Steve Pitcher

A Bit of a Push

2012-01-12T17:54:00.000-04:00

I've got a bunch of meetings at Lotusphere 2012 justifying Connections and Sametime Media Server on IBM i.

I really want to bring us over the 500,000 user license mark. 200,000 was the original goal. Half a million is a statement. We're at 406,551 right now. On stage, at lunch, or in the hallways I want to tell people there's 500,000 licenses.

http://spitcher.wufoo.com/forms/make-ibm-i-your-social-collaboration-platform

There's currently 400,000 "i" systems worldwide. Many of you run Lotus software. Please make yourself heard. Business partners, please speak on behalf of your customers.

Connections on IBM i: Not Supported...But Will it Work?

2012-01-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

I had a thought today after perusing Frankeni.com. I check the site every few months or so to see what Larry Bolhuis has been up to. You see, Larry has been doing some fun stuff over the years with old AS/400's all the way up to current systems. Essentially, he'd take a system and break support rules by installing all sorts of components that aren't "allowed." I've never met Larry personally, but I'd equate him to the Eddie Van Halen of the early 80's who'd take a guitar, literally take a chainsaw to it, paint it, and install proper pickups and a tremolo bar. It still works...maybe even better. And it looks so cool. My favorite "system" of Larry's would be the System/34 turned into a workbench (check out the system gallery). That's a fun way to spend a week off.

Perhaps I was a little inspired. Here's the deal...

IBM i has a lovely feature called Portable Application Solutions Environment (PASE). It's a no charge feature that ships with the OS.

PASE allows you to run AIX (and other) packages natively on IBM i, even without a recompile.

I say to myself: "Hey Steve...doesn't IBM Connections run on AIX?" Why, yes. Yes, it does.

Potentially, IBM Connections could run "as-is" with no modifications under PASE.

Now, I don't want to install anything unsupported on a production machine. As fortune and good timing would have it I'm replacing a System i model 520 running IBM i 7.1 with a new Power Systems 720 this Wednesday night. I figure while doing the restore to the 720 I'll have a bit of downtime. If not, I'll find time over the next few nights afterward to load it. The 520 isn't doing much as it's not our primary box, so once it's out of commission I can turn it into a test machine anyway.

Best case scenario is that Connections will install and run without issue. Worst case...we know PASE is not an option. At least in my simplistic test. But perhaps my install logs and running server logs would show very simple problems to fix. Who knows? I don't believe any customer has tried this and no one from IBM has told me they have as of yet.

Since I'm only entitled to the Files and Profiles components of Connections under Notes/Domino 8.5.3 licensing, my testing will be limited, even if it's successful. If anyone else is out there running IBM i who is entitled to all Connections components wants to lend a hand by loading it on a spare system, it would be much appreciated. Shoot me an email at stevepitcher at scotsburn dot com. Please do not install this on a production server and compromise your support.

I plan on turning on all logging features so that I'll have a clear picture of what, if anything, fails. I'll gladly share that information with IBM or any other customer who wants to do some trail blazing.

PASE is as "native IBM i" as it gets. IBM i administrators could potentially manage it via Qshell, similar to the WAS components of Sametime that run on IBM i. If this works as planned, it certainly makes porting much easier. Supporting and developing for future releases or fixes is also simplified dramatically, in my opinion. Reason: if IBM is developing Connections for AIX, and Connections for AIX will run through PASE on IBM i without any additional coding or compiling, we now have a low cost and low maintenance option for providing IBM i customers with IBM Connections. Perhaps IBM would need to do some work in the quality assurance area to ensure everything translates perfectly, but that is much less effort than a full scale port. I offer IBM nothing but enthusiasm for their products here, along with as much information I can give them to help a lot of IBM i customers get on board with Connections.

By the way, our petition has over 167 customer/partner responses, showing interest in over 405,000 potential licenses. I ask you to tack your name on if you haven't already.

Perhaps getting Connections on IBM i is not as daunting a task as everyone thinks. We'll see...

Happy New Year! 2011 briefly in review...

2012-01-01T19:04:00.002-04:00

I wanted to quickly reflect on 2011 as I've had a heck of a year, both personally and professionally.

At the tail end of 2010, my twin girls (Madeleine and Abbigail) were born. Close enough to 2011 and so life changing I had to mention it first and foremost.
After eight years with Minas Basin Pulp & Power, I resigned in March of 2011 and joined Scotsburn Dairy Group. Scotsburn had just adopted Lotus Notes and there was so much potential in terms of collaboration solutions. It was a great fit and a role I could really dig into.
I was selected as an IBM Champion for IBM Collaboration Solutions. Whoa...really?
I've done a number of webcasts promoting ICS and social business
My writing for MC Press was pretty steady, but I decided to only put out about 6 articles in 2012.
In December I signed my first book publishing contract. Look for iSocial – Leveraging IBM i on Power as Your Social Collaboration Workhorse in spring/summer 2012. My mom promises to buy a copy so you should too. ;)
I started a petition to get IBM Connections (later adding Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler) on IBM i. The tally right now is 167 customers and business partners representing 405,000 potential user licenses. I have to thank Gabriele Spaszewski from a company called Dachser in Germany. I'd like to think of Gaby as one of the strongest advocates of the petition through IBM in Europe. Keep at it! We'll get there!
I totally should mention Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle for the above point too!
I've been very fortunate to meet a number of people at IBM and other customers whom I've read their blogs and articles for years. Meeting a number of other IBM Champions and Lotus gurus in Boston in October was also a treat. Lisa Duke, Rob Novak, Sharon Bellamy, Handly Cameron, Carl Tyler, Darren Duke, Bill Malchisky, Theo Heselmans, Chris Miller, Francie Tanner, Bruce Elgort...just to name a few.
Speaking of Boston, being one of the few people on Blackberry (it seemed) during a 2-3 day outage really stamped the importance of bringing other devices into our environment.
Again, about Boston...I love that town by the way...I drove an hour or so to Plymouth and visited the Cabby Shack. I had a 16 oz prime rib for $16 and a bowl of their world famous "chowda." The chowda alone is worth the drive. Hell, it's worth moving to Plymouth for. Best chowda evah!
My son started pre-school. He's all grown up.
Built a house! Well, not personally...contractors built it.
Got an iPad. For some, it's no big deal...but I've been Apple-ignorant my whole career. I'm slowly liking it...like olives for people who never liked olives. I love olives so the analogy is weak.
Made a big effort to change my thinking about the perceived IBM i naming "issue." There isn't an issue at all. It's not iSeries, System i, AS/400 or anything else. It's IBM i on Power Systems. Trevor Perry sums it up pretty well here.

IBM Collaboration Solutions on IBM i - LinkedIn Group

2012-01-01T16:19:00.000-04:00

I've been using LinkedIn very much in the last 6 months or so. In drumming up support for our "Lotus on i" campaign it's been incredibly helpful.

With that in mind, I started a group in LinkedIn specifically for IBM Collaboration Solutions running on IBM i. I was surprised there wasn't one already given the amount of i (IBM i, iSeries, System i, and even AS/400) installations out there. The biggest congregation seems to be on the Domino400 mailing list on Midrange.com (which is great, by the way).

Anyway, if you're running ICS on IBM i (no matter what flavor) then please feel free to join our little group and discuss items there.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4195843&trk=anet_ug_hm

370,000 users? Ho Ho Ho!

2011-12-18T23:24:00.000-04:00

Happy holidays everyone. It's time for a little update and to spread some holiday cheer.

The tally right now is 153 customers and business partners representing 370,000 potential user licenses demanding native support for IBM Connections, IBM Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler on IBM i!

Perhaps by December 25th, Santa will deliver a couple of big submissions to bring us to the half a million mark. The big shops help tremendously, but what would be really awesome would be another hundred SMB's with 1000 or less users to sign up too. We're well aware that you're out there but we need to prove it.

What's funny is that IBM has been recently touting Power Systems over x86-64 with this tool. Hey, it makes sense to consolidate. But it's also very confusing to customers when we're being forced to use x86-64 for Connections (well, AIX on Power is supported but no Power Linux or IBM i), Sametime audio/video and Lotus Notes Traveler.

Everyone, please spread the word. We want these products native on IBM i.

Please vote here.

225,000 Potential Users and 133 Companies...Not Too Shabby

2011-11-29T22:28:00.001-04:00

Saying our little campaign had a good month would be a drastic understatement.

There is, in fact, a very decent amount of customer and business partner demand for IBM Sametime, IBM Connections and Lotus Notes Traveler on IBM i. More and more people, especially ones running Sametime 7.5 who are at the IBM i 7.1 upgrade crossroads, are coming out of the woodwork and making their voices heard.

How fast do you think we can get to half a million? By Lotusphere 2012 in January? I really believe we can. Heck, a couple of really big customers may put the one million mark within reach. Either of those milestones are quite the achievement and a very strong statement.

Please spread the word. We need your vote.

Have You Already Moved Away from Domino on i?

2011-11-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

Did your company move away from Lotus Domino to another platform?

Did you used to run Domino on IBM i (or iSeries, System i or AS/400)?

If you answered yes to both, I would like to hear from you and understand your story. Feel free to e-mail me privately.

