings we’ve already seen
✤ https:<hostname>/verse should load the verse login screen - otherwise
you will get a 404 file not found error
✤ There are other things to check including whether your mail files contain
VOP design elements but we’re doing a quick audit here

20. ActivityTrends
✤ Configure in the server configuration document
✤ It will take at least 24hrs to start gathering data
✤ The activity trends database can get huge so don’t turn it on permanently

21. Notes Clients
✤ HCL have confirmed that if your Notes clients are on 9.0.1 FP10 there will be an in-place
upgrade to Notes v10
✤ There will be a new upgrade process that will push updates from the server to the clients
✤ Admin controlled
✤ What will it take to upgrade your Notes clients?
✤ Are they single or multi user installs
✤ Where are the data directories stored

22. License tracker
✤ How many active Notes clients do you have and who is using them?
✤ Enable license tracking via the Server configuration document
✤ Give it time to populate

23. License tracker
Orion/Turtle
Vega/Turtle

24. Client Details On Person Document
✤ The administration tab of each person document contains a list of client versions that person logs in
with
✤ This is populated via an adminp request to update the client information in the person document
✤ The adminp request is created by the Notes client’s dynamic configuration service on launch
✤ The service compares the client configuration and workstation name with that stored in the
notes.ini (DYNINFOCR*) as a hash and generates an adminp request if anything differs
✤ Adminp must work on your servers
✤ In Citrix environments or environments with roaming notes.ini files this can cause multiple
requests to be sent and written

25. Client Details On Person Document
✤ Notes client
machine
✤ Notes client
build
✤ Notes client
platform
✤ Updated
Date

26. Viewing ClientVersions
✤ In the Domino Directory there is a view “By
Client Version” (alias PeopleClVer)
✤ It shows every client build entry in each person
document so there will be multiple entries per
person
✤ View - Expand All then Edit - Select All then
Edit - Copy selected as Table
✤ paste into Excel or similar

27. Reviewing Mail Files
✤ What templates are you using?
✤ You could continue to use your existing older mail templates on a newer server
✤ If the template is custom you will want to upgrade it with new v10 mail design
elements
✤ A v8 design mail file will not have many v10 features even inside a v10 Notes
client
✤ The files tab in Domino Administrator has a column showing the template for each
database

28. What’s missing from our audit?
✤ There are no native tools that allow you to review the client side notes.ini
✤ There are no native tools that will tell you how the client is installed
✤ There are no native tools to tell you if the user has any local replicas
✤ If those are things you need to know for your planning then I recommend using a Notes management tool such as
✤ Panagenda’s MarvelClient
✤ https://www.panagenda.com/kbase/display/MCKB/Analyzing+Your+Client+Infrastructure
✤ BCC’s ClientGenie
✤ http://www.bcchub.com/clientgenie/
✤ I’m sure there are others …

29. Building A Plan

30. What DoWe NeedTo Build A Plan
✤ An understanding of our existing environment (our audit)
✤ that will help us set priorities (more on that later) and understand
dependencies
✤ A clear understanding of the system requirements for v10
✤ will we be able to upgrade using the same hardware and OS?
✤ What functionality and features we want to deploy with v10

31. Reviewing System Requirements
✤ You don’t want to discover when v10 comes out that the old hardware and OS you are using are no longer supported
✤ We don’t know but it’s likely only the oldest will be no longer supported (and you already knew that needed
upgrading right?)
✤ Check the exact requirements and limitations before you plan. They can change when new fix packs come out
✤ Is your operating system still supported by the developer
✤ Windows 2003 is no longer supported
✤ Windows 2008 support ends in January 2020
✤ RHEL 6 and RHEL 7.3 both end support this year
✤ How old is your hardware, now may be a good time to plan a refresh

32. Sametime Community Server
✤ This will be interesting, HCL have announced that in the v10 timeframe only the Community Server will be updated
✤ They have also announced this will be 64 bit only not 32 bit
✤ Currently the Community server requires Websphere to run the System Console and DB2 to run the database for
the system console
✤ Without the System Console it’s not possible to manage policies and other server settings (well not without a
degree of hacking)
✤ So let us assume that all system requirements for Sametime will remain the same except for the Community
Server which will be (as currently stated) Windows or Linux 64bit in line with the Domino OS support
✤ Sametime Communicate system requirements - communicate includes the Community Server
✤ http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27007792

