HCL Domino 14.5, Fix your iNotes Redirector for Verse

By now, if you have updated your Domino server and relied on iNotes, you have found that it no longer works.

HCL was clear about this, and there is no workaround, so if you want iNotes and not Verse, better keep a server on 14.0 and point everyone there.

For the rest of us that move forward with the times, we will have seen that logging into the iNotes URL gets you to a pop-up which looks like this:

It states that iNotes is no longer available, and you need to open HCL Verse. If you click on the link, it directs you straight to Verse.

The URL for verse is something like https://companyname.com/verse, and you change your bookmark, but that doesn't work exactly. When you hit that URL, you will get the framework of Verse but this message:

So, you try the manual way, https;//companyname.com/mail/brooks.nsf, and that lets you in, via the 1st pop-up as above..

The next morning, you open your browser, and the /verse URL is not working with the same error about recent contacts.

What is going on here?

iNotes required the iNotes redirector. Well, there is no new redirector, but it did get renamed to Verse redirector(same template name), but it does include some options you probably hadn't considered, and this is how you resolve the problem.

If you haven't changed any settings in a while, now is a great time to update them. The redirector has been updated periodically along the way.

These are the ones to change or review:

Server Settings Button:

Do you wish to force SSL for the entire session? Yes

UI Setup Button:

Your company logo should be there, so your users know it is a legitimate site.

Enable Personal Options: Set to No, they were really about iNotes anyway.

Enable HCL Verse: Yes, you need this now.

Enable SAML options: If you use SAML, enable this option, which displays a secondary option for the Default Mail Application. Select Verse.

When you have finished all your changes, click Save & Exit and then test to ensure everything works properly.

And no more weird error messages about recent contacts.

This tech doc can help those who want more details: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/2.0.0/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Update June 30: I found that I now see this error the next morning.

Googler search shows up this Technote: https://support.hcl-software.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0089441

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/verse_onprem/3.1/admin/vop_configuring_server.html

Step 19 is what you want.

Which leads to this: https://help.hcl-software.com/domino/12.0.0/admin/secu_creating_the_credential_store_application_on_a_single_domino_server_t.html

In my case, I already had a credstore created, and this new key would not get added to that credstore.

I went back to the original technote, vop_configuring_server, and added a new entry in my domcfg for DWA, but that now redirects me to a different domain on my server, which has TOTP.

Also verified that the 'inotes/verse' tab in the configuration document met the proper configuration as per the document.

As it turns out, my secondary domain was set for SAML instead of single server in my Internet Site document, Domino Web Engine tab. Probably because I was testing something. Changing that back to single server now allows me to log in correctly with https://companyname.com/verse. With my erse redirectpr in place and everything now correct.

Got IBM Mail yet?

In case you were wondering, I have not gone into hiding, contrary to the trolls.

Want to just run this by you as I know someone out there has been scratching their head asking what is IBM talking about with all this talk of mail, mail, mail.

Mail in this case is of course, email.

You remember email, the thing everyone said was dead, like the mainframe?

Email, that scapegoat of corporate executives who live in fear people will realize their company is close to bankruptcy or some other financial catastrophe and so they announce a new email direction.

IBM spent quite a bit of resources, and will continue to do so, to keep pushing the envelope of email.

But no one calls it email anymore except us old dinosaurs that carry Blackberries.(Disclosure: I never owned one or carried one except for one client for 6 months) Seriously, it is now just mail.

But not just any mail, no, you have at least 4 variations of mail now from IBM.

Mail Next
The most obvious one, yet least viewed publicly, is "Mail Next". Simply put, this is a browser based mail product that runs on Domino. Think of it as a far ahead view of Webmail/iNotes/Domino Web Access for the next generation. Lots of analysts that get paid to write about it have, go read their posts if you want to know the future. This post is for the admins and executives that need to know where we all stand today and the near future. ETA of client, probably when R10 or IBM Notes Rnext comes out in 2015 sometime. IBM does not like to name products prior to launch.

IBM Notes
This leads us to IBM Notes which continues to bring in licensing revenue of an estimated $1.2 BILLION a year. As already stated, look for the next release in 2015 probably and as inroads have been made to expand the client repertoire to browser based Notes workspaces among other advances. Still based on Domino. No word if this will be rebranded as IBM Connections Notes or something else.

