An Admin Present You Didn't Know You Needed

 Hi, welcome back to my burnt out blog. 1,500 posts and, well, I am kind of burnt out, but that doesn't stop me from giving to the community these little bits.

I'd like to write more but a lot of things have been internal client items that I can't write about, but I am active.

Preamble, excuses out of the way, so, who wants some goodies?

About 2 weeks ago, I gave an impromptu webinar for Openntf.org as a last-minute fill-in.

Openntf, for those that don't know, is the Notes/Domino+ community, where devs, admins, business people, HCL, and others share code and ideas, templates, and projects for the benefit of the greater worldwide community.

I wanted to inform people that monitoring Tasks in the Administrator client has some changes.

Why is this important? Because unless you are a 1 server company, you have a lot of information to remember, such as:

1. How do you know if DBMT ran? 
2. How do you know which server Certmgr runs on?
3. Which web server do you run the Domino REST API on?
4. Which server handles your Backups and Restores, presuming you leverage the v14 options?
   
5. Is NOMAD running?
   
6. Is your DirSync working?
   
7. Are you sure the awesome OnTime Group calendar is running?
8. Have you enabled Aautoupdate yet? One look and you know.

Intriguing questions, right?

Between v9 and v12, nothing changed in the tasks that could be monitored. Traveler seems to have been the last item added, and that was from 8.5, but it found its way into the Monitoring Dashboard in v9.

Now comes v14 and HCl has cleared out some older items, like x500 info and the Fax server....but did not add any of the newer tasks that have come along since v9.

To be fair to HCL, it is not as simple as a few fields and renaming a file.

But fear not my fellow Admins, for I have not only explained it all in my presentation, which you can watch over here on the Openntf YouTube page, I have made the tasks available for everyone to update their Admin Monitoring Dashboard.

If you just want the slides, go here.

And because I know you are probably as lazy as I am, I have made the forms available with instructions to help you get more from your Monitoring Dashboard.

Go get the tasks from my Openntf project over here.

If I missed a task that is not listed, let me know, and I will update the project database.

Domino V14 - A New User Capability - Mail Merge

I have asked for this for many years, and we got it in V14! 

This is my guide and first reaction.

If you have Admin Assistants or need to do your marketing, you need to use Word or some 3rd party to do what should be a simple effort.

HCL has given us a nice Mail Merge inside the notes client.

It may take some testing for your first one, but hang in there, it is much easier than other methods I have used.

I will elaborate on these topics below:

• Where is the Mail Merge option
• What you need to set up the Mail Merge 
• Creating your Mail Merge
• Previewing and Running a Mail Merge

Where is the Mail Merge option?

Naturally, the first place to get information is the HCL Documentation.

https://help.hcltechsw.com/notes/14.0.0/client/mail_create_mailmerge.html

I'd like to say this is well-documented, so someone who is not a developer or in IT can follow along.

But it isn't, which is one of my few issues and why I am writing this blog post.

Presuming you updated your Notes client to V14 and updated your mail file template to V14, Mail Merge is a newly added option in your Mail inbox view, when you select New > Mail Merge.

(1st screenshot is from the HCL Docs and presumably a Mac client, the 2nd is from my Windows client, How do I get the Stationery option in Windows?)
   

What you need to set up the Mail Merge 

Like most Mail Merges, you need your data, usually in a spreadsheet. HCL asks for Excel. I did not test any other spreadsheets.

The documentation says, but doesn't show or provide an example:

1. Create an Excel spreadsheet.

   Each column represents an aspect of the email body that will be personalized; each row should specify every user receiving the email and their personalized information.

2. Save the Excel file.

Took me a few tries to figure this out.

Naturally, every row should be a name, easy enough.

What is the column story exactly?

At first, I tried putting in details, but that didn't work right.

You need to provide a Title to each column.

I thought I needed the Notes designer name for each field, which would be crazy for an end user, but I was wrong. 

The title can be anything you want; this is cool because oftentimes, you get hard requirements for naming.

But make it easy to follow, as you will see in the next steps.

Here is an example of my simple test Excel file, without the attachment column.

Then save your file.

Creating your Mail Merge

This is what you came here for, and it is set up like a Wizard to help you.

After selecting New>Mail Merge and you select the Excel file you created, you will see this dialog box:

(1st screenshot is the documentation and a mac client, 2nd is my windows client. Note the differences, Stationery, and Attachments are not consistent)

If you click on the drop-downs you can see all the column titles you created and in my screenshot below, it recognizes some names directly.

Attachments in Excel are messy, but I tested using a local file link.

Once your basic fields are defined, you move to the memo form.

NOTE: The attachment(s) do not appear anywhere in this form! But they are there, as we will see shortly.

I did not know what to expect, so I created a "Body" column with the text I wanted. Normally, this is where you would paste your Word document or email template, so the body field I created is not needed, but I added the field there to show an example of fields and text.

People who are used to creating a Mail Merge will understand that you format the mail/body text like usual and you can include graphics and other changes to fonts, etc..

