SnTT - Adding a 3rd party Task to the Domino Admin Client Monitoring Dashboard

 

This has bugged me for a while. I may have just been a bit lazy as well.

But that's what friends are for, and Ted Hardenburgh came to my rescue in our Openntf slack channel.

You can join the slack channel here: https://openntf.slack.com if you have FOMO or just want to ask us your crazy questions.

Anyway, back to Ted's help with my situation.

We have a client running a task that is not a native Domino task, and I wanted to monitor it from the Admin client's Server-Monitoring tab that acts as a Dashboard.

You did know you have a dashboard built into the Admin client, right?

I will presume you know how to add your servers to the dashboard.

But when you want to add a task, you select a server and right-click and select Monitor New Task from the list shown. The default only includes the native Domino tasks.

Naturally, I figured there must be a way to add the 3rd party task, I was hoping without too much under the cover messing around, and that is when Ted helped me out.

My thought was there is a subform someplace to edit, and Ted pointed me to it.

Open the domadmin.nsf file in the Designer client.

Look at the Forms, and you will see a long list of Task\names.

The easiest way to start on this journey is to copy one of the tasks and paste it back in and begin editing it.

In this case, I am creating a task for bccdbt, I already renamed the task.

The name has to match the task name you would run when at a server console.

The fields you will need to edit from the above screen are the following:

Task name, Task filename, and Task Monitor Name and Description.

Task name field = Name as you want it to be seen in the Add Monitor Task pop-up window.

Task filename = the task name as you would enter it in the server console to run it.

Task Monitor Name = Should be how the task is described when you run a sh ta command. Like Router, Schedule Manager, etc...

Description = Edit according to what you need to tell your fellow admins.

Save it and then test it.

The task should show up within a few minutes, the dashboard updates automatically.

That's it. Many thanks again to Ted.

SnTT - Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Something new at Openntf for ADMINS

That's right, I resurrected Show n Tell Tuesday for this post because I can, it's my blog, and why wait for Thursday anyway?

A few months ago, my friend Roberto had the luck to join the Openntf Board. 

If you don't know what Openntf is, click on the link and check it out. NOW! 

The TL;DR is Openntf is THE place to go when you need a template for an HCL Domino or Notes application to help your company. It is also where you can go for tutorials on various development topics and all kinds of developer code snippets.

Admittedly, few admins ever add to the site, because, well, historically there is not much for admins there and often what we see/know is proprietary to our clients and companies. This has been my perspective for many years. However, a new world, a new time, and progress is being made, thanks to Roberto.

Openntf was not ignorant of the issue, many of my friends and fellow IBM Champions, and HCL Ambassadors, have worked hard over the years to make Openntf as useful as it is today by their incremental changes and awesome templates and code bits, even if I don't understand all of them. 

We have come a long way.

Maybe we just got older and complained more, maybe they finally realized without Admins there is no server running, or maybe we do bring some benefit. 

After all, as we rise like an HCL Phoenix from the ashes of the IBM years we are seeing new people ask questions and post requests, young and old, and they need guidance from us old, er, wizened people.

Roberto asked many of us what we would like to see as Admins in Openntf and I said I would like to see Lotusscripts, Formulas, and other code bits that help make our lives better, easier, and faster. 

I was worried that as some of us move along or retire or cross the Golden Firewall, we will lose knowledge and that would be pretty sad, given how many years of managing Notes and Domino networks we represent.

I am sure other admins also gave him input and I hope they will look into it further after reading this post or you reach out to Roberto with more ideas.

In December I was asked to test something on the Openntf website and that is what this news is about.

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!

In addition to the existing benefits of the Openntf site, there is now a dedicated section for snippets of code, which is what EVERY admin needs. Here is a link to it: https://openntf.org/XSnippets.nsf/home.xsp

Now when you add a code snippet, the option to select the Language for it can be called "Admin Scripts".

There is a tag field so you can put whatever else you need in it to help your fellow admins find it when they need it.

I have posted 3 snippets which I use frequently, no doubt most of you will recognize the need for these as well.

1. Create a Forwarding Address in a Person Doc based on Email Address
2. Looking up and Converting a List of Notes Names into their Email Address
3. Converting Regular Common Name Lists into Notes Hierarchical Names

The first one is a simple script to grab an existing email and edit it for another field. Helpful when updating domains or in merger situations. Edit it, select all, done. 

The second one is really good for your AAs or Marketing people who need to extract email addresses of employees or clients, and upload those into bulk email sending services like MailChimp or into Salesforce. I have set those users up so they never bother me again. Okay, I lose some billing time but honestly, who wants to look up a few hundred or thousand people's emails anyway? This takes seconds to do it.

