Thursday Tips - Sametime Installations Gone Awry?

I recently inherited a failed Sametime Complete 9.0 Installation that was stuck on the proxy server.

This would be the 3rd time in the last 2 years I have had the same exact circumstance.

Thank you all for bringing these to me. The commonality in each case was a reliance on the Zero to Hero 900+ slide deck. While it is a great guide to follow, especially if internally you need screen shot by screen shot directions, it lacks a few things that are kind of important.

It makes it very clear everything is on one server, if anyone read the slides, this is not very feasible for the average installation.Why is this an issue? Websphere needs to be installed on each machine but is not mentioned anywhere. SSO is not mentioned. Creating the services, and dependencies for those services is only partially mentioned.Naming everything sametime.org.com is not going to work either.

There are many more items to consider and think about, in short, if you don't know enough about what is missing, don't start down this path.

So for those getting stuck along the way, and have yet to call me for help, here are some pieces of information which may help you along the way. None of this is new but sometimes you just need a bunch of help all in one place.

I will presume you know enough to download any updates from IBM's Fix Central, how to install Websphere and the Installation manager and all the other components. If not, call me.

In no particular order:
SSO import, export of the LTPA token to/from Websphere and the Community Server details can be found here.

Keep in mind the token name must be syntax correct and the same name used throughout the process.
You may want some more details from this post:

When you need to create the Domino SSO Configuration, use this guide.

You can have multiple Domino SSO Configuration documents, just name them differently.

We needed to do this in 2 of the 3 cases because we used the same Domino domain for Community servers and :LDAP servers. This is one case where creating a new OU inside your domain may help you, check with your trusted advisor.

Need to create a Windows Service, and Dependencies so on startup it loads all the WAS and server items properly? You need the sc.exe command tool .

The syntax is not fun, and be very careful with the CAPS letters and lower case ones as any diffrences will not let this work, see this for a massive example.

Here is an example of how I did a few. You start at the bin directory (I used a D Drive) and then enter the text starting with "sc config " after the ">" remember long names and spaces in between words need the quotation marks:

Proxy Server itself and has a dependency of starting AFTER the local nodeagent:

D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\con-stproSTPPNProfile1\bin>

sc config "IBMWAS

85Service - STProxyServer" depend= "IBMWAS85Service - con-stproSTPPNProfile1_nod
eagent"

 For the Sametime System Console (SSC) the Nodeagent has to start AFTER the Deployment Manager

sc config "IBMWAS
85Service - STConsoleServer_NA" depend= "IBM WebSphere Application Server V8.5 - STConsoleServer_DM"

If you need to remember the order of starting and stopping the Websphere Sametime Servers read this note.

Lastly, document that installation using my excel spreadsheet which you can get from this post of mine.

Peek a Boo with O365 and Bits

Collaboration means different things to different people. Business collaboration is about sharing of
information, ideas, details, actions, and presuming everyone does the same in return so you truly reach that 1+1=3 world.

I am spending sometime on a side project with a company that is leveraging O365. On the outside looking in, it seems to be just what one wants for work. Online shared space for files, email, IM, ESN(Enterprise Social Network), team/group space, Office tools, and much more all wrapped up in one price and available only in the Cloud.

The first thing I experienced, and keep in mind I am accustomed to being the admin usually, was my name was spelled incorrectly. In general, not the end of the world, however, in some cases, my logins were correct, but it appears not in AD. When I asked IT to correct it, they told me it would take most of a day to do this because they would now have to go change all the other systems that I have logins for and fix them as well. SSO is not available in O365? And to rename an ID takes hours? As an admin, I am bemused at the discussions.

Normal users probably just shrug it off as IT time and plans.

My login aside, the quirks of O365, as some of my friends call them, are more a skewed view based on other products and our own expectations.

It seems one can not change the colors on screen for Outlook (2010 edition they use here). The choice is limited to 3 colors, none of which are even remotely exciting, Blue, Silver, Black. Cowboys and Raiders colors? What about us Dolphin fans that want orange or green? Or just set to Windows Desktop theme colors? Evidently 2013 is no better about this.

I will post this next bit, as it is important, but want to point out it is not unique to Microsoft. The multiple profiles, pictures, details issue is a major PITA to employees. Why can't the entry in AD cover the basics of the person (name, photo, phone, location, email, etc..) and have that, via LDAP, or AD itself, pushed out to any other system connected to it for user accounts? Instead there is Outlook, SharePoint, Yammer, and whatever the O365 bit itself is called all not sharing ANY details, in the case here, not even my login and password for the domain. Yes, WTF indeed.

Off I went to create profiles, about me docs, upload photos, enter office details because this is posted on the Yammer home page:

When signing up to Yammer can you please add a recognisable photo of yourself, so people can easily identify you in the office. Also add your phone number(s) and where you are located, including which floor you are on.

