I am preparing to upgrade our iSeries Domino from R5.0.11 to either R6.0.2CF1 (or R6.5). Either way I want to establish a test environment. As a newbie I’m not sure how to start. Is a test environment just a matter of setting up another domino server? Can anyone direct me to any documentation for creating a test environment? Thanks, Jerry
Subject: How Do I Create A Test Environment
yes, setting up another domino server would be your test environment.
You may want your test environment server the same model as your iSeries, just to make sure you don’t have any os issues or anything that could come up as you perform the upgrade.
The test environment you are wanting really depends on how granular you want to test everything (just software or hardware/os, etc) and of course the budget factor.
HTH – Cheers
Subject: RE: How Do I Create A Test Environment
Thanks for the response.
I only have one iSeries so it has to be on the same box. Does setting up another server on the same box require an LPAR (logical partition)?
Want I want to do is ‘play’ around at doing some development stuff, ie mail template modifications, and maybe some web stuff and db2 integration. I need to ensure I don’t crash anything in our production Domino server as it is our production email system.
Thanks, Jerry
Subject: RE: How Do I Create A Test Environment
well first I would not do that on the same box. There are some people who believe it is ok to have a development and production notes data directory (what you are calling a LPAR). But if something should go crazy and the executables stop running you don’t have a production server running anymore.
You could fundamentally have another server even if it is just your workstation, it would provide most of your looking for in regards to template modifications.
If I can give an example, back in version 4.5 and when I worked for a small corportation (limited funds), I had a domino server running on a compact workstation. I had to add extra memory and more diskspace. Even if it is not the iSeries it would be better than nothing.
HTH – Cheers
Subject: RE: How Do I Create A Test Environment
The default installation for Domino on iSeries does not allow entirely independent restarts of LPARs. They still use shared memory for certain processes. Because of this, setting up a development server on the same iSeries will mean corrupting the behavior of your production LPAR. It is possible to set Domino up to use no shared memory, but this is apparently a fairly elaborate procedure that I’m afraid I don’t fully understand. So Joe’s right – you should try to avoid having your Dev environment on the same iSeries box.
If you’re looking to do web stuff and mail template modifications, you really don’t need the horsepower of an iSeries anyway. If you don’t have another iSeries box, just set up a PC server on Linux.
Subject: How Do I Create A Test Environment
Hi Gerald, first, I would recommend upgrading directly to Domino 6.5 and skip 6.0.2. To create you test bed, you do not need another LPAR or a separate iSeries server. Because Domino servers are implemented as subsystems on the iSeries server, they are isolated from each other.
What you need to do is configure your second iSeries server. Do do so, your first server has to have been configured with the *partiion capability. If this has not been done so, stop your first server (production server) and reconfigure it to add the partitioning capability.
Now you are ready to configure you test server. I would not configure it into your existing Domain, configure it as a *first server so it has it’s own domain.
You should be good to go after this. You can safely use that test server. If you crash your test Domino server, it will not impact your production server because they are in separate subsystems and have totally separate data directories.
FYI, once you’re at 6.5 (or 6.0.3) on the iSeries, you will be enabled for multi-versioning capability. This means that when you install version 6.6 (or 6.0.4), you will be able to have multiple versions of Domino installed on the same iSeries server. This means you could install 6.6 and only apply that code base to your test server, leaving your production server at version 6.5 which is ‘tried and true’.
Subject: RE: How Do I Create A Test Environment
Thanks Kim, and to all who’ve responded.
This situation started out because I was assigned the task of securing email.
I decided to do the R6 upgrade before beginning to roll out the PKI for securing email, thinking this is preferable since it eliminates potential problems that may be associated with securing email at 5.0.11 and then upgrading the server and clients and having email security ‘issues’ due to the R6 upgrade.
So while reading the many manuals relative to the upgrade process, it dawned on me that I could possbily install/implement a test environment in the process, which is something I’ve wanted to do since we installed Domino just about a year ago.
Having this test environment would allow me to test PKI and learn how to set us up as a certificate authority, as well as let me work on development stuff too.
Regards, Jerry