Update 08-10-2011: Domino 8.5.2 FP2 image is now available on Amazon AWS (ami-81719fe8)

Introduction

The Lotus Domino  Amazon Machine Image (AMI) provides a fully functional Domino server for production as well as development and test use in the Amazon Web Services^TM Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment. This image complements the Lotus Domino Designer Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is now freely downloadable from the IBM developerWorks Lotus site.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and System Integrators (SIs) can use the AMI to reduce the amount of time and skills needed to develop and test their applications on a Domino server and outside the Designer IDE. At this time, however, it is neither suitable for running applications in a production setting or for customer use, and IBM Support is unable to address issues related to its use.

Additional support resources are available on the Cloud Computing Central site on My developerWorks.

The image is built on SuSE Linux® Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 and Lotus Domino 8.5.2 FP2. The steps in this article complete the configuration of the server, including the attachment of an Elastic Block Storage (EBS) volume for the Domino data directory, creation of the Administration ID file and password, and setup of the IP address.

A prototype user interface, known as simpleAdmin, has been included to facilitate the most common administration aspects. Additional administrration of the server may be done through either the Web Admin interface or the Administration Client.

For more information on administering the server, refer to the Lotus Domino and Notes Information Center and the Lotus Domino wiki.

Subscribing to the AMI

Amazon AMIs that are preloaded with IBM software must be subscribed to before use. This establishes the hourly pricing, if applicable, and the terms of use that accompany the AMI.

Currently ISVs and SIs may use the Domino Development AMI for no additional license fee above the normal Amazon EC2 charges. Refer to the IBM and AWS Web site for more details and to subscribe to the Domino AMI. The image is not currently available for use in production or by customers, however we are evaluating this for the future.


1. From the IBM and AWS web page, select IBM Lotus Domino from the list of available "Development AMIs".

2. Click on the Purchase button to subscribe to the AMI. (Figure 1)

Figure 1. Domino AMI


There is no license charge from IBM, however you are responsible for the Amazon EC2 charges associated with the AMI once you launch and run it.

Launching the instance

1. Sign into the AWS Management Console.

2. Click the Launch Instance button on your home page, and then select the Community AMIs tab and type in 'domino851' (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Search for Lotus Domino in Community Cloud images


3. Click the Select button to launch the instance.

4. Fill in the appropriate data such as the Availability Zone field of your instance (see figure 3). Click Continue.

NOTE: The Availability Zone chose in this step must match the storage volume created later.

Figure 3. Fill in instance details



5. Specify the Key Pair for the instance. This pair of keys will be used to encrypt the communications between the instance and your local host. You can select an existing Key Pair if you already have one set up (see figure 4).

Figure 4. Specify Key Pair


6. If you don't already have a Key Pair, you can create a new one, which generates a key file (a .pem file) that is used by the Secure Shell (SSH) tool to connect to the instance. Input the name of Key Pair and then click “Create & Download your Key Pair” (see figure 5).

Figure 5. Create a new key pair


A download dialog box prompts you to save the .pem file (see figure 6).

Figure 6. .pem file download window


7. Next, configure the firewall. A previously created security group may also be used (see figure 8).

Figure 8. Use an existing security group


If you create a new Security Group, make sure to open the ports needed by your applications.

Here is a list of typical ports used by Lotus Domino:

• HTTP: 80
• HTTPS: 443
• LDAP: 389
• SSH:22
• NRPC:1352 *custom ports must be added later through AWS Management Console

8. Then, if everything looks OK in the Review window, click the Launch button to complete launch of the instance (see figure 11). It will take a few minutes to finish.

Figure 9. Launch instance



9. It will take a few minutes for the machine instance to become available. Use the Refresh button on the console to check status.

Figure 10. My Instances

Configuring IP addresses

By default AWS will assign a dynamic DNS name to the instance. An Elastic IP can be added through the AWS console and is useful when mapping DNS hostnames to the DNS instance.
 
TIP: Setup Reverse DNS if you plan to use the server to Send/Receive email from the Internet.

Preparing a data volume for Lotus Domino

All data will be lost when a running instance is shut down, unless it is stored on external persistent storage, such as Amazon S3. Our AMI has been designed to store the Domino data directory on an external volume. To prepare a volume for Lotus Domino:

1. Click the Volumes link in the left-hand navigation pane, and select an existing volume in the EBS Volumes window.

2. Make sure that the Availability Zone of the volume is the same zone as where the instance is located; otherwise, the volume cannot be attached to the instance. You can also click the Create Volume button at the top, to create a new one (see figure 12).

Figure 12. Create a new volume



3. Next, click the Attach Volume button to attach the selected volume to our Lotus Domino instance (see figure 13):

• The newly created volume will be partitioned and formatted once attached, so don't use an existing non-Domino volume that has valuable data stored.
• If you use a volume that was previously attached to a Domino AMI, the existing data driectory will be preserved.

Figure 13. Attach volume


4. In the Device field, select “/dev/sdf”; the image is listening for this attach point.

Setting up Lotus Domino

After you successfully launch the instance of Lotus Domino in the Amazon Cloud, you can connect to the instance and start setting it up.

Connect to the instance via SSH tools

First you need to get the instance's public DNS, which will be used as the instance's host name. To do this, go to “My Instances” window from the Instances link in the navigation of the AWS Console (see figure 14).

TIP: An Elastic IP can be optionally configured that allows a custom hostname to be used in lieu of the generated name that Amazon provides. Refer to the Amazon Web Services page for instructions.