ICS on IBM i - More Coverage!

2011-11-21T15:36:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Linda Harty at System i Network for putting this little piece together on the ICS on IBM i campaign!

Lotus on IBM i - The Reasons Why YOU Should Care

2011-11-13T22:03:00.004-04:00

I had some correspondence last week with a customer who is running Domino on IBM i. He didn't feel the need to fill out my little survey due to the fact he had no intention of purchasing Sametime or Connections and had no use for Lotus Notes Traveler. I strongly disagree that he has no reason to jump in and offer support. Let me tell you why.

My very valid point to EVERYONE running IBM i (or supported i operating systems on iSeries and System i) would be:

If you ever were to investigate running those other Lotus products in the future, wouldn't you at least like the option of extending your Lotus environment on IBM i?

With IBM i customers hidden and silently content in the woodwork IBM has already:

Decided to launch Connections and Lotus Notes Traveler without support for IBM i.
Only provided support for approximately HALF of the Sametime 8.5.2 components on IBM i. Existing Sametime customers are forced to tread water on Sametime 7.5 or migrate services to Linux and Windows.

What's next? Will they take IBM i out of the picture completely for IBM Collaboration Solutions products? Will you have to launch the next versions of Quickr on Linux or Windows?

What about removing IBM i support for Lotus Domino? They wouldn't do THAT would they?

Of course they would.

Especially if they don't see a business case for Lotus Domino on IBM i! Does your company do anything without a business case?

Guess what buddy? IBM didn't see a business case for Sametime and Connections on IBM i! It's pretty obvious that if they thought there were a business case then you wouldn't be reading this.

It may be quite easy for IBM to continue on the Linux/Windows trend and just assume IBM i customers will continue to take it on the chin and migrate Lotus services to one of those operating systems OR they may think there's not enough of us out there that matters. I bet there are literally millions of Lotus on IBM i user licenses out there. Don't let them take you for granted and force you to use Linux or Windows. Or the alternative for some...to investigate other options (i.e., NOT Lotus) that DO run on IBM i. I love Lotus...but IBM i is my business platform. Not Windows/Linux/AIX or cloud offerings.

You know something? That's how IBM i customers think. When we investigate financial systems, payroll systems, HR systems, warehouse management systems...what's the 1st question we ask a vendor? "Does it run on IBM i?" The filter starts there.

This is the writing on the wall and you heard it first here. If you DON'T speak up, I bet you that in a couple of years you won't see native Lotus Domino on IBM i. As I've heard probably 100 times in the last few months: "You can run (Sametime, Connections, Traveler) on a Linux guest partition on IBM i, can't you?" It's not hard to see Quickr or Lotus Domino on that list. You can call it FUD if you like, but it's common sense. **I've been informed that Connections and Sametime may be supported on Linux, however not Linux on Power Systems. The suggestion to run this software on IBM i Linux guest partitions, or even Linux in a LPAR, is not even a supported configuration by IBM! Check the system requirements pages and you'll see that 2/3 of Power Systems operating systems not able to run Connections, Sametime and Traveler!

Make the business case for IBM i.

Click here and show them that you, as paying and loyal IBM i customers, want support for Lotus products on IBM i.

IBM i on Power or AS/400 Tin Can?

2011-11-12T01:16:00.001-04:00

Initial Clarifications
IBM i is an operating system. IBM i is the grandchild of OS/400, the operating system of the AS/400 hardware platform. OS/400 gave way to the i5/OS name with the advent of the Power5 processor, and then renamed IBM i. IBM i is not OS/400, OS400, i5/OS or even iOS (that's Apple).

IBM Power Systems is a server platform launched in 2008 that featured the Power6 (now Power7) processor and runs the operating systems IBM i, AIX and Linux. Initially the AS/400 and RS/6000 hardware platforms were separate entities. Eventually those two systems began sharing nearly identical hardware starting around 2001 with the Power4 processor and the rebranding of the AS/400 into the iSeries and RS/6000 into the pSeries. I recall a conversation I had in 2002 with a very senior IBM employee who joked that the only hardware difference between the new iSeries and pSeries servers was the shade of black paint.

I'm Canadian and call my sofa a Chesterfield. Goofy, eh? Look it up.

I call a faucet a tap.

I hate to think of my car's dashboard as an "instrument panel" and the air conditioner a "climate control system." That's really goofy language.

AND I used to call an aluminum can or a tin plated can a "tin can." I probably always would have. But I choose otherwise because it's not really a tin can.

It's hard to invoke a change of terminology on an oft-used, well recognizable product, especially when the main characteristics of those things stay the same, or at least appear very similar on the surface...especially to a layman. Presently a tin plated can or a flip top aluminum can isn't like a tin can welded together with lead when it was invented some 200 years ago. The weight is probably considerably different. You're not going to die from lead poisoning from a can of soup you bought last week...well, hopefully not. However, the main characteristic of a 2011 "tin can" remains the same by the shape (cylindrical) and the function (storing and preserving foods, chemicals, oil, etc.).

Yes, Power Systems running IBM i is hardly the same technology as a circa 1988 AS/400 server. But the positive and recognizable characteristics of what we all know and depend on about the platform either remain the same or are even far more advanced in scale and scope. The security, stability and scalability of IBM i on Power is all too familiar on the surface, being a staple of the AS/400 and it's successors, but do you really believe an AS/400e model 150 is as secure, stable and scalable as IBM i on a Power Systems 720?

I'm a big user and advocate of IBM Collaboration Solutions, which if you're paying attention, is the slow and quiet re-brand of the Lotus product line. It's not Lotus Sametime, Lotus Connections and Lotus Quickr anymore...it's IBM Sametime, IBM Connections and IBM Quickr. We still have our Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino, but I'd imagine those names will eventually follow suit with the re-branding to IBM Notes and IBM Domino or something similar.

In the IBM Collaboration Solutions world, if you met another customer running Lotus Domino 6 and Lotus Notes 6 ONLY FOR E-MAIL, you'd be appalled with what functionality they're not taking advantage of because they're not on version 8.5.x and using Notes as a collaboration, instant messaging, calendaring/scheduling and yes, as a social business tool. Their users would be so much happier and productive if they had the new clients with the oodles of new features available. Their admins would benefit from major Domino Administrator advancements. Their servers would be much more effective running the newer code, especially on newer hardware. Developers could be using Xpages to build modern applications!

I've been talking to IBM employees, business partners, consultants, and customer peers as part of the effort to bring Sametime, Connections and Lotus Notes Traveler to IBM i. I've been branded the "iSeries guy" in a lot of those circles. Some IBM employees refer to IBM i as iSeries or AS/400. I use the IBM i brand and I see it rubbing off on some of them. It doesn't take much effort.

It's interesting to say, but the name AS/400 conjures up negative responses (old, being the most obvious). The name Lotus has a similar stigma, but if you look at Lotus Notes 5, 10 or 15 years ago you'll see major differences in the product being developed and delivered today. I would say that IBM wants to put as much space possible between what they have on the shelf now than what they had on the shelf 20 years ago. Can you blame them?

I came into the industry just as the iSeries branding was taking off and that name stuck with me. Times change. Technology changes with them. Names change too. Am I a fan of re-branding? Not really, but it is what it is. The brand was changed because the technology evolved. It took me a couple of years running IBM i on Power Systems to actually say "I run IBM i on Power Systems." Say it out loud. It's strange at first, huh? And I only started doing it, quite reluctantly, after Trevor Perry called me on it. In public. That just rubbed me the wrong way in a big way. I felt embarrassed and singled out because he's a fairly well known person in the IBM i world...and there he is...throwing jabs at me.

Then I got mad. Who was he, the Name Police? He was "attacking" me, after all so I fired tweets and emails back and forth with him for a few days until I sat down and wrote a really long blog post, tearing into his very simple argument and stating how IBM i is just a marketing ploy and euphemistic language and that it's the same technology, only evolved with a different name.

I never posted it because the light bulb turned on. It hit me. It's not the "same technology, only evolved." You can't have that. You can't evolve into something and still be the same thing. IBM i on Power Systems is the evolution of what IBM has been doing with midrange computing since even before the AS/400. But it's not the same technology as before. It can do the old and faithful stuff, yes, but it does newer things, different things, better things. If you're using it only to run some RPGII applications, then maybe you should go run, quickly, to a seminar. I sent Trevor a note asking for a truce and thanking him for calling me out on it. He was right.

Although some may be using PHP on IBM i, calling it PHP on AS/400 is a disservice to the people who made PHP on IBM i possible. You can't do PHP on an AS/400. Aaron Bartell recently announced the Young i Professionals and IBM have ported PostGreSQL to IBM i. An AS/400 can't do that. As a guy who's rallying hard to get IBM to port some software to IBM i, I can appreciate those efforts more than you'd imagine. Saying you can run it on AS/400 is an insult to those efforts.

If you have Power Systems hardware then please make an effort to call it Power Systems. If you run IBM i, then please call it IBM i. Otherwise, you cost justified, promoted and purchased a tin can you rely on every day that hasn't changed in 10 years since when the iSeries was announced. I doubt you'd want your name attached to that decision. I sure wouldn't.

