Paul Farris's Blog

Setup Error 1327 Invalid Drive when installing Lotus Notes Client

Paul Farris — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 07:49:00 +0100

Please note that this error applies to any application which uses the installshield setup application. It is caused by a having one of the user “special” windows folders, like My Pictures, pointing to a drive which cannot be accessed or has been removed.

1. Run Regedit

2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. If any of the registry keys matches the drive letter, in the error message, then delete them.

4. Restart setup

Install should now run as normal.

Lotus Notes Client Error CWPCA8522E Application did not get installed

Paul Farris — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:15:00 +0100

Error is displayed on Standard client when opening the users mailfile.

To fix shut down the Notes client and then delete the following folders under the Data folder:

Data\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.portal.app
Data\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.rcp.portal.app

Restart the Notes client.

Thanks to Stephan Bovet for his post on the 8.5 forum for this solution.

“Document has been Deleted” error. Help!

Paul Farris — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:08:00 +0100

Since installing Fix Pack 3, on Domino 8.5.1 servers, a number of users have been reporting the error message “Document has been Deleted” when accessing certain emails. Those messages have been archived but are remaining listed in the mailfile folder.

I have raised a PMR but if anyone else has experienced this issue then I would appreciate confirmation. Thanks.

Blocking Lotus Notes Client embedded Sametime

Paul Farris — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:22:00 +0100

It is not easy to block a Lotus Notes client user from connecting to a Sametime server and allow access to others. There does not appear to be any easy method of blocking access, to a group of users, without a complicated reconfiguration and using ldap. The easiest way is to block individuals by putting a * into the Instant messaging server field of their Person document, in the Public Address Book. This stops the client connecting and throws up a configuration error.

Compact Errors - Memory allocation request exceeded 65,000 bytes/Field is too large (32K) or View's column & selection formulas are too large

Paul Farris — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:08:00 +0100

The following errors are produced when running a compact –c against certain mail databases.

Error compacting mail\xxx.nsf: Memory allocation request exceeded 65,000 bytes

or

Error compacting mail\xxx.nsf: Field is too large (32K) or View's column & selection formulas are too large

Running another compact using the options –i –c –D seems to fix this problem. Corrupt view indexes?

Clearswift Mimesweeper will not talk to Domino LDAP after upgrade to Mimesweeper 5.4

Paul Farris — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:56:00 +0100

After upgrading Clearswift Mimesweeper for SMTP to the recently release v5.4 the LDAP user list synchronisation stopped updating – leaving it in an “Out of Date” status. After getting Clearswift’s support to check all of the upgrade results and confirming all was correct, it took some trial an error to find settings which would get it working again. Apparently the new version no longer supports any anonymous LDAP lookups – which had always worked fine before. A valid Domino username and password must be provided.

So nice of Clearswift to not test and document this new “feature”. I will be looking into Lotus Protector in the future.

Future Email / Forrester IT Forum / Project Vulcan

Paul Farris — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:54:00 +0100

Interesting ZDNet article, by Sam Diaz, on a session of the Forrester IT Forum about the future of email which gives an honourable mention to Project Vulcan.

Link: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/forrester-email-may-be-here-to-stay-but-it-definitely-needs-an-overhaul/35114?tag=nl.e539

Resetting Notes Client Rules

Paul Farris — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:40:00 +0100

An old problem but one which does not look like it will go away. User deletes a rule and the it continues to be executed even though it is not in the list of rules in the mailbox.

The following lotusscript can be put into a hotspot button and emailed to the user to execute. It disables all of the rules and then the user can just enable the rules that they would like to continue executing.



Sub Click(Source As Button)

Dim session As New NotesSession

Dim db As NotesDatabase

Set db = session.currentdatabase

Dim workspace As New NotesUIWorkspace

'This folder contains all the Mail Rules.

Dim folder As NotesView

Set folder = db.GetView("(Rules)")

'Find the calendar profile document in the current database. (GetProfileDocument will create the named profile document if it does not already exist.)

