Using setup.txt when ID Vault and mail file are on different servers

HCL Notes/Domino 8.5 Forum (includes Notes Traveler)

Subject:

Hi,

We're an academic institution so the client can be installed on computers that are not directly under our control. It is frequently the case that our top-level domain is not in the DNS suffixes that are used in the TCPIP/network control panel in Windows.

When using the ConfigFile=setup.txt there is the option to set the Domino.Server, Name, Port and Address feature. I've found that installing the Notes client on a machine that does not 'Append this DNS suffix' that if I set the setup.txt to point to the ID Vault so that the setup will pick up the users ID, it then is unable to find the path to the mail server as it only asks for the server by common name and not FQDN. If I set the setup.txt to use the mail server address instead, then it can't find the ID vault server.

For example:

IDVault is on Hub1/Test (hub1.somewhere.com), the mailfile is on Mail1/Test (mail1.somewhere.co).

If the setup.txt reads:
Domino.Server=1
Domino.Name=Hub1/Test
Domino.Port=TCPIP
Domino.Address=hub1.somewhere.com

and the client is launched for first time setup then it'll find the user's ID file but when it goes to try and open the mailfile from Mail1/Test it will only search for it using the common name Mail1. (If I'm on the same network and have the .somewhere.com being appended to my DNS searches then great, but most of our users arent). What will happen is it'll fail to find the server and set the Location documents mail file location to 'username' and not 'mail\username'.

I've tried various tricks such as including connection documents in the pernames.ntf so that when the names.nsf gets created it'll have some predefined connection docs but that stage happens later in the initial client setup so won't work.

The only 'trick' I've found that works (and absolutely sucks from an IT perspective) is to use the Transform editor to add lines to the users hosts file during the client install for the commonname of the mail1 and hub1 servers and their IP addresses. I know that this is 100% the wrong thing to do but during initial client setup your current code completely fails to find the servers by asking for the FQDN from the initial server listed in the ConfigFile.

So how do I work around that issue correctly without lame hacks to the hosts file?

Thanks!

Feedback response number WEBB89QQEK created by ~Wei Lopatherakol on 09/28/2010