As per the Lotus Domino Administration 6 Help database the ServerTasks=Design is obsolete in R6. Does anyone know why this task has been removed? Is there a new method that should be used to update the design of your databases on a server?
Thanks,
Anita
Subject: Design server task obsolete in R6 notes.ini
ServerTasks now run every time the server is started. Instead use ServerTasksAt to specify design should run at specified times.
For example, ServerTasksAt1=Design will run the designer task at 1:00 AM.
ServerTasksAT16=Design will run the designer task at 4:00 PM
HTH
Sriram
Subject: RE: Design server task obsolete in R6 notes.ini
Uhhh… ServerTasks= has always been the list of tasks to run immediately at startup. ServerTasksAtX has been supported since v2 at least.
I’m not able to find anything in the Admin help about the design task being obsolete.
Subject: RE: Design server task obsolete in R6 notes.ini
The document is in the R6 Administration Help and is called Obsolete NOTES.INI variables. At the very bottom there is table which lists obsolete variables for supported NOTES.INI settings. The server tasks in this table are Apple Talk, CLREPL, CLDBDIR, Design, NNTP, Object Collect mailobj.nsf, Report, SMTP MTA
I have checked on a new R6 server and sure enough the Design task is not included in the server task list. While I can manually add the task in, is there a reason why the help documentation is saying that it is an obsolete task in R6? Will this cause any problems going forward if this task remains in the notes.ini?
Anita
Subject: so it should be
it would make sense to obsolete the design task from server startup as, after all, what happens when you bring up a server after upgrading - all the databases would get their designs changed and too bad if thats not what you wanted.
loading the design task is dangerous, it can make an enourmous amount of changes to your databases and use huge quantnties of processor time. it’s better left to the system admin, they should decide when and where and how. face it, most of us already have program documents configured for the tasks we require (including server startup tasks).
that’s also why i have the ini entry (SetupLeaveServerTasks=1) that disables the upgrades from touching the servertasks and servertasksat entries. i do not want anything added/changed just because the ‘programmers’ think it’s a good idea (even if it is one), i need to make sure it’s not going to impact on my server first.
Subject: RE: so it should be
This is a matter of judgement on the part of your environment’s Notes architect. Personally, I think a properly architected Notes environment should run the Design task on production servers daily. If this breaks applications for you, then you’ve got your templates deployed incorrectly.
That being said, thanks, Raymond, for the KILLER tip on the SetupLeaveServerTasks setting. That is handy little tool for those servers where I don’t want CalConn, SchedMgr and Stats thrown back in with every upgrade!
Subject: AWESOME Tip!
Man I wish I new about that INI file setting before…
Thanks for the great Tip. Now that WAS “Tip of the Day”
C>
Subject: Just badly worded perhaps?
The document is a little confusing, but what i think they are suggesting is that Design is no longer supported / expected / default on the ServerTasks line:
NOTES.INI setting NOTES.INI setting variables
ServerTasks Apple Talk, CLREPL, CLDBDIR, Design, NNTP, Object Collect mailobj.nsf, Report, SMTP MTA
and instead is now present in the ServerTasksAt(Hour) format. This is the way it should be since when the design task runs it loads, updates the design of the database, and ends; you don’t continually run the task (like router for example), you execute it once at 2am. It’s just very badly worded.
C>