IBM Connections Mail
What is this IBM Connections Mail we heard about? Yes, IBM has re-branded their product lines again. If sports teams can change their jerseys and logos and colors every year, companies can change the names of products. IBM Connections is the new brand where the IBM Notes products will reside under. However, this IBM Connections Mail has been around for about 2 years now and it is a way to surface your email and calendar into IBM Connections. It is based on Domino and also runs for Exchange. It is expected that this integration will get stronger and span more aspects over time.

IBM SmartCloud Notes
IBM® SmartCloud™ Notes® is a full-featured email, calendar, contact management and instant messaging service in the IBM cloud. And it runs on Domino. For those of you that do not want or need an infrastructure in your office of servers, this should help you and while itis not free, it is pretty inexpensive.

So you see mail, or email, is useful and sexy again for those dinosaurs that need it and aside from one man, we all still need it.

iNotes Redirector in Domino 9 Cool Detail

There is a new version on the server. Time to replace the design and upgrade it.

You can find the file by name, iwaredir.ntf, which is called IBM iNotes Redirect.

I had to enable the show in advanced template list for the template for it to come up. 

The first thing I got when replacing the template was this awesome language window!

Very cool, this did not come up when I replaced any other templates yet, so I will presume it is special to this db, but not unique I am sure as the only time. You can set the default here or in the properties box for the db afterwards. 

I wonder if it reads your OS version and defines the language as my tests it only showed up in English. Or does it read the OS language default? I changed browser language and defaults and it didn't pick it up.
Anyone know?

Usual click, ok, let it do it's thing.

Test it all out and go on your way.

Webmail Redirector #4 - Unable to Login Issue

I posted the other day that I was unable to login for iNotes for some unknown reason.

While that specific issue I did not test on THAT server yet, a different one has occurred and since it is all part of my session at The View conference, might as well help some poor admin pulling their hair out with what I learned, the hard way, and from ignoring my own notes in one case.

So no matter how I tried I could not login. I searched the web, I Googled till I could Google no more, IBM support toolbar probably hates me from asking so many variations of the same bad error message. Namely the infamous:

you provided an invalid user name and password

But I did not enter an invalid name or password.

Here in no specific order are what you need to do, take a deep breath, we will fix it! And if not, you know how to find me as many already have on this topic. If you have any other pointers please advise as well in the comments. Two paths for you to follow, specific users unable to login and ALL users unable to login.

If a Specific user:

1) Obvious, but check the mail file(if it is a specific user), that their administration server exists or is the proper one. In a demo environment like mine right now, it's easy to not pay attention to this. For a different but same conclusion, read this from David.

2) Replace the design on the mail file to make sure it is the correct version. Again in my demo environment I was using a slightly tainted template.

3) Check the ACL of the mail file that the user did not do something, um, user like, and change all the ACL settings.

4) Make sure the user's name is properly shown as the owner in the preferences section. (More-Preferences from the Inbox view)

5) Check the person document is correct for the server name, file location and name, etc. Mail jump, depending on how you configure it, can be, shall we say unsympathetic to your errors.

6) Change the users internet password...just in case.

When done, do a CTRL-SHIFT-F9 on the names.nsf and try again.

If no one can login:

1) Many places to check but let's start with the key databases. Did you set up the mail jump properly? Did you set up the Domino Web Services Configuration properly? Check the ACL's on both of those, set Anonymous to reader.

2) If you have many websites on the server or many services(like Traveler which is most common), check the Internet sites documents are set up for proper redirection or Override Session authentication. See this subsection from an Excellent IBM Technote, titled "Configuring IBM Lotus Notes Traveler 8.0.1.x and Domino Web Services on the same server". technote # 1298016

IBM Lotus Notes Traveler and Domino Web Access (DWA)

After Lotus Notes Traveler has been installed and configured, DWA is still functional, however with Internet Sites enabled and Single Server or Multiple Server specified for Session Authentication, the default DWA login mechanism is changed from a 401 challenge to an HTTP login form. Many devices and web clients are not equipped to handle the HTTP login form. Follow these steps to revert back to the 401 challenge.