Dim calendarProfile As NotesDocument

Set calendarProfile = db.GetProfileDocument( "CalendarProfile" )

'Mail Rules are compiled and saved in special fields named $FilterFormula_xx

'Remove all of these fields from the calendar profile.

Forall item In calendarProfile.Items

If( Lcase$(Left$(item.Name,15)) = "$filterformula_" ) Then

Print "Cleanup " & item.Name

Call item.Remove

End If

End Forall

'Save changes to the calendar profile.

Call calendarProfile.Save( False, False )

'Disable all Rules.

Dim mailrule As NotesDocument

Set mailrule = folder.GetFirstDocument

While Not( mailrule Is Nothing )

Call mailrule.ReplaceItemValue( "Enable","0" )

Call mailrule.Save( True,False,True )

Set mailrule = folder.GetNextDocument( mailrule )

Wend

'Open the Rules folder

Call workspace.OpenDatabase( db.Server, db.FilePath, "(Rules)" )

'Message to the user.

Messagebox "Cleanup complete."

End Sub

This LotusScript was converted to HTML using the ls2html routine,
provided by Julian Robichaux at nsftools.com.

Thanks to Mark Thompson for posting this onto the 8.5 forum.

Google buys Global IP Solutions

Paul Farris — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:00:00 +0100

The VOIP company whose technology is used by Lotus Sametime, Webex, Yahoo and AOL according to ZDnet (http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-buys-voip-engine-behind-yahoo-aol-webex-lotus-conferencing/34590).

Notes Client Upgrade Woes

Paul Farris — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:51:00 +0100

Now the 6.x Client are no longer supported it provides a very good reason to upgrade the client base to 8.x.

But, even when the client has been upgraded to 8.x many of them require further attention again, periodically, to install fixpacks for issues which are present in the initial releases.

Why is it so difficult to get client fixes out to the clients? Windows Updates manage to do this without too much pain from a WSUS server on the LAN. If a Domino server could do the same, to connecting Notes clients, then this would reduce TCO and make the jobs of admins much easier.

Even being able to slipstream the fixpacks into the client install packages would improve things.

Infosecurity Europe 2010

Paul Farris — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:32:00 +0100

I attended Infosecurity Europe (http://www.infosec.co.uk/) this week in Earls Court, London. The usual security vendors were there with no sign of Lotus (Protector marketing opportunity missed). Overall there did seem to be fewer vendors/products but perhaps this should not come as a surprise considering most of the world has been in recession.

Linked-In for Blackberry v1.0.1

Paul Farris — Sun, 02 May 2010 08:21:00 +0100

I upgraded my Linked-In app, on my Blackberry 9700, to the recently updated version 1.0.1 version in a hope that it had been improved. Unfortunately not, so I have completely uninstalled it. Any 3rd-party app which runs automatically and cannot be closed is not something I want to use on my phone. How difficult can it be to code an exit function?

Upgrading Blackberry Enterprise Server to v5

Paul Farris — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:45:00 +0100

The following steps can be used to upgrade a Blackberry Enterprise Server from 4.x to 5. This does not describe an in-place upgrade. Setting up a new separate server allows testing at each step of the process.

Download Trial of BES v5 SP1 from Blackberry.com. This includes a temporary SRP key that is valid for 90 days (required as you cannot run two BES’s with the same SRP. If you try to do so Blackberry will disable the SRP key).
Download Blackberry Enterprise Transporter.
Setup new server.
Install Domino 8.5.
Install BES v5 on the new server.
Restart new server.
Test to ensure BES is running without any errors.
Log into BAS (Blackberry Administration Server) to ensure it is working.
Install Blackberry Enterprise Transporter on a separate workstation which already has Lotus Notes client installed.
Run Transporter and migrate users to new server. Please note that Blackberry devices must be on a minimum of v4.2, of the Blackberry device OS, to be seamlessly moved over without their knowing.
Test users can send/receive emails on their Blackberry devices.
Move old SRP key to new server. To do so, copy down SRP key from old server. Disable and Shut down old server. Edit SRP key on new server. Restart server.

