Bug: Router using 100% CPU when sending return receipts in Domino 8.0.2

Problem

You install or upgrade your IBM Lotus Domino mail server to version 8.0.2 and the router server task consumes 100% CPU resources when sending return receipts. This issue did not occur before implementing version 8.0.2.

 

Resolving the problem

This issue was reported to Quality Engineering in SPR# NORK7KEULL and is fixed in IBM Lotus Domino 8.0.3.

Contact your local IBM Lotus Customer Support center if you are experiencing this, or log a PMR via the Web ESR System.

A little bit of Symphony and Notes history

Interesting article in the latest Wired Magazine on Ray Ozzie.  One part I specifically enjoyed was reading how an agreement with Lotus' Mitch Kapor on the development of Lotus Symphony (not the one we all know today) later led on to the development of Iris Associates funded by Lotus, which released Lotus Notes on December 8, 1989.  Iris was bought by Lotus for US$94 million, and one year later, Lotus was bought by IBM for US$3.5 billion.  Ray Ozzie stayed on for another 2 years: 

"I was cynical of IBM, but they took over Notes when we had 2 million users, and now there are 150 million. With Lotus that never would have happened."

Link: Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode

New on devWorks: "IBM Lotus Domino with BlackBerry Enterprise Server: Performance best practices"

New on devWorks: "IBM Lotus Domino with BlackBerry Enterprise Server: Performance best practices"

This article is designed to act as a guide and reference paper for configuring BlackBerry Enterprise Server with IBM® Lotus® Domino®. It focuses on the load implications of running BlackBerry Enterprise Server within a Lotus Domino mail environment. It is designed to highlight areas where this load can be controlled and minimized.

Link: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/domino-blackberry/

Technote on Errors installing Sametime server on Linux

If you're installing a Lotus Sametime server on Linux, be sure to check out the technote below with information on the most common errors and how to solve them:

Title: Errors installing Sametime server on Linux
Doc #: 1303973
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg21303973

Now Available! BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 Service Pack 5

Amongst other new features, BES 4.1.5 now has:

Expanded Systems Compatibility – BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 with Service Pack 5 is certified with Microsoft® Exchange 2007 SP1 and supports IBM® Lotus® Domino® versions 7.03 and 8.0.

Link: Blackberry Connection - BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 Service Pack 5

Lotus Notes & SAP Integration on SAP Community Network

For those of you interested in Project Atlantic, Alan Rickayzen from SAP is blogging about the "nautical roadmap towards Lotus integration", where he describes roles, functionalities and the system requirements expected for release 1.0 of Atlantic.

Link: The Atlantic Cruise (nautical roadmap to Lotus integration)
More info: "Atlantic" - Integration of SAP business processes and Lotus Notes

Update from yesterday's Open Mic Call on Daylight Savings Time

If you did not get a chance to attend yesterday's Open Mic Call on Daylight Savings Time, a couple of questions were asked from folks who weren't 100% on whether they were "all set" or not for this year's DST changes (in the US, specifically).

As a general rule of thumb, if you did all your patching correctly last year and had no issues, you should not have any issues this year. IBM/Lotus recommended on the call that whenever possible it's always best practice to keep up to date on the latest maintenance release of your specific code stream. For any international organization, be sure that you have also patched your users/servers outside the US. Any country-specific technotes on DST you can find on the knowledge collection on DST (link below).

They indicated that 656, 7.0.3 and 8.0.1 should be all set as far as patches go. Be sure to check out the Knowledge Collection on Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Notes/Domino and Maintenance Releases, Fix Packs and Additional Fixes for Lotus Domino and Notes.

It's *THAT* time of the year, again...

Yes, for those in North America (or in my case, who administer servers in the Northern Hemisphere), Daylight Savings Time is creeping up on us again.

To be better prepared, IBM will be hosting this coming February 27 a second Notes/Domino Open Mic Session this month to discuss all things DST:

IBM will host an Open Mic conference call with Lotus Development and Support Engineers to answer your questions about DST issues in Lotus Notes/Domino® on Wednesday, February 27, 2008.
Title: Notes and Domino: Daylight Saving Time
Date: February 27, 2008
Time: 10:00 am Eastern US time

Questions can be posted in advance of the call as a response to the Invitation to Notes/Domino DST Open Mic call in the Notes/Domino 8 forum.