33. Traveler
✤ For Traveler 9.0.1.3 & higher
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27045363
✤ Domino 9.0.1*
✤ For High Availability
✤ DB2 v10.5 (entitlement) or separately licensed 9.7 FP5, 10.1 & 11.1 ++
✤ SQL Server 2016 (Traveler 9.0.1.19++ only), 2014, 2012 / R2 , 2008 / R2 SP1 CU1 (!)
✤ Capacity Planning
✤ https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYRPW_9.0.1/capacityplanning.html

34. Notes Client
✤ Currently the eclipse based standard Notes client is supported on Windows,
Mac and Linux
✤ No information has been given about any changes to client side support for
the v10 client
✤ I wouldn’t plan for changes
✤ The Notes client is currently supported for newer OS such as Windows 10 and
El Capitan as well as much older versions such as Windows 7 and Yosemite

35. Operating Systems
✤ How to choose the right OS for your servers?
✤ My advice is always to start with the OS your company is most comfortable supporting and maintaining
✤ poorly maintained or unpatched server operating systems expose major security vulnerabilities
✤ Beyond that the key things we care about are
✤ Age of the OS and likely long term support by the developer
✤ Performance which means configuration and maintenance
✤ Don’t expect IBM/HCL to support ageing operating systems indefinitely
✤ Domino, Sametime , Traveler etc are really good at performing despite problems in their environments but they
shouldn’t be expected to

36. Domino
✤ What does Domino care about?
✤ Disk , disk and more disk - specifically I/O and performance
✤ It’s why we have problems with poorly configured SANs for instance
✤ Transaction logs are designed to improve performance and recovery but don’t put them on a shared
disk
✤ Transaction logs are much more read/write intensive than say DAOS NLOs
✤ The more processing threads you have available , the more instances of tasks you can run
✤ I have seen huge improvements in server performance simply from introducing faster , newer disks

37. Domino
✤ There are new server features in v10 already announced that you should consider
✤ Removal of the 64GB database limit and a new 256GB
✤ will this allow you to increase your data storage?
✤ do you need to make certain your OS and disk can handle that efficiently?
✤ Publication of stats to the new relic service (https://newrelic.com)
✤ publishing out or using new relic private locations internally, either way the data will leave the server and be
queried from another location
✤ Node integration with Domino
✤ does Node become your alternate or even default HTTP interface?

38. Traveler
✤ Traveler is an HTTP service so it is less dependent on disk performance than it is on network performance
and memory (HTTP threads)
✤ For every configured user the Traveler server will continually probe their mail server asking for updates
and so network latency is important
✤ Every device will consume multiple threads , the number of threads are constrained by memory
✤ The Traveler server in standalone mode creates a local database to store the state of mobile devices under
the datantsdb
✤ maintenance of that database on the local disk is related to Traveler performance but .. it’s not Domino
data
✤ There is no reason to expect Traveler v10 will require more resources than the version you are currently running

39. Sametime
✤ A Sametime Community server can support 20k users
✤ Make that 100k if we put a MUX in front
✤ Unlike Traveler we already know the system requirements will be changing to
a 64 bit install however there’s no reason to expect other new requirements at
the moment
✤ Sametime Community server cares about memory and processor
✤ and network if you don’t have a MUX

40. Traveler performance
✤ Oversubscribed (not enough CPU)
✤ Too many threads configured (not enough memory)
✤ Disk fragmentation
IBM produced a great document on Traveler maintenance and performance
here
https://ibm.co/2KUMgpY

41. BetaTesting

42. There’s a BETA?
✤ The first Beta of Domino v10 along with the Notes client is already in
restricted release
✤ that means that a small group of people who applied to test have been
given access to the code and asked for feedback
✤ A second larger public beta is due later this summer and will include more
products and functionality
✤ I don’t know what yet, or I do know and am under NDA (it’s the first one)