NOTE: In my testing graphics that appeared in the preview did not come through to the recipient.

Usage cases for this include bulk email senders, bill notifications, or other similar types of standardized messages, but if you don't need heavy, intensive graphics, this will do quite well for your marketing team, too. YMMV.

When you need your fields from the Excel file, click on the Insert merge field, and it will add the block. You can then move it or work around it, as i did with BODY below.

Once your mail is ready, click the Preview and Send button.

Previewing and Running a Mail Merge

I grabbed a side-by-side screenshot to show you how the form looked compared to the preview.

You can see the attachment is now shown and takes up the top part of the mail, I would prefer it be on the bottom, and this causes a different issue when NOT including attachments, as we will see below.

There is a little arrow and number for you to check your previews, and if you need to edit it, select the Continue Editing button, or if it is ok to send, click on the Send Mail Merge button.

The screenshot below is how the email looks in my Verse client, and Gmail, when I receive it.

NOTE: I need to verify what went on, but the Mail merge seems to include an auto bcc to the sender. Be nice if this was documented or stopped, because why would I want 100s of emails flooding my inbox?

Note the long line across and how the message doesn't start on top but only under that long line? That area is the attachment area.

My hope is HCL fixes this in the future because it looks like the mail got cut off or is missing something.

For a fresh Out of The Box benefit for people, I like it and hope to use it in my marketing efforts.

Hope this helps you and your team that needs mail merge and thank an HCL person for listening to the customer voice.

Welcome to 12.0.2, Please Uninstall Your 32-bit Notes Client Edition

 

I just got back from the HCL Factory Tour in Milan, will post about that next week, but first, I need to explain this.

As you may, or should know, HCL created a 64bit client that is now available as of 12.0.2. Yesterday it appeared on Flexnet.

I asked in Milan what HCL did to help customers upgrade from their 32-bit clients to the 64-bit one because, in the beta, one would get the error message above when trying to run the installer.

2 different HCLers told me you could just install one over the other, but it is not recommended.

I pointed out that the beta said one could not, but they insisted.

Well, I am here to point out you can not install over the 32-bit client to reach 64-bit nirvana.

The error still appears.

So, off I went to uninstall 12.0.1FP1 32-bit client.

I did this on my personal server, which doubles as my test client, then started the 64-bt install.

One should run the NICE tool, yes there is a new NICE64 tool, and if you wish, restart your PC before running the 64-bit 12.0.2. installer. But I did not.

If you have to ask why HCL is doing this, then turn in your IT badge, it has been a long time waiting for this to arrive.

Now the installer is free to get moving. The entire process, including downloading the code, took under 30 minutes and that was with me trying to install over my 32-bit client, grabbing the screenshots, writing this post in between clicking ok, etc.. Your time should be about 10 minutes.

By the way, the 64-bit client download file is 1GB. Domino is only 800MB, just sayin'. It used to fit on some floppies.

Anyway, the bottom line is if you are doing a client/laptop/OS refresh soon, you need to go to the 64-bit client.

It was implied by HCL, well strongly hinted, that the next version would be the last 32-bit client, so you need to start planning for it.

There will no doubt be more posts by people pointing out aspects that still need 32-bit parts like Jesse did here: https://frostillic.us/blog/posts/2022/11/17/notes-domino-12-0-2-fallout.

Other Ambassadors have posted in our private chat about various issues the 64-bit client has with some application items, more info will be coming, no doubt, so developers, your time to test is here.

You may also need to think about which version of Microsoft office you installed and if anything depends on it, so test it, but you should have installed the 64-bit of that as well. This is from a conversation I had with a customer on the way to the train and airport which made me wonder what might happen.

So caveat emptor and start testing and preparing your plans and progress.

Starts right up, all of the .nsfs I had, and the workspace is there just like before. I did not clean out my notes.ini, but you should or just strip it down to the basics and let it update, but that is for another post.

As always, feel free to reach out for help from me, fellow HCL Ambassadors, your Business Partner, or HCL rep.

Happy Installing! Now on to my server update, Traveler, Nomad, Verse, and Ontime Freemium Group Calender updates(their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxCIEQ5fjOQ). I will post updates once each is done and how long it took to do them.

Server Update Info: Including shutting down Domino, installing the update, restarting the server, and then all the server updates running, the total time was 6 minutes until I could access it from my client. Naturally, in full corporate environments, your timing will vary.

Traveler Update Info: Traveler 12.0.2. now enforces that you shut down Domino before installing it. So, although the actual time to install Traveler is a minute or 2, the process takes longer due to the shutdown, and then I did a clean reboot as well.

NOMAD Update Info: Delayed, no 12.0.2 documentation has been indexed yet, so there are no details about it beyond downloading the 1.0.5 code which I got in beta, unzipping it to the domino root folder, and running NOMAD as a server task. Product Management says 1.0.5/12.0.2 version is not up yet on Flexnet. Will update this once available.