* Once Lotus Notes Traveler is installed and configured open the Domino Administrator Client and connect to the Domino Server
* Navigate to the Configuration Tab --> Web --> Internet Sites
* Locate and open the Internet Site document entitled "IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Web" or your equivalent Internet Site document for Web (HTTP) protocol.
* Choose the Web Site button and select Create Rule.
* Enter these values for the rule:
* Description: DWA Rule (any value here is fine)
* Type of rule: Override Session Authentication
* Incoming URL pattern: /mail*

Note: Choose the URL pattern appropriate for your organization. The default URL for DWA is /mail/username.nsf so in general /mail* will work fine.
* Save and Close the rule.
* Restart the HTTP Server.

3) Check that the security sections in the Internet Sites Document shows this as well:


4) Make sure proper fully qualified name and/or hostnames or IP addresses are stored in the proper place of the Internet Site Document Basics tab under "Host names or addresses mapped to this site:"

5) This wiki page might help if you have an HTTP Authentication issue preventing people from completing their login.

6) Lastly if you did follow my previous posts and edited your login forms, try reverting it back to a basic login and see if that works.

Now I know some of you reading this are saying "Of course, who wouldn't think to do that"? The problem is not who wouldn't think of it, but who wouldn't stop to check they spelled something incorrectly or the IP/name was incorrect. Years of experience tell me all the time that what should work and doesn't is probably my fault, especially if it works everywhere else I set it up.

So the moral of the story is what you learn in a demo(or in my case what I am playing with for a demo) and what you configure in real life do not always equal perfectly. Different versions, even point releases can have major differences and while I and other bloggers, even the IBM Infocenters and wiki's, try to keep our posts up to date with changes in the software, don't rely only on what you read, your intuition will help you decide as well.

Take a vacation after this, you'll need it.

When iNotes Access just doesn't work

I am working on my Mail Redirector presentation, Under the hood of mail redirection and its effects on iNotes and iPhone users, for The View Admin conference and ran into a problem which I will now add to my slides.

Go to login to a clients server to check on mail or reply to something from within, which I do all the time, and got this message AFTER logging in and getting the redirecting temporary page, it then reverts back to the login page and says:

Kbrooks, you are not authorized to access mail/kbrooks.nsf.
Please sign in with a name which has sufficient access rights:

Huh? Since when does iNotes have superior access to me as the admin and Manager of my mail file and full server access etc.

Wondering if I messed up the redirector or is there something else going on here that I am missing.

Webmail Redirection and Configuration Documents

Previously (April 09)I had posted a detailed "how to" setup the mail redirector.

This morning I forgot an important step, but also realized I had neglected some people's setups.

So with these ideas in mind let's provide everyone some updates.

First, I neglected to include the simple ?open at the end of the redirector.nsf so my server only would go to the "home page" which is the black background with links to the help files or in one case went to the NAB. Change the document and it's fixed.

Wait, which document? In this case, unlike my previous post, the client was using Configuration documents and Internet sites.

8.5.1 created the doc below and I have used mailredirect as the db name.


By adding the file name to the home page you will now be prompted for a login and be blocked from accessing the server.

Note this is found under Web -> Internet Sites -> Web site
Edited 2/4/2010: Please be aware that various products like Traveler, Sametime, Quickr can and will add their own web documents and this will wreck havoc with your environment as well. So either delete them or edit as I showed here. And let me know if there are things I missed too.

Also on the Security tab in this document make sure to set TCP Authentication to Anonymous=NO
Name and password = YES

And SSL if you are using it set accordingly.

In this way you will be able to force login when hitting the server and redirect accordingly.

iNotes Soapbox Rant: Will the Real iNotes Stand up

Original title:iNotes Soapbox Rant: The Name is Pissy Duck
The name is from a "book" my son dictated to his teacher in school last year, 5 years old, his big sister reads to him but she doesn't always get the pronunciation correct. The real name is Psyduck and is a Pokemon thing.

Now my rant.

Prior to R8 it was called everything from webmail to shimmer.

R8 came out and we had Domino Web Access and it was good, much better than R7's and now had lite and full mode.

R8.5 came out and we had iNotes again replacing DWA and this client rocks and has ultralite for iPhones!

