2 Simple Secrets of HCL Nomad Web

Skip the common mistakes when starting with HCL Nomad Web and get on the fast track. Avoid getting stuck by simply taking care of possible issues from the server as well as from the client side right from the beginning. Let’s walk through these simple secrets that really are the base of smoothly operating HCL Nomad Web.

The most obvious part about starting with HCL Nomad Web is that you need to start with an official SSL/TLS Certificate. This is true for WebAssembly as well as for SafeLinx. Period.

If you try your wiggle your way out of the official certificates you may not be able to successfully load the needed WebAssembly modules (WASM).

Another official source you should consider when you are running into any issues is the official documentation from HCL.

Next to the official certificates you will also need SafeLinx in place to operate HCL Nomad Web. At least, that’s the case for now. HCL confirmed there will be a future version (Domino 12.0.2), where you don’t need to have SafeLinx in place to run HCL Nomad Web anymore. For now, this is not the case.

When talking about the official documentation from HCL we also have another secret of HCL Nomad Web discovered for you.

Extra Tipp: If you want to use the SafeLinx administrator client you need to have Open JDK 8. This is what the official requirements state, but often this is meant as you need Open JDK 8 or higher. BUT not in this case. You need exactly this version on your administrator’s computer to work with. No other version will work or let’s say you will have issues.

In case you want to know more about SafeLinx, please take a look at our free ultimate Guide to SafeLinx for Nomad.

Always download the latest version. The current version is now 1.0.4. and got released July 30^, 2022. Please make sure that you have the latest and greatest (static web files) in place. Here you can find the latest downloadable files officially from HCL.

While the server side of things mostly feels very intuitive for a knowing system administrator, the challenge is to understand the dependencies on the clients with the web browsers.

The HCL Notes environment now needs to work in parallel to your new playground the Browsers. This mostly has no dependencies on Windows or MacOS. At least not primarily. It is no longer the operating system to consider but everything about the Web Browser.

Primarily: Use only supported browsers. There are three official supported browsers right now and that is Edge, Chrome and Firefox. After our tests we would like to give you the strong recommendation to use either Edge or Chrome.

Secondly, try to always have the up-to-date browser versions. This is not as easy as it sounds. While bigger software was getting updates every 6 to 12 months, browser versions are released weekly or monthly. Sometimes there are several updates a week. Which is a lot to miss if you do not update it regularly or simply just not there for a week of vacation.

Now you see, before you can send out these updates to your users, you need to verify if everything is still running smoothly. Sometimes, there might be an update from Microsoft, Google or Mozilla that introduces something new. This needs to be considered in the HCL Nomad Web context.

If you want to count on the browser, you need to have to check updates regularly and test, test, test.

It is not new that you can have multiple profiles with every supported browser as a user.

The secrets of HCL Nomad Web lies in the cache of these profiles. It is important because HCL Nomad Web uses the cache to store your Nomad Web data folder. Simply speaking this means that Nomad Web is nothing else than a Notes Basic Client in a browser.

As a logical consequence, removing or cleaning the cache will result in losing the Nomad Web data configuration. Because your Nomad Web data folder will be gone. But there is an effortless way to avoid losing your HCL Nomad Web configuration every time someone is cleaning their browser.

Our tip: Have a dedicated profile just for Nomad Web.

If there are (at least) two profiles active, one can be for the user’s needs and the other can get used for HCL Nomad Web.

The first one will be used for visiting websites, research, other web application and whatever else needs to be done in the web. The second profile is just for Nomad Web. Because if you use that second profile and you remove the cache of your first profile the second one will not be affected.

So, to sum it up: If you remove one profile’s cache the other one will still have its own cache.

It works the same way if you use the PWA (Progressive Web App) of Nomad Web. This is just another wrapper around the application. It looks a bit like it’s not the browser, but it’s still the browser and it still lives in the cache.

Nomad Web is using the latest ultramodern technology called Web Assembly. With that, the code will be downloaded and compiled locally on the machine once it gets started. In that moment, the CPU load can be higher than expected. Because the consumption is only high during that moment doing it on an end user’s device, like a laptop, is no big deal at all.

But if you do that on a virtual client, like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), Citrix or Windows Terminal Services (WTS), this means you need to think about timings before rolling it out. As an example, when hundred users would start it for the first time on a virtual machine, where only one physical host is under the hood, the CPU Usage could become an issue. Consequently, the system most probably is going to die. This does not have to happen.

Test before you are going to send the release out and just make sure to get a good sizing and timing. Then it’s just working like a charm.

That’s actually a general rule of thumb and a clear suggestion for every upgrade.

Before you ever send something out to end users, do a technical test first. Then do a pilot with a little batch of users and only then you go for the production step by step.

That’s especially true for virtual environment, because these are different from a normal Notes or in this case Nomad Web installations. CPU and memory consumption are higher on the first run compared to the basic client of Notes.

In case you want to know more about the general HCL Notes upgrade process and some useful tips you can take a look at these 18 Essential Steps for HCL Notes and Domino Software Upgrades.

Here is your quick checklist about what to consider when working with HCL Nomad Web:

Don’t forget that there are things you should consider on the server and on the client side, which are no secrets of HCL Nomad Web for you anymore. If you are working in browsers, you need to think in browsers. That simple. You need to be able to understand that if there is a ‘bad change’ in your user’s browser, this can have an impact on HCL Nomad Web, too.

Feel free to watch our webinar about “HCL Nomad Web 101: Skip the Mistakes and Get on the Fast Track” or contact us if you have further questions.