Once again, I have to ask if I’ve gone mad (and once again answer = probably)
 

I’ve decided to share this blog post with you today because I’m seeing a very strange behaviour in regards to Smart Upgrade and the number that I’ve specified in the “Limit concurrent downloads” in the server configuration document.
 

The behaviour that I see is that when people press the “Don’t Update Now” button when prompted … the “cancelled” upgrade appears to counts toward the number set in the “Limit concurrent downloads”.
 

Here’s What I See …
 

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words and … well, maybe a graph will help people understand what I’m seeing.
 

The graph below basically shows the current number that I’ve set in the “Limit concurrent downloads” (30) in the server configuration document vs. the people who upgraded, the number of failed upgrade and the number of people who clicked on “Don’t Update Now”.
 

So, What’s The Problem?
 

At this point, you have the right to ask “so, what’s the big deal?” It’s quite simple…
 

Since I’m deploying Lotus Notes R8.5.1 in a fairly large office (300+ employees), IF the first 30 people that log into Lotus Notes in the morning get prompted to upgrade and click on “Don’t Update Now” … then nobody else gets prompted to upgrade!
 

As you can see in the graph above, as time goes by … lots of people click on “Don’t Update Now” … which limits the number of other employees who get prompted to upgrade.
 

In other words: if  my 30 “workaholic early birds” get into the office at 7 AM and click on ”Don’t Update Now” then the rest of the employees don’t get prompted to upgrade when they log in at 8 AM, 9 AM or 10 AM (or whenever they drag themselves into the office).
 

It’s currently affecting me because I’m getting support calls from people who read my weekly tips-and-tricks emails that I sent to the company and *who want to upgrade desperately* (to use all the new features that I discuss) but who never get prompted.
 

And each time that this happens, I check in the Smart Upgrade Tracking Results database and I see that 30 people clicked on the “Don’t Upgrade Now” button at the start of the work day. I usually end up telling them “Click on the File → Tools → Notes Smart Upgrade menu to get the prompt to upgrade…” and they’re usually quite happy after that … but this “feature” is annoying me.
 

A PMR A Day Keeps The Doctor Away … Not In This Case …
 

I did what I always do when something puzzles me: I opened a PMR. Unfortunately for me, I’m got nowhere with the PMR that I opened so … I’m blogging about this to ask …
 

Has anybody else seen this behaviour? Please leave a comment if you did … (it will help me tell Lotus that I’m not alone and I’ll feel a tiny bit less crazy).
 

Conclusion
 

Smart Upgrade is amazing … once you figure out how to configure it properly. It does have it’s intricacies and I think that this problem is just one of those that I accidentally stumbled upon…
 

Anyhow … as usual … Thanks for reading!
 

Marc

Kids Say the Darnest Things …
 

And End Users Ask the Darnest Questions … point in case: an employee calls me up and asks the following simple question:
 

“Hi Marc, I want to add an arrow into my email. In Microsoft Word, I click on Insert → Symbol and then I get to pick the arrow from the Wingding font selection and insert it right into my Word document… it’s soooo easy … I need to know where’s that option in Lotus Notes R8.5.1 because I can’t find it!”.
 

The answer is: *nowhere*. Seriously it ain’t there. Don’t bother looking.
 

A PMR a Day Keeps The Doctor Away?
 

Since I couldn’t find the option myself, I did what I usually do: I opened a PMR (I swear, I’ve opened almost 1 PMR day over the course of our 8.5.1 rollout for various questions, bugs and issues that I couldn’t figure out myself).
 

And the answer I got from Lotus Support was a bit surprising. Here’s a copy-paste of what the Support Rep wrote me:
 

I did discover that there was an SPR enhancement request submitted for this and the SPR# is MCHZ6DUMHZ. The SPR was closed with “No plans to fix in the 8.0 code stream”
 

I just wanted to let you know that I created an Notes client 8.5 code stream document for this issue. This will increase the”weight” of the issue. If weight increases sufficiently, it may be re-raised for triage for an upcoming maintenance or feature release.
 