Ed Brill posted about this last year. And the comments show it was not a great idea to change the branding/naming then.

Now we have LotusLive iNotes which, wait for it, is NOT iNotes found on a Domino server.

Huh?

Yes, you see IBM has decided the brand name is important, not necessarily the product itself. IBM evidently now refers to webmail as iNotes, whether it is Notes and Domino based or not, and this version is definitely not. Maybe IBM is after the iNotes Family and there is more to come from it, but this is not a good idea. See Websphere family and to a similar extent Sharepoint Family products that leave many confused.

The company IBM bought, Outblaze will be performing the iNotes one will see from LotusLive.

Now when Microsoft bought Hotmail they never rebranded it Outlook? Sure they rebranded it as MSN Hotmail, now WindowsLive but never called it Outlook officially.

So where does this leave us as Business Partners, you as customers and the world at large from a product awareness or branding? No idea, maybe no one cares, but I for one think this is false advertising and just plain confusing to sales people and customers.

Lotus, the brand, as much as I love it, just doesn't deserve to be seen in this light which will surely provide ample flames to competitors.

Please IBM, name the LotusLive iNotes something else, anything else.

Done ranting.

Fud Buster Friday #47 - iNotes is Ugly, Slow and Requires Its Own Server

As with most FUD the history of a product comes into play, no matter how old it might be.

iNotes (Also known as Domino Web Access or Webmail) as it is called now in R8.5 of Lotus Notes is a huge improvement over past efforts to mimic the Notes client.

It currently mimics it very well and is much more functional than ever before.

Coming in 3 flavors, Full, Light and UltraLite there is a version for everyone.

Full is like it says, it includes everything, email, calendar and scheduling, to dos, Sametime and other required actions and is meant for normal bandwidth availability.

Would you belive I could not find a video of iNotes in English? Enjoy this one:

Light scales back to the basics, email, simple calendar and ONLY connects to get your email nothing else. Aimed at lower than normal bandwidth experiences.


Ultralite is really for iPhones and the Safari browser. But you can use it just as well under your browser of choice.
Watch it here if you haven't seen it yet:


It is NOT slow at all, in fact it handles previews of email and name lookups quickly and efficiently.

In R8.x the mail templates, which manage one's mail file, have been merged into one compared to previously where they were 2 separate templates. In the past this created a sometimes duplicated file scheme thus wasting resources. Now one server can handle both web and rich client access.

Of course for best performance one should understand how memory and other server tasks handle the nuances of each client and design an architecture accordingly.

Along with this smoother than smooth web based client comes increased compression on attachments and a single template storage method to keep overall file sizes smaller.

So the next time you hear from your vendor that Lotus Webmail is old and slow, ask them to watch the videos for themselves. After all your data is private so you can't show them yours :-) And remind them it's called iNotes just like the iPhone because it is all about what I want.

SNTT - iNotes Mail Redirection in 8.5

Edited 9/2/2010: Login page edits can be found at this post.

Edited 12/21/2009: If you need more information for internet site documents and configuration see this post.

It's a NEW template and so full of help and documentation one doesn't even need to post about it.

RIGHT!

To be fair this is one of those things you love to use and set up once go away and then something breaks it and you have to do it all....over....again.....from.....memory.

Not totally true anymore. Webmail redirect has come a long way so to speak since the old Sandbox. Needless to say, if your environment looks like one of our clients, well, then this is for you.

Here is a link to the Domino Administrator help file which is online at IBM where it provides THE ONLY documentation for this utility(outside of the database itself, read on for more on this). Appropriately called "Using iNotes Redirect to access mail in Lotus iNotes".

If you read it, there seems to be nothing to it really.
1. Create an application using the "IBM Lotus iNotes Redirector"(IWAREDIR.NTF) template.
2. In the IBM® Lotus® Notes® client, open the application that you created.
3. Click Setup and follow the prompts(I didn't get any prompts) to set up iNotes Redirect.
I'll add a step 4, at the server console, tell HTTP Restart.

Hold on, not so fast, what about all these settings and options you say?
Let's do it one step at a time.
I will presume you know how to create a database by now.