Verse Update Info: Although I thought it would be inside Domino 12.0.2, it seems that is not the case, so it is still a separate update. The current version is 3.0, which you can download from Flexnet. Follow these instructions, https://help.hcltechsw.com/verse_onprem/3.0/admin/vop_configuring_server.html. You should have it up in about 10 minutes if you have all the other parts in place. If not, you may need an hour or so to configure whatever you are missing. URL looks like this example if you need to run in parallel to iNotes: https://keithbrooks.com/verse

Ontime Freemium Group Calendar Info: It will probably get done over the weekend.

To TOTP, or NOT To TOTP, Traveler/Verse users, THAT is THE Question

 

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind (of users) to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune security guidelines, Or to take arms against a sea of (illogical) troubles, And, by opposing, end their tyranny upon us?

Shakespeare will have to live with my edits.

Enjoy the video because it is THE definitive way to say the quote :-)

Now that Collabpshere has finished, it was a great event once again managed by Richard Moy with a supporting cast of dozens of people, I had a follow-up item from my session.

I will post the slides once I find a new home now that Slideshare has gone paywall.

The question continues to arise about using TOTP for Verse(Traveler) users.

If you attended my session, you heard me discuss the pro (not sure if there is anything beyond my insurance/compliance or security people require it) and the many cons. 

If anyone has more PRO reasons, let me know, but for now, this is the slide I used.

Remember that current phones usually require a code, slide design, finger, face, or eye scan just to let you into your phone.

Then the Verse app has a login and password for itself.

Do you still need an MFA after 2 levels? 

Also, if the whole purpose of the MFA is to secure the mail application, what purpose does it serve by being on your phone, if your phone is lost or stolen? Let's say the robber has the initial code(stop using your birthday or kid's birthday or anniversary). Then having the fa there is totally useless. 

So, why do you want to enforce this?

Right, because your insurance company told you.

Oddly enough, they did not tell you to disable SSO(Single Sign On), which negates any aspect of MFA a computer might have to start with. Nor do they expect you to have an MDM solution, which is really what you need for this purpose. 

Traveler/Verse has some aspects of MDM, like remote wipe, but does not verify your device has the appropriate number of digits in your passcode.

So, again, why do you need to do this?

Have you asked for the technical guidance document from your insurance company?

You should let me know if any of them ever produce one. And if they have one, does it make any sense?

TOTP is URL-based, not Server or Domain-based.

You can let Verse users use the usual traveler.company.com URL without TOTP while maintaining TOTP enabled for webmail.company.com see my slide below.

Yes, you can change the TOTP time-out setting (https://help.hcltechsw.com/traveler/12.0.0/auth_timeout_totp.html), which I did on my personal server, so I only log in with TOTP if my phone has been off for more than 18 hours. This happens every weekend, I shut it off an hour before sunset and turn it back on after sunset on Saturday.

The choice is yours, as the Admin, but you will have more help desk tickets every Monday morning and possibly every time a user flies, and they will think they are locked out.

So, in the immortal words of the Bard of Avon,

 "Out of this nettle - danger - we pluck this flower - safety."

'Henry IV, Part 1' (1597) act 2, sc. 3, l. [11]

SnTT - TOTP Needs an ID file in the ID Vault to Work, What if some are Missing?

Yes, of course, a properly managed Domino environment should have been using the ID Vault for several years now.

But we all have customers who, for one reason or another, just never did it, or worse, think they did but never check that it worked.

And then we hear from them out of the blue to help get TOTP installed and update their environment.

No big deal, right? Set up the ID Vault, and when people log in to their Notes client, their ID files get sent to the ID Vault. Newly registered people are also automatically added to the ID Vault.

But what do you do about people who solely use webmail/iNotes?

How do you get their IDs into the ID Vault?

This, I thought, would be an easy thing, but it turned out to be way more effort than first thought.

One option is to select the user in the Directory with the names.nsf open, right-click on their person document, and select upload ID to the ID Vault. A similar Action from the top menu bar option can be found in the Admin client when the Directory is not open.

Not so fast. 

First, the option and action did not appear. Second, even if they did appear, we had 2 problems: where were these people's ID files and the better issue was who had the passwords? 

When you upload ID files to the ID Vault, Domino asks for the password for the file being uploaded, and if it does not match, you are out of luck.

We could not resolve the 2nd problem. More on that in a minute.

The first problem, I reached out to HCL Support to find out what happened to the action/agents.

Turns out they were in the template but not in the database.

After reviewing it with HCL, we found the customer had edited the People view of the Directory and set it to not update with changes from future templates.

I changed that setting in Designer and the properties of the view, then ran a replace design on the Directory, restarted the server, and it now worked and showed the action/agent items.

Now, back to the ID problem.

How can one register new users optimally without wiping out all their details in their existing person document?

I figured I needed to look at registering people with a text file and how to do it without changing their existing internet password or wiping out their mail file.

11 years ago, I wrote this post, https://blog.vanessabrooks.com/2010/06/id-registration-via-text-file.html, waiting for the moment it would be helpful again.

