Sunday 29 March 2009

Performance tuning IBM Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino

The goal of performance tuning is to improve the output based on certain hardware. You should pay particular attention to the tuning parameters that apply to your hardware and network configurations.
This article shows you how to conduct performance tuning in three aspects: the operating system, Lotus Domino, and Lotus Quickr. Tuning the operating system involves improving the performance of the operating system itself, which reacts to the performance of Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino. Lotus Quickr 8.1 supports the Microsoft® Windows®, AIX®, and System i® operating systems. Another layer, the Lotus Domino server, is the back end for Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino, so tuning the Lotus Domino server also reacts to improvements in the performance of Lotus Quickr.
A different version of Lotus Quickr, Lotus Quickr services for WebSphere Portal, is not covered in this article. Here, when we refer to "Lotus Quickr," we mean Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino exclusively.
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/quickr-tuning/

Thursday 19 March 2009

IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 on Citrix XenApp 4.5: A scalability analysis

Just saw this posted on Ed's blog: -

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/notes/d-ls-notes85xenapp/

Rational Application Developer 7.5 and WebSphere Portal 6.1 Together

<YMMV>
I have not yet tried this
</YMMV>

I've not done this in a long while ( probably since RAD 5 or WSAD 4 ), but I took a quick look at the IBM software downloads catalogue ( this is an internal site *BUT* I believe it shows the same products / part numbers as the external Passport Advantage site ).

I searched for "Rational Application Developer" and found: -

IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere V7.5 Multilingual Multiplatform eAssembly (Optional) (CR7NQML)

which includes, amongst other things: -

W-Setup IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Portal Server Install V6.1.0.1 (W-Setup, A-Setup, H-Setup, HI-Setup, I-Setup, IL-Setup, PL-Setup, ZL-Setup, SS-Setup, SO-Setup) Multiplatform Multilingual (C1TL1ML)

W-1 IBMWebSphere Portal V6.1.0.1, WebSphere Portal Express V6.1.0.1 and Lotus Web Content Management V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment for Windows x86-32, V6.1.0.19 (W-1) Multilingual (C1TQ5ML)

W-2 IBM WebSphere Portal V6.1.0.1 and Lotus Web Content Management V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment for Windows x86-64 (W-2) Multilingual (C1TR1ML)

W-3 IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Portal Server Server component (Disk 1 of 4) V6.1.0.1 (W-3, A-3, H-3, HI-3, I-3, IL-3, PL-3, ZL-3, SS-3, SO-3) Multiplatform Multilingual (C1U2UML)

W-4 IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Portal Server Server component (Disk 2 of 4) V6.1.0.1 (W-4, A-4, H-4, HI-4, I-4, IL-4, PL-4, ZL-4, SS-4, S0-4) Multiplatform Multilingual (C1U2XML)

W-5 IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Portal Server Server component (Disk 3 of 4) V6.1.0.1 (W-5, A-5, H-5, HI-5, I-5, IL-5, PL-5, ZL-5, SS-5, SO-5) Multiplatform Multilingual (C1U30ML)

W-5a IBM WebSphere Portal Server V6.1.0.1 - IBM WebSphere Portal Server Server component (Disc 4 of 4) V6.1.0.1 (W-5A, A-5A, H-5A, HI-5A, I-5A, IL-5A, PL-5A, ZL-5A, SS-5A, SO-5A) Multiplatform Multilingual (C1U34ML)

This document: -

Required CDs and downloadable images to install IBM WebSphere Portal Server v6.1.0.1


describes the download and extraction process in more detail.

This document: -

Parts required for WebSphere Portal Test Environment 6.1 install in Rational Application Developer 7.5.x


looks to be even more relevant to your requirements.

Aid Memoire - Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino - Specifying super user access to the server

A user granted super user access to the server can read and edit every page in every place, customize every place, control the membership of every place, create places, and use the Site Administration link to perform administration tasks. By default, no super user is defined.

Note the following additional points about super user access:

• You can give super user access only to an external user or group.
• Offline functionality is not supported when accessing a server as a super user.
• You use the qpconfig.xml file to control super user access from a browser and a QuickPlaceAdministratorsSUGroup in the Domino Directory to control super user access from a Lotus Notes client.
• Place managers automatically have super user access to the places they manage, and can give additional users super user access to those places. See the Help for additional information on place membership.
• If a user is a super user as well as an explicit member of a place, the user's level of access depends on whether the place uses standard membership or expanded membership. If the place uses standard membership, the user gets the access assigned through the explicit membership. If the place uses expanded membership, the user gets super user access to the place. For example, if a user with super user access is also a member of a place with Reader access and the place uses standard membership, the user has Reader access to the place. However, if the place uses expanded membership, the user has super user access to the place.