Occupy IBM? This is golden!

2011-11-02T14:26:00.000-03:00

Evidently Ken Jennings wants to start a new revolution.

Cloud Services: Terms and Conditions

2011-11-01T21:14:00.000-03:00

Here are two terms and conditions excerpts from a couple of popular cloud storage vendors. I'm not trying to spread FUD because cloud computing really is a fantastic concept. I'm just offering fair warning for you to do your own research and take responsibility for your data.

Displayed very clearly, these two excerpts make it pretty clear the liability is on you, no matter what happens to your data.

From Carbonite:

"CARBONITE DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE CARBONITE PRODUCTS, THIRD PARTY COMPONENTS, OR BETA SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE CARBONITE PRODUCTS, THIRD PARTY COMPONENTS, OR BETA SOFTWARE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, OR THAT DEFECTS IN THE CARBONITE PRODUCTS, THIRD PARTY COMPONENTS, OR BETA SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ENCRYPTION ALGORITHIMS, ASSOCIATED KEYS AND OTHER SECURITY MEASURES WILL BE SECURE OR EFFECTIVE."

From Amazon Web Services:

"THE SERVICE OFFERINGS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS.” WE AND OUR AFFILIATES AND LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE REGARDING THE SERVICE OFFERINGS OR THE THIRD PARTY CONTENT, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY THAT THE SERVICE OFFERINGS OR THIRD PARTY CONTENT WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR FREE OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS, OR THAT ANY CONTENT, INCLUDING YOUR CONTENT OR THE THIRD PARTY CONTENT, WILL BE SECURE OR NOT OTHERWISE LOST OR DAMAGED."

Do Social Media Grassroots Campaigns Work? Have I Got a Story For You...

2011-10-27T11:22:00.002-03:00

Since launching this survey on October 14, I'm very proud to say that we've hit the 100,000 mark in all 3 categories. This means that you folks have pledged that if you were to run Connections, Sametime and Lotus Notes Traveler servers, then you would do it ONLY on IBM i. All together, there is (so far) 100,000 potential licenses in your shops; from 20-user small businesses to 20,000-user giants. For solution providers and ISV's there's thousands in your customer's shops too. This tells IBM that not only is the IBM i community passionate about their preferred platform (well, they KNEW that), but that we're more than willing to demonstrate that we won't "just run insert-product-name-here on a Linux partition."

If it's not running on IBM i, many won't run that product at all.

I know others out there have not moved to Sametime 8.5.2 because you can't run all components on IBM i. They're sitting on Sametime 7.5 waiting for something to happen.

There are a good few of us (myself included) running Domino mail on IBM i and are handcuffed from using new Lotus Notes 8.5.3 social capabilities because we can't run Connections on IBM i.

There's 100,000 potential user licenses just waiting to get into the social game, or the mobile game or the audio/video conferencing game. And I know it won't stop there. 200,000 potential users was my lofty target before I go to Lotusphere in January. I figured if I convinced a couple of big guns (5,000-10,000 users is a big gun by my standards...I have 250 users) then I'd have something to work with. Imagine my surprise. 200,000 doesn't seem that lofty anymore. It seems very realistic because it is.

In just 2 weeks, you people have taken the initial steps of a loudmouth Lotus on IBM i advocate and ran with it. You've been tweeting, tweeting and retweeting. You've been emailing each other, discussing it in user group meetings, forums and LinkedIn and even promoting it on webinars.

I believe, based on the feedback I've received from IBM, is that they're now starting to understand. There is scuttlebutt. They have noticed. They are even engaging!

So...

Please continue to keep this going.

I encourage not only IBM i customers, but Lotus customers running software on Linux, AIX or Windows, to get involved if you do want to consider running these products on IBM i. Imagine the power and simplicity of consolidating everything on IBM i. More platform options means an extension and greater overall footprint of the IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) brand. That makes the brand stronger which in turn makes it better for all of us.

Awesome job everyone.

Google Translate Widget

2011-10-20T01:08:00.000-03:00

Hey, it's the least I can do considering the amount of traffic I get from Germany, Sweden and Denmark to just name a few. Then you have a whole lot of Spanish speaking countries. Only 40-50% of my web traffic comes from Canada, USA and the UK.

I'm not sure how great a job it does, given it just does a bare bones text translation, but hopefully it works OK for you.

Cheers.

RIM Gives Away $100 in Free Stuff? Puh-lease.

2011-10-17T14:25:00.000-03:00

Last week I traveled from Halifax, NS to Boston, MA on Tuesday morning for the IBM Leadership Alliance gathering. Like most Blackberry users, I use it much more often than my laptop which remained in my hotel room.

For probably 75% of 36 hours or so, I had no solid data communication aside from basic SMS service. No email, no calendar updates, no 5250 emulator to IBM i boxes, no VNC, and no real communication from anybody at RIM. The other 25% was when the service appeared to return, only to find out it really wasn't. Back on, back off. Email works, email doesn't. Access to internet services like BBM, Twitter, etc., had similar issues which put me in a state of purgatory of sorts.

RIM is offering $100 in free software (i.e., mostly games)? For 2 business days of pain?

I'd be more appreciative and supportive if RIM put all reparations towards redundancy. It's best if you say your sorry and put money into your infrastructure so it doesn't happen again.

Lotus Domino Administration Workshop

2011-10-13T23:49:00.000-03:00

Amy Hoerle and Kim Greene are hosting a series of webinars that cover a whole lotta Lotus and more!

They're covering 8 hours of content over 4 days. $149 for Common User Group members and $249 for non-members. That's fantastic value for not only the educational content but for two presenters who certainly need no introduction in the Lotus and IBM i communities.

Below content source: http://www.common.org/index.php/webinars.html#lotus

Lotus Domino Administration Workshop

Presenters: Kim Greene and Amy Hoerle, Kim Greene Consulting

October 18, 20, 25 & 27, 2011 - 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm Central Time

If you’re like many of our customers, you are responsible for not only your Lotus Domino environment, but a number of other environments as well. This leads to the situation where you have an implementation you may not fully understand and therefore are not as effective at administering as you could be. This workshop is designed to ensure you have a solid understanding of your Domino environment. Additionally, you will learn about new features and functions that are available with the newest releases of Domino and how to implement the most critical ones. You’ll also learn about some hidden gems that will make your life as an Administrator much more productive.

Learning objectives:

Understand the Lotus Domino infrastructure
Learn upgrade best practices
Learn how clustering and replication work along with the benefits of clustering and how to set it up in your environment
Learn how to properly secure your Domino infrastructure
Learn about key features available with the latest releases of Domino and how to implement them
Ensure you will be able to efficiently administer your Domino environment

Audience: This workshop is designed for administrators who are responsible for managing a Domino environment on any platform.

Syllabus:
Day 1 – October 18 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

Domino infrastructure
- Server, configuration, connection, person, group documents
- The administration process
- Mail routing
- Calendaring and scheduling
Key features available with the newest releases of Domino

Day 2 – October 20 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

Making Domino administration a snap
- Monitoring your servers
- Keeping your servers up and running
- Database maintenance
- Managing the Notes client and desktops
Securing your Domino infrastructure
- The elements of Domino security
- Checking for and resolving common security mistakes

Day 3 – October 25 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

Clustering and replication
- How it can benefit your company
- Implementing clustering
A comprehensive look at implementing, using, and backing up DAOS

Day 4 – October 27 (12:00 - 2:00 PM)

Upgrade best practices
- Planning an upgrade
- Preparing for an upgrade
- Executing an upgrade
Going mobile with Notes
- BES
- Traveler
- What data synchronizes with the mobile devices
- What data can be accessed

Considerations for mail template customizations and mobile devices

Click here to register online for this Webinar!

IBM Wants to Hear from You About Making IBM i Your Social Collaboration Platform

2011-10-13T14:05:00.001-03:00

Well folks, IBM wants to hear from you!

If you're an existing or potential IBM i (or existing System i or iSeries) customer and you want to run all components of IBM Connections, IBM Sametime or Lotus Notes Traveler on your system, then fill out the little form on the left hand side.

Your responses will be forwarded to the appropriate product managers at IBM that are responsible for platform support.

Nice, But You Missed a Great Selling Point

2011-10-10T10:52:00.000-03:00

There's a great article and whitepaper that offers a ton of great information on gauging the appropriateness of IBM i for your business.

The one major omission, in my opinion, is that there is no mention of IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) in this whitepaper. I betcha there are thousands of IBM i on Power Systems (or the systems preceding it) that run Lotus Domino, Quickr and Sametime that already know this great secret.

The benefits of this platform combination are awesome selling points for both IBM i and IBM Collaboration Solutions.

Sametime 8.5.2 and Domino 8.5.3

2011-10-07T10:31:00.000-03:00

Nothing states so in the system requirements document for Sametime 8.5.2 but I have confirmation from IBM support that this configuration is supported.