The third, a similar request to the second one, is because I was receiving very long lists of names to create ACL groups and mail groups. Names should be listed properly in these groups and this script helps you out. Again, in seconds.

Could these snippets be coded better? 

Could they be used differently?

Will I be adding more over time?

Can any Admin, or Developer, use them?

Should you use these?

The answer to all these questions is YES!

I tried to explain the code and how to use it, so if I need to edit it or you have problems let me know and I will try to help you best I can.

Looking forward to seeing more snippets up there and that we can say 2021 is the year of the Admin.

Have things you need or like to see, let me know, I might have them and get them posted.

When Site Administration in Quickr Goes Missing

The joys of December, cold days, last minute projects, admins that forget what they are doing and blow up their servers.

Yes it can happen to you as well, so for all of those who will be up at all hours of the night doing things only IT people do, this one is for you.

Ever get a call from an admin on Quickr Dominio saying they can no longer see the Site Administration options, or any other admin type options? I have and since it comes up often enough here it goes, with some other tidbits thrown in just in case you really messed up.

First I will walk through what happens then show how to resolve it. I will presume you have previously set up the correct Domino Directory or LDAP configuration which to locate the admins or users. If not, look for more details in my upcoming book from Packt Publishing on Quickr 8.5 Administration available in January 2011.

So you have a Quickr server you login to as the administrator. You decide to make sure only admins can create new places on the server. Very good, however watch out for selecting the wrong box.

One should see the options on the left on the bottom of your browser screen after you login to Quickr. Click on Site Administration and then see the screen on the left below where you select Security and will then see the screen ont he right.

As you can see there are 2 options, first, the who can create new places option, second is the "God" admin role so to speak. In situations like this, someone has inadvertently added an admins name to the first setting, thus knocking them out of the second and so when they login next they lose the Site Administration.

Brilliant! So now you go crazy trying to figure it all out but the bottom line is you need to get back in before someone or something needs you to fix things.

These steps will help you fix this problem, usually.

1. Open your Server Document for the Quickr Server and set the Internet Protocols - Domino Web Engine. Change server authentication to disabled for the moment.
2. Now shutdown and restart the Quickr server
3. Login to Quickr with your admin credentials (the name and password you used when you set up Quickr)
4. Change the security settings above but this time make sure the correct administrators are given proper full access.
5. Log out of Quickr
6. Login with the correct administrator ID and password you fixed just now
7. Make sure you can see Site Administration, etc..
8. Logout of Quickr
9. Go back to Step 1 and enable Multi SSO or Single Server
10. Shutdown and restart your Quickr server

All should be good to go. Enjoy.

SnTT - When your name is no longer your name

Welcome back everyone from the long weekend here in the US, UK and some other places as well.

What we have here is a failure to follow the simplest rule in the book and a little empathy needed by admins until IBM enhances the rename function in Domino.

KISS - Keep it simple, seriously

The Eclipse client, better known as the Standard one in the Lotus R8 stream brought many changes, one of which really bothers me and unfortunately there is nothing I can do about it. Maybe Mary Beth Raven's team can.

I have multiple mail files, corp, private, test user, other customers, etc.

In past versions, and in basic mode, changing the title, in Database properties of the mail file or db in question changes the name in the tab as well when the window is open and that's how I always knew which mail file I was in.

Well no longer and it is really annoying to me in my day to day work.

So why do I bring this up? One of our customers called this morning and was having problems with someone's name showing up incorrectly in their tab using their maiden name.

We walked through how the admin had changed the name(created a new ID insteasd of using rename for some unknown reason, probably lack of knowledge) and they did a good job, we made sure ACL's and location documents got changed. Checked groups and ID and all seemed fine.

They called back a little later and asked how to change the mail tab to get the new name. They had checked the title properties of the db and changed it so what is wrong?

My brain hurt from my recent experience with our ISP, so I asked on Twitter and Andy Donaldson pointed out to me we should check the Mail-Owner under More-preferences.

EDITED 5/27: Marie reminded me to include the ability to set this also when inside DWA if you are using webmail. Sorry, forgot that addition.

Sure enough her old name was still listed.

Ok, that resolves her problem. But who thought this was a good idea? Sometimes people want to provide original titles to their mail files, why does the Eclipse client prevent this?

Something so simple has gone awry. Why can't the tab still call the properties title up and use it?

A secondary aspect of this customer is this.

If someone changes their name, for whatever reason, and wants all references to their previous name erased from what they see why isn't there an option to change the mail file name as well as the user name?

So in true Web 2.0 fashion, there should be an option in the Admin client when performing a user rename to ask if we want the file name changed too. A posting from Paul Davies on ideajam.net has this already and has 90 approvals and is from Jan 2008!

So go vote for it and think about how you can make someone's life easier, especially if they are getting divorced and don't want to get reminded of their previous name and life.