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Causing Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino to update it's search index ...

Go to the Domino server's console, and run: -

> load updall LotusQuickr\foobar\search.nsf

which should return: -

03/18/2009 09:38:00 PM Index update process started
03/18/2009 09:38:00 PM Updating views in C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus
\Domino\data\LotusQuickr\foobar\search.nsf
03/18/2009 09:38:00 PM Updating search site database 'C:\Program Files
\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data\LotusQuickr\foobar\search.nsf'
03/18/2009 09:38:00 PM Finished updating search site database 'C:
\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Domino\data\LotusQuickr\foobar\search.nsf'
03/18/2009 09:38:02 PM Index update process shutdown

( where foobar is the name of the Quickr place )

Fun and Games with the New Site Wizard portlet

Using the IBM New Site Wizard portlet, I was seeing: -

An error occurred creating the new portal site:

An error occurred while trying to create users or groups within the user repository because of insufficient access permissions. This site template requires write access to the user repository.


This only started occurring AFTER I'd configured my portal server ( WebSphere Portal Express 6.1.0.1 ) to authenticate against my Domino LDAP ( Lotus Domino 8.5 ), which kinda indicated where things might have gone wrong.

When I checked the portal's SystemOut.log, I saw: -

com.ibm.websphere.wim.exception.WIMSystemException: CWWIM4520E The 'javax.naming.NoPermissionException: [LDAP: error code 50 - Insufficient Access Rights]; remaining name 'cn=MySite01Admins'; resolved object com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtx@3a063a06' naming exception occurred during processing.

These two sets of messages indicated that the portal is not able to create new users/groups within the Domino Directory, which makes sense given that I have not enabled LDAP write-access ( "Allow LDAP users write access" = "Yes" ).

I'll dig around a little further, but this does make sense ... of a sort

Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino - Performance Tuning Documentation


Lotus Quickr 8.1 services for Lotus Domino performance tuning guide

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=3264&uid=swg27015319


Performance tuning IBM Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0802tessarek/index.html

Saturday 14 March 2009

WebSphere Portal Express 6.1.0.1 and Lotus Domino 8.5 Together

As part of a recent piece of work, I had some fun n' games configuring WebSphere Portal Express 6.10.1 and Lotus Domino 8.5 to coexist.

According to: -

WebSphere Portal Express V6.1.0.1 hardware and software requirements - Microsoft Windows


this IS a supported configuration, and it definitely worked.

However, we did hit a few snags: -

  • setting the Base DN parameter IS a bad idea with Domino, as group distinguished names (DN) are never "qualified" with a domain name e.g. you'll never see cn=wpsadmins,o=ibm as a group name

    Never be tempted to set this parameter unless you're 100% sure that the group names ARE qualified

  • forgetting to qualify the user names for Bind distinguished name, Primary administrative user name and Primary Portal administration user name

    Always remember to qualify user names e.g. cn=wpsadmin, o=ibm as appropriate.

    If in doubt, use the LDAPSEARCH tool provided with Domino to check e.g. ldapsearch -h hostname cn=wpsadmin

  • The absolutely biggest mistake was failing to take advantage of the fact that we were running a VMware environment which provides the most useful snapshot facility.

    We had the capability AND FAILED TO USE IT.

    If in doubt, BACK UP, BACK UP, BACK UP

Ironically, my own installation ( on VMware Fusion on the Mac ) went as smooth as silk, and I didn't hit a single problem.

Still, a lesson learnt is a valuable lesson indeed ( and I'm hoping that my pain will spare you some pain )

Security Fix Required: Access problems with BasicAuthTAI in WebSphere Portal

IBM has identified a serious vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Portal in an authentication component that makes it possible for remote attackers over the network to bypass normal WebSphere Portal server security. Through this attack, an intruder might be able to execute administrative commands without proper authority. 


Friday 13 March 2009

DB2 License included with WebSphere Portal 6.1 CDs expires after 90 days

Having just seen this problem, I thought I'd share the solution: -

DB2 License included with WebSphere Portal 6.1 CDs expires after 90 days

...
BM® WebSphere® Portal and Lotus® Web Content Management (WCM) version 6.1 can be purchased under a variety of licensing options. Some licensing options include a copy of the IBM DB2® database software for use with WebSphere Portal. If the portal is configured against this copy of DB2, the portal can become nonfunctional after 90 days due to an expired DB2 license.
...