Well, that day has come. However, to be fair, I have used it a few times over the years.

I also searched for how to create a user but not a mail file. I did not get an answer to this in my searches or when asking some people, so I decided I just had to work around the issue. If anyone knows, please let me know in the comments, and I will edit this post accordingly.

Using the spreadsheet I created in 2010, I started figuring out what the syntax should be to complete this.

After a few tests, ok, maybe a few more tests, I realized I needed to maintain the file names but change the file directory. That way, dummy mail files would be created, which could be deleted, saving their existing mail files. However, the person document would now show the wrong location for the person's mail. Hang on, we will fix that soon too.

These people needed ID files in the ID Vault but would never use them otherwise. The ID files require a password, but we do not want it to synch with their internet password because that would overwrite their existing one. Domino has a way to help us do this, too; the explanation is below.

What does this spreadsheet look like before you copy the text to a .txt file? I figured I only needed to use a few fields, and this is what I used just 6 fields:

LAST    FIRST    PASSWORD    FILE DIRECTORY    FILENAME    EMAIL

Now the fun part is you need a semi-colon (;) after any entry you want to enter, so my text file for registration ended up looking like 250 of these(see the 11-year-old blog post for details on what goes in what order if you need more fields):

Brooks;Keith;;;PASSWORD;;;;mail2;kbrooks.nsf;;;;;;keith@b2bwhisperer.com;

But you need one more essential thing before starting the registration process for everyone.

If you click on options from the Registration window menu, 

you will want to check the line that says "Allow Registration of previously registered people," and check the "Don't prompt for a duplicate person" option, and select the most important option, "Update the existing address book entry.

When you use these settings, Domino will not stop for every duplicate user and just change precisely what we tell it to change in the person document.

In the registration form, you should ensure your ID Vault policy is set up for everyone.

As discussed earlier, we don't want to overwrite any existing Internet passwords; thus, you need to click on Password Options and uncheck "Set Internet Password"; otherwise, you will write over their current Internet password. HINT: Back up your Names.nsf before doing this, so if you do screw it up, you can get it all back quickly.

In the Mail tab of registration, you set the mail template to use and leave the mail file name field with just the directory name. The .txt file handles this.

Set the expiration date you want to use for everyone you are creating on the ID Info tab.

Now you import your .txt file, and Domino will tell you if any of them have syntax issues.

Domino will then let you know if anyone had issues or how many were completed when you ran it.

Please test with 2-3 people first, making sure all fields and entries look right, and the mail file is created where you specified.

How do we change the mail file locations, which now were mail2 instead of mail for 250 people out of 500?

A few months back, I started adding scripts to Openntf.org under the snippets Admin Scripts area to help other admins and for just this purpose. 

I took one of the scripts, adapted it for the Mail File location field, and then selected the users to run it on, and in seconds they were all back to normal. 

I posted that new script as well in case anyone will need to do this at the openntf site here.

Afterward, we had a few issues:

• Some people we were told were solely web users were not. This meant they lost their ID certificate and could not log in. Easy enough to fix by copying the new certificate into their person document and replacing the old one. 
• A few people in our spreadsheet had mistyped an email or mail file name and a few similar names and file names that got by us in editing. Easily fixed, we had a backup to verify what they should have in their fields.

And there you have it. I know it sounds like a lot, but really, it is not that big of a deal.

Hacking Administrators, my AdminCamp session

 This is the second of my sessions from AdminCamp.

This session had a theme of the Avengers, but was about helping administrators do repetitive tasks faster, easier, and in multiple ways.

Thank you to everyone that came to listen and to MArtin for the shortcuts at the end for people.

I think we may have an idea for a future session.

Hacking Administrators from Keith Brooks

AdminCamp 2021: Modernizing Rooms and Resources

Thank you everyone that came to my session, given it was one of the few not in German, the fact that I had so many people listen in let me know I was on the right path for this session.

My session from AdminCamp 2021 has been posted on Slideshare.

The examples are all available, follow the links in the presentation.

Modernizing Rooms and Resources Functionality from Keith Brooks

SnTT - How to Stop a Domino Task/App using a Program Document

Here is something that I had no idea about.

In fact, I even opened an aha request to solve this.

Luckily someone else looked deeper into it than I did and found the answer.

I asked around but no one had an answer so here we go.

We all know we can create Program Documents to run tasks, but do you know how to stop the tasks?

A client had a 3rd party application that we had some issues with recently.

While waiting to get a fix or better understanding of the problem, we wanted to only run the tool during certain business hours to prevent the server from crashing as it had been doing every night around midnight.

But I could not figure out how to create a Program Document to stop the process.

Turns out Mike, one of their developers, had the same thoughts but being a developer had some ideas I did not think about. He gets all the credit, but we all get the benefit.

Turns out you want to enter the details as shown::

Maybe if the app/task has switches built-in, you can use them, like q, -q but in this case, we didn't have these options. 

Not everything in life has to be so difficult, nor requires a large blog post.