This process can be easy carried out in a few days or anything up to a 90 day period (before the temporary SRP key runs out).

Installed BES 5

Paul Farris — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:43:00 +0000

I have installed Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0.1 with Domino 8.5.1 and this seems to be working fine. The transporter tool works very well allowing the users to be smoothly moved across without any indication to them. I will miss the old Blackberry Manager admin program but the news web interface will allow easy delegation of role based controlled access to Service Desk personnel.

Well done RIM. They have made the upgrade nearly as easy as upgrading a Domino server.

Benefit of upgrading BES from 4.x to 5.x:

1. Device Side Folder Management
2. Flag for Followup
3. Calendar Attachment Support
4. Synchronization of Public and Private contacts
5. Synchronization of Multiple Contact Folders
6. Calendar Meeting Delegation
7. Support for Audio WMA files
8. Support for Open Document Format (ODF)
9. Remote File Explorer
10. Web-Based Blackberry Administration Service Console
11. Custom Roles with different levels of access according to employee’s roles and permissions
12. Built in Monitoring with Threshold Analysis Tool and Maintenance Window Support
13. Job Management for Applications
14. Throttling
15. Schedules Upgrades
16. Blackberry Enterprise Transporter
17. High Availability
18. Enhanced Enterprise Activation Diagnostics/Troubleshooting

Google Chrome integrated language translation

Paul Farris — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:41:00 +0000

Google Chrome v5 now has automatic integration with the Google Translate service. It detects when another language is used, on a web page, and offers to translate it into the users own language at a click of a button.

Seems to work very smoothly and gives another excellent reason to use Chrome.

"Cannot save bitmap to disk" error when sending in Notes 8.5.1 Client

Paul Farris — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:10:00 +0000

I have seen these error messages, in the 8.5.1 (and FP1) client, which display "Cannot save bitmap to disk" when sending or saving some emails.

Technotes state that this has something to do with an active OLE object. The only workaround, that I have found, is to use the Internet-Style forwarding or replying.

Hopefully this will be fixed in FP2 or 8.5.2.

Moving DAOS Folder

Paul Farris — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:17:00 +0000

After foolishly originally setting up DAOS with the base path under the Data folder (I know it’s against best practice) I came up with the predictable problem of running low of disk space on the logical partition. Adding some disks to the RAID array provided some additional space but it is not easy to resize the basic partition, under Windows Server 2003, so I created a nice new empty partition to relocate some folders to. When the new logical drive was accessible I followed the following steps to relocate the DAOS folder.

1. Open Server document and select DAOS tab.

2. Edit “DAOS base path” value and save document. For example change from DAOS to F:\DAOS (F being the assigned drive letter for the new logical partition).

3. Shut down Domino Server.

4. At OS level move DAOS folder to new location (exactly as specified in the Server document).

5. Restart the Server. Please note restarting the Domino service does not appear to pick up the new DAOS base path. A full reboot of the server appears to be required.

6. When server has started run the console command “TELL DAOSMGR STATUS”. This should list the new “baseStoragePath”.

7. Sit back and relax. Have a beer.

When I originally tried this I only restarted the Domino Service and was confused why it would not pick up the new base path from the Server document. The old magic reboot solved this problem. I am not sure why this is required.

Merry Christmas

Paul Farris — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Out of Office in 8.5.1

Paul Farris — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Since upgrading to 8.5.1 I have seen several occurrences of the Out of Office service generating Delivery Failure messages when replying to senders. The messages appear to have been sent to the wrong domain after previously receiving a message from that domain.

A bug in the Out of Service service? Please let me know if you have also seen this?