I Read Somewhere That Lotus Notes Is Not Social, Mobile or Easy to Use, Integrate and Administer

2011-10-03T16:00:00.001-03:00

I was sent a link to Salesforce.com that had an interesting little table on the bottom of the page. It essentially claimed five major drawbacks in Lotus Notes by putting little red X's next to them:

Social
Mobile
Easy to use
Easy to integrate
Easy to administer

Wondering if I'm completely missing the boat here (wink) by continuing to use and promote my preferred collaboration tool, I decided I'm going to give those folks a call for clarification. Should be a simple discussion with me notifying them of their website containing what I perceive as incorrect information. Right?

Now, the last three points are hard to argue either for or against based on they're being described in a fashion that could be debatable. It's an opinion. Who would find it hard to use? Executives? 3rd graders? Programmers? Accountants? People with no training? It's very subjective. Everyone's computer skill is different. I could say it's easy to use Notes because I've done it for ten years, had some training and I'm a "computer guy." Mine's as biased an opinion as theirs.

With a little training, I'd argue that users can be extremely productive with Lotus Notes and have a very easy time with it. I'm a trained administrator and I have no issue administering the product. I managed my first year alright with no training actually. Integration isn't an issue at all...at least in my experience. Again, my experience.

I'll ask two questions below because they're based on factually incorrect statements on the website.

How is Lotus Notes not "social?"
The definition of "social" itself is up for debate, but there's enough common ground that I'm sure you could very much argue Notes IS social. With the Notes 8.5.3 announcement less than a day away with some enhanced social capabilities, and that cat is mostly out of the bag now, how can they claim Notes isn't social?

How is Lotus Notes not "mobile?"
Well, I can get my Notes email via iNotes and any Notes-built application on just about any web browser in the world. From kiosks at hotels, to Blackberry and anything else that has internet access. That's out of the box support with no special configuration done and no consulting dollars spent. Is mobile something different than this? Sure, I can make it look and function really awesome with Xpages, but don't tell me it isn't mobile out of the box.

Stay tuned...

Connecting to other Sametime Communities

2011-09-24T13:02:00.000-03:00

I ran across this post from Stephan Wissel that outlines a number of useful Sametime servers that you can connect to and instructions on how to do it. Fantastic info!

Expand your IM contacts. I just joined Sametime communities for the IBM external Sametime server, the Greenhouse and Bleedyellow. Feel free to contact me there!

Adventures in Sametime 8.5.2 - Case Sensitivity Sucks

2011-09-22T00:09:00.001-03:00

I installed Sametime Standard 8.5.2 a while ago. Along with that I installed the Sametime System Console, Proxy Server and Meeting Server on IBM i. Furthermore, I converted Sametime from standard Domino to Domino LDAP off another Domino server we have.

I was the 1st person on the newest client. Everyone else was on the stock 8.0.2 Sametime client that comes with the Notes 8.5.1 install image we have everyone on.

A couple of issues we had:

Sametime Proxy Server just would not accept a connection to the web based chat.
With Proxy not working, the Meeting Server presence awareness business card feature did not work.
With the 8.5.2 client, public groups just would not work. I kept getting a public group subscription is pending error and 0 contacts in the public group.
Sametime policies weren't coming down to the client level. The SSC was properly assigning them though.
Sametime awareness in the Inbox went away for everybody. The embedded client worked fine, just the view awareness with the little colored Sametime icons were gone.

The inbox awareness was easy enough. I needed to check the flag in Sametime preferences to "Use canonical names for status lookup." I pushed that flag out via a policy in the Administrator client.

After scratching my head for a month, working with IBM support and getting our business partner involved, we just couldn't understand why the other items would not work.

Here's what was causing the issue:

Part of the change to Domino LDAP required the following line in the Sametime.ini file:

POLICY_DIRECTORY_BB_IMPL=com.ibm.sametime.policy.directorybb.ldap.DirldapBlackBox

This setting is the "Name of java class that implements a directory Black Box, which looks for user public groups through organization Directory." I had changed this setting when moving over from a Domino directory to Domino LDAP. If you don't use LDAP, it would be *.notes.DirldapBlackBox

After scouring my sametime.ini the other day, I checked this parameter and it just didn't look right. There should be a capital L in DirldapBlackBox. I changed it to:

POLICY_DIRECTORY_BB_IMPL=com.ibm.sametime.policy.directorybb.ldap.DirLdapBlackBox

Immediately my public groups began populating. Too good to be true. Fluke?

I checked Proxy server web chat. Works.

Business card awareness in meeting rooms? Yee haw!

Lesson learned. If you can copy and paste a string then do it. Don't type it out.

Succeeding with Social Business: Seven Steps to Greatness

2011-09-12T13:42:00.000-03:00

An InformationWeek Webcast:

Succeeding with Social Business: Seven Steps to Greatness

Register Here

Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Time: 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET
Duration: 60 minutes Companies, especially in the midmarket, struggle with social business. It’s difficult to execute it well while retaining corporate identity and voice. And then there’s the question of return-on-investment: How can you quantify your results and justify your investment? Learn the answers to these questions and how IBM’s social business strategy can help your company adopt a culture of transformation, creating a true connection between social business and success.

Join this webcast to hear Ed Brill, IBM’s director of messaging and collaboration detail how companies of all sizes can secure a competitive advantage using social business and collaboration.

During an interview with journalist and social media expert Karen J. Bannan, Brill will explain:

How to bring the best voices to the forefront of your social business strategy
Why social media is not a passing fad
How companies can implement social business as cost-effectively as possible
Why onboarding and training is so important
How you may already have a solid "social" infrastructure and not even know it
How security and compliance is affected by social business
How social business is enabled by technologies such as cloud and mobile devices

Featured Speakers:

Karen Bannan,
Editor

Ed Brill,
Director,
Lotus Notes and Domino Marketing & Strategy

Will IBM Continue Supporting Domino, Quickr and Sametime on IBM i?

2011-09-02T03:53:00.001-03:00

In the past two months I've spoken with a number of IBM employees and customers to help bring support for IBM i to Connections and Sametime.

The general consensus from IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) is that it's a great idea, however there hadn't been any real demand from existing IBM i customers. This is why those products were released without full native support.

What I hope is not happening, is that this is the beginning of reduced or eventual eliminated support for IBM i in future versions of Domino, Quickr and Sametime.

That's a bold statement. What makes me assume this? Two reasons:

1. IBM released new versions of Sametime with components that now:

are compartmentalized into Websphere Application Server instances on IBM i, and
run solely on Windows/Linux/AIX/Solaris.

2. IBM has developed Connections with ZERO support for IBM i.

If IBM i enthusiasts are not standing up and demanding support, who's to say that in the future, existing supported configurations will be met at upgrade time with IBM saying: "Sorry, you need to run this on a Linux partition now."

This is not acceptable.

I urge you to demand that IBM fully support Connections and Sametime on our beloved IBM i. The IBM i evangelists out there who don't even run Lotus solutions on their servers may not think they have a dog in this fight, but I strongly disagree. It could be a different solution changed or eliminated for you next. You have the chance to push IBM to provide a total messaging, collaboration and social solution on IBM i. We're not far from that...but you need to make noise to make this happen. IBM has continued to invest in this platform, but they can do more if we demand it and show them there is a business case.

The omission of full IBM i support in Connections and Sametime alienates the existing IBM i install base. Especially those customers who have made significant investment in IBM i on Power, and do not want to invest unnecessary resources on time, training and licensing costs for AIX or Linux.

For those of you who don't run IBM i, I also ask you to demand support as it gives you yet another option. The IBM i install base is very strong and growing. Allowing us into the Connections world strengthens Connections as a product and brand by increasing global Connections users and providing it more revenue. I also ask you to understand the benefits of Lotus on IBM i...it's a one of a kind solution with benefits other platforms simply can't provide.

I will hopefully have a formal avenue for you to demand Sametime support soon. In the meantime, make your opinions known by forwarding this article, sharing it on social media sites, talking to your IBM business partner or any IBM employees you know.

To demand IBM Connections support for IBM i, please visit the Connections Ideation Blog and click the Vote button. You will need a Greenhouse ID and password. It only takes a second to get one.

Here's the direct link to vote: Vote for Connections on IBM i

I Heard That Lotus Notes Sucks

2011-08-24T10:36:00.007-03:00

Yeah, you heard that right. Happens from time to time for any Notes advocate.

I heard it again recently when I met a guy...we'll call him Phil McGillicuddy. Phil is in his mid-forties and works for an energy company. He's in middle management and an end user. Nice guy.

The focus of our conversation turned to technology. Since he had no idea that I'm a Notes advocate, only a "computer guy," I got to have a conversation from the other side of the coin. Here's how part of it went:

Phil: "You use Lotus Notes? Our geniuses in IT are making us move off of Microsoft Outlook soon."
Steve: "Oh yeah? I've been using it for a few years."
Phil: "You poor bastard. It sucks! It really sucks. We had it back when I worked with XYZ company back in 1999. You had to press F9 to get your mail. I hope I'm the last guy they convert. But I'm not going to go happy. They may as well bring us back to Outlook Express...everyone has that at home anyway. AND you can have blue letters instead of black. Lotus only lets you use black letters."
Steve: "Really? Have you seen what Notes is like now? Did they give you any presentations or demos or training or anything?"
Phil: "No. All we got was an email saying we're moving to Notes. They've been moving people off Outlook since July."