What can I say, Spinal Tap Edition day at #HCLAmbassadorTips

http://b2bwhisperer.com/downloads/stap.jpg

Will I See You at Engage for my Session?

For the 3rd time in 3 years I will be presenting at the great Engage conference.

Together with 400 attendees, I will be one of the 38 HCL Masters speaking at the event.

This time I am extending even more Domino Administration fun culled from real life every day client headaches surprises by incorporating some LotusScript code and other bits of development to make your daily admin lives better, faster, easier so you can get to the free beer at Engage quicker.

Tuesday, March 3 13:30 - 14:30 Room G: Knoefzaal

Ad09. Domino Administration Wizardry - Dark Arts Class

Bring your wands(laptops) and let's create some magic (scripts, code) so you can go home a 1st class Wizard. 

ALL code discussed, and shown, will be made available in the slides so even if you are a nascent developer like me, you can do this too, no prior coding knowledge is required, but you will need the Designer Client for some items.

Go signup and attend this annual conference that leaves you wanting more every time. 

If you want need to graduate and need me to issue O.W.L Domino Certificates, let me know in the comments or via social media and I will see what Hermione can conjure up for you so you can prove your completed the course.

Old vs Future

If you know what dot matrix means, and I do not refer to the character in Spaceballs, then you probably are in my age bracket.

To many, we are old.

• We don't work so hard
• We don't work so lat
• We don't use <insert some app name no one heard of and will disappear in a month)
• We use email
• We like our old ways
• We don't like change
• We are too slow
• We need too much in salary
• We don't like to travel for work. 

Maybe.

I could just as well say the same things about the younger generation too, aside from the email part :-)

And yet, inside your company, you are maintaining pretty old hardware and software. Why? Because.it.just.works and is paid for itself many times over the years.

Then one day your company says some old systems have to go. Why? They make you money, they run smoothly and everyone is trained on them.

New systems, to do the same thing as the old system, but from a new company. Why? How much money has to be wasted in conversion/migration fees to get what you already have?

If this was a car analogy, you would be leasing a new car every 3 years and never look back, and it usually does not cost you much more if anything for the next lease. Marginal cost but maximum gain.

I don't see that from your software solutions that you want to change. I see huge money spent with Business Partners from the new Vendor laughing all the way to the bank.

Intrinsically, when you look upon Microsoft Office, yes, it has had a good run, over 30 years old and still works, like a Volkswagen Beetle. Has it really advanced in all these years? Has Outlook? Exchange? Using Google Spreadsheet will really stop you from producing your simple spreadsheets which rely on the same basic functionality as 30 years ago?

Maybe

The same arguments have been used against Domino and Notes and Sametime. Maybe the UI was getting a bit dated, but functionally it was still the same as ever. And yet, what replaces Domino completely?

Nothing

Thus your company will spend a lot of money, millions usually, and get a nice UI but not even 75% of the functionality in return.

Sounds crazy right? Who would let their executives do such a poor deal? What Board of Directors would allow such malfeasance?

But they do.

If a new UI was necessary, or better integration into other applications was required, or something else was desired that you as CIO or CMO or CEO need for your business, wouldn't you try to get the most out of your existing solution?

Oh, right, it's old. Forgot about that nugget of wisdom.

And so instead of getting a new lease on your software, with a minimum of cost to your business, you prefer to go out and buy a whole new package...and then you want that new one to look and feel like the old one, but you know, not in that way, just you know, newer.

Right, because that makes sense. So much for your transformation project.

The future of Domino is what you make of it. HCL is adding items all the time to it so they will be ahead of your curve and know what you need before you do, so it will be there waiting for when your new executive walks in on their first day and starts asking why are you maintaining old software.

You can say, you just wrote this app this year, you advance all your apps every year and it is costing the company nothing but your salaries.

But the choice is yours, teach the new kids, learn from the new kids. Everyone that learned to play guitar, or skateboard, or drive had to watch and learn from others, usually, and this is no different. Together we can build a better future,

So are we old? Yes

Are our apps? Sometimes

Can they be updated? Almost always

Should they be? Absolutely!

You may not be listening to HCL yet, but if you do, you may find what your executives seek.

Who Announces New Products in Tokyo? HCL That's Who

A little bit historical symbolism inside, a little bit new, and 100% of the future!

HCL sent an email out to Business Partners and HCL Masters (I am both) yesterday announcing that they are good on their word and releasing announce HCL’s first major releases for:
Domino V11
Notes V11
Sametime V11
Connections 6.5
plus some other items perhaps on December 4th at 9AM Eastern Time from Tokyo.

Details:

9–­9:15 a.m.: Live from Tokyo Keynote: A Major HCL Milestone.
Presenter: Richard Jefts, General Manger, HCL Digital Solutions

9:15–9:30 a.m.: Domino V11: Why Modernizing Beats Migrating. Presenter: Andrew Manby, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Domino

9:30–9:45 a.m.: Domino V11 Demo: One Vendor, One Solution, One Stack. The Only Stack You Need.