43. Why BetaTest?
✤ Focused beta testing helps you and helps HCL
✤ You get to discover if there are likely to be any issues in your environment you need to plan for
✤ HCL get to be told or any problems and fix them before the gold release
✤ You get to highlight features that you like, want more or are missing
✤ at this late stage they are unlikely to make the gold release but HCL have committed to v11 and are building
that already
✤ Everybody wins
✤ I call it focused beta testing because a deep dive into features that are important to your business is the most useful
way of testing

44. First Rule of BetaTesting
NEVER TEST IN
PRODUCTION
ALWAYS TEST WITH
REAL DATA
SECOND RULE

45. Third Rule
ALWAYS READ THE DOCUMENTATION BEFORE
STARTING
10 MINUTES NOW WILL SAVE YOU HOURS LATER

46. BetaTesting
✤ Divide your testing into priorities
✤ What would be considered business critical
✤ What would be a loss of functionality
✤ What would be improved functionality or features
✤ Understand what features would be a “hard stop” if they do not work
✤ What features would provide benefit to your company
✤ What impact the software would have on your existing environment such as requiring hardware or OS
upgrades

47. Core Services
✤ These could include
✤ Mail services
✤ routing, message fidelity, rules, client behaviour, traveler
✤ Calendar services
✤ lookups across servers / versions, interoperability with other systems,
behaviour of existing entries
✤ Make sure to test the O/S you use or will be using

48. Business Critical
✤ Web services
✤ HTTP(S) performance
✤ Existing configuration settings
✤ Upgraded directory design
✤ Databases
✤ Integrity, performance, indexes
✤ Cluster Behaviour

49. Loss of Functionality
✤ Applications - Don’t panic!
✤ Test if your applications behave the way you expect
✤ Use DDM to spot any errors being reported on the console
✤ monitor long running agents, high cpu, high memory
✤ Extension Manager services
✤ Add-on tools

50. New Features
✤ Test what you use now before testing what you would like to use
✤ Test against production data
✤ mail files upgraded
✤ directories upgraded
✤ ODS upgraded
✤ Which new features are important for you as part of the upgrade?
✤ Clustering enhancements
✤ Security and identity management changes

51. BetaTesting the Notes Client
✤ New installs
✤ Upgraded installs -
✤ upgrading from the latest version 9.0.1 FP10 to v10
✤ upgrading from the version your clients will be on
✤ upgrading the personal address book
✤ ODS upgrades
✤ It’s too early to test against Mojave beta.. don’t do it.

52. BetaTesting Sametime
✤ Does chat work the way you currently use it
✤ are buddy lists maintained
✤ Does persistent chat work - can you login on multiple clients concurrently
✤ are chat conversations kept up to date across multiple clients
✤ Do the WebSphere 9.0.1 pieces that you already have in place continue to
work with the new Sametime Community server

53. BetaTestingTraveler
✤ Derby or DB2 upgrades (if required - we don’t know at this point)
✤ Devices running earlier versions of Traveler accessing the server
✤ Deploying Traveler v10 to new devices
✤ Test on all device OS you will be supporting

54. BetaTesting New Products
✤ Nomad
✤ can you access the Notes applications you need from a tablet device?
✤ Node integration
✤ can your developers work with Domino data?
✤ DGQF
✤ can you query a Domino database and get the results you want?
✤ Understand what you hope to achieve from deploying these new features and define your own use cases to test
against.

55. Priorities & Dependencies

56. RISK
BUSINESS
CRITICALITY
low
low
high
high
Hardware
Updates
Operating System
Updates
Updating Domino
Traveler and (possibly)
Notes to latest 9.x
Testing Existing
Applications
Upgrade the most important
servers first
Deploy existing functionality
Add new features
Test a client upgrade plan
Test Add In & 3rd party tools
Document dependencies

57. Summary
✤ It’s going to be a busy and exciting few months
✤ Have a plan
✤ Use the beta
✤ Feed back to HCL
✤ Start promoting internally what new features will be coming
✤ Read the #DestinationDomino and sign up for the newsletter
✤ https://www.ibm.com/collaboration/ibm-domino
✤ Submit your ideas to the Product Ideas Lab
✤ https://domino.ideas.aha.io
✤ Join In!