DST in the United States is scheduled to start on March 9 and end on November 2.

Link: Notes/Domino Open Mic special session for upcoming Daylight Saving Time transition

Additional resources:

Notes/Domino Open Mic conference call: Impact of Daylight Saving Time changes
Knowledge Collection: Daylight Saving Time (DST) in Notes/Domino

Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1.5 on Domino 8.0 webcast Q&A

Just attended a webcast today on the new Service Pack 5 to Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1, which will be adding support for Domino 8.0. It was good to hear Valerie Wang from RIM talk about the new features, and as every Product Manager will do, she did not commit to any release dates, but said "it's a matter of weeks, not months." Hmm... doesn't that sound familiar? ;-)

So anyways, BES 4.1.5 now will add support for Windows 2003 64-bit. This led me to a few questions which Valerie answered in the Q&A session after her presentation:

1. Will BES 4.1.5 support Lotus Domino 8.0.1 on Windows 2003 Server 64-bit?
   No. BES 4.1.5 will only support 32-bit Domino 8.0 and 7.0.3. Support for Lotus Domino 8.0.1 will come in a future service pack.
   
2. Is BES 4.1.5 64-bit enabled?
   No, it still runs as a 32-bit app. Work is being done to port BES to 64-bit, but nothing is ready to be discussed in public yet. Valerie mentioned that if ISVs/Customers/anyone would like to get further details on this, then this can be discussed individually via a signed NDA.
3. How many simultaneous users will BES 4.1.5 support on 64-bit Windows 2003 Server?
   RIM is still estimating around 2,000 users/BES server, but work is being done to improve performance further.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Scalability
Also another good tip on Blackberry Enterprise Server scalability given by the folks at RIM:

• To increase scalability, decrease the amount of mail servers your BES talks to - the more mail servers you point your BES servers to, the less it will scale.
  
• Keep your BES server as close to your mail servers as possible - try to keep your corporate/headquarter mail servers on the same datacenter as your BES server. The fewer network hops, the better.

Interesting to hear Valerie mention how few people at Lotusphere were aware of these 2 performance/scalability tips.

The PDF slides from the webcast are available for download.

Open Mic Call - Lotus Domino 8 on Dec. 12, 2007

IBM/Lotus will be hosting another Open Mic call, this time specific to Lotus Domino 8 Server questions!

The calls will be hosted on Wednesday, December 12 at 10:00 AM EST (13:00 Brazil) and 9:oo PM (00:00 AM - midnight Brazil).

The toll-free number to dial from Brazil is 0800-891-6846.

IBM will be hosting an Open Mic conference call with Lotus Development and Support Engineers to discuss new features in the new Lotus Domino® 8 server on Wednesday, December 12, 2007. This call will take place in two sessions, at 10:00 AM EST and 9:00 PM EST, to facilitate participation from customers worldwide.
Please feel free to post questions in advance of the call as a response to the Invitation to Domino 8 Server Open Mic Conference Call in the Notes/Domino 8 forum.

For additional information, check out Technote 1290496 - Domino 8 server Open Mic conference call.

Lotus Sametime 8 stability fixes released for pre-install on Lotus Domino

IBM has just released stability fixes for Lotus Sametime 8 server (certified to run on top of Lotus Domino 7.0.3 or 8.x) that need to be installed on your Lotus Domino server before installing Sametime 8:

Hotfix #	Platform
ICAE-79BKS5	Linux
ICAE-79CNL2	AIX
ICAE-79CNMJ	Solaris
ICAE-79CNNA	Win32

More info: Technote 1289862 - Fixes to known stability issues with Sametime 8.0 server

IBM opens up Lotus Greenhouse to the public; showcases latest software

IBM has just announced that public registration to Lotus Greenhouse is possible:

Have you heard of Lotus Greenhouse, a Web site showcasing Lotus software products? Previously only available by invitation only, the Lotus Greenhouse is now open to the public. Get your registration today and gain access to showcases that feature Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Sametime, and Lotus Domino Web Access.

