This week I'm honing my skills on Domino for zLinux. z/OS allows to run a nearly unlimited number of guests with various operating systems. For Domino IBM supports Suse 64Bit Linux and Redhat 64Bit Linux. The Domino server is a full 64Bit implementation on zLinux. The mainframe also supports all sorts of storage. Typically one would find large disk farms with iSCSI connectors, but the "traditional storage" would be DASD (direct attached storage device). z/OS makes DASD devices visible as 1, 2, 4, 8, 24 and 54 GB storage devices. So instead of going after a large chunk of the attached iSCSI I decided to get a set of smalish DASD devices and test the Logical Volume Manager on Linux to combine them into a larger entity. This is relevant also for standard Linux server (with bigger disk to start with) once you run out of storage on your RAID 10 storage and want to add more. While Domino offers directory links LVM is more flexible since it will appear as single storage to the application. LVM is a standard feature of Linux and is available on all mayor distributions (You might need to install the files first). In my test I used RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.2 for zOS, where LVM is pre-installed (check this Redbook for details). LVM pools physical disks, RAID arrays or SAN storage into "Volume Groups". Inside such a group multiple partitions can be created that then are formatted with a file system. Volume groups can be extended just by adding disk and thereafter carry additional partitions or allow to enlarge the partitions to cater for more data
Depending on the file system it might need to be unmounted before it can be extended, so we typically don't see the root ( / ) or boot partition inside a volume group. There are a number of steps involved to configure the LVM which are almost identical on all Linux versions, except for dealing with raw storage (which would be DASD in my case). I configured all steps using the command line. If that is not your cup of tea, Redhat provides the command system-config-lvm that provides a GUI (which I used for the screen shots). To get the GUI working you need to login into zLinux with ssh -X to start support for XWindows (Windows users: check what application supports XWindows). As first step we want to check
Fun with TCPMon and Lotus Traveler
Sun, May 13th 2012 11:11a Stephan H Wissel Martin Luther (the original) famously stated "man muss dem Volk aufs Maul schauen" (roughly translated: "you have to watch how people talk". What worked for a bible translation also works in IT.
While it is nice to have some documentation, quite often it is inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, factual wrong or simply missing. So listening to "how applications speak" is an essential skill, mentioned here before. In this little weekend project these skills get applied to Lotus Traveler. These [read] Keywords: agent
domino
dxl
lotus
show-n-tell
traveler
application
applications
linux
mac
password
server
wiki
xml
167
Teaching an ol' dog a new trick: SET CONFIG param=value update
Tue, Apr 24th 2012 9:13a Stephan H Wissel One of the cardinal sins of Domino administration (besides FTP/copy of a server NSF) is the manual editing of notes.ini variables. To update an notes.ini variable instantly you can use the server console and type set config param=value, while for permanent changes you would add the value to a server configuration document. Using the server configuration document has the advantage, that your ini changes not only will survive a reboot or even loss of your notes.ini, but they serve as documentation [read] Keywords: administration
domino
ibm
notes
show-n-tell
linkedin
server
wiki
342
Extracting data from Domino into PDF using XSLT and XSL:FO (Part 1)
Mon, Apr 23rd 2012 12:13p Stephan H Wissel We all know "Notes doesn't print". Nevertheless the topic of document output and reports is not going away, even if I'd like to ban the reports. There are plenty of ready made tools, but today I'd like to start with home cooked reporting.
Why the effort? Using only tools that use open standards you gain more control over the whole process and you can use whatever deems fit. The downside: it is more things you need to know and might not be suitable for business users (but its great to tortu [read] Keywords: domino
dxl
ibm
notes
show-n-tell
integration
wiki
xml
xslt
264
Importing EML files into Notes (lots of them)
Mon, Apr 23rd 2012 10:11a Stephan H Wissel My friend and Lotus Champion Weerapong Panpai from
Zenith in Thailand asked me "How difficult is it to do a bulk import of eml files into Lotus Notes"? MIME as a format is plain ASCII, so on first look it seems simple.
However on a closer look you might guess where the author of an outstanding movie got his inspiration from. RFC 2045 nicely states:"NOTE: The previous four definitions are clearly circular. This is unavoidable, since the overall structure of a MIME message is indeed recursive [read] Keywords: connections
domino
lotus
notes
notes client
show-n-tell
google
java
oracle
wiki
147
Roots of Wisdom
Sun, Apr 8th 2012 10:13a Stephan H Wissel The 21st knowledge society needs to teach different skills than recalling knowledge. I introduced the 9 essential skills a few days ago. Based on an article titled "Older and wiser?" in The Economist there are 5 critical aspects of wise reasoning to add:
willingness to seek opportunities to resolve conflict
willingness to search for compromise
recognition of the limits of personal knowledge
awareness that more than one perspective on a problem can exist
appreciation of the fact that things [read] Keywords: google
iphone
wiki
177
Setting focus to the first invalid field
Sat, Apr 7th 2012 9:12a Stephan H Wissel When it comes to validation, the only secure way is server side validation (Client side validation is more: "nice suggestions for users"). One little grievance developers have - and try to fix with elaborate measures - is the requirement to set the focus on the first failed field. XPages makes this quite simple. As Tommy pointed out fields that are invalidated server side get the attribute aria-invalid="true".
Besides, as Tommy suggested, using it to style the input (check his comment - coo [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
xpages dojo
javascript
server
156
Inside the IBM Support Process
Thu, Apr 5th 2012 9:12a Stephan H Wissel No software runs flawless (even if the product is named after a fruit), so from time to time you need to interact with support. The entry point for IBM support is the IBM Support Portal or the support call center. Behind that front is quite a bit a process that is designed to be predictable, repeatable, measurable and ensure that customers get the right level of attention from the right level of expertise. Scribbled on a napkin it looks like this:
(click on the image to get a bigger picture
S [read] Keywords: ibm
consulting
database
development
246
Wipe them out - all of them (when a design refresh doesn't work)
Thu, Apr 5th 2012 6:12a Stephan H Wissel You created that shiney new version of your application, ran (in no particular order) fixup, compact and updall and replaced the design. Still some of the design elements haven't updated. Typically that happens when no attention was paid to the "prohibit design refresh" flag of the database design (all your predecessor's fault of course).
While you can go in and hunt the settings down one-by-one (tip: use an DXL export and just look for the property), it is sometimes faster and more profoun [read] Keywords: domino
dxl
notes
show-n-tell
updall
application
database
eclipse
145
Reuse web agents that use PRINT - Bean edition
Mon, Apr 2nd 2012 12:13p Stephan H Wissel Using Java in XPages does have performance advantages especially when you can use EL instead of SSJS. So I created the Java version of the reuse web agents post. You need to copy the Java either into your NSF or include it in your own extension library. Calling an agent is limited to the same database as the XPage resides in, I leave it to an exercise for my readers to improve on that.
You define the Java class as a managed bean:
agentHelper
com.notessensei.xsp.utilities.LsAgentHelpe [read] Keywords: agent
lotusscript
xpages database
java
wiki
xml
139
Story Telling
Sat, Mar 31st 2012 7:12p Stephan H Wissel Antoine de Saint Exupéry is attributed with the quote "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
Story telling is a powerful medium to get "your message" across. It reaches far beyond the confines of ones early years and the collection lovingly preserved by The Brothers Grimm.
All of business runs on stories, when unleashed to customers often compressed into 30 seconds in [read] Keywords: wiki