Traveler Backend Database

Paul Farris — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:10:00 +0000

While Lotus Traveler uses two Notes databases (lotustraveler.nsf and ntsclcache.nsf) to store certain information most of the user state information is stored in an embedded database engine called Cloudscape. Why they have chosen to use another database engine, rather than the Domino one, is a mystery but I would guess that this is due to it requiring a relational database engine – which Domino is not – for the Java Traveler add-in task.

Cloudscape (IBM Cloudscape Referral Page) is a Java based database engine, with a very small footprint, which IBM donated to the open source Apache foundation, in 2004, which became Apache Derby.

The Cloudscape database files are stored in a folder under the Domino data directory called /traveler/ntsdb/. Please ensure that you backup this directory as any file corruption will cause your Traveler task to not work or lose state information about your users. It is not possible to access the information, that is stored in this database, as it it used by the Traveler add-in task and can only be accessed by one process at a time.

It would be nice in the future to see this information stored in a Notes database, so that it can be easily accessed, but I do not know if this would be technically possible to phase out the embedded Cloudscape engine.

Lotus Notes 6.5 Sametime connection error “Instant messaging error code (0x80000003)” after upgrading Sametime Server

Paul Farris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:16:00 +0000

After upgrading a 7.0.2 Sametime Server to 8.0.2 clients running Notes 6.5 are unable to log in, refusing their password and generating error “Instant messaging error code (0x80000003)”, while newer Notes clients connect fine.

Solution is in technote http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21246882

Sametime Server 8.0.2 default settings, for client types which can connect, does not include Notes clients 6.5.x. Adding 1002 to the VPS_ALLOWED_LOGIN_TYPES entry, of the servers Sametime.ini, allows the older client to access the server.

Deleting the Contents of an entire Blackberry Contact List

Paul Farris — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:03:00 +0000

There is no easy way to select all contacts and delete them using the standard Blackberry handsets Contacts application. Here is a way of doing so using a little Blackberry-Fu:

Go to Contacts application.
Press the menu button.
Select Options.
On the Options screen type rset.
You will be prompted “This will erase your Desktop contact list, and reload it from your server. Continue?” (where Desktop is the name of the selected Contacts list).
Select Yes.
If you have multiple Contact Lists then it will cycle through them all offering the option to delete them.

If the Contact List is set to sync with your BES then it should then sync down all of your contacts again. This is useful if you activate a Blackberry which is already connected, to a BES, and it creates duplicate contact lists.

Tell Amgr Run Annoyance in 8.5.1

Paul Farris — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:39:00 +0000

While trying to debug an agent which had stopped working I will usually use the console to force the agent to run as follows:

tell amgr run “database.nsf” ‘AgentName’

This should run the agent as it would when the selected trigger normally kicks it off (new/modified documents in this case). With 8.5.1 the syntax above would not work with a database that had a space, in the filename, returning the error:

AMgr: Syntax for run command: tell amgr run "db filename" 'agent name'

By trial and error I eventually had it running using the syntax below:

tell amgr run ‘database.nsf’ ‘AgentName’

A very frustrating bug.

Notes/Domino 8.5.1 Thoughts after 1 week

Paul Farris — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:40:00 +0100

Very good release so far. I have not seen any crashes and only a few minor error messages.

The Google offline calendars is working fine and syncing to my Blackberry. The APPTUNID field which can be used to filter them out programmatically at they contain the string ICALENDAR.

Traveler for the iPhone is working fine. Very easy to configure. I just need to work out how to switch iPhones to use a private APN and still have full Internet access.

One small issue is the Administration client stealing focus when switching between the Designer client and the Administration client. A workaround for this seems to be if you minimise the Admin client before switching to the Designer. This may be my machine as I have not seen this issue reported anywhere else.

Another problem is the setup program is not quick. It probably takes similar times to the previous client installs but on an older machine this does take some time. Fine if you are upgrading a low number of clients but resource intensive if you are upgrading thousands. I am looking at 3rd party tools to help automate this process.

