SnTT - Replication is NOT Disabled, But it says it is

Did you ever wonder about what makes some changes more difficult than others? Why do people fear the upgrade? What paralyzes them from taking action? Usually it is because they got burned one time.

One day I decided to load Windows8 on an existing Windows7 machine to play with it and test IBM Notes and other apps. The upgrade went fine, but some things were not compatible with Windows8. In time I downloaded patches and updates and resolved messy security errors.

One of the errors was on IBM Notes and seemed to be the software firewall. resolved, started Notes and it replicated. Great. An hour later when I realized I had not gotten some emails i expected I checked replication and it had not replicated since logon. I asked it to replicate and it did.

An hour later, same thing. After looking at everything I saw the information on the bottom of the screen that says "Replication is disabled". It most certainly was not. I then proceeded to do the following, from my own past blog post, and this one, before calling IBM, with the same outcomes:
Disabling replication and then restarting it. - "Replication is disabled"
Tried restarting Notes - "Replication is disabled"
Change location to a different account - "Replication is disabled"
Login as a different user entirely - "Replication is disabled"
Check log on server and client and only saw - "Replication is disabled" or replication I forced
Tried IMAP - "Replication is disabled"
Domino 8.5.x server - "Replication is disabled"
Domino 9.0 server - "Replication is disabled"
Replaced design of template of PNAB from local - "Replication is disabled"
Replaced design of template of PNAB from server - "Replication is disabled"
Changed template of PNAB to a different template, then replaced it back as PNAB - "Replication is disabled"
Created a brand new PNAB with nothing but one server details in it - "Replication is disabled"

I began to wonder if I was missing some patch for Windows8 so I called IBM Support with a PMR.

I worked with Kristin T. who was great about working around my schedule and provided a number of areas to look at to see what else might be going on. Unfortunately she did not have a Windows8 machine at the time to play with so we both kind of flew blind.

In the end, it was not a Windows8 issue. The problem may have been caused by a rogue policy from one of my location documents that for some reason decided to kick in only after I loaded Windows8.

In order to see the policies and clear them if necessary, do the following:

1. Open your personal address book (names.nsf on your client)
2. Go to the Location document
3. Press the CTRL and SHIFT keys at the same time then 
4. Click on View -> Go To-> and find ($Policies)
5. Click Ok

You will see your policies. If anything looks wrong or just want a blank list, delete it and then restart Notes.
A fresh set of policies will come down to you.

Only after we cleared the system policies and created a clean PNAB and then added one location and connection details back we were able to get replication rolling again.

Moral of the story is, you may know what you are doing, but the order of the troubleshooting could be holding you up from completing your task.

Replication Triangulation or Strangulation

Domino administrators are known for excessive replication of everything. Names.nsf primarily, but also important files, like our own mail files. In some cases multiple copies of everything, and on USB or CD or DVD.

One caveat in doing all of these copies is that there is a clean environment and some logic to replication.

While this happens to many employees, it doesn't usually happen to an admin. In this case it was my mail file.

My primary desktop was fine, but my traveling netbook was not replicating.

I was seeing the "invalid or nonexistent document" message in the replication tab. But no other errors.

Yes I did what you would do:
Copied at OS level my mail file, no dice
Replicated a new copy, no dice
Ran Updall, Fixup and Compact on the mail file, no dice
Shut down one client to test the other, no dice

After asking in one of the Skype chats about it I tried something else which then broke all replication!
What did I do? I changed the replication settings, this is on a 8.5.2 client, ODS 51, and under Space Savers tried setting retrieve these documents to "All". Bad idea, don't do this. Reverted it back to "Those matching the selected criteria" and got my original desktop back.

So with no new ideas from Skype I noticed I was getting multiple copies of my contacts. Not duplicates, but replication showed 2 or 3 times as many as there should be always replicating. I began to wonder why.

It turns out, one of the 2 clients Personal Names.nsf  was not using the 8.5.2 template. No idea which one it was using as the properties showed no entry.

Replaced the design template form the local version of pernames.ntf and tested it. NO DICE!

What was wrong now? Checked the properties...Template 8.0.1?!

Turns out a virtual link I use to connect to a 20 year history of Notes nsf's and ntf's held in it an older template. Deleted that one, replaced design, again, this time with a proper 8.5.2 (Traveler has been trolling for hours, I had to charge my phone via my pc) template and tried again. Perfect it worked!

Now to try this at all of them. Checked all templates, mail and pnab and then copied the good copy to the other and got replication going again.

All seemed fine, until an hour or 2 later, same problem, netbook replica was broken again. Turns out if your PNAB gets corrupted, all hell breaks loose.

Quiet and normal replication again. Nothing like a half day wasted, hope you fair better in your endeavors.

Google's offline Apps, The time is now!

Read it here at Yahoo!.

I won't be the first or the last to say it, but welcome to the neighborhood.
Replication and offline working is THE killer app, 2nd to anything live on the net.

Noticed you were in attendance and sponsoring at Lotusphere the last few years and although we know you to be rather cagey about future plans, but what if?

Could it be? Would IBM sell Lotus to you, to someone in a possibly better position to break the Microsoft back?

The answer of course is no and yes.
No, because IBM just proclaimed they would spend so much millions on Sametime and UC and some other Lotus aspects.

And Yes because, well IBM isn't foolish, if someone wanted to buy Lotus at a reasonable(or unreasonable if IBM wanted to get rid of them)price, I am sure IBM from a business sense would jump on it.

Of course Google isn't likely to do so, but I am interested to see who else Google picks up or hires to join them as time moves along.

We live in interesting times, now I am off to play poker.