HCL Notes freezes when logging into embedded Sametime
We have had an intermittent issue for nearly 2 years since upgrading to Sametime 11. Domino Server and Notes Client Versions can vary (between 11 and 12) but I am posting so that others may be aware of this issue that I think we have a workaround for.
The issue is that HCL Notes will open fine but if the user logs into embedded Sametime Notes will freeze and no longer function, requiring us to kill Notes. If the user had checked the automatic login the only way to recover was to kill Notes and rename the workspace.
We tried making sure Netbios was completely disabled in all the network configs and in the Notes client but the problem persisted.
The only reliable fix we have found so far is to add the short name to the hosts file on Windows clients. Edit C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file and add an entry for your Sametime server. If your Sametime server IP, for example, is 10.10.0.105 and your server name is Sametime put the following entry in your hosts file.
10.10.10.105 sametime sametime.yourdomain.com
Ever since we completely purged Netbios from our network configs we think this is when the problem started. We think that Notes and / or Sametime relies heavily on short names and it may time out while trying to reach a short name / netbios name that we don't use and adding the host entry seems to resolve it.
I would love to know if anyone else has seen something similar or had any other remediation ideas. I can't imagine no one has. We don't want to have to manage local hosts files on all computers if possible.
Hi, Dave, it looks like it is network issue and it is hard to debug.. :(
I think in your case you have to enable logs and only logs can help you.
There are too many issues that can cause this.
Please find https://support.hcltechsw.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0038860
in this ^^^ technote you will find how to enable logs , we need to see where timeout takes place.
Another good presentation is shared on Roberto Boccadoro blog.
http://www.robertoboccadoro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/st11webinar.pdf
To disable chat, you can use notes.ini parameters, so no need to kill/reinstall client. :)
May be also try to install Notes in one of server network segment, if this will work fine, then sometime else is disturbing (antiviruss, WAF, Network analyzer) notes traffic.
And if you have support, you can always open ticket :) HCL will solve this <2 weeks. Again = Network issues are most complicated to solve, since all network guys will say "everything is fine", but logs are your only friends and community :)
Hope this helps
Have a great day
Hi Vladislav, thank you for the thoughtful response. I will look at these resources. We had tickets open with HCL and submitted logs have not yet gotten a resolution. I mostly suspected security software or security ACLs to be conflicting with Notes. I believe at some point we did an nmap scan against the Notes server and Sametime server from an affected client machine and they were indeed unreachable during the unresponsiveness but the only program affected was HCL Notes. No other application on the affected machine was having a problem. Someone on the security team actually suggested the hosts entry as a test and was correct.
Thanks again, I will try to respond with what I find out.
Good Morning, thats why I proposed to run Notes in same Network segment as server (but not on server it self, could crash Domino/Sametime).
Verbose logging should help, we might see large timouts, for a while disabling firewall or security software or making exception to particular IP may help. Main idea is to locate problem (90% of time), as soon as it is located 10% to solve it. Good luck