Blackberry Messenger 5

Paul Farris — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:08:00 +0100

RIM have released version 5 of the Blackberry Messenger software. This application allows Blackberry devices to Instant Message each other directly without bothering with PIN messages. Below is a list of improvements over the 4.x app.

Avatars for yourself and your contacts
Backup of settings to Blackberry servers (remote) or using the Blackberry Desktop Manager (local)
Improved UI to improve the applications looks
Setting subjects for conversations
Barcodes – generate one for your device and scan others barcode to add them
Displaying time zone information
Displaying What I am listening to
Displaying Status updates

Apart from those differences it seems to work pretty much the same as the previous version. This is a useful free app, if you know anyone with a Blackberry, it is definitely worth downloading from the Blackberry App World.

Now, hopefully RIM produce similar improvements, for the Browser and other core apps, in version 5 of the Blackberry OS.

Back from UKLUG

Paul Farris — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:22:00 +0100

It was another great UK Lotus User Group in Edinburgh. Very well organised, by some great volunteers, and excellent value as it was free to attend.

Highlights included Bob and Ron’s opening keynote, Mary Beth’s session, Rob Novac’s free whisky session, Warren and Gabriella’s stand-in Traveler session, manic Speed Sponsoring, the free beer and Scottish ‘dancing’ in the evening. It was a shame that so many interesting sessions run concurrently making it impossible to attend them all.

I thought that Mary Beth Raven’s Collaboration Strategy session was my favourite. It was interesting to see that Lotus are trying to improve the integration between the Notes client and other products - Connections/Sametime/Quickr. Almost none of those present were using Connections and I am sure it would improve it’s sales if it provided an entry version, bundled with Notes, as it does with Quickr and Sametime. The offline inclusion of Google calendar's looked very cool as Google Sync causes real problems when used with my Blackberry. Her upside-down text on slides, crashing Notes client, and stories/news that we are not allowed to blog about were all very amusing to the packed session.

It was nice to hear about the news that the Designer client was free to all. I still think that the Notes client should be free for non-commercial use and the whole product range free for Educational use.

I am looking forward to downloading the gold version of 8.5.1 when it becomes available, on the IBM Passport site, on Monday 12th October. It is unclear what time it will be available but hopefully we will not have to wait for US time.

Thanks to Warren and all the other great volunteers, speakers and sponsors.

Gap in Lotus Traveler’s OS Support

Paul Farris — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:55:00 +0100

While Traveler now supports a large range of mobile OS’s (Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Iphone), and is not needed for Blackberry’s, it is missing support for the increasingly popular Google Android.

I do not know how difficult it would be for Lotus to write a Traveler App for this OS (would the API’s support it?) but it does restrict Lotus Notes users options, for buying a mobile phone, which is never a good thing.

Notes v8.5.1 Beta

Paul Farris — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:42:00 +0100

A lot has been said about the soon to be released version 8.5.1. As a user of the managed beta I found that early versions had some bugs, which made it rather difficult to use, but the latest code drop seems to have corrected all of these issues. Hopefully the gold code will be rock solid and not have any problems which will stop a roll out.

Automatically running a Fixup on Corrupt databases

Paul Farris — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:04:00 +0100

Sometimes the Compact task will fail to complete due to a problem with the structure of a database. This can usually be fixed by manually running a Fixup command, at the Admin Console, which will correct the problem with the database corruption.

This is a manual process which will need to be carried out by the Domino Administrator. To prevent the admin having to do this I have written the Lotusscript agent below which can be put into a database, on a server in the Domain, to execute automatically.

Create a new blank database on your Domino server.
Create a new agent from the Designer.
Set the agent type as Lotusscript.

Copy and paste the Lotusscript below into the code window.

