Is there some tuneable config parameter that governs how long it will take before the OOO agent will respond to a sender? If I send a memo to someone who has OOO enabled, I do not get a notification email sent back to me for over 5 minutes… and yes, I am refreshing my mailbox frequently, and no the server is not under a load.
In MS Outlook/Exchange, we got the out of office auto reply back instantly and now my users are complaining about this in Lotus.
Subject: Out of Office agent very slow to respond
I looked at the schedule for the OOO agent in inotes60.ntf, and it’s set to run every hour. I think that’s reasonable. (I agree that once a day was a bit too slow, especially if you are waiting for a real response from someone!).
Lee Sweet
Subject: Out of Office agent very slow to respond
5 minutes? OH BROTHER. Sometimes it is the role of IT to tell people to stop polling for mail and to get on with their lives.
Subject: Role of I.T.
In our organization, it is the role of IT to make the systems perform as requested and required by the end users who pay for the hardware, software and staff. When they say jump, we have to ask “how high?”.
I do not think it is unreasonable at all for the out-of-office responses to come back as immediately as possible, in fact I expect it out of an electronic messaging system that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of hardware, software and implementation/training costs. This is supposed to be the Information Age, ya know. Once-a-day out-of-office notifications may have been fine and dandy back when we used punch cards and “steam-powered” mainframes, but in 2003? Give me a break!
Subject: RE: Role of I.T.
Don’t be simplistic. You’re supposed to also ask “Are you aware how much that costs”, and if it’s too expensive, “Are you aware that your boss is going to have to approve this cost”. It’s a power struggle in any organization, and some IT departments apparently lose that struggle. My condolences.
Subject: RE: Role of I.T.
I agree with Neal. IT departments are not money makers but function as support. I think some overpaid IT managers lost track of that. Perhaps Jeff Dunlop is confused about who signs the checks.
Subject: Support means … (WAS: Role of I.T.)
… helping your userbase do what they want. Not bowing to their every whim.
But how did we get to this just 'cause poor old Neal has to deal with doofuses (doofi?) who are constanly checking their mail through out the day??
And by the way, what’s with the sentence “Perhaps Jeff Dunlop is confused about who signs the checks.”? Who signs cheques for IT departments in this day and age??
; - )
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Subject: I agree, but… (WAS: Role of I.T.)
… you mentioned a timeframe of “5 minutes.” This is hardly a major catastrophe. There’s nothing to say you can’t set your OOO agent to run more than once a day in any case is there?–
Subject: 5 minutes
Actually after now being “live” on Notes/Domino for just one week after rollout with nearly 500 brand new users coming from an Outlook/Exchange migration, I’d be ecstatically happy if I could get a consistant 5 minute delay for OOO responses. I’m actually seeing everything from near-instant responses to several minutes and even some with several hours delay, to no OOO responses at all, very inconsistantly and with no errors showing up in the log. In our old Exchange 5.0 (yes, that old) server, the OOO replies never took longer than a few seconds, and that’s what my users were accustomed to and won’t understand why we IT folks can’t still provide them with that fundamentally essential functionality with this new system.
Subject: RE: 5 minutes
As I’m sure you’re aware, agent manager “queues” processes when too many requests come in at the exact same time.
When your OOO agents actually run will be very much dependent on each agent’s trigger (when new mail arrives or on the more usual schedule for example), in addition to general server load.
There’s no point comparing how a typical Domino box does something with how an Exchange system performs (although I know you like to do this Neal!) In so many respects they are different beasts (regardless of what MS used to say), and Domino is not “just” an email system.
If your agents are queueing up that badly, then you need to look at how your servers are configured and / or their respective user loads. There’s no reason why you can’t have an OOO system that meets your users’ needs, although to be honest, if they’re polling for OOO responses 5 - 15 times an hour one could argue that they need to get a grip and do some work ; - )
If after all this it’s still “not good enough” then look to some other solutions, third party or in-house: there are plenty.
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Subject: OpenNTF
I think I’ve figured out how to solve most of this problem. I’ve changed the server config document to allow up to 4 max concurrent agents both day and night, and have made a custom mail database template based on the OpenNTF 1.1e template with the OOO agent set to trigger on new mail arriving. The server isn’t under any overload at all, in fact it’s a ridiculously overpowered quad processor RS6000/p660 with 4GB memory, and pretty much laughing at the load that Domino and my three Oracle databases are placing upon it.
My test group of guinea-pig OpenNTF users are in love with the added features, better intuitiveness and overall look & feel of OpenNTF over the stock mailbox template. OOO replies seem to be issued instantly too in the few tests I’ve run this afternoon. We had a bunch of bizarre error messages pop up when first using the OpenNTF template last week when we first turned the new system loose on the users, and converted back to the stock template for everybody. Last night I upgraded the server to 6.01 and today these few test users (still on 6.0 client) are reporting no errors yet with this newest OpenNTF-based template… I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Subject: Good news - tell the chaps at OpenNTF! (WAS: OpenNTF)
Subject: Out of Office agent very slow to respond
This is a common complaint from Exchange users, but I think what users need to realize is that if you want to contact someone quickly, don’t send email. If you are using 6.5 you can use the Sametime presence and awareness to see if someone is available and not rely on the OOO.
Subject: Out of Office agent very slow to respond
Agent FAQ has an article called “Demystifying Out of office agent” that tells you how to change the defaults. I believe the default in 6.0 is 4 times a day, it used to be at midnight or 1 am in 5.0.
Subject: Demystifying… OOO FAQ
Yeah I found and read it, but it ain’t been updated in about half a decade is quite stale.
Subject: RE: Demystifying… OOO FAQ
That’s all right! How to change it has not changed.
Subject: Out of Office agent very slow to respond
Try changing OOO agent time as by default all agents triggers once usually midnight.And make sure user have correct permission.Hope this will help.
YA