There you can test the newest releases of Lotus software from IBM:

• IBM Lotus Connections
• IBM Lotus Sametime
• IBM Lotus Quickr
• IBM Lotus Domino Web Access

This is a fantastic change to get a look at the brand new products coming out from Lotus, specially Connections. To join, log on to https://greenhouse.lotus.com/join

Everything you wanted to know about policies...

..and hoped there was some training available? Well, IBM has heard your prayers and released a "collection of documents designed to help administrators better understand how to create, configure and troubleshoot Lotus® Domino® policies.":

Title: Self-Training: Domino Archive policy settings documents
Doc #: 7010310
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010310

Title: Self-Training: Domino Desktop policy settings documents
Doc #: 7010351
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010351

Title: Self-Training: Domino Mail policy settings documents
Doc #: 7010352
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010352

Title: Self-Training: Troubleshooting Domino policies and settings documents
Doc #: 7010353
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010353

Title: Self-Training: Registration policy settings documents
Doc #: 7010354
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010354

Title: Self-Training: Domino Security policy settings documents
Doc #: 7010355
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010355

Title: Self-Training: Advanced settings for Domino policies
Doc #: 7010356
URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg27010356

Be sure to check those out, the videos are a great source of training!

IBM Certified Advanced Security Professional - Lotus Notes and Domino 7

Shameless self-promotion moment :-) This was probably the hardest test by far that I have taken from Lotus. You must pass each section individually, so no point in getting an "average" score. You can get 100% on 2 sections, but if you get below 75% on any of them, you fail. Resources I used to prepare for this exam were:

• Lotus Security Handbook
• Security Considerations in Notes and Domino 7: Making Great Security Easier to Implement
• Lotus Domino 7 Administrator Help
• Lotus Domino 7 Release Notes
  

Notes and Domino 8 Certification Update Exams are out!

IBM Lotus and Prometric just released this wednesday (if I'm not mistaken) the new exams for Notes and Domino 8 Certification:

(Source: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotus/certification/lnd8recertificationpath.html)

Lotus certification designations	Recertification path
IBM Certified Application Developer Lotus Notes and Domino 8	You must be an IBM Certified Application Developer - Lotus Notes and Domino 7 or an IBM Certified Advanced Application Developer - Lotus Notes and Domino 7 -and- You must pass Exam 801: IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 Application Development Update.
IBM Certified System Administrator Lotus Notes and Domino 8	You must be an IBM Certified System Administrator - Lotus Notes and Domino 7 or an IBM Certified Advanced System Administrator - Lotus Notes and Domino 7 -and- You must pass Exam 802: IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 System Administration Update.

The IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 System Administration Update exam seems to be a lot more complex, and includes integration points with new IBM products, such as:

Domino and DB2 Integration

• Enabling a DB2 default user name
• Installing the DB2 access server
• Locking DB2 groups
• Understanding DB2 containers
• Understanding DB2 integration enhancements

Install and Configure

• Implement Sametime for Domino Web Access (DWA)
• Understanding Websphere Portal integration enhancements

Managing Servers

• Connecting Lotus Domino and Websphere Portal
• Integrating Domino and IBM CommonStore Archive Services
• Integrating Domino and the Tivoli Enterprise Console

Security

• Integrating Websphere and Domino with tokens

Good luck!

New features in IBM Lotus Domino 8

The following list represents an overview of the new features that are available in IBM Lotus Domino 8. For more comprehensive information about new features, please refer to the Documentation Updates chapter of these release notes.