Presenter: Andrew Manby, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Domino  

9:45–10 a.m.: We Hear You: HCL Connections 6.5 = More Value from Your Investment.
Danielle Baptiste, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Connections

10–10:15 a.m.: Boost Engagement with HCL Connections 6.5: We'll Show You How. Danielle Baptiste, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Connections

10:15–10:30 a.m.: Get Started with Domino V11 and Connections 6.5 Today.Presenter: Presenter: François Nasser, Global Sales Leader, HCL Digital Solutions

Many of you just got V10, or have yet to take that leap, but HCL has got you covered and wants you to move to V11.

So what do you think? Are you spry enough to update this time? If not, let me know, I am happy to handle it for you.

If you want to watch or listen to the announcement, it will be on this website over here.(https://www.gotostage.com/channel/livefromtokyo) Register here.

If you thought HCL was just milking the support money and not expanding the products, you lost that bet, and will continue to lose that bet for a few years out, but you have to tune in to find out why and how.

If you thought Notes and Domino were old and not caught up with the times, you may be pleasantly surprised to see changes that will stretch life longer because 30 year old(software) know a lot more than an under 5 year old(startup) about how you run your company, and integrate your business to the world as a whole, not just to one vendor, or one country.

In software terms, not many other software has survived this long and still produced money and ROI for companies using it, DOS still runs Windows, so that may be the only thing everyone still uses.

If you say email doesn't make you money, tell that to online stores and entities that rely on automated orders and ticketing systems.

Down time hurts, big time!

If you require on premises servers, you have come to the right place!
If your fear is the Cloud apps will get stuck, yes, on premises has down time too, YOU can control the situation and get your self back up, something not available to you when you are 100% Cloud indebted.

I hear the young people saying no one uses email, everything is in Slack and their integrations into products we use.

Maybe

But did you ever meet a person on the street that uses slack?

Neither have I.

But they ALL use email. They also use instant messengers but the bridge from the IM to email is still not there, yet...

So tune in December 4th 9am Eastern time, if you want to be part of the next generation of collaborative software.

SnTT - Rooms and Resources Accidentally Delete a Resource and the Reservations

Last week I gave a session where I outlined a bunch of things I would like to see in the new Rooms and Resources database template should it get updated.

Yes some things were just more defined views, but other things that would make it more useful to admins, and users, were also included.

Well yesterday I learned the hard way about some things I knew, but I guess had not quite gotten to fix yet. Let me explain.

One of my clients has some very full RnR databases, 1 per region. Sometimes, against my preference, names or very similar names, are used in different places.

Tasked with clearing some old rooms, I set out to do just that and get on with my day.

And, of course, as you may have guessed, I deleted an active room.

Very active room.

400 reservations active.

As I saw when the pop up asked me if I wanted to notify people. I said no to that, knowing I can fix this. Well a few hours later, here is what really happened.

Oh.Yes.I.Did.

Domino problems are caused by admins, truth (except for developer agents that run amok).

I say, no problem, go to trash and undelete it. No Trash View in this R9 template. Note to HCL, please add one. Go into developer mode figuring it would be in the hidden view.

No

Call client developer and ask what they think, SOL. Soft deletion was not turned on.

Damn. Thought we had enabled it after last issue, but maybe the template got written over in an update or a restore and maybe we had only set soft deletions in the database itself and not the template.

In any event, I was blocked this route.

Call restore team, can you provide me with a backup from the prior 24-48 hours ASAP?
Yes, no problem they said.

Great, restore completes and I go to try to get back the data and...it shows me what I see now, not what I should have seen for a day ago.

AGH!

Call restore team, ask how it is possible. Well replication was on, ok, try again, turn it off this time.

And get notification, go open it up, same problem!

Well now I am confused. Got the team together to figure it out, and it seems they do incremental backup sand logs.

I said I don't want logs just data.

And 3rd time lucky, I open it up and it is the old data. Perfect, I start to copy a doc to test that pasting it back in will work.

BAH! No dice, this database doe snot allow pasting of documents.

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!

Call back the developer, ask how I, as the admin, can not do this. Well, she knew why and where to look to fix it. And now I will let you know because someone out there will read this after pulling their hair out.

Open the database in the Designer client and go to the views section.

Find the view you need to paste into, you will need 2 of them.
The first is the resources view itself because you need to copy back the deleted resource.
The second is the view of Reservations, by Resource so you can paste back all of the reservations you killed accidentally.

Once you have the view open, locate the Querypaste section as shown in the graphic below and REM out all of the code there and save it.

Once you do this and reopen the database you should be able to paste everything back in.

Then run a Fixup and Updall to get everything cleaned up and reindexed and then test making a reservation that honors used and open times.

You learn something new every day, even after all these years.

EDIT: Adrian asked me on twitter about Adminp and Busytime. I forgot to discuss it, so here is what we did and what you should check.

Adminp at the customer is set to run on a set schedule, so it did not worry me, but you should go into the database and clear the delete request otherwise you will lose the setting in the names.nsf for the resource.