Fud Buster Friday #28 - We're a Cutting Edge type of Company

Riiiiiiiiight!
Sure, whatever.

So you don't use windows then? A cutting edge company would not use a 5 year old OS nor Vista of course.(personal note I use Vista on one laptop and it is fine, really).

So you don't have some old routers from Cisco which still haven't been patched?

You aren't using 2-3-4 year old laptops or desktops running older software would you now?

You run Outlook 2003 as your mail client? In 2009?
And it is of course tied in to Exchange 2003, a 5 year old email server and it still doesn't format for HTML properly.

Maybe you are a Lotus shop and your Notes clients are R6,R7 which is 2-4 years old now, you could update them AT ANY TIME. Your servers are of course up to date, see below.

You can't move to Open Office, Star Office or Lotus Symphony, because you need to be tied to some legacy Office Suite from a company that still can't get table formatting correct?

You still make all your employees go to the office instead of telecommute? How 80's of you.

You run Ethernet cabling everywhere because you are afraid of Wi-Fi security breaches. It's okay, we know your cables are faster....NOT!

You make sure your servers are up to date with the latest patches, even at the risk of some down time, right?

You tossed all the Windows servers in favor of Linux, iSeries, Zseries or some other server type or grid computing platform. Okay, you can keep the BES Windows server, RIM is a good company and you can't live without your Blackberry.

Which brings me to your phones. What no Bold or Storm? Ah but you have iPhones right? Yes neat, cool, but really why doesn't everyone have new phones that are under a year old and take advantage of memory and security enhancements.

Right, I forgot, you are a cutting edge company. Sounds it too. Wake me up before you go home tonight so I can get all your Domino servers upgraded to 8.5 in under 15 minutes.

You may not believe it but Lotus lets you stay on the cutting edge, and people like your admins help it happen because it really does take less than 15 minutes to be on the cutting edge.

Oh and if you wanted all your users to be on webmail, running 8.5 gets them to the cutting edge, NOW.

PSA - Remember Young Admins...

You can not register users while running an older Lotus Admin client version than your Lotus Domino server.
However, you can register users running a newer Admin client than your server.

The moral of the story is always stay equal or ahead of your server.

And R8.X will run on Windows 2000, but it IS unsupported.

LS09 SpeedGeeking Presentation

Sorry this took all week, it was on my Ideapad which has been sitting quietly waiting for me to play with it again. Next week when I go towards Tampa to see clients it will get used again.

So what is/was Speedgeeking you ask?

SpeedGeeking!
Tuesday, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN Pacific Hall B

Expanded for 2009 with two tracks! One track for app dev and one for admin! It all started here at Lotusphere, and it's a condensed, immersion-style and rowdy approach to hearing from some of the best and brightest and a wildly popular approach to learning about the tips, techniques (and sometimes crazy) ideas that they have been working on. Participants will migrate as a group around the room from one 5-minute demo station to the next, while stop watches, buzzers and a loud-mouthed emcee keeps things fast-paced and on track!

My session, repeated about 15 times in an hour and a half was about errors and troubleshooting strange jvm and domino or customer problems. Regular readers knwo I get all the fun ones and although I did not elaborate on the slides, if you were there you know what I mean.

Remember, NEVER use nlnotes.exe on your server unless you absolutely, positively MUST because whatever you do with it overwrites anything else you do in your NAB.

Sametime does not have a DNS but it DOES check every server reference in ANY directory it is supposed to see to validate the server and a IP address/DNS lookup match.

The slide with the FUC IT has links to where to find ALL of the switches for those tools, make sure to grab it.

There is no substitute for customers to keep one amused, really.

Enjoy! Any questions post them or email me and I will elaborate further.

If you want my speedgeeking presentation, you can get it here for .odp (Use Symphony like I did!) or here for .pdf.

Also remember the places to look for other help and information are here

Speedgeeking am I, Admin Side of Course

Rocky was kind enough to let me take part in this boondoggle of an event as a presenter.
Since I have not made it to previous years, my bad/meeting conflicts, I am looking forward to it even more than you.
Want to know what I am discussing?
Errors. yes, those excellent wordings from developers that help you as an Admin resolve the situation.
Officially the title is something like Strange,But True, fixes for errors and jvm problems.
JVM, routing, SMTP, Replication, ID login, passwords, recertification, Traveler, Quickr, BES, well almost anything really.
How do you understand these esotericisms? Do they have guiding forces to help you in their secret codes? Tune in to find out more.

So if you are an Admin and you have errors you'd like resolved, post them my way, yours might get picked for usage. I will also post/reply any answers....after Lotusphere, so I know you will visit us at Speedgeeking :-)

And I hear they serve beer at it too! So come have some fun and learn a thing or 2 maybe.