So, there you have it … it won’t be added to the R8.x codestream. Tough luck heh?
 

But It’s In Outlook! [Cried the End User Weilding A Torch and a Pitch Fork in front of My Cube]
 

Yes, I cannot deny that this feature is in Outlook (and MS Word). In fact, here’s a screenshot of the Outlook 2010 client (I think) with the button that shows up in the right hand corner when a user clicks on the “Insert” tab of the [evil] “Ribbon interface” at the top …
 

So, there you have it folks … the option is right there in Outlook. Even better: they can insert mathematical Equations that are transformed into embedded images once the email is sent (it’s kinda neat, I have to admit) … but it won’t be in Lotus Notes R8.x …
 

Dear Lotus … Help us Help You …
 

Before I end this blog post, I must utter the following prayer …
 

Oh Lords of Thy Yellowverse
Please Add Unto Lotus Notes
The Ability to Insert Symbols
And Maybe Even Equations
So That My End Users Will Be Satisfied
And  Love Thy Email Client Even More
 

Ok, seriously Lotus … please add this “feature” into the next client … and my users will love their client even more!
 

One Last Thing …
 

Just in case someone smarter than me reads this blog post … is there anyone out there who would happen to know the code that I could put into one of the Toolbar icons to do this? This is just out of curiosity … maybe someone … somewhere has already done this(?) …
 

Conclusion …
 

Well, there isn’t much to say really … with the R8.5.1 client, Lotus has improved the email side of things by leaps and bounds to a point where my end users are amazed when I show them some of the new features (messsage recall anyone?) .. but there still is a bit of space left for improvement …
 

Anyhow … thanks for reading!
 

Marc

Sometimes, I Just Want To Share the Pain …
 

And this blog does allow me to do a bit of that.  But before I explain what happened, I must mention one thing …
 

My users just L-O-V-E the Message Recall feature in Lotus Notes R8.5.1! They really do. When any employee starts to complain about their new Lotus Notes, I listen to them, I fix whatever they need fixed and then I show them some of the new features of Lotus Notes. And it never fails: as soon as I show them the Message Recall feature, they go bezerk and want to kiss and hug their new Lotus Notes client (ok, maybe not that much but … close).
 

So with this said, something happened today at work which could have ended up being “The Greatest Message Recall Ever” … but didn’t. 
 

Here’s the sad sad story …
 

Step 01 – Someone fowarded an email to a very important employee that contained a link that needed to be sent to all the employees.

Step 02 – The very important employee, copy pasted the link into a new memo.

Step 03 – The very important employee, selected the “All Employees” group into the “To:” field and clicked on ”Send”.

Step 04 – The email got sent to a few thousand employees … but, unfortunately, the Lotus Notes R8.5.1 FP3 client of the very improtant employee crashed.

Step 05 – A few minutes passed by.

Step 05 – A wave of panic ensued as more and more people reported that the link in the email did not work.

Step 06 – Panic ensued even further when the very important employee realized that the email had *not* been saved into the “Sent” view of the mail file (probably because of the crash) so the email could not be recalled.
 

At that point, my phone rang, a couple sametime windows appeared on my screen and my cell phone rang … I was being called in to help.
 

However, there isn’t anything an Administrator can do when the email that needs to be recalled isn’t in the Sent folder, and unless someone at Lotus has a tool for such a special occasion, this is the sad reality that I was faced with.
 

Bottom line, I would really really really have liked to see the servers around the world recall that message. We’re talking a few thousand employees on servers spread across each and every continents all connected together with just about every type of link imaginable (from 56k ISDN lines all the way up to T1′s).
 

But that message recall never happened … and I’m sad.
 

So until next time, I’ll just go cry in a corner somewhere while I open a PMR to ask Lotus to figure out why the client of the very important employee crashed.
 

Just sharin’ the pain …
 

Thanks for reading!
 