Busytime, I did not rebuild it because my tests showed it was working. Presumably because the dates/times had been in the database already and did not update but if you run into problems, you should follow the technote and clear the old busytime and let a new one start.

Engage 2019, We Came, We Saw, We Heard

I went to Brussels last week for the excellent conference Engage, run by Theo and Hilde with a supporting cast of dozens. Thank you for an excellent event and Dinners!

Not only was I speaking, I was looking forward to the discussions with the HCL team and seeing friends and meeting new ones in person, and learn a few things along the way.

Fitting to have the event at Auto World in Brussels. 100s of cars on display and names you recognize, many you would not, and that amazing smell of leather, wood, oil and gasoline. The same way some brands are long gone, while others have stayed with us for over a 100 years, so it is with Lotus, a part of IBM and now with HCL. Those that find their community, live long, and prosper.

Had to get the Vette photo

Ferrari Featured in my session

I love the Amphibian Cars

Lotus Yellow

Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Internal Technology Awesomeness

I spoke on Wednesday about the need for an affinity to one’s software and/or hardware solutions inside your company. Why does one need such affinity? Because the more we love something the harder it is to let it go. I gave the following example, while it is true many people lease a car and get a different one every 2-3 years, others will do anything they can to get their car of their dreams.

And you know what they do once they get that car?

They never let it go, they don’t exchange it, they keep it for a long time.

And this is where we are today, as we await the handover from IBM to HCL of the Lotus portfolio.

We heard, and saw, at Engage from HCL some details about versions 10 and 11 of Notes, Domino, Sametime, Traveler and updates on Connections and new products like LEAP.

I was in a few Domino administrator sessions, one from IBM Lifetime Champion GabDavis doing the 60 admin tips in 60 minutes and the other to close the show, Ben Menesi of Ytria and Christoph Adler’s (https://www.panagenda.com/) own session "New Domino Admin Features Sure to Spark a Lasting Love Affair with Domino 10 and 11". 

I learned or relearned about some items, no one can know and remember everything.

I strongly suggest you download both presentations once Theo posts them on the Engage.ug site.

My session on Tuesday included this Engage Jeopardy Edition of user complaints and how to deal with them. 

1 slide, the rest was a discussion

The session was not about how to solve the issues but how to work with your customers/users because we, as Business Partners or internal IT staff, are the ones that help shape and work with the affinity I mentioned above. If we do not take the time to spread the love, the end users really will not do it.

Luis Suarez also of Panagenda, put it quite well in his Community presentation when he said “communities are voluntarily started by people who find a common interest, not because management told someone to create a community” (Sorry Luis, I paraphrased).

Me and some cars from the room I presented my session

As I said in my session on Wednesday, if we do our jobs properly, and encourage people to feel empowered to use these products, we may see the reborn Phoenix rise again.

If we can help end users not see these products as something required by management, but instead tools to help them accomplish and see the great benefits to them individually such as time, data, accountability, and awareness then we have done our jobs well.

A different session I was in, again by Gab Davis, was comparing and contrasting Domino to Exchange. I have no doubt that Gab spent a lot of effort and time to reach a level of that session that was unbiased and educational to those of us that attended it.

A key point she raised was Exchange has many options for the user’s world, while Domino has many options for the Admins world. There were other points raised about the differences in logs and how to read them or find them, along with other areas that portray Domino in a bright light from an Admins view.

The Roundtables I sat in on were related to Verse on Premises, mobile, future template update ideas and the future HCL Masters and Grandmasters program, which is what some of us may become in the future now that we will not be IBM Champions.

Libby Ingrassia was in Brussels as well and reminded us, and I am letting you all know, that we all could be IBM Champions still just in a different area of IBM. Something to keep in mind for those of you that have already extended your wings to cover other solutions.

The sponsors included the usual suspects and I was intrigued by CYONE and their monitoring solution which they are giving a piece of it away for free and I look forward to testing it and possibly leveraging it with clients that I manage.

Lastly, I was the winner of one of the raffle items at the close of Engage. The OnTime team gave away a Bell and Olufsen H9i headphones and they are amazing! Thanks Jens and team! 

By the way, they have a new module out for OnTime that includes catering options for your Rooms and Resources, something which I think everyone would benefit from in their organizations, just ask your Administrative Assistants.

That’s it for me, hope to see some of you at Hogne’s ISBG event in Stockholm in June.

Shout IT Out Loud and The Engage Jeopardy Slide

My session from Engage has been posted to my Slideshare account.

We talked about creating an Affinity for our products with the customers and end users of our customers. It was a continuation of the previous day session I ran on Dealing with End Users

Shout IT Out loud from Keith Brooks

Working with customers we need to keep the end goal in mind, even when they ask any of these questions

Is Your Company #DominoForever or Exiting Stage Left?

A good friend of mine sent me a link to this post from David Giller and I recognized much of what he posted (crowdsourced) happens in all industries and businesses.

But for those on the cusp of debating "should we stay, or should we go", read on.