As it turns out SharePoint is not connected to O365 here, so I understand that...as an IT person. As an employee it would make me wonder why, if I cared enough, which maybe no one does anymore. Thus why adoption of an ESN is not an easy task inside companies and why I try to help it best I can.

Before some friends jump on this, as some have, be careful, IBM in this case does not handle it any better. Sametime vs. Connections profiles/photos vs. Domino data/profile/photos. Same problem, no solution. I understand why, in both companies products this exists. Simply put, if they have no way to know what "solution" you are installing, they have no way to provide the details efficiently. My argument has always been it should reside in the Directory (AD, Domino, whatever) and let everything else pull it from there. Whatever, live with it, do not slam either for this shortcoming.

The login and password thing is more bewildering to me. My Windows Domain login and password do not match my Outlook or Yammer ones but does SharePoint. A hybrid model that works as designed I guess but SSO or SPNEGO or even Oauth, anything/something would be a better solution.

On the plus side, the Yammer mobile client looks good and works well albeit in a multi step process just to message someone. I wait for the "Skype will rule it all" day coming soon, but for now, tick the box, they did mobile. You need to flip back and forth to the option menu to read group messages or the "stream" and to message someone takes 4 steps but it is a simple UI and easy to respond to posts in the stream or groups.

Yammer desktop, in short, does not exist. This is a frustrating thing for someone like myself so used to just sending IMs easily for the last 17+ years from a list in my tray. While one gets notified when there is a message, if you want to send someone a message you have to login (or keep a browser window open) just to then get to your list and try to message the person. I say try because I have not found a way for the web client to sort people by online status or even by alphabetical order. The Skype transition/integration can not come fast enough in my opinion.

Yammer Desktop Notifier is mostly a waste of time since it does NOTHING. To be fair, it has 3 options, (Inbox, Notifications, My feed) that when clicked take you to a browser and the messages. And if something is waiting for you, it has color codes to let you know in the little icon in your tray. But lookup people? Send an IM? No and No. In a corporate desktop world, this is frustrating. In a mobile, non desktop world, this is fine presumably, I have not loaded it yet on my iPad so I have no direct knowledge at this time.

The discussion around dropping SharePoint in favor of Jira is a conversation which I have not gotten into previously but would seem to be a major question/issue for companies that are using SharePoint or any ESN as a project management workflow tool. I may write more on this in a future blog after some further research.

Overall I can't say anything has blown me away that I must have it, aside from Skype. Perhaps Microsoft and other companies providing Enterprise solutions now find themselves in an unusual situation, big ugly/heavy clients that we use 10% of the benefits have passed their sale dates. When you really have better apps on your phone than your office, we are no longer on the "when will we get updates" discussion, but on the "why can't we use this app" or just doing it anyway. This is not a new opinion, we have been discussing it for years, but as I saw first hand, when IT people and executives are no longer willing to adjust to employees needs, then we in IT have failed and it matters little which vendor you chose.

SnTT- One way to troubleshoot SSO problems in WAS

This was a Mashup Center server and a Connections SSO integration on Websphere.
Prior to upgrading Connections from 2.5 to 3.0 it worked fine. But some place in the upgrade this, and some other internal items, broke. I was asked to lend a hand at troubleshooting it.

I first asked the Wizard of WAS, Dave Hay if there was anything I should know about Mashup Center as I have never used it. His help in discussing ways to troubleshoot this is greatly appreciated.

For the newbie and even someone who scratches their head at the Websphere Admin Console, sorry the Integrated Solutions Console, it is a bit confusing but once you get  the hang of bits of it you will be fine.

I am not going to go over how to set up the SSO but how to enable the trace and logs to help you get tot he bottom of the problem.




This could be used for any one needing SSO troubleshooting for WAS in general.

1. Login to the WebSphere Admin Console
2. Go to Troubleshooting -> Logs and Trace,
3. Select the WebSphere server in question,
4. Then click on Diagnostic Trace,
5. And then choose Change Log Detail Levels,
6. You will see a *[All Components] with a twistie (+ sign)
7. Click on the expanded twistie and scroll down until you find .com.ibm.ws.*
8. Click on this one's twistie and find  .com.ibm.ws.security.*
9. Now click on the whole reference to  .com.ibm.ws.security.*
10. And you can select the level of traces, in this case I selected the All messages and traces since we did not know what area exactly was failing.
11. This will change the text in the box above the list to: *=all for the selected item.
12. Click Apply, Save, OK
13. Restart WAS

To revert it back, change the *=all to *=info and then
Click Apply, Save, OK
Restart WAS

So what will you get and where is it found?

1. Login to the WebSphere Admin Console
2. Go to Troubleshooting -> Logs and Trace,
3. Runtime Messages and expand it
4. Open Runtime Error
5. You should now see towards the bottom a list, if any, of the errors and with code and references to help you troubleshoot your problem.

In our case we had an incorrect ou that appeared twice breaking everything. But we also had some other tinkering.

Good luck