Marc
 

PS: Yes, I took the time to upgrade that very important employee’s Lotus Notes to Fix Pack 4 after her crash … maybe it will help for the next email that needs to go out to all the planet.

Dear Lotus,
 

I need you to help us help you! More specifically, I need you to make sure that SPR JSTN84CSC7 is given enough priority so that the SURunAsWizard is “fixed/updated” for Lotus Notes R8.5.2.
 

Let’s face it: we all got the memo that said “deploy Notes 8.5 to as many machines as possible” and we’re all working really hard toward rolling it out. But you have to help us at some point. You really do.
 

Seriously, “why” is the SURunAsWizard utility still not working on Windows Vista machines? And why isn’t it working on Windows 7 machines either? I can understand that you haven’t gotten around to fixing it on Windows 7 … after all, that OS is new on the block. But for Windows Vista? It’s been out for 3 years already (4 if you count the RTM release) so one of your genius coders that’s chained to his (or her) desk somewhere deep in the bowels of your HQ should have had the time to update the SURunAsWizard utility for that OS by now … Right?
 

In all seriousness, I can understand why you haven’t fixed it for Windows Vista’s machines! After all, none of the soul crushing enterprises out there would dare to punish their employees by forcing Windows Vista on them (or would they?). But as buggy/weird/stange/messed-up Windows Vista was (especially with the evil User Access Control feature)… the new kid on the block, i.e. Windows 7, appears promising and some organizations are moving away from XP to Windows 7.
 

Which company is moving toward Windows 7? Well, the one that I work for is going that way.
 

Yes, we started handing out laptops with Windows 7. The local LAN Admins have installed the good ol’ Lotus Notes 7 client on them (to be able to quickly move the user from their old clunky machine to their new one) and when I try to Smart Upgrade those employees on their shiny new laptops to Lotus Notes R8.5.1 FP1 (later to FP3 or FP4) it doesn’t work because of Windows 7.
 

I’ve been a good little admin: I tried some things, I did some Google searches, checked the forums and finally, I opened a PMR.
 

Sadly, I was told right away “sorry, we can’t help you, that’s a known bug and there’s an SPR for that.”. I was surprised … shocked actually.
 

I was told that this is documented in Technote #1381191 (click here to view it).
 

That Technote even has the exact error that I see when I look at the LotusInstall.log file of my Windows 7 users:
 

Failed to launch process as specified user: 5
 

So, please Lotus, if you want to give me an early Christmas present, please please please increase the priority of SPR JSTN84CSC7 so that it gets fixed in Lotus Notes R8.5.2 … THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
 

Dear Members of the Yellowverse Community,
 

If you are bored to death and are looking for a good excuse to open a PMR today (or tomorrow, or whenever you have the time), would you mind opening a PMR with Lotus Support and ask them to add your name to the SPR JSTN84CSC7 so that it gets a higher priority?
 

The more people who add their name to the list of customers who needs this, the faster it will be fixed.
 

Thanks for reading!
 

Marc
 

PS: This is not a “rant”, this is a request for help …

Ever Get a Surprise?
 

Well, I did this afternoon! I was opening [yet another] PMR and I was a bit surprised to see that I could select Lotus Notes R8.5.2 and Lotus Traveler 8.5.2. I took a screen shot just to share it with my coworkers (and you).
 

Oddly enough, , 8.5.2 wasn’t in my list of products when I opened a PMR [yes another!] last Friday.
 

So, I presume that someone at Passport Advantage went a little bit too fast when updating our entitlements … or … maybe it’s been added so that beta customers can open PMRs on this upcoming release (but we are not beta customers).
  

Anybody knows why it showed up suddenly?
  

Marc

I Don’t Like Cryptic Error Messages …
 

And my users don’t like them either. Saddly for me, one of my users that has been using Lotus Notes R8.5.1 FP1 for a while now started receiving a weird error each time he would click on a person name in his Sametime Contact list in the side bar panel.
  