1) You will see one button on the page, Click on Setup.
2) Now you will see 4 buttons like this:

3) Select server settings
4) Here the help offered is helpful, so use it if you need it. Select the Redirection type, I use dynamic and not a forced path in this case.
5) Choose SSL or not and debug or not.
6) Click on the UI setup button.
7) Enter the time to redirect in seconds. Why you ask...
8) What text do you want displayed while being redirected? So you can do a Public service announcement or have some fun with it like I do and tell them to relax and the server will be with you in a few seconds, please deposit 25 cents to continue.
9) You can also add a custom logo or color and enable the personal, login and cookie options as you so desire.
10) Click on ultralite/mobile settings and enable the ultralite button, it should already be populated with ipod(had no idea I could use it as a client)and iphone.
11) Now go to the application setup button and make the ACL changes as described.

And it.....didn't work for my client.

So what's wrong?

I get the Lotus Notes Traveler code home page. I love Traveler, but this shouldn't be coming up after I login.

OK, let's check the WEB settings in the Names.nsf.

Go to Configuration-Web-Internet Sites

I found a website for traveler on that server. Not unusual to have Traveler on the same server as one's mail, but Traveler appears to have taken over the default URL.

Open up the site, go to the Configuration tab and edit it.
The Home URL was populated with traveler/index.html.

Sorry, that will break iNotes redirection.

Copy this, or whatever you find there, over to the comments tab, as backup.

Now replace that with inotesredirector.nsf?open (please use whatever name you made the NSF when you created the database, BUT don't forget the ?open).

Try to log back in, it should work now. If not, run the tell http restart at the server console and try again. If that doesn't work, get a hold of me so we can fix it together.

As an extra benefit, don't forget you can redirect when people leave their email as well.

Using this notes.ini setting, iNotes_WA_LogoutRedirect=http://lotustech.blogspot.com you can send the person anyplace you want, I sent you to my blog if you cut and paste this.

As the help file says on this topic:

Use the NOTES.INI variable, iNotes_WA_LogoutRedirect, to specify a URL to redirect users to a Web page after logging out from server. The setting provides normal cache clearing with the IBM® Lotus® iNotes™ control, and clearing of browser credentials. This variable allows sites which have additional actions that need to happen on a logout (such as logging out of a reverse proxy server) to specify a URL to do this additional activity. Or you can use this variable to return people to an initial login page. The format for this settings is iNotes_WA_LogoutRedirect=URL. For example:

Fud Buster Friday #22 - iNotes, Who Cares?

A part 2 from last week?
Well 8.5 came out and I can honestly say that if you have not been using webmail or iNotes before you got to go look at it now.

Beautiful, functional, 3 choices of clients full, lite or Ultralight (iPhone users) and all from 1 template, Sametime panel on the right, 5 easy buttons which open into their own tabs for calendar, to do, notes, tasks...see the picture!

Wait it gets better, it even tells you what is wrong if some parts aren't working properly, say your Lotus Sametime awareness and functionality. And it provides multiple options for you to choose from to try to resolve it(for admins only, users can't fix this stuff).

What can I say, the people who have used it will use it more and those who have stayed away will run back to it.

Dead technology? Not from where I sit and not form your users either. So if you are still running R5,6,7 get with it and move forward, we can help, just ask me how.

Remember 9 days to go to Lotusphere!

Fud Buster Friday #21 - No One uses iNotes/Webmail/DWA

In a recent encounter on Twitter I was discussing with an individual who harbored the false perception that no one uses iNotes or Domino Web Access or Webmail or whatever you want to call the browser based access to one's Domino mail.

Should have asked him if he meant no one uses OWA, the Outlook Web Access.

Many college campuses use Webmail, as do numerous hospitals, logistics companies, manufacturing plants and regular everyday users.

Why? Because they can do so with little effort on the administrator's side, especially in R8 where there is only one template now for web and non-web usage.

Compared to Microsoft where one usually has separate servers specially setup to run OWA, Lotus Domino servers can handle the dual connections of web and Notes client access. Admittedly some earlier servers, say over 5 years ago, limited the #'s on a machine, today I have a client with over 2,000 people(we expect scaling to 2,500-3,000) on one mail server and it houses multiple clients, templates and access form the web, phones and notes clients.

