Problems with Roaming setup

HCL Domino Domino Forum
1

I am having a problem with a couple of aspects of roaming users as implemented in R6, and hope someone can help.

I manage multiple sites running Domino. Most of these sites have been running release 5 for some time. For these I have long implemented user roaming by keeping the users data directory on the server. This method has traditionally worked fine, with the main drawback perhaps being an increase in network traffic due to nonlocal files.

With the advent of release six, I have started using the roaming user features.

The first problem arises with my clients that need to be able to hot desk, or roam often. When a user is first log onto notes, standard setup procedure is followed. Roaming as such is working, however when the user logs on to another PC for the first time, the notes setup screen again appears, requiring the user to enter their name and the server name. Although this is not particularly arduous, it seems to confuse many users and is a constant drain on the user support resources.

Is there any way that. once the initial setup is performed, users details can happen automatically and bypass subsequent notes setup questions when they access a machine not previously used by them. it would be nice to be able to use the “cleanup notes files on exit” feature to save disk space on multiuser PCs, however this would be effectively impossible while this problem exists.

the second problem seems probably related, but maybe a bug. On a PC used by more than one person, occasionally after switching users, a user who has previously used notes on this PC and has already gone through the setup process will be asked again to go through the setup process as if it was the first time they had used the machine. This does not happen all the time, and I have yet to determine the exact frequency of the problem. it has, however, been reported by others in the notes forums.

the third issue, again probably related, is that occasionally when setting up a user for the first time on a machine, notes will report that cannot find the bookmarks template, despite the fact that it is available and visible in the shared notes data area in the all users folders. When this happens, it is necessary to manually copy the template to the users data area, and then rerun the user setup, for it to work properly.

I see a possible link between problems two and three, but have not yet determined whether they only exist on the same machines.

2

Subject: Problems with Roaming setup

Tony, I am working on the same topic at the moment.

My approach is to put even with Notes official roaming feature the notes.ini on the fileserver home directory of the user. Still the old parameter =h:\notes\notes.ini" works.

In another installation I followed another way which also works: With a group policy in Windows Active Directory the local user data portion of an Notes multiuser installation is included in Windows’ user profile. What advantages are reached?

  1. Multi-logons on different machines do not destroy the revision of local databases because of replication against Domino server.

  2. User installation is fairly simple: After the first successfully logon without any special preparation, the user may work on every machine inside the Active Directory context.

Peter

3

Subject: Problems with Roaming setup

Probably a bit late for you Tony, but might be handy for someone else!

A way to auto-populate a roaming user’s details on a new PC:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd\nd6forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedweb/08BC2CC44766794F85256F4E0053B364

4

Subject: Problems with Roaming setup

Hi Tony,

About the problem with the bookmark, the solution/workaround is documented in technote 1152655.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Problem

After installing a multi-user Notes Client, you register a new user with the operating system as a Roaming User. The roaming user logs in and launches the Notes Client for the first time. After setup is complete, he receives the error:

“The Notes 6 Client requires an up to date bookmark template, BOOKMARK.NTF. Please obtain a copy and restart Notes.”

If you register the new user in the OS as an Administrator, the first time setup completes without a problem.

This problem is only reproducible on an NTFS formatted drive. The Notes shared data directory is set to Read Only at installation time. This issue is not specific to the bookmark template. The same or similar error would appear if a non-administrator user attempted to edit a template, open the Release Notes, or Help database in the shared folder of a multi-user installation.

Solution

When the System Administrator installs the product, it creates a shared DATA directory. The shared data directory contains all the templates and HELP databases. The issue occurs when the System Administrator Logs off, and a user with limited access to the system logs in. When the new roaming user runs Notes for the first time, it creates another DATA directory for that user, and then tries to refresh his BOOKMARK.NSF file with the templates from the shared data directory. This results in an error.

The problem is caused by the user having WRITE access to the template, but not having WRITE access to the shared Lotus\Notes\Data directory. This problem isn’t limited to templates. It’s also true for Help databases which are installed only in the shared directory, and the FT index for the help databases which are created under the shared data directory.

This issue has been reported to Lotus software Quality Engineering.

Workaround:

You can work around this problem by manually enabling Write permission on the shared data folder.

To change permission’s on the Shared folder:

  1. Log in to a workstation with the Multi-User installation using the Administrator account.

  2. Right-click on the folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data\Shared

  1. Select Properties.

  2. Select the Security tab

  3. Select the Users group

  4. Enable Write permission and save changes

Have the user (or limited OS account) log onto the workstation and launch the Notes Client again. The user should be able to launch and set up the client successfully.

5

Subject: RE: Problems with Roaming setup

Four years later, this saved me a lot of time. Still no idea why this happened on this one PC and not on the rest of them.

Thanks!

6

Subject: RE: Problems with Roaming setup

Thanks Fred. I will check this.

Is there an explanation why it only happens on some installs. All of my users are standard windows Domain Users without policy customisation, yet it doesnt happen for all??

Cheers

TP