Please submit your questions for the May 19, 2010 IBM Lotus iNotes for Domino 851 Open Mic.
Subject: iNotes Redirector & Multiple Mail servers
We have a DMZ server running Traveler and would like to pass iNotes access thru it as well. Not working.
Can you discuss using iNotes redirector on a DMZ server, thru a firewall into mail files under a common subdirectory (under root of data) on internal Domino servers. Show use of the reverse proxy server address in the iNotes redirector that will honor mail hosted on any of the internal mail servers whose file is mail/username.nsf . Show other server settings / configs that are needed to support this.
Subject: Also the following needs to work …
-
One URL and having users on multiple home mail server and using "Open Other mailfile/Calendar"This feature breaks if you use a reverse proxy and 1 url for all servers since the link is generated with the FQHN from the basics tab of the server document of the home server.
-
One URL for iNotes archives.
Currently this feature breaks like the previous one. It is possible to use notes.ini : iNotes_WA_ArchiveUseHTTPHostName=1
(http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg21377779)
However this would require the generic URL (webmail.company.com) to be in the HTTP configuration which resolves in DNS to the proxy and not the mail server (if using bind to hostname, which is common).
This in turn can be tricked by modifying the hosts file… but to be honest… I find this solution not worthy of an enterprise plaform.
Subject: iNotes Article on High Availability
Subject: Agree! This is majorly important
Very common is the following request:
Webmailurl → reverse proxy → backend domino servers
If all users use the same webmail url (webmail.company.com) and the mailfiles generally exist in uri: /mail/*.nsf it is not possible to differntiate in the reverse proxy to point to the correct backend home server.
One succesful technique is generating a cookie after login with the name of the home mail server and using a proxy which can redirect based on this cookie. Tests have shown unsuccesful to do this with simple reverse proxy like IBM Http Server / Apache.
This technique has been succesfully applied with Citrix Netscaler which is much more advanced.
Subject: Support for Windows 2008 R2
When will Win2008 R2 be officially supported?
Subject: Still in evaluation and testing stage
Windows 2008 (both 32-bit and 64-bit builds) are currently supported beginning with Domino 8.5, however IBM is currently evaluating Windows 2008 R2 support for an upcoming 8.5.x maintenance release. A technote should be posted to the Knowledge Base (http://support.lotus.com) around the end of next month with further details. Thanks!
Subject: Idle Session timeouts inside and outside the f/w
Is there a way to configure a single Domino mail server running HTTP to have a separate session expiration settings based on the URL used to access the server? We have mandatory remote idle session timeout requirements when accessing iNotes from outside our firewall which makes it all by impossible to convince folks to use iNotes inside the f/w due to the constant timeouts all day long that requite them to log back in every time they stop using iNotes of X mins. We’d prefer to not have extra servers just for remote access and it really is the responsibility of the hosting application to manage application session expiration, not the network infrastructure
Subject: Which password does iNotes use?
Once ID vault is implemented with iNotes, will users use their password in their ID file in their mail file or their http password in their person document?
Subject: What’s next?
I understand this is an iNotes 8.5.1 session, however 8.5.2 is just around the corner. In deciding whether or not to roll out 8.5.1. or 8.5.2 can you outline what’s new in 8.5.2?
Thank you,
Scott
Subject: Open Mic
2 Questions:1. When will Traveler for Android be available and is there a BETA available for testing. (and yes I will voluntier).
- We have our Lotus Notes 8.0.2 (Domino Server) on an iSeries and are running SameTime 8.5 (Domino Server 8.5.1) on a WINTEL server (VM)(and Traveler on a VM also). We will be implementing VoIP with CISCO hardware sometime this year. The question, is it required to have a WINTEL server running Lotus Notes (Domino Server) to be able to converge our voicemail into our email or is it enough to have SameTime on a WINTEL. (or will Traveler fill that job?) That might have been more than 2 questions.