Oh and it runs on Linux and did this as an R7 and now even better as an R8 server.

If you have a Microsoft Exchange server which can do all of this and does...let's hear about it.

Fud Buster Friday #14 - Gmail is Great for Business

Bruce of Elguji fame asked why i don't pick on someone else for a change, Microsoft is so Turn of the Century.

To indulge him, and for Phigment's sake or was it Chris Toohey I have decided to focus on Gmail this week.

As pointed out by one of the latter individuals I can't compare Gmail to a Notes client. Fine, but I can compare it to the Webmail/iNotes/Domino web Access client.

As of 8.0.2 it has been renamed, again, back to iNotes for webmail and this comparison is really R8 iNotes vs. Gmail.

So first things first you get with Gmail currently 7GB of space for your email files.
GIGABYTES!
You also FOR FREE get Postini on the back end clearing your spam, which is very nice too.
Plus you have an embedded IM client(Gtalk of course) and it's all in a browser and it's free. Really, not Microsoft Free where they nail you in year 2 for everything, but really free....for now.

OK, this is a consumer side, I am not paying the $50 for the year for better service levels. Still so far sounds good right?

Now, what about iNotes? Licensing, server admin and costs and you can easily see where this is a losing proposition right and everyone should move to Gmail?

Not so fast, we have some other issues here.
Uptime. Domiono is solid, my servers are up until I need to upgrade them or enough Microsoft downloads are bugging me to restart my server. If yours aren't, connect with me and we can help you. Exchange too and Groupwise and cc:Mail but I digress.

Attachments, the reply with attachments options in iNotes is nice and helpful as is the ability to send ANYTHING. Gmail will not let me send zip or exe files. Why not? Can't Postini handle it? I wonder....

UI. Here I prefer iNotes hands down. I would like to see some items moved but unlike iGoogle this page is static. iNotes has a nice spacing in between everything so you don't feel all cluttered.

Also where is preview mode in Gmail? Yes some will say if you have it set to show Snippets you can at least read the 1st line, but it's not the same, is it?

Backups? none, unless I offload the mail to my Notes client which I do as an IMAP user.

OOO (Out of Office) is there too, simple piece in Gmail, but how much does one really need?

Accessible from your phone? Check for both.
Accessible offline? iNotes yes using DOLS for the offline service. Gmail nothing right now.

So if I need information from previous discussions, unless I have downloaded my emails to a mail client I have no way to access them when needing them potentially in front of clients. HUGE problem for Gmail.

If your server goes down, your IT staff fixes it. If your Gmail goes down, who do you call? What do you do? What backup plan did you have? If my ISP went down I could walk over to Starbucks and use their free Wi-Fi but that doesn;t help me if Gmail is down.

If you travel as much as I do, what would you do? I usually send out and reply to emails on flights because it is quiet time and I can catch up and replicate them out to send when we land. Gmail? I don't think so.

If I had a business where no one traveled and no one left the office I would probably be running a prison or a library but real world business is rarely sitting in one place. Maybe you go to see a client and they have open Wi-Fi, great, but usually that isn't the case.

So is Gmail great for business?In my case, no it isn't, although it may provide a better case if and when they go offline and provide some better UI.

Chrome + Lotus Webmail (iNotes), Works Fine

FatGuppy on Twitter and some other people have been ranting the Lotus Notes Client for webmail, sometimes referred to as iNotes or Domino Web Access, doesn't work.

This is far from the truth.

In accessing my server via the Google "front end client" browser, Chrome, all is well. Now we have an R8.0.1 server and an 8.0.2 server in cluster.

If you are checking it out on an older version of Lotus Domino, say R6, it would not be a surprise to me if you had some issues.

Why? Because you are running software which is at least 3-5 years old.

Google, not Lotus, built Chrome with cutting(bleeding) edge software and respective versions of various code(beta java code for one) and it would not be likely that an old server would recognize any of it.

Having said that, when was the last time you updated your server's java code? Or patched all the Microsoft holes/security items? Or for any other operating system you might run?

Many are so quick to condemn but really I did not have to do anything to get it to run aside form enter a URL.

Thought about making thus a FudBuster #5 but decided it wasn't at that level ...yet.

Anyone with other testing or input please advise.