Introduction

IBM Notes 8.5.x provided high availability support to users for their mail and calendar actions. However, there was no high availability support during first time notes client configuration.

During client configuration, the user is prompted to provide the domino server name. In case the provided domino server is not available, the user is shown a message box saying "The remote server is not responding....". The result being that the user is stuck at the client configuration step. To complete the notes client configuration, the user either needs to provide the name of the secondary server, or wait until the main server is brought back up & running. In a typical situation, user is only given the name of the primary server they need to connect with, so either of these solution means a long wait for the user to get their Notes Client connecting & working with.

During the IBM Notes 9.0 release, we have addressed this issue in the most effective manner.

Prerequisites

IBM Notes 9.0 provides the user with seamless first time client configuration. To achieve this, we need to fulfil the following pre-requisites prior to starting the client configuration.

List of all the servers in the Cluster:

Availability of pre-populated "Cluster.ncf" file in the data directory.
Client.ncf file typically gets created in the user's data directory after successful connection to the Domino Server. This file includes information about the names of all the servers in the Cluster to which user's primary server belongs to. The cluster.ncf should have the entries of all the cluster members of the domino server which will be provided during client configuration.

Information on how to connect to the secondary server, which can be provided via :

1. Availability of pre-populated "names.nsf" file in the data directory.
The names.nsf should contain the server connection. Connection information is used to successfully connect to the clustered server.
OR, alternatively,
2. Availability of pre-populated “Hosts file” of the operating system.===
The Hosts file must have entry for all the servers in the cluster. Each line in the hosts file represents an entry for one cluster member. Each entry should contain the the cluster, member's IP address, host name (fully qualified domain name(FQDN)) and domino server name

For example,
a.b.c.d test.server.com test
where,
a.b.c.d = IP address of a cluster member
test.server.name = FQDN of the cluster member
test = Domino name for the cluster.

Note :
1. The domino name in the hosts file should not contain the domain name. For instance, if the domino name for the cluster member is test/x where test is the cluster member name and x is the domain name, the hosts file should only contain test and not test/x.
2. Administrator/user should pre-populate the cluster.ncf and names.nsf/hosts file and supply to users to get this worked.

Implementation

The IBM Notes Client configuration is supported in the following two ways:

1. Notes client configuration using client configuration wizard.
The client configuration wizard is a series of steps which require manual intervention of the user to provide the username, domino servername, connection protocol, IP address of Domino Server name, user ID file.

2. Notes client configuration using scriptable setup.
This does not require user intervention. A scriptable setup script is to be provided in the notes.ini. The scriptable setup script contains username, domino servername, connection protocol, IP address of Domino Server name, user ID file etc.

In IBM Notes 9.0, since the high availability has been provided, the user is able to complete the client configuration and start using IBM Notes client, irrespective of the provided Domino server being available or not.

During Notes Client configuration, if the provided domino server is down, clustered server member list is read from the cluster.ncf file from the specific data directory. Notes will then use server connection document information from the "names.nsf" or the “Host” file entry for server information, and successfully connect to the server.

If none of the server(s) is available for configuration from the clustered server member list, the client configuration will not succeed and the error message will be shown. In such case, the user should contact to administrator to make sure the servers are running successfully and/or the cluster.ncf, names.nsf/hosts files are pre-populated with proper entries.

Limitations / Known issues

The support for high availability during client configuration has been introduced in IBM Notes 9.0 with a few limitations / known issues as below:
1. Supported only for all-clients and single-user installation of Notes client and hence only Windows platform. It is not yet supported for Multi-user installation on Windows, Linux and MAC operating systems.
2. This support will not work if we have a redirect server which connects to the primary domino server.
3. In case of seamless client configuration, if the Domino.Address parameter is provided in the scriptable setup file, the high availability would not work. The IP has to be provided only through either the names.nsf or hosts file.

FAQ

Question
How do I populate the cluster.ncf with proper entries?
Answer
The Administrator should follow the below steps to populate the required file:
1. Install IBM Notes 9.0 client.
2. Make sure the domino server used for configuration is available.
3. Start notes client configuration and input the required details.
4. On successful connection to the provided domino server, the Notes client configuration will complete.
5. Wait for the Notes client to launch successfully.
6. Exit the Notes client.
7. Goto the data directory. The cluster.ncf is populated with correct entries.
This can be used as the pre-requisite file.

More details on cluster.ncf available here > http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21087756

Question
How do I populate the names.nsf ? What entries are required in names.nsf?
Answer
The Administrator should follow the below steps to populate the required file:
1. Launch the Notes client.
2. Using Ctrl-O try to open the clustered server member using name / IP. On successful connection, the respective server connection information is created and stored in the names.nsf.
Note : Repeat Step2 for every cluster member.

Alternatively, the hosts file of the operating system can be used to populate the IP addresses of each cluster member

Question
Where is the data directory located on different operating systems?
Answer
1. Read the information on IBM Notes client Data directory path for different platforms.
Windows :
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.domino.admin85.doc%2FH_DEFAULT_AND_RECOMMENDED_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORIES_ON_WINDOWS_OVER.html

Question
I am not able to connect in spite of having Hosts and names.nsf files in data directory. Why?
Answer
1. If hosts file is used, then it should be in proper format. Details can be found at > http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/domino_notes/7.0/help7_admin.nsf/f4b82fbb75e942a6852566ac0037f284/3fb07a75736601c58525706f0065f59e
2. In case names.nsf is used, all cluster members' information should have been populated in names.nsf.
3. cluster.ncf should have the correct entries of the cluster members. It should match with the server being provided in the client configuration step.

Question
What is notes client configuration using scriptable setup ? How do I set it up?
Answer
The seamless Notes client configuration is achieved using a scriptable setup file. Details on how to set it up can be found here > http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21112835

Question
Currently, the support is only for single user installation on Windows platform. Do we have plan to extend the functionality to multi-user installation and other platforms?
Answer
With IBM Notes 9.0, an attempt was made to provide the high availability support for client configuration. Yes, we will attempt to extend the support in forthcoming releases.

Question :
Is high availability supported on different domino server environments?
Answer :
Yes, It is supported both on, On-Premise and Smart Cloud environments.

Conclusion

This article explained about the enhanced high availability support in IBM Notes 9.0 client. These enhancements will surely facilitate Notes client users to initially configure notes client even if their domino server provided during client configuration is down.

About the author

Amit H Bora is working with IBM - India Software Labs, as a Software Engineer. He is a Notes core client developer and his interests are C, C++ programming. You can reach him at amihbora@in.ibm.com.