My Issue With the IBM Connections Plugin for IBM Notes - Solved

After installing the Connections plugin for IBM Notes I couldn't seem to get either Files, Activities or Status Updates to work.  I could however connect to Greenhouse with no issue.  I also reach my Connections server via the web or via the desktop plugin as well. 

Another oddity was that none of the other integrated Connections components would work such as the business card integration in Sametime.
                                                   

It turned out to be SSL related.  Specifically, I use IBM HTTP Server to front end Connections and use a URL rewrite to force any incoming HTTP traffic to use HTTPS instead.  It appears that the Connections plugin for Notes had an issue with that URL rewrite.

In order to force the plugin for Notes to use HTTPS only, I changed the LotusConnections-config.xml file to point all static href parameters to be https instead of http. 



Then I reset the Connections back to defaults, entered the server, my user id and password and applied the changes.  This changed all my Accounts to use HTTPS.  Once I did that, all parts of the Notes plugin worked perfectly.  Of course, if you have a similar issue you can test this yourself manually by changing the Accounts one at a time and see if it helps you.

IBM Connections on IBM i - DB2, JDBC and IASPs

For anyone looking to do an IBM Connections install on IBM i, the biggest "gotcha" I encountered was due to the fact that I have an Independent Auxilliary Storage Pool (IASP) defined in my relational database directory entries list (think WRKRDBDIRE).  If you're using IBM PowerHA for replication then you'll have an IASP defined.
I would log into the Connections homepage successfully but then get an error that the request couldn't be completed.  I found errors in the systemout.log for each application like "SQLException: Relational database not in relational database directory.  DSRA0010E: SQL State = 42705, Error Code = -99,999."

Connections tries to connect to DB2 using the JDBC databaseName custom property, not find it in the WRKRDBDIRE list and then the DB2 connection fails.  Errors like this happen regardless if your DB2 databases for Connections are in the IASP or in *SYSBAS.  IBM support tells me if you don't have an IASP defined then the databaseName parameter is ignored and you won't run into this problem.  In case you don't have an IASP defined and still get these errors it can't hurt to give the below solution a try.  I may prove it out on a test partition later.

The solution is to blank out the databaseName custom property for each JDBC data source.  Once I did this and restarted the applications I was then able to access the Connections applications that interact with DB2. 





My first impressions of Connections on IBM i?  It rocks!  

I saved a lot of time on the installation because I already had WebSphere Application Server 8, Installation Manager and of course the integrated DB2 for i up and running already.  Most of my time was spent was on configuration after the fact.  Much thanks to Stuart McIntyre, Sharon Bellamy and Gab Davis for a few pointers when I was scratching my head a little.

I intend on blogging all my steps for getting IBM Connections running on IBM i in the next few weeks.  Cheers.