"Too little, too late" is what I hear and see from people and my reply is, quite honestly, well, there is not too little now thanks to HCL.

Too late is a relative term in an Enterprise. If you decided today to change your course, it would be months, possibly years for some of your larger companies, before you even took a step forward with a new partner or vendor to architect where you are going.

There are also the costs involved in any big project, and this would be a big project. Ask yourself, or your executive, do you really want to spend money on swapping one mail system for another?

A rough estimate I use with customers asking is, at a minimum, the cost to migrate will exceed $1,000 per user/email address moved.

The number doubles if you are big enough and need both worlds maintained in parallel. 

The number triples if you also "must have" coexistence so your calendaring and scheduling can work together.

And I did not even get to your licensing and hardware purchases, that is if you are not going to a Cloud solution.

If you are going to a cloud solution, don't forget the costs and time involved to get your security, Directory, and single sign-on parts to work and upgrade your telecommunications because that bandwidth is going sky high next.

Okay, enough scary tactics, feel free to argue with me, I am all ears to anyone who says I am lying. Maybe my numbers are off, if anything, they are low. Seriously.

Back to Mr. Giller's post, here is my SCNDT (Sametime, Connections, Notes, Domino, Traveler) version of some of them. You need to recognize and fix these before you face the end of the road:

• No business teams are providing requests for new applications, if they ever did, and you find you are not being involved in the meetings about the future of business applications.
• When was the last time someone asked, and you got approval, for application enhancements?
• When was the last time you DID NOT SAY "give me a few days/hours I will come up with something". And instead explained to your boss how this would be a serious enterprise required application that should be on the next IT budget meeting. If your apps are not Enterprise need, your infrastructure is not either.
• Your admins left or were moved along and it is now up to the help desk or the developers, if any are still around, to maintain the environment. Would you let the pizza delivery person fix your Porsche?
• Rolling out SalesForce? ServiceNow? Not integrating them with Domino? You have lost a huge opportunity because you know what? Both of the former requires a small army to customize it so it is useful. You already had much of this at your fingertips. 
• Your company may say they want "best of breed" or the latest app in the Cloud, but you know your company and why that is probably not the safest most secure way to implement something that really could have been built on Domino.
• Someone complains about the high cost of maintaining the Domino Infrastructure.
• Ha, April Fool's, no one ever complains about the high cost of the Domino Infrastructure, except Microsoft and Google.
• Executives say they want O365 but really have no business reason for it. the Outlook they use at home is not the same as in business. Directories and lookups, calendars, public/private information, multiple depositories for files are just some of the "functions" they have yet to use or think about. 
• Look at the companies that tried to blame their problems on their email system and moved away from Domino only to die a miserable death soon afterward or fall into a serious free fall. Hello Comcast, BlockBuster, and Qantas Airlines to name some famous ones.
• If your executive that has backed SCNDT all this time is now shying away, or leaves, who you gonna call? I am available.
• Have you tried to provide ideas for how your infrastructure could be leveraged to management? They are grasping at straws and need a light, no matter how small, to help them.
• You hear about database bloat. Look, you are the admin or developer and you should be trying to retire a database a day, that is about 250 a year and no one will argue with you even if you say you removed 30, 50, or 100. Be proactive or face negative reactive management.
• There is a lack of vision by the management to understand how to leverage the SCNDT platforms to streamline and automate processes – instead of simply replicating the same backward manual way things have always been done….in Excel. And Excel, which is over 30 years old, is what runs many sales teams and finance departments. Just. Stop. It.
• Some Microsoft tech complains about having to cover your servers when you are on vacation, you do take a vacation I hope, and you don't try to educate them, you lose the best chance of getting them on your side. Remember, no one ever says they love Exchange.
• Training doesn't exist. I get it. But you know what? Leverage the hell out of your intranet. Wiki, blog posts, status updates, if you are not posting something, then the executives think it doesn't exist and what doesn't exist, doesn't get funded, and disappears. 
• 1 great admin can manage a few dozen servers and between 1-3,000 users or more if given the right tools, for support issues and has minimal complaints and usually exceptional uptime. Learn your craft, read more blogs, go to user group events....The opposite of having bad admins is a sure sign the end is nigh.
• Management thinks that Domino data is simply “ONE OF” the other systems that we have (resulting in siloed data being dispersed across multiple systems throughout the organization, making 360 degrees reporting practically impossible). This one I stole from Mr. Giller's post because it is still true.
• If your organization cannot articulate their current or future business processes and expectations in a way that makes sense to a normal person, you may have a problem.
• Middle management is more interested in their job and budget than benefiting the company. Small mind = no advancement.
• Not leveraging Domino policies, Panagenda's Marvel Client or any of the configurable options that make user's lives better. I have been told by clients that Notes "should look and act like other apps" so they do not enable all the preferences. My retort usually is something like "Tesla didn't build a car, they built a car everyone wants because they included options people want and need." Yes, this is public enemy number one of a reluctant IT staff to maintain Domino.

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