An internal error occurred during: “save person job”
 

The Solution?
 

Well, I opened a PMR with Lotus Support and they had never heard that one before which is not a good sign. So, I decided to try something and it worked. My initial idea was to delete the workspace folder … but this solution does not require it.
 

1. Log off the user from Sametime by [Clicking] on “Available” and then [Clicking] on “Log Off”.
 

2. [Click] on File → Preferences.
 

3. [Click] on the “+” sign in front of the Sametime section.
 

4. [Click] on the “Server Community”.
 

5. [Click] on the “Reset User” button.
 

6. [Click] on “OK” on the confirmation screen.
 

7. You will be re-asked to login to Sametime right away: [Click] on the “Connectivity” button.
 

8. [Click] on the check box “User token based single sign on”.
 

9. [Type] your Sametime server host name in the “Authentication server” field.
 

10. [Click] on the check box “Automatically log in”.
 

11. [Click] on the “Options” tab.
 

12. [Click] on the check box “Use canonical names for status lookup”.
 

13. [Click] on “OK”.
 

14. [Click] on “Login” (even if the fields are blank – don’t worry). That will log you back into Sametime.
 

15. [Click] on “OK” to close the Preferences screen.
 

16. Test the solution.
 
 

Conclusion
 

Well, I’ve seen a lot of weird error messages but this one ranks pretty high up in the list of cryptic ones.
 

I hope this helps someone, somewhere …
 

Thanks for reading!
 

Marc

To Make A Server Crash, You Must Find The Right Tool For The Job
   

This is going to be a short post. I have been dealing with a few server crashes recently. Some of them having to do with Tivoli and others … well, the PMRs are still opened. However, I got sick and tired of always manually collecting the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT folder, the log.nsf, the notes.ini, the Event Viewer Files and the WinMSD NFO file each time I was opening a PMR for a crashed server.
   

So, I wrote myself a nice little batch file that does all that for me. Once I had the batch file done, I decided to try it out in the “Run this Script After Server Fault” field of one of the servers in the test environment. But, to test it out, I needed to “create” a server fault.
  

And here’s the gist of this post: for those that don’t know it, there is a small utility on the Lotus Developer Domain Sandbox on a page titled “Utilities to crash client and server”. You can download it from here. The page might say that the platform is “AIX 64 bits” but the zip file contains every possible flavor of OS you can imagine. The version for Windows servers is at the root of the unzipped directory structure.
  

And what happens when you run it? Well, you get a nice “PANIC” error … your server crashes and NSD fires off. Simple is beautiful (in most cases).
   

So, for a guy like me testing out and debugging his “post-server-crash” script, this is very usefull … and by posting it on this blog, maybe someone else will discover it too (hopefully not to wreak havoc in his own environment).
   

Side Notes
  

Well, truth be told, my script works fine when I run it manually from the command prompt. However, when the server fires it off … nothing appears on the screen but files are being copied to the right place by the batch file and then zipped. It’s all done silently.
   

The catch 22 however is that I wanted my script to delete the log.nsf and run a fixup -q on the usual databases that go bonkers after a server fault (admin4.nsf, events4.nsf, mail.boxes, names.nsf just to name a few) so that the server would come up a bit more clean than in cases where it starts up right away and is catching up doing the fixup on the databases while it’s trying to get back up.
  

So, because of that, I opened another PMR with Lotus Support to ask if there is some sort of switch or notes.ini that I should try to make my script run after NSD has done what it’s supposed to do but *before* the server is restarted … we’ll see what support has to say. However, if you are a guru in regards to “scripts to run after a server fault”, please feel free to post in the comments section your 2 cents on why this is happening to me (and your idea for solutions if you have any … thanks!).
  

Conclusion
  

Please use the utility responsibly! Don’t use it for your next April Fools prank … seriously, don’t. Friends don’t let Friends crash their Friends servers as an April Fool’s joke …
 

Thanks for reading!
  

Marc