It should only affect certain evaluation/non-PPA installations, but it's worth checking. Use db2licm -l to check ...

Wednesday 11 March 2009

WebSphere Portal Express 6.1.0.1 - My First Look ...

Just getting ready to go see a client tomorrow, and plan to use the updated version of WebSphere Portal Express, 6.1.0.1, which was shipped late last year.

I always create an unpack script to extract the content of the ZIP files, which always have unusual names, and this time is no exception.

Therefore, I created a batch file ( gosh, how long have I been creating batch files ? ) as follows: -

unzip   C1TQ3ML.zip -d c:\temp\W-Setup 
unzip   C1TQ5ML.zip -d c:\temp\W-1
unzip   C1HA1ML.zip -d c:\temp\W-2
unzip   C1U2VML.zip -d c:\temp\W-3
unzip   C1U2YML.zip -d c:\temp\W-4
unzip   C1U31ML.zip -d c:\temp\W-5
 
and use a command line extraction tool called UNZIP.EXE ( part of the PKWare ZIP/UNZIP suite ).

Will post an update once the installation is finished ....

In case it helps, the mapping between the file names and the directory names can be found in this IBM document here: -

Required CDs and downloadable images to install IBM WebSphere Portal Express V6.1.0.1

Sunday 8 March 2009

WebSphere Portlet Factory and Domino Together

It's been a while since I did this from scratch, so I was stumped on Friday when I wasn't able to retrieve a list of Domino databases using the Domino Data Access builder in WebSphere Portlet Factory.

I'm using Domino 8.5 and WebSphere Portlet Factory 6.1.2, and was seeing: -



class com.bowstreet.webapp.engine.WebAppRuntimeException: lotus.domino.NotesException
lotus.domino.NotesException
  Plug-in Provider:   IBM
  Plug-in Name:   WebSphere Portlet Factory Designer UI
  Plug-in ID:   com.bowstreet.designer.ui
  Version:   6.1.2
  
  NotesException: Could not open Notes session
....
  Caused by: org.omg.CORBA.COMM_FAILURE: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect Host: 192.168.137.128 Port: 63148  vmcid: 0x0  minor code: 1  completed: No

I thought I'd already started the DIIOP task, but when I checked using NETSTAT -AON | FIND "LISTENING", I could NOT see anything listening on the default IIOP port of 63148.

I went back to the Domino console, entered the command LOAD DIIOP, and tried again.

This time, it worked OK.

I'd previously checked two other potential setup snafus: -

a) Current Server Document -> Internet Protocol -> HTTP -> Basics -> Host name(s) == needs to be set
b) Current Server Document -> Internet Protocol -> HTTP -> R5 Basics -> Allow HTTP clients to browse databases == Yes

This document on the IBM website was also of help, in reminding me of where I'd gone wrong :-)

Saturday 7 March 2009

Thursday 5 March 2009

Update Strategy for WebSphere Portal versions 6.0 and 6.1

This document describes the strategy for delivering maintenance
updates for IBM® WebSphere® Portal versions 6.0 and 6.1 and provides
tentative availability dates for future deliveries. By implementing a
consistent and timely update strategy, customers can avoid
rediscovering the problems we have already fixed and maintain a more
stable and robust environment.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21248245

Key Content Resources for Lotus Web Content Management

he following key content resources, such as Information Centers,
system requirements, wikis, discussion forums, support technotes and
product documentation, are available for Lotus Web Content Management.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27013543

Lotus Sametime Deployment at IBM

An interesting article on the Sametime wiki here: -

Sametime is the official instant messaging application used by the IBM Corporation. With approximately 400,000 employees, IBM is the largest user of Sametime in the world. On a daily basis, millions of messages are exchanged by IBMers with their colleagues and with external customers. The deployment services over 480,000 worldwide users, with a peak concurrency rate of 225,000 users per day. All this is handled by three Domino clusters of three Sametime servers each that process approximately six million messages per day.  The three clusters are located at one site in the United States. 

IBM WebSphere Portal Document Manager migration tool

The IBM WebSphere Portal Document Manager migration tool is a solution
designed to migrate library content from IBM WebSphere Portal Document
Manager V5.1 or V6.0.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24022083

Visual Studio Code - Wow 🙀

Why did I not know that I can merely hit [cmd] [p]  to bring up a search box allowing me to search my project e.g. a repo cloned from GitHub...