That.

That. Right. There...is a problem.

You're always going to have some people unhappy with whatever choices you make, be it in technology or otherwise, but you can minimize negative impact of those changes by simply communicating effectively.

More often than not, a poor attitude towards Lotus Notes is caused by an inadequate implementation and little to no communication/training. Period.

Buy-in from corporate decision makers (i.e., executive and management) and influencers are wildly important, but you need the people in the trenches having your back. Everyone, but at the very least key representatives from across the company-wide email user base, from sales to accounting to the shipping dock, should be given pre-rollout demos and a very high level ROI justification. Everyone needs to be shown why you made the decision to change the one piece of software they use all day and every day, and exactly how Lotus Notes will offer them much more than just email. They have to, because forced change breeds resentment.

The more selling you do to the troops up front the less likely you'll have a mutiny later.

In Phil's case, I spent 10 minutes explaining Notes 8.5 highlights, the embedded Sametime client, the workflow and app development opportunities, the calendaring and scheduling. Even the fact that the F5 key works. But it's probably too late for this one. Altering his opinion of Notes, no matter how willfully ignorant it is, faces an uphill battle because his company forced a change with little to no discussion, let alone a proper sell job to the user population.

They had a chance to get his buy-in for an enterprise class collaboration solution and blew it. Failing to get the buy-in isn't bad. Not even trying is inexcusable.

Copy IFS Directory - QSHELL Can Be Your Friend

2011-08-19T00:18:00.000-03:00

I needed to push an entire IFS directory of objects (including sub-directories) into another directory and maintain authority.

I'm not a Unix guy so I tend to get frustrated with Qshell a bit. However, I'm getting more impressed the more I use it. For instance, it was incredibly easy to do what I want with Qshell instead of coding an RPG program to read the directory structure and build each object individually.

Here's the command I used to do a recursive copy and maintain file access info:

cp -r -p /sourcedir /targetdir

Is i Social? i Can!

2011-08-15T10:23:00.001-03:00

I need literally 10 seconds of your time to help me bring a good idea into reality.

Please click the link below and then cast your vote for Connections to run natively on IBM i.

https://greenhouse.lotus.com/blogs/We047f6e69323_42ff_8db6_8bd4fe32a841/entry/native_support_for_ibm_i?lang=en_us

For those who aren't aware of the IBM i operating system, here are some fun facts:

It has been rated as having higher uptime percentage than Linux, Windows, AIX and even zOS.
You can run 99 Lotus Domino servers under 1 IBM i partition. These servers run in what we call subsystems.
IBM i has never been damaged by a virus.
You can run multiple versions of Domino on one partition. This means your Quickr and Sametime servers can run on the same machine under different Domino versions.
Communication between servers on a single IBM i server (Sametime, Quickr, Domino, etc.) is via the system bus, meaning Gigabit speed and using zero network bandwidth or equipment.
Transactional logging isn't suggested to run on a separate disk array. No need and no adverse effects.

Thank you!

Is Your System's Performance The Very Best It Can Be?

2011-08-10T08:11:00.000-03:00

Here's a link to an article on IBM i performance I wrote for MC Press:

http://www.mcpressonline.com/system-administration/performance-monitoring-&-tuning/is-your-systems-performance-the-very-best-it-can-be.html

Breathing New Life - An IBM i "Growth Play" & Full Support for Lotus Connections/Sametime on IBM i

2011-08-06T10:19:00.001-03:00

There's an amazing opportunity for IBM here.

In preparation for a full Sametime Unified Telephony (SUT) Lite deployment, over the last two weeks I've been installing Sametime 8.5.2 components piece by piece. I'll admit, it's a bit of a challenge because of the sheer magnitude of the product suite. You've got a good number of components of the entire solution that run natively on IBM i:

Domino 8.5.2 server acting as an LDAP server
Domino 8.5.2 Sametime Community server
Websphere-based components

Sametime System Console
Sametime Proxy Server
Sametime Meeting Server
Sametime Gateway Server

Then, you have the other components that you need to run on either Linux, Windows, Solaris or AIX:

Sametime Media Manager
Sametime TURN Server
Sametime Bandwidth Manager
SIP Edge Proxy Server

These servers entail deploying either additional hardware or carving out Linux/AIX partitions on the IBM i. That's not a huge problem. A great feature of Power Systems is the ability to run additional operating systems alongside each other. But what if you are a long time IBM i customer who has no Linux or AIX expertise? What if you don't want to extend your business servers to Windows? In order to partition Linux on my IBM i I will have to IPL (reboot) the IBM i server...not a big in terms of learning curve but it makes installing software more complicated than it has to be. In order to leverage existing skills, minimize training, cut operating system licensing and maintenance costs...ideally you'd want to run all Sametime components natively on the same IBM i partition.

I've also been investigating IBM Connections since the idea of social business is a hot topic. Sadly, Connections does not run natively on IBM i. That means a lot to me. A lot of IBM i customers, when looking for new software, probably ask this as their first question: "Does it run on IBM i?"

Yesterday I was a guest on This Week in Lotus (episode 63) with hosts Stuart McIntyre and Darren Duke and fellow guests Lisa Duke and Sharon Bellamy. They were kind enough to accept my suggestion to discuss deploying IBM Collaboration Solutions (i.e., Lotus) on IBM i. I spent a little time preparing to do most of the talking on the subject but those folks were not only receptive to the idea of running IBM Collaboration Solutions products on IBM i, they were advocating it as a very valid solution. Darren and Sharon especially seemed very fond of the IBM i. We spent a fair bit of time talking about IBM Connections having zero native support on IBM i and Sametime only offering support for a portion of the product.

With the recent success of IBM i and Power Systems, I was still very surprised when I read, and strongly urge you to read, Chris Maxcer's recent interview with IBM's Ari Kugler, Director of Business Development and Business Unit Executive for IBM i. Ari talks about the recent success of the IBM i brand and how he expects "double digit growth for the platform install base this year." Phrases like "critical to the Power brand," "growth play" and a "new renaissance around an integrated platform" inspire consumer confidence of IBM's commitment to the IBM i.

This quote made my day: “I really think to a large extent, customers, developers, and even to us, in IBM, we’ve forgotten just how tremendous the platform is and we have kind of reawakened and realized the potential, and we’ve come to the same strategic realization that customers want an integrated platform, that has the ¬performance, security, and some of the new market ¬realizations—these were discovered by IBM, and we have a 20-year lead and a proven platform we can build up on.”

Last month IBM named 50 people in it's Champion Program for Collaboration solutions. One of the benefits of the program is direct access to IBM employees who are designers and leaders of the products we all use and advocate the use of.

Given the timing of my Sametime installation and Connections investigation, I immediately took advantage of this.

In the past few weeks I've been very fortunate to have some communication with IBM product leaders (Mac Guidera and Marlon Machado via the IBM Champion program) regarding the porting of, respectfully, Connections and Sametime components to IBM i. IBM's opinion is that the customer demand for IBM i support just hasn't been that high. Customers haven't been beating down the doors to run a Connections server on their IBM i. Sametime 8.5.2 customers are willing to use Linux on a partition or a standalone server to handle the audio/video components, while running the base Sametime servers natively.

But that doesn't mean that customers wouldn't run it on IBM i. It also doesn't mean IBM won't offer IBM i support. You've got two wallflowers here folks, and they're both not asking each other to dance.

Perhaps the one avenue that needs to be explored by IBM is the ability for customers, whether existing or potential, to deploy their entire messaging, social business and collaboration infrastructure (including audio/video) on the back of one IBM i partition running on Power Systems.

Think about that. It's an unbelievably strong statement and it works from both a marketing and customer satisfaction perspective. The security, stability, multi-versioning capabilities of Domino, the central point of management (install base Domino code for a release once and upgrade each server in minutes), the minimal licensing costs, the minimal energy costs of using one server, etc., etc., etc., make it a darn good case. Can you run 99 Domino servers under 1 Linux or AIX partition like you can with IBM i? Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think so. What kind of OS licensing costs do customers with brigades of Windows-based Lotus servers have to suffer compared to IBM i? Lotus and IBM i are a fantastic combination and really should be tied to the hip in all aspects.

Or at the very least, IBM should give us the choice.

If you’re an IBM i or Lotus customer (or both!) then how can you make a difference?

If you’re an existing or potential IBM i (or existing System i or iSeries) customer and you want to run all components of IBM Connections, IBM Sametime or Lotus Notes Traveler on your system, then click here.

The past 24 hours with Sametime

2011-07-29T17:42:00.000-03:00

Converting my existing Sametime Entry server to a full Sametime Community server was a snap. We've used IM and presence awareness for the last 6 months and we've got the licensing for Sametime Standard and nearly there for the SUT Lite licenses. Ideally in the end I'll have a full ST deployment w/SUT Lite all running under our Power Systems server. That's one box. Then a clustered solution to another one.

Converting the Sametime Community Server from using Domino to LDAP in order to use the Sametime System Console (and the rest of the features which I will put on Linux partitions underneath IBM i) wasn't too bad. There were a couple of hiccups and the server was down for a good few hours because the IBM call center logged my call as a severity 2 instead of a severity 1. Whoops. Once I got some support we ironed out the issues.