%REM
    Agent Auto Fixup
    Created Aug 2009 by Paul Farris
    Description: Agent to automatically run a remote fixup command.
%END REM
Option Public
Option Declare

Sub Initialize()
    Dim session As New NotesSession
    Dim db As NotesDatabase
    Dim doc,doc2 As NotesDocument
    Dim item As NotesItem
    Dim unProcessedDocuments As NotesDocumentCollection
    Dim dc As NotesDocumentCollection
    Dim contents,substring,servername,consolereturn As String
    Dim string_start,string_end As Integer
    Dim result As Variant
    Dim rti As NotesRichTextItem
    Dim found As integer
    Print "Running Auto fixup"
    Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
    Set unProcessedDocuments = db.UnprocessedDocuments
    Set doc = unProcessedDocuments.GetFirstDocument()
    If Not(doc Is Nothing) Then
        found=0
        Print unProcessedDocuments.Count & " new documents found"
        Set doc2 = New NotesDocument( db )
        Set rti = doc2.CreateRichTextItem("Body")
        While Not(doc Is Nothing)
            If doc.Hasitem("Body") And doc.HasItem("EventText") And doc.HasItem("ServerName") Then
                Set item = doc.GetFirstItem("Body")
                contents = item.Text
                string_start = InStr(1,contents, |"|)+1
                string_End = InStr(string_start,contents, |"|)
                substring = Mid$(contents, string_start, string_end-string_start)
                If string_End>0 Then
                    Print "Found: " & substring
                    servername = doc.ServerName(0)
                    consolereturn = session.SendConsoleCommand(servername, substring)
                    Print consolereturn
                    Call rti.AddNewLine(1)
                    Call rti.AppendText("Sending remote command to " & servername & " for " & StrRightBack(substring," "))
                    found=found+1
                Else
                    Print "Auto Fixup Error - String not found"
                End If
            End If
            Call session.UpdateProcessedDoc(doc)
            Set doc = unprocessedDocuments.GetNextDocument(doc)
        Wend
        If found>0 then
            doc2.Subject ="Auto Fixup summary"
            doc2.SendTo = "Notes Administrator/Org"
            doc2.Form = "Memo"
            Call doc2.Send(False)
        End if
    Else
        Print "Auto Fixup: No documents found"
    End If
End Sub

Set the agent Trigger to “On Event”.
Select “After Document are created or modified”.
Set “Runtime Security Level” to “Allow Restricted Operations”.
Sign the agent with an ID which can run restricted operations on the server.
Create a mail-in database entry, in the Domain address book, pointing to this database.
Configure DDM (Domino Domain Monitoring) with an event handler, when the message is “Database is corrupt -- Cannot allocate space”, to send an email to a mail-in database setup previously.

Now whenever a compact fails it will send the email alert, to the database, which will trigger the execution of the agent. The remote commend is sent to the server and an email generated to notify the admin. One less job for a busy admin to do.

Review of Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 Training

Paul Farris — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:45:00 +0100

Last week I attended the Blackberry training course for the recently released Blackberry Enterprise Server 5.0 in London.

It consisted of two courses, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Software version 5.0 - Essential and BlackBerry Enterprise Server Software version 5.0 - Comprehensive, which were both two days in length.

PDF's of the full syllabus are here: http://uk.blackberry.com/support/programs/bas_5%200_essential_syllabus.pdf & http://uk.blackberry.com/support/programs/bas_5%200_comprehensive_syllabus.pdf

The training location was at Stayahead Training’s site, near the Barbican, in London. No other training sites, in the UK, were available.

The courses mainly covered installing version 5 from scratch, upgrading from a version 4.1.6 BES, using the Blackberry Administration Service, setting up High Availability and the Blackberry Monitoring server.

One of the few unfortunate things about this training course is that there is only an Exchange version currently available, of the course, unlike the BES 4.1.6 version which has a Domino specific course.

Another problem was that some of the labs did not seem to work but I am sure this was more down to the fact that the facilities were not owned by RIM and could not be configured to allow the VM images direct access to the SRP servers.

Overall I thought the training was very useful and I would recommend it if you intend to upgrade your BES, to version 5, or install a BES for the first time.