Issues Upgrading from R7 to R8

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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I am preparing to upgrade our Domino servers and Notes clients to 8.0.1 and have been hitting some roadblocks. I was able to upgrade our servers no problem (in a test region), but trying to use SmartUpgrade has been a challenge for the clients. The clients are all multi-user installs of R7 (7.0 to 7.0.3). The first issue I had was trying to do a silent install. It constantly failed with the following error:

File C:\Program Files\lotus\notes\framework.provisioning_rc not found. Provisioning process failed to launch or was terminated before status could be determined.

In working with IBM support, I was informed that I have to use a transform file to do a silent install using the following syntax:

msiexec /i “C:\801package\Lotus Notes 8.0.1.msi” TRANSFORMS=“C:\801package\custom.mst” INSTALLCONFIGURATION=multiuser /qb+"

This did work, but because I have remote users, I can’t simply put this up on the network for everyone to use. Not a show stopper by itself, but that is where the 2nd issue comes in. Once the R8 client has been successfully installed, each user must run through the Client Configuration wizard again to set up their personal environment. I have been told by IBM that there is no way to avoid this. I am not looking forward to walking each user through the configuration wizard and I only have 100 users to support.

What I am curious to know is how other companies are upgrading to version 8. It was suggested that I look at a third party tool called ADT, but I am hoping some of you could share your experiences before I commit to anything.

Thanks for your time,

Dave

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Subject: Some ideas on automating the Notes 8 client upgrade

My comments here are mostly based on an R5-to-6.5 upgrade, moving from single-user installs to multi-user with roaming, so take them with a pinch of salt. We did use Wolcott’s Automated Deployment Toolkit, along with some customization and additional scripting.

Firstly, ADT is an excellent product and I’d have a lot of confidence that it could address the issues you are facing. However, it is priced to reflect the needs of larger installations and you may decide that you can’t justify the cost.

If you have got to the point where you have a transform file created, then you’ve made quite a bit of progress.

For our installation, we distributed the install package, transform file and various batch files on CD for remote users. These were launched by ADT, but you could also launch these with whatever alternative mechanism you chose.

Looks like your issue with the Client Configuration wizard is one that has been around for a while. (See Technote 1219467 for a similar issue with upgrading to R7). My recommendation would be to take a snapshot of Notes.ini after the upgrade but before launching Notes 8 for the first time, and then another after you run through client configuration.

By comparing these two, you should be able to figure out what changes are being made during the Client Configuration process, and which Notes.ini variable is triggering Client Configuration to launch. What this won’t tell you is the various database design changes etc. that get made. Your goal here is to find a way (e.g. a batch file, or adding entries to your transform file) to make the Notes.ini changes you need before the client launches for the first time. In earlier versions of Notes you could trigger or disable the various client setup processes by altering the values of the various Setup entries in Notes.ini.

One caveat: you should be careful not to disable any default client-side setup processes unless you’re sure you know that you’re handling them in some other way.

Lastly, this may well be more work than is justified for 100 clients. So you may want to use support staff to handle the upgrades manually, or wait until IBM has removed the need to run through the Client Configuration wizard.

Rupert Clayton

Chicago

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Subject: There is a way, sort of

Install one client fully.It sounds like you already got the silent script down, which is great.

Now you need to run through the install, once to configure all basic info the user’s need and any special options you want in preferences or icons or anythign.

Add the icons you need or apps to the workspace/bookmarks.

Then clean it up of references to you or the id you used.

Make sure to delete the user’s mail icon you used and also reset the ACL of PNAB and bookmarks to default=manager and remove reference to your user.

Edit the location document so the internet email address is blank and the mail file just says mail\

Then close the client.

Go to the directory and edit the notes.ini by taking out all references to your user name, user id file, and anything else which looks like it is related to your specific machine or user login.

Caution, for the reference ot the mail file, delete the username, but not the .nsf extension.

Then copy it all up and stick it in the directory.

The “new” user who will do the install just needs their ID file and to edit the location doc for mail file and email address after running the silent install with a copy added to replace the files int he silent install directory.

Hope that makes sense, email me for more keith at vanessabrooks dot com

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Subject: SPR for this problem

There is a SPR SQCN7AVC2S on this problem. It is fixed in 8.0.2. To my knowledge there is no fix for 8.0.1

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/r5fixlist.nsf/8ed1b46cfdba8957852570c90054623b/676add1ca529d5328525745200420c42?OpenDocument

These two can also be of some interest

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/r5fixlist.nsf?OpenDatabase&Start=1.21.8&Count=30&Expand=1.21

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Subject: Re: SPR for this problem

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

It’s good to see that they are addressing this problem in 8.0.2, but I’m not sure if I can wait that long to proceed.

At this point, it looks like I will be doing the manual setup for each user.

Thanks again!

Dave