Installing the Sametime System Console on IBM i (and all the Websphere stuff that goes with it) went really smooth. My only gripe is that the Sametime 8.5.2 wiki lists Websphere Application Server Network Deployment as a "requirement" so I assumed I needed to download it separately, install it, patch it and then install the SSC. However, the SSC installer automatically installs and configures WAS ND. A few hours wasted but I was able to brush up on my QSHELL, so not all was lost.

The only issue now is registering my Community Server with the SSC. I get the following error and I can only find one reference to it online:

Deployment record updated successfully.
preReqType:LDAP
Attaching pre-requisite -LDAP
Failed to attach prereq -LDAP
Make sure the dependent pre-requisite is registered with the Sametime System Console.

It's funny because the SSC binds with the LDAP server just fine...I can see the users, etc. Time for a new PMR unless someone else has any ideas.

Lotus Notes 8.5.2 Fix Pack 3 Released

2011-07-19T08:16:00.002-03:00

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/r5fixlist.nsf/8d1c0550e6242b69852570c900549a74/b23767bb4ff78657852578d1005f85b8?OpenDocument

What You Need to Know to Convert Spooled Files to PDF (and More)!

2011-07-13T10:03:00.000-03:00

Here's an article I wrote for MC Press Online showcasing some new options for converting spooled files to PDF in IBM i 7.1.

http://www.mcpressonline.com/application-software/document-management/what-you-need-to-know-to-convert-spooled-files-to-pdf-and-more.html

Great Resources to Sell IBM i to Your Boss

2011-06-28T12:57:00.001-03:00

Check out these awesome podcasts, Powerpoint presentations and videos to help you sell IBM i and Power Systems to your company. You will need to register a PartnerWorld id to view these.

http://bit.ly/k1RJtA

IBM Champion Program - Wow!

2011-06-22T22:43:00.000-03:00

Well, this is very surprising to say the least. I, along with 49 other folks, have been named IBM Champions for Collaborative Solutions. I figured my chances would be spread thin a bit compared to most nominees as I do most of my chest beating regarding "Domino on IBM i" solutions, so my evangelism is more of a hybrid of Power Systems and Lotus.

I feel very humble to be included with a names who've given me much more knowledge than I've been able to give back so far. Hopefully I can return the favor. :)

Congratulations to you all!

The 2011 IBM Champions for Collaboration Solutions:

Adam Brown

Bill Malchisky
Bruce Elgort
Carlos Casas
CheeChin Liew
Chris Miller
Chris Toohey
Daniel Recio
David Leedy
David Stephens

Declan Lynch
Eileen Fitzgerald
Eric Mack
Femke Goedhart
Francie Tanner
Gabriella Davis
Giuseppe Grasso
Handly Cameron
John Head
Julian Robichaux

Kenio Carvalho
Lidia Vikulova
Lisa Duke
Marie Scott
Mark Leusink
Mathew Newman
Matt White
Mikkel Heisterberg
Mitch Cohen
Mitsuru Kato

Nathan T Freeman
Paul Mooney
Paul Withers
Rob Bontekoe
Rob Novak
Sanjaya Kumar Saxena
Serdar Basegmez
Sharon Bellamy
Simon Vaughan
Sjaak Ursinus

Steve Pitcher
Stuart McIntyre
Theo Heselmans
Thomas Duff
Tim Tripcony
Ulrich Krause
Warren Elsmore
Yancy Lent
Yoshihiro Matsuo
Yoshio Maruyama

You're not still on V5R4 are you?

2011-06-18T13:23:00.000-03:00

Based on this blog's traffic the IBM i 6.1 upgrade planning checklist is the 3rd highest viewed page. That's encouraging! It's nice to know people are looking at moving to the newer operating systems. It's also a little expected because it people may be moving because end of support for V5R4 is on the horizon, instead of moving to take advantage of new features. I was at a conference many years ago where Frank Soltis joked about the difference between iSeries and pSeries customers. He said that pSeries customers upgraded to the latest AIX version as soon as it was released while iSeries customers upgraded to the 2nd newest release of OS/400. It was true back then and you still see it today.

While no support end date set, it was withdrawn from marketing on May 27, 2011 and if history is indicative of IBM's plans, expect support to end for V5R4 sometime in late 2012. But that doesn't mean that IBM won't offer program support extensions similar to V5R3 which you can get until April 30, 2012. This is all speculation of course and none of that means you shouldn't be looking at new features and understanding how they can help your business.

I strongly encourage you to check out the features of IBM i 7.1 and the prices of Power Systems iron. You get way more bang for your buck than what you used to.

New in IBM i 7.1: RPG Built-in Function %SCANRPL

2011-06-17T09:27:00.001-03:00

%SCANRPL gives you the ability to scan a string for a value and then replace it with another value.

The article I wrote for MC Press Online describes it in more detail.

http://www.mcpressonline.com/tips-&-techniques/rpg/techtip-new-in-71-the-scanrpl-built-in-function.html

The Business of Social Business. Where does IBM Collaboration Fit?

2011-05-30T22:58:00.000-03:00

Join us for an exclusive webcast entitled: The Business of Social Business. Where does IBM Collaboration Fit? on 6/07/11 at 12:00 p.m. EDT and learn how becoming a social business may be essential for success in today's and tomorrow's competitive landscape. Becoming a Social Business involves connecting 'people' and 'knowledge'...together. To be successful, a business today must do so through the use of multiple channels including social media, blogs, wikis, online communities and more. IBM can help, and you are invited to learn how to get started by joining this webcast.

In this valuable webcast, we'll show you how simple collaboration solutions can help you build social business applications. Learn from real-world case studies and testimonies from industry experts who have successfully deployed business applications of their own that can easily become "social apps" using IBM solutions. Join the webcast and learn how to quickly drive measurable results and attain competitive advantage by applying proven social business best practices throughout your very own social business.

In the webcast, you'll learn:

Why you should consider social business
What are the tenets of a social business
What businesses exemplify social business success
How IBM and our Business Partners can help you achieve social business success
How Scotsburn Dairy group and other customers used IBM solutions including Lotus® Domino® Designer, Lotus Notes® and XPages to develop several useful business applications for their employees and customers to:

provide electronic tracking, notification and statistical analysis
to develop a consumer complaints application
to develop an information systems job management application
to develop a data collection applications for performance indicator reports

Don't miss this exclusive webcast! Click here to register!

Social Business = Business Results. It's All about People and Social Collaboration Webcast

When: 6/07/11 at 12 p.m. EDT (on-demand replay available an hour after the live event)
Where: Register for details
Featured speakers: David Via - IBM, David Price - Meridian IT, Jim Burnham - Meridian IT, Steve Pitcher - Scotsburn Dairy Group
Moderator: David Via - IBM

Sametime FUD and the Kids Are Alright

2011-05-07T01:28:00.000-03:00

After installing Lotus Sametime on IBM i a few weeks ago, I remembered a conversation with an IT Director I spoke with back in 2009. This person had flat out refused to install Sametime (although he was entitled to it with their Lotus licensing) because he thought that any form of instant messaging (which could interrupt him, not unlike a phone) was too intrusive for the entire company based on his opinion. No other reason and no further discussion.

In the age of Social Business where terms like collaboration, community and sharing are staples...that type of reasoning was incredibly selfish.

You remember doing IM on ICQ back in like 1995? I do. That's 16 years ago. If you're an IT Director, CIO or anyone in a position of influence on technology in your company and you're weighing Sametime or any other IM product then do yourself a favor: talk to your kids about how chat is a part of their lives.

Maybe you'll get something far more important out of what they tell you than what you'll get from anyone else.

My Major i, or iSeries, or AS/400, or Power Systems running i Gripe

2011-04-19T23:40:00.001-03:00

I posed this response to the System i Network forums when they asked the question: "If IBM came to visit tomorrow and granted you one wish, what would you ask for?"

My response sums up my only gripe with the platform:

Call the operating system OS/400 again. "i" is a broad term that confuses the hell out of people.

Some Guy: "What are you running under the hood of that thing?"
Me: "i."
Long, awkward pause.
Bemused Guy: "O...K..."
Me: "OS/400...it's essentially a modern AS/400 running OS/400 V7R1 but they call it a Power System running i, or IBM i, or i5/OS...it's interchangeable even though they brought in the i5/OS name with the Power 5 processor and they've moved to Power 6 and 7 now but never changed the OS name to go along with the new processors. You'll find references to i5/OS on the system but it's really i now. Most of the licensed programs and literature and menus don't reference i5/OS anymore but some do. And it's not V7R1 anymore...it's 7.1"
Confused Guy Moving On: "Well, how fast are the processors?"
Me: "Well...it's a model 720, not to be confused with the old AS/400 model 720 from 1999...remember it's a Power System. Anyway it's a 720 so it's got a 6 core 3.0 GHz, but i processor performance is really measured in CPW, not necessarily clock speed..."

Mildly Frustrated Guy with the Million Dollar Question: "What's CPW?"