Notes Client support

• Improved user registration
• Better single log-on integration
• Mail thread support
• Recall message support
• Support for administration of Windows navigation and management themes
• Notes client version view in the Domino Directory

Messaging

• SMTP Sender Authentication
• Reverse-path setting for forwarded messages
• Error limit before a connection is terminated - Specify the number of protocol errors that can be returned for a session before the session connection is terminated
• Reject ambiguous names that are retuned during directory lookups
• Deny mail to group names returned during directory lookups
• Router group expansion
• Transfer and Delivery Delay reports
• Convert TNEF file attachments to Notes file attachments
• Support Mail Threads when sending/receiving internet mail
• Enable SMTP outbound authentication to relay hosts

Domino and DB2**

• Enhanced management of Domino Master DB2 Account (Domino server user account)
• Move Container feature in UI
• SQL updates/inserts/deletes are transactional
• DB2 Query view setting row limits is supported
• DAV/QV design elements supported in a non-DB2 environment
• Domino and DB2 enabled on Linux platform
• HTTP access for QueryView
• New DB2 Group server commands
• Recreate links to DB2 enabled Notes databases tool
• Compacting DB2 groups

Domino Web Access support

• Domino administrators can enable Domino Web Access security settings via policies using a Security Policy Settings document. For additional information, see the release note "Using Security Policy Settings"
• Domino Web Access will have a new look and feel when viewed in a portal, when the URL includes the &client=wps argument.

Administration

• Improved throughput of critical administration process requests
• Domino Portal Integration Wizard for Domino Extended Product Portlets
• Integrated Administration Frame in Domino Administration Client for embedding External Administration Interfaces (such as portal)
• DDM improvements (modular correction actions, event clearing, etc.)
• DDM probe for monitoring LDAP requests
• DDM WebSphere Services probe
• DDM Administration probe type and Automatic Report Closing probe subtype
• DDM Common Actions button on Events document
• A new "updatesite.ntf" template which implements a complete, bona-fide Eclipse Update Site
• Integration with Tivoli Enterprise console1
• Performance and other improvements to server task monitoring
• New options in Administration Preferences UI
• Web enablement improvements to Domino Directory and Administration Process databases
• Policies -- How to apply setting
• Policies - Activities policy settings document
• Policies - IBM Lotus Productivity Tools settings document
• Policies - Window Naviigation settings in desktop policy settings document
• Policies - Policy managment of Inbox cleanup on desktop policy settings document
• Server command - Tell adminp process restart
• Option to synchronize unread marks when creating replicas
• Allow diagnostic data to be sent to IBM**

Java

• Java console enhancements, for example, auto-connecting multiple, recently connected servers at startup
• Support Same Java Runtime

Replication

• Streaming cluster replication

Security

• AES cipher support for SSL. Domino 8 introduces the ability to configure the Domino server to use the TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA and TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA ciphers for SSL, as defined in RFC 3268.
• Use of xACLS to protect Internet password fields in the Domino directory

Web Server

• User-defined attributes can now be added to the tag generated by the web engine. If the field $$HTMLFrontMatter is present on a form, its contents will be placed in the generated HTML, ahead of the tag, and the web server will not generate anything there automatically. The expected use of this feature is to supply a custom declaration for the generated HTML.
• Note that as with other of these special fields, it is the application designer's responsibility to insure that the field is not visible on the form and that it does not allow POSTing of that field.
• The content of the field is not used by the web server in any other way - it has no other effect on the generated HTML other than as described above. For example, suppling a doctype of HTML 4.01 STRICT will not cause the web engine to generate strict HTML. The content of the field is not validated in any way.
• Limitation of thecurrent implementation: the special field is not recognized in custom response forms..
• Users can now specify a custom declaration on a per form basis. If the field $$HTMLTagAttributes is present on a form, its contents is placed in the attribute list of the tag. Note that as with other of these special fields, it is the application designer's responsibility to insure that the field is not visible on the form and that it does not allow POSTing of that field.
• The content of the field is not used by the web server in any other way - it has no other effect on the generated HTML other than as described above. The content of the field is not validated in any way.
• Limitation of current implementation: the special field is not recognized in custom response forms.

Footnotes
** These features are not available for the System i platform in the current release.

System Administrator Appreciation Day :-)

Today is the System Administrator Appreciation Day! Nominate your friendly sys admin for System Administrator of the Year.... or.. he'll read your email ;-)

Recommended fixes to apply after IBM Lotus Quickr installation

IBM has released two fixes for Lotus Quickr 8.0 which should be installed after you've finished the initial install. Read all about it in Technote 1264829 - Recommended fixes to apply after IBM Lotus Quickr installation.

