Thursday, December 11, 2008

ST - SNTT: serverkeyfilename vs. keyfilename

2 in one day wow a busy day
Sametime 8.0.1 issues at a client have sucked in Twitter mateCarl and Stuart and now IBM Support.
This post is about the first oddity we ran into.
The server stopped working, Sametime services are not running.
After testing and prodding decided to reinstall Sametime.

Start install, pass the first screen or 2, then checks my Server ID for a password and then asks me for it.
Problem is the ID does not have a password associated with it.
hmmm.
Tried a backup ID as well, same problem.
Checked the notes.ini and ServerKeyFileName is correct.
Thus I called IBM Support as this was a new one to me, an ID with no password was telling the Sametime installer it has one?

Support tells me that KeyFileName must also have an ID listed and should have a full directory path as well to the file.

Funny that, I know in R4 the split was defined so you could run a server aned client separately but didn't realize the Sametime install checked KeyFileName before installing, how odd I thought.

Support sent me this note:
Sametime install prompts for server ID password
Product: Lotus Sametime > Install/Configuration > Version 8.0.1, 8.0
Platform(s): Windows
Edition(s): Standard
Doc Number: 1307005
Date: 06/30/2008

Problem
During the install of a Sametime® server it attempts to access the server ID file. The installer prompts for a password even though the ID does not have one. The installer will not continue beyond this point.

Cause
This will occur if the KeyFileName parameter in the notes.ini points to a nonexistent file.

Content
Remove the entry or modify the KeyFileName entry to match ServerKeyFileName.
This issue has been reported to Quality Engineering as SPR #TTRT7FGMY9.


Who would have thought? So after putting in the complete path the reinstall went through with out a hitch.

The problem is it did not resolve the issue at all. Services still are not running.
I keep working on it, I told you I get all the hard cases.

UPDATED 10:00PM
Resolved the server issue. Finally. CLients are so much fun when they don't tell you what they have tried to do.
Reinstalling actually did work, mostly. However in my rush I did not reboot the server, doing so caused 99% to work. STMUX was not working.
We then found the tunneling had been attempted to be configured but stopped in the middle. Port 8088 to the rescue. technote here.
Also found IIS/FTP/SMTP/NNTP all running as services, shut them down too.
Lastly, they had installed BES recently and forgot to mention it was on the machine too and maybe that caused problems. It doesn't. Officially though IBM and RIM do not prefer this setup.
Thanks to Josh Edwards of IBM Support for trolling all the trace logs with me to get to the end.

3 comments:

  1. Sametime has the best errors. Like the install failing because the path to the temp dir was too long, so installer just crashed out with no explanation.

    If I think of any ideas re your problem I'll twitter you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've had a that issue too when reinstalling sametime on AIX

    I think i ended up wiping everything related to sametime and started again

    good thing that was only in a test env.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am not usually in favor of reinstalling anything to fix it.However, in Sametime's case this seems to be the best route on many occasions.
    At least I got it all back together, odd set up and all.

    ReplyDelete