Subject: How to handle multiple releases and hotfixes
The /iNotes/forms##.nsf is used on the server where the mail file resides when requesting pages. This formsxx.nsf has iNotes version dependant strings in it. It references files and versions of ActiveX components related to that specific version of iNotes on that server.
However, the forms##.nsf is capable of replicating throughout the domain. This leads to possible corrupted forms databases or references to ActiveX components which do not exist on a specific server. The default handling for iNotes would be to retry the request with ActiveX components of an other version, but it slows down the process.
Is the above interpretation correct? There is not much known about the use and working of forms db.
Would it not be a good idea to disable the forms##.nsf for replication?
Why is this not described in the readme for hotfixes for iNotes? This is necessary because if you apply a hotfix on one server and the forms.nsf is replicated to other servers, there is a mismatch in version.
We have a 30,000 customer who had severe issues with the above which led us to perform a downgrade of Domino 8.5 to 8.0 (our first downgrade attempt ever).
Subject: Question about Alarms
If I have ‘Enable calendar alarms’ checked in iNotes Preferences, when creating a new Meeting/Appointment/Reminder, the Alarm checkbox is never checked. Is this working as designed or do I have something setup wrong? I’m running Domino 8.5.1 FP2 with the latest iNotes fixpack. Thanks…
Subject: Will ID file pull automatically into iNotes from the ID vault?
If the person’s ID file is not in their mail file, will the ID vault put the person’s ID file in the mail file when access a change (new password) via iNotes? I know the Notes Client would pull the ID from the vault, but have heard nothing about iNotes pulling the ID from the vault and putting it in the mail file.
Subject: Yes, but the ID vault integration policy setting must be enabled.
See the following page from the Lotus Notes and Domino Information Center:
Subject: 8.5.1 iNotes UI with 8.0.2 mail template
We have upgraded our servers to 8.5.1 while our clients use 8.0.2 and the 8.0.2 mail template. We discovered that if the forms8.nsf is missing from the server the iNotes UI will “fail forward” to the 8.5.1 presentation. It seems like this is functioning as designed.
Is the 8.0.2 mail template with forms85.nsf a supported configuration?
Can you provide a list of known caveats when operating under this combination?
Thanks.
Subject: Working as designed
Hi Kevin,
You are correct! When a user attempts to access a mail database based on mail8.ntf, and the Forms8.nsf is missing, the Domino server (iNotes) will revert to the Forms85.nsf for the shared design elements necessary to render the UI. This is functioning as designed.
Newer Domino server releases are officially supported with many older iNotes mail templates (including the 8.0.2 mail template); however, in order to maintain a consistent user interface for your 8.0.2 mail template users and to prevent the perception of missing features, we recommend maintaining a copy of the Forms8.nsf database on the server for your remaining 8.0.2 users.
If you have any additional questions regarding this, please feel free to post a response before the Open Mic call. Thanks!
Subject: 8.5.1 reverse proxy problem
Hi,I have a similar problem.
I recently upgrade our main server from 6.5.6 to 8.5.1 FP2. We are using a reverse proxy (on an Apache HTTP server) to access our different servers.
It works fine but only with 6.5.6 templates, not with 8.5.1 templates.
In IE, I got this error :
Détails de l’erreur de la page Web
Agent utilisateur : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0)
Horodateur : Wed, 19 May 2010 15:00:20 UTC
Message : ‘s_SessionFrame.EQn’ a la valeur Null ou n’est pas un objet.
Ligne : 7
Caractère : 1
Code : 0
URI : https://webmail.domain.com/internal/mail/admin.nsf?OpenDatabase
Reverting the mail to 6.5.6 template make the webmail working again.
Any idea ?
Subject: IBM Redbook
I found the IBM Redbook “iNotes Web Access Deployment and Administration” (http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246518.html?Open) available for download. This Redbook has been published at 18 Dezember 2001.
Is there a new updated version available/planned?