Figure 14. My Instances window



Various SSH tools can be used to connect to the instance; however, in this guide, we use PuTTY as the SSH tool.

The key file that Amazon provides is a .pem file, but PuTTY needs a .ppk file as its private key file, so the key file must be converted. To do this we use the PuttyGen.exe program that's packaged with PuTTY:

1. Launch PuttyGen.exe, and in the PuTTY Key Generator window, click the Load button to load a .pem file, and then click the Save private key button (see figure 15).

Figure 15. Convert .pem file to .ppk file


2. Next, launch PuTTY, specify the .ppk file as the private key file and the public DNS as the host name, and then click Open (see figure 16).

Figure 16. Configure PuTTY


Now you can connect to the instance.

Use “root” as username to log in. The use of a private key replaces a password prompt.

Setting up Lotus Domino

1. Upon the initial connection with SSH, select your language and keyboard layout (see figure 17). Click Accept.

Figure 17. Languages window



2. Next, read the Linux Distribution Statement (see figure 18). Click “I understand.”

Figure 18. Linux Distribution Statement window


3. Read the Novell SLES10 License Agreement and click “I understand” (see figure 19).

Figure 19. Novell License Agreement window



4. Read the Lotus Domino Program Unique Terms; click "I have read the agreement” (see figure 20).

Figure 20. Lotus Domino 8.5.1 Program Unique TermsAgreement window


5. Accept the Novell License Agreement for Lotus Domino 8.5.1 (see figure 21).

Figure 21. License Agreement window


6. Set the password for Lotus Domino (see figure 22). The server.id, cert.id, and admin.id files will use the same password you input here, and the last name of the Domino administrator user is set to “notes”.

Figure 22. Set Domino password


7. Confirm the Domino password (see figure 23).

Figure 23. Confirm Domino password

Administering Lotus Domino with simpleAdmin

Configuring Lotus Notes or Administration Client

You can connect to Lotus Domino in the Amazon Cloud with the regular Lotus Notes and/or Administration Client, but you must prepare the user's ID before setup. You can get that from simpleAdmin, using the steps in the previous section.

In the steps below we demonstrate how to set up the Lotus Notes Client, but note that the Lotus Administration Client can be set up with similar steps. Both are included in the Lotus Domino Designer download.

1. Launch the Lotus Notes Client; the window in figure 27 displays. Click Next.

Figure 27. Launch Lotus Notes


2. In the User Information window (see figure 28), input the user's name and Domino name, which is represented as “ServerName/OrganizationName”. (You can change these using SimpleAdmin.nsf.) Click Next.

Figure 28. Specify User Name and Domino Name


3. Select the “Set up a connection to a local area network (LAN)” option and click Next (see figure 29).

Figure 29. Connect to Lotus Domino via LAN


4. Select TCP/IP as the protocol, and input the public DNS in the Server address field, as shown in figure 30. Click Next.

Figure 30. Specify protocol and server address



5. Enter the path of user's ID file here in the File name field (see figure 31). The ID file is downloaded from the simpleAdmin page. If you use “notes” (which is the last name of the Domino administrator user) as the user name instead of “user”, you don't even need a local ID file.

The Notes/Admin client will prompt you to save a local copy of the ID file of the Domino administrator user.

Figure 31. Specify ID file name


6. Decide whether to copy the ID file to your data directory (see figure 32).

Figure 32. Prompt to copy ID file to data directory


7. Input the user ID's password (see figure 33).

Figure 33. Input password


8. Configure the appropriate additional services, and click Next or Finish to complete the setup (see figure 34).

Figure 34. Additional Services


You should now see the Home page of Lotus Notes. Your Notes Client has been set up successfully.

Building your applications using Domino Designer

1. Launch Domino Designer and log on as the administrator user (“notes”), or any other users you created who have sufficient permission.

2. Press Ctrl + N to create a new application, or Ctrl+ O to open an existing application. The New Application window displays (see figure 36).

3. Enter the public DNS name in the Server field, and fill out details in the Title and File name fields. Choose a Template from the list, then Click OK.

Figure 36. New Application window


Figure 37 shows an XPage being designed.

Figure 37. Domino Designer Xpage

Terminating the instance

When no longer using an AMI instance, you can terminate it to prevent ongoing hourly billing. To do this:

1. Go to the Instance page in Amazon AWS console (from the Instances link in the left-hand navigation).

2. Select the instance you want to terminate, click the Instance Actions button, and then select Terminate (see figure 38).

Any storage volumes attached to the running instance will still be available for attachment to an instance in the future.

Figure 38. Terminate instance of Lotus Domino in Cloud


You can also delete the volume that you created. To do this:

1. Go to the Volumes page (from the Volumes link in the left navigation).

2. Select the volume you want to detach/delete, and click the Detach Volume / Delete button button (see figure 39).

Figure 39. Detach a volume

Conclusion

You should now be able to create an instance of a Domino server, configure basic settings through the SimpleAdmin console, and remotely create a Domino application using the Domino Designer Client.

Resources

Lotus Notes and Domino Application Development wiki:
http://www.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf

Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5 discussion forum:
http://www.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf

Lotus Notes and Domino developerWorks product page:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/products/notesdomino/?S_TACT=105AGX13&S_CMP=LP

Lotus Domino Designer documentation:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/documentation/dominodesigner/?S_TACT=105AGX13&S_CMP=LP

About the authors

 

Michael Masterson Technical Product Manager IBM Lotus – Austin, TX

Xi Pan Xiao Software Engineer IBM Lotus – Beijing, CN

Wei She Software Engineer IBM Lotus – Beijing, CN