Collaboration: A Fresh Look at All Things Lotus

2011-04-11T08:16:00.000-03:00

This article describes the current offerings from IBM Lotus and explains why IBM Power Systems running i5/OS is the platform on which you should be running them.

Lotus Domino Server—it's just an email server, so let's move on.... Just kidding!

Many shops use Domino just for the simple task of running their email. That's all well and good, but Domino offers a number of different servers for Web, database, applications, and LDAP. If you have a Domino server and you're only running email, then get informed!

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.mcpressonline.com/application-software/collaboration-&-messaging/collaboration-a-fresh-look-at-all-things-lotus.html

Customizing Quickr Blog to Allow Authors to Comment Only

2011-04-07T10:11:00.000-03:00

In the Lotus Quickr blog, logged in users need to have a minimum Author access in order to comment and create new blog entries/pages. However the only people I want posting new blog entries are Editors or above, and disallowing anonymous comments no matter what a place creator specifies.

The instructions on the Blog Fast Start document are misleading, saying that Authors can comment but can't see the "Create..." links. This is not the case. Authors can comment and create new blog entries. This is evidently a regression and hopefully there's movement in order to change the feature back or change the documentation.

In order to allow logged in users below Editor level authority to create comments, and comments only, I had to make a change to the qp_blog_pagelayout.js file. This file is located in the domino/html/qphtml/html/templatecommon directory under the Domino server data directory.

In that file, look for the following line:

if(currentMember.m_isAnonymous && currentUserAccess > 2){

This IF statement and the code within will hide the blog's "New Blog Entry" button at the top and the "New Page or Folder" link on the left hand side.

What I did instead was check to see if the current user is either anonymous OR below an Editor (i.e., currentUserAccess < 4) and then hide those elements by changing that line to:

if(currentMember.m_isAnonymous || currentUserAccess < 4){

Nifty.

Quickr Blog Template Question

2011-03-24T11:17:00.000-03:00

How to have logged in users comment on an entry but not create new blog entries? I can't seem to find an answer anywhere.

Anyone?

Oh, Yakov

2011-03-12T01:35:00.001-04:00

In America, you update blog. In Russia, blog updates YOU!

Domino "Fanboys:" you are being called out publicly...

2011-03-10T00:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I wrote a little ditty about an article that seemed very anti-Lotus. Evidently, I was not the only "fanboy" who spoke up against the perceived anti-Lotus articles.

The author of that article is now challenging the Lotus community to prove it's worth by demonstrating that there's an Australian company with a new deployment of 100 seats or more. This offer also extends to companies that are upgrading only 500 users to a new version of Domino (hell, I did that last month in Nova Scotia!). If so, he'll eat his words.

I'd ask any of you to send this guy an email if you know of a company, Australian or not, who meets the criteria.

http://delimiter.com.au/2011/03/10/lotus-fans-show-me-the-money-or-shut-the-hell-up/

Nail in the coffin of Lotus Australia?

2011-03-09T01:00:00.000-04:00

Hardly. Don't make any funeral arrangements or send flowers. Moving from in house Domino to a cloud based MS solution is hardly a fair comparison.

The statement "large Australian organisations are increasingly dumping Lotus Notes/Domino wholesale, with many seeing it as a legacy platform unsuited to modern enterprise needs" is pretty bold without providing sources to back up the claim. The liked articles masquerading as sources are written by the same author, yet make no mention of those reasons.

Perhaps the author should call IBM Lotus Australia to get a counterpoint and explain things like LotusLive.

http://delimiter.com.au/2011/03/09/steinhoff-dumps-lotus-for-telstra-t-suite

Cloud computing is dangerous. FUD or fact?

2011-03-08T06:09:00.000-04:00

The amount of times a major service goes down is rare. But still, do you feel comfortable doing externally hosted cloud computing every time you see a big "oops" in the news?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/27/gmail-accidentally-resetting-accounts-years-of-correspondence-v/

Use Print Adopting Objects (PRTADPOBJ ) to Keep Track of Adoption of Authority

2011-03-04T09:41:00.000-04:00

http://www.mcpressonline.com/tips-&-techniques/system-administration/techtip-use-print-adopting-objects-prtadpobj-to-keep-track-of-adoption-of-authority.html

Holding A Public Flogging Clinic in a Vendor's Parking Lot

2011-02-11T01:18:00.010-04:00

Just kidding. I'm not trying to incite any violent behavior.

You may think I'm posturing but I actually caught a rogue vendor programmer mucking about, causing damage and then lying about it. That was the punishment I jokingly thought should fit the crime. Point sent and received loud and clear. In the end all was forgiven and the precedent was set: either behave or begone. This is a business and not playtime for programmers.

When vendors are on my system I want as much control as possible. This includes controlling not only what users sign on to the system, but when. Vendors are not above the law although many think they are. It's time for you to crack the whip (remember...figuratively) and put the fear of Steve (or whatever your name is) into them.

Here's an article I wrote that shows how to control sign on behavior on your iSeries. Have fun.

http://www.mcpressonline.com/tips-&-techniques/security/techtip-control-user-profile-sign-on-behavior.html

Archive Database Confusion

2011-02-10T22:42:00.000-04:00

I'm wondering what is the easiest way to have all archived mail files look more obvious to users. Seems like people are forwarding messages more often inadvertently while in their archived mail. Comments please.

Lotus Connections for IBM i

2011-01-21T11:18:00.000-04:00

I could make an argument that the IBM i operating system is the best thing you could possibly run Domino on. The security, uptime/stability and performance compliments Domino so well...it's truly a match made in heaven.

Tell me, IBM, why Lotus Connections hasn't been made available to run on i?

What does SAVSECDTA Do?

2011-01-21T09:01:00.000-04:00

There's an old saying: "You can back things up, but can you restore?" It's almost become a bit of a mantra that rolls off the tongues of business partners as easily as the words "scalable," "robust," or "paradigm."

Since recovery is the major reason for backing up your system, much attention and focus have been given to the end process of recovery...

Read the full article at MC Press Online.

MORE Nasty AS/400 Screens!!

2011-01-11T16:39:00.001-04:00

Hard to take the warning seriously on the "Frog" screen because there's a big, foolish frog on the screen!!!

Does WSCST(*PDF) support JPG files?

2011-01-11T14:50:00.000-04:00

I received an email from someone with a question about converting a spooled file with an embedded JPG file to PDF. I believe that this is supported but don't see the problem in his code. If anyone has any ideas please comment. Below is the email.

"I am by no means a AFPDS expert so I am doing a lot of trial and error. We currently have a print file that prints a barcode and that converts to PDF with no problems where I can see the text and the barcode (of course the barcode is just a font). When I try a test to include a JPG image I don't see the image in the generated PDF file using Acrobat Reader. So my question is does the current PDF conversion support JPG files?"

CLP code
OVRPRTF    FILE(AFPTSTP) DEVTYPE(*AFPDS) WSCST(*PDF) TOSTMF('/fecginew/pdf/afptst.pdf')
CALL       PGM(AFPTSTR)

RPG code
MO = '1234567890';
WRITE RPTD;
WRITE RPTI;

Print file code
A          R RPTD
A                               O     2'MO#'
A            MO            10A O    12
A          R RPTI                      AFPRSC('0001028.jpg' +
A                                      *JFIF 10.2 11.2 +
A                                      (*PATH *CWD))

Reader and Author Fields Troubleshooting

2011-01-10T01:34:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you program something and you've got a bug that's maddeningly simple to fix. You know it's right there but just can't put your finger on it. With Author fields, I always end up making a simple mistake that wastes 2-3 hours to try and find. I'll take a break, and then take another hour to finally figure out what a knucklehead I am.

If I'm Superknucklehead, then Author fields are my kryptonite.

Anyway, here's a link to a great little post about troubleshooting Readers and Authors fields.
http://lotus-blogs.blogspot.com/2007/08/compleat-reader-and-author-field.html

Nasty AS/400 Sign-on Screens

2011-01-01T01:18:00.001-04:00

I had a funny thought as I signed on to my iSeries today. We had an incredibly ugly sign on screen a few years ago until I changed the darn thing when we went to security level 40 and needed to expand the password field. I work for a paper and energy company and our sign on screen used to feature reverse image trees and a blinking light bulb. I wish I hadn't deleted the display source...maybe I could grab it from an old backup tape? We'll see.

Anyway, I'm wondering what old nasty sign-on screens or main menus are out there. If you're not too embarrassed, send me a screen shot and I'll add it to the shame gallery. Blame it on an old developer if you don't want to take responsibility.

Check out these ones I found online. Each one is linked to show the source website as they're not my images. Some are just plain nasty. Like need a shower nasty. The last one isn't a sign on screen...more of a main menu/spashscreen, but holy hell...

XPages Bootcamp

2010-12-29T21:46:00.000-04:00

I've been to other shows offered by The View, most recently in Boston. Was a bit of a let down compared to other years but they're generally pretty decent.

http://www.xpagesbootcamp.com/eview/Xpages10.nsf/home?openform

Now to decide which city I should attend...Chicago or DC? Hockey in DC mid-March looks like the Avalanche or the Wild...not the most appealing couple of games. Baseball...Oakland is in town for the White Sox in April...and Chicago is Chicago.