June 2007 NSD Update Build 2708 (W32 & UNIX) released

IBM released on June 16 build 2708 of NSD.

Here's the fixlist for this build:

SPR	Description	Version Fixed	Comments	Associated TN
SCOS6YVTWL	NSD memory gets corrupted while reading system handle table	7.0.3/8.0
JROU6WDQH8	NSD core files do not contain crashing thread stack	7.0.3/8.0
JROU6YDVRU	Messages indicating "invalid stack frame detected" in NSD logs should not be written by default	7.0.3/8.0	enhancement
RGET6Y8MPL	Change to nsd -p to allow for auto detach from Notes Process	7.0.3/8.0	enhancement
XJXJ6RU5ZA	NSD -p run against Notes process causes system hang	7.0.3/8.0
MSAN6YAC76	NSD is not suspending Domino processes on Windows	7.0.3/8.0
DCOY6ZGN24	NSD "Local Disks" section takes too long when the shares are not "connected"	7.0.3/8.0
ZSAE72LUK9	Crash in memcheck when attempting to map private handles	7.0.3/8.0
OMAI6TDK9F	Error in memcheck due to reading malloc object on Linux (SuSE) platform	7.0.3/8.0
ZSAE6ZYKVD	Error in memcheck while dumping NSF Handle Table - Memcheck takes 2 hours to run on RED HAT, and hangs Domino Server	7.0.3/8.0
ZSAE728PAL	Error in memcheck when attempting to dump NSF Folder pool info	7.0.3/8.0
MSAN73R9LV	NSD should report IPC data time stamps and creator processes	7.0.3/8.0	enhancement
MSAN73R9DN	NSD should report last rebooted time on AIX & Solaris	7.0.3/8.0	enhancement
MSAN73RLGB	NSD fails to report server tasks on 6.54FP2	7.0.3/8.0

Please be sure to check out Technote 4013182 - Updated NSD for Domino releases to download the NSD update specific to the Domino build you're running.

Lotus Domino 8: Como autenticar no servidor relay do seu provedor

Como autenticar no servidor relay do seu provedor a partir do Domino 8 (retirado do Lotus Domino 8 Administrator's Guide do Beta 3):

Enabling SMTP outbound authentication to relay hosts
You can use SMTP sender authentication to ensure that the sender of a message is a legitimate user of an SMTP server. SMTP sender authentication requires an account name and password for the destination SMTP server. The account name you use must be an account on the relay host SMTP server to which a specific IBM® Lotus® Domino(TM) server routes messages. The purpose of SMTP sender authentication is to authenticate the connection between a Domino router and an SMTP server. Use this feature with SMTP servers that do not allow Anonymous connections, or with SMTP servers that allow both authenticated and non-authenticated connections.
To use the SMTP sender authentication feature, enable the feature on the Server Configuration document by specifying that authentication is enabled or required.
1. Make sure you already have a Configuration Settings document for the server(s) to be configured.
2. From the Domino Administrator, click the Configuration tab and expand the Messaging section.
3. Click Configurations.
4. Select the Configuration Settings document for the mail server or servers you want to administer, and click Edit Configuration.
5. Click the Router/SMTP - Basics tab.
6. In the field "Use authentication when sending messages to the relay host," choose one of these:
Required - Checks whether the server can authenticate. If the server cannot authenticate, no attempt is made to try a non-authenticated session.
Enabled - Checks whether the server can authenticate. If the server cannot authenticate, an attempt is made to try a non-authenticated session.
Disabled - The SMTP Authentication feature is disabled. Authentication is not attempted.
7. Specify the SMTP account name in the Name field, and the SMTP password in the Password field.
8. Click Save and Close.
To ensure the security of the SMTP account name and password, the Server Configuration Document should be encrypted. A server ID must be included in the server's encryption list to allow the server to decrypt the document. For instructions on encrypting the Server Connection document, see the topic "Encrypting documents using secret keys" in the IBM® Lotus® Notes® client help.