Replica Analyzer is Platform Independent

2010-12-27T10:44:00.000-04:00

To clear up a little confusion, this utility is platform independent. It's a simple NSF database and all code is LotusScript.

http://www.stevencpitcher.com/2010/12/replica-analyzer.html

Replica Analyzer

2010-12-26T19:07:00.002-04:00

I started playing around with replication of Domino directories a few months ago and came up with an iSeries-only program that essentially does wholesale replication of directories. I received a couple of downloads (thank you, thank you...diaper money for my twin newborn girls), but what I really wanted to create was something platform independent that did a little more. I went a little overboard but it fits the bill for what I need.

Here's what it does:

Checks for differences between two replicas on different servers

Number of documents
Access Control List
Full Text Index type and last date it was indexed
Last Fixup Date
Quota
On Disk Structure
Document compression
LZ1 compression
Unread marks
Transaction logging
DAOS status
% Whitespace
...and a few others.

Gives you the option to automatically set options based on the results found

If your target replica DB quota is different from the source, make the target quota the same as the source, etc.

Automatically create new replicas if not found on the target server. This was the premise of my original tool. A great feature if you have a whole directory you need replicated. For example, you have an Archive policy and your archive database gets created on new user registration, however you need to manually create the replica, assign the quota, etc. This utility is scheduled to run every week so that you can be sure your archive directory is always in sync with the replicated directory on another server.
Customizable setup document that allows you to pick the servers and directories to poll, and what actions you want to automatically happen based on the results you find.

I'll gladly send anyone who downloaded and paid for my original tool a copy of this new tool. Hopefully there's interest in this one too. I searched high and low for a low cost tool like this but found nothing but high dollar enterprise solutions (4 or 5 grand) that really only handle a fraction of the features I'm offering. All I'm really asking in return is the equivalent cost of a box of diapers. :)

I'll offer support on a best effort basis. This application was built on a Domino 8.5.1 FP3 box and works fine.

Feel free to add to the source code to make it do more for you. I'll push out any updates by way of a template and discuss the code changes on my blog. Please read the About document to understand how it works. Pretty simple though. In the Setup view, create a document for each source/target server path you want to have queried for replica differences. The only agent in this application will run on a weekly basis and generate documents in the Default view. If you want to run the agent manually, feel free to change the agent properties to do so. If you call it from an action button, beware the time it takes for the agent to complete will increase dramatically.

Please offer any ideas you'd like to see in the future. Please let me know of any bugs or oddities and I'll get them fixed asap.

Replica Information Queries

2010-10-13T11:08:00.000-03:00

I've been busy with the twins so much I haven't had a chance to write any updates this last month. My newest little project is a Domino application that queries replicas for any differences. IMHO, a replica should be just that...but there are things that don't get replicated; quotas for one being my biggest irk.

If it works alright I'll post the source.

Someone at IBM Lotus has a sense of humor

2010-09-02T01:24:00.002-03:00

Funny. Found this at the tail end of a technote:

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this" "Then don't do that"

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21358551

8PQVPU8T7F5X

Did Your User Leave an Open Job Unattended AGAIN?

2010-09-01T00:01:00.000-03:00

With QINACTITV and QINACTMSG, you can manage interactive jobs when your users are out to lunch…literally.

Check out my new article at MC Press Online.

Directory Replication Utility (CPYDOMDIR) - Multiplatform Soon!

2010-08-27T00:44:00.000-03:00

My little utility CPYDOMDIR is almost finished with an update to have the source server be platform independent. Probably by next week. Currently the source server must be an iSeries but the target server is any platform.

If you've already downloaded a copy I'll contact you and email you the updated source code.

Social Networking - What Can It Do For Your Business? - Big thank you!

2010-08-26T14:08:00.002-03:00

I've got some great feedback via email on this article. Thanks everyone!

Social Networking - What Can It Do For Your Business?

Optimizing Old Hardware

2010-08-24T08:11:00.000-03:00

Every now and then you find a system setting based on either an old technology constraint or decision made years ago and no one remembers just why it was done that way. Perhaps you inherited a system with no documentation on the "why."

Our little AS/400 model 170 was set at half duplex with a line speed of 10MB, however it was plugged into a 100MB switch. Since the 2838 ethernet card supports 100MB full duplex communication, this morning I varied off the line, changed the speed and duplex to both *AUTO and started the line again.

Lo and behold she came back at 100MB and full duplex. That should make things a little more efficient.

Social Networking - What Can It Do For Your Business?

2010-08-22T23:29:00.001-03:00

Locking down your firewalls to keep the poor, defenseless users away from certain websites are we? Probably because the decision makers at your company are fearful, distrusting and naive to the benefits of social networking?

That, my friend, is online bigotry at its finest.

Elvis Presley's hip shaking on television 50-60 years ago didn't cause a nation of immaculate conceptions to occur spontaneously. Allowing your users to tweet is not going to cause them to be lazy, time wasting internet zombies.

I argue this view in my most recent MC Press article:

Social Networking - What Can It Do For Your Business?

Updates

2010-08-18T00:46:00.000-03:00

A lack of posts this month as I've been a little preoccupied (to say the least) with our newborn twin daughters born on August 9th.

I've got a few new articles coming out in the next week or so on more IBM i system values and another on how social networking can help your business. As well, I'm all over the board with tips on project management, the new 700 series Power Systems announcement and a few things on Domino 8.5.2 which has just been released.

CPYDOMDIR

2010-08-04T18:59:00.001-03:00

CPYDOMDIR is an iSeries command that does a Copy, Template Copy or Replica Copy of an entire directory of Lotus Domino databases that exist on an iSeries Domino server. If you've ever done a manual replication of a directory of files you've probably spent a lot of time in front of your Administrator client. Even if you've used the CL COPY command (which CPYDOMDIR makes use of) you're limited to running it against 1 database at a time which can still be quite time consuming. CPYDOMDIR takes a directory of NSF files and moves them to the target server in the method you specify. Imagine replicating an entire 300 GB directory of databases with one command that you don't have to watch and babysit.

The target server (where the copies will exist) must be known to the source Domino server (i.e., within the Domino domain) and can be running on any platform. You must have authority on the target Domino servers to create databases and replicas. Also, when you copy the contents of a directory, any sub-directories will not be copied.

The download-able file includes instructions and the RPGLE, CLP and CMD source code files.

Any existing NSF files of the same name in the specified directory of the target server will be overwritten.

Enjoy! Just click the button below. If you have any troubles with the download ( as this is the 1st time I've set this up), let me know via email and I'll cross reference your email with the digital receipt and then email you the utility.

CL Copy for Directories

2010-08-01T02:21:00.002-03:00

For any Domino on iSeries nuts out there, I'm just putting the finishing touches on a little routine that essentially has the (undocumented and unsupported) CL COPY functionality (copy, replicate or template copy a DB with the target DB on the same or different server). The difference with what I've done is that my routine copies an entire directory of databases! I think it's pretty cool.

A great example of using this functionality would be setting up archiving in a clustered environment but not wanting to replicate an entire folder of archive databases one by one to the clustered server.

If you've got a similar need (i.e., directories of applications) and want to create 1st time replicas of them all in bulk, then perhaps this may be something you'd be interested in.

It sure beats the hell out of manual replication via the client. I plan on releasing this in the coming days.

Automatic Notes Client Failover with HidePromptFailoverInc=1

2010-07-31T09:59:00.000-03:00

This is a really neat parameter that was introduced in version 8 which allows for suppression of prompting the user to attempt to access a replica on another server.

Manually add the HidePromptFailoverInc=1 to the notes.ini or you can push it out via a Desktop Settings policy document on the "Custom" tab.

New in 6.1: System Value QPWDRULES

2010-07-23T04:10:00.000-03:00

In V6R1, the QPWDRULES system value was created to give you more control of how a user profile password is constructed. In the prior release, a number of different system values offered this ability (e.g., QPWDMAXLEN controlled the maximum length of a password, QPWDRQDDGT enforced that there be a digit character, etc.). Having all password rules under the hood of one system value makes things a little tidier and simplifies management of password rules, but you can still use the old system values if you wish by specifying the *PWDSYSVAL parameter on the QPWDRULES system value.

Here's the link to the full article: New in 6.1, System Value QPWDRULES

Free Notes Training- St. Louis, MO

2010-07-16T15:13:00.000-03:00

http://www.iamlug.org/iamlug/IamLug2010.nsf

Domino 8.5.1 on V5R4 - Program Conversion

2010-07-16T13:43:00.000-03:00

Upgraded a server last night which took about 4 hours. For a long time, my interactive job was in a SVFW status with 0% processor. I took a look via WRKSYSACT and noticed a task called LDFX02 running there and just eating up the processor. Of course, the setup wizard via Windows tells you it will happen, but gives no time estimate based on your current configuration. However, I did the install using RSTLICPGM and after a while of waiting I remembered that the program conversions would occur during the upgrade.

Kim Greene describes it well:.

http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/dominodiva/entry/remember_the_program_conversion_whe_loading_8_5_x6?lang=en_us