Transcript IDOL102 Herding Cats: The Art of Doing a Risk-Free IBM ®

IDOL102 Herding Cats: The Art of Doing a Risk-Free IBM
Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Upgrade
Andy Pedisich – Technotics, Inc.
®
Something to keep in mind
 This presentation was created in less than 24 hours
 I apoliogize in advance for smelling mistakes, terrible grammatical errors, or
conceptual inaccuracies
 No one, other than me, has proof-read it
 That’s always trouble!
 I sure hope it works for you!
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce “Scope Creep”
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
 Q&A
Getting a foothold
 Before you do anything else, get management’s approval
 Write a Business Requirements document
 These are the reasons you are doing the upgrade
 This should be no more than a couple of pages
 It’s a high level “executive overview”
 Management needs to know why
 They will be providing budget dollars and support for the project
 This Requirements Document must be approved to be effective
Stress Economic Benefits
 Tell them how Notes/Domino 8 will benefit the enterprise
 Link these benefits to budget dollars
 Savings due to reduced Help Desk calls
 Savings due to the ability to be more proactive in monitoring the domain
 Savings due to consolidation of servers
Feature Requirements Are Next
 ND8 provides many new features and functionality
 What are you going to use on the server side?
 How will the Notes client be deployed?
 Work with your Enterprise Administrators and User support teams
to determine what’s best for the environment
 And write it all down in a “Requirements Document”
 And get this document approved by all stakeholders
Reducing Mid-project Changes
 The approved Requirements Document will help to prevent changes
in the middle of your upgrade project
 Make sure it includes absolute statements of what you will and won’t do for your
enterprise
 “We will use AutoSave on all desktops”
 “We will deploy message recall”
 “We will implement Domino Web Access for all users”
 This helps to prevent “Scope Creep”
 That’s when the scope of the project expands outside of the initial expectations
 Requirements are the feature “Wish List” like a menu selection in a
fine restaurant
Attention: Message Recall is ON
 The Message Recall feature is turned ON by Default in ND8
 With a recall of messages up to 14 days old
 Even if you don’t use Server Configuration documents, it’s there!
 If it’s not part of your design requirements, make sure you address
this issue
 Change the default server configuration document for your domain
 Personally, I’d change every one to make sure it sticks
Create Design Documents
 Compose the Design Documents that hold the technical
configuration specifications that meet your Feature Requirements
 These will be the blueprints for creating kits to install servers and clients
 Your kit creation teams will be guided by these documents
 And they can be used for QA after client and server installations/upgrades
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce Scope Creep
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
Training the Users
 There is a wide range of options out there
 Self-paced via computer, Learning.doc, Classroom
 Quick reference cards that show equivalent functionality
 You’ll find these, here –
– http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/notes/
 Consider that users should not be upgraded until they are trained
 Prevents frustration and ensures productivity gains
 Even if they decline, make sure they get all the support materials
 User acceptance is vital to the upgrade
 Nothing kills acceptance faster than disgruntled users
Other Training Opportunities
 In addition to standard training, try these…
 Hold “Doctor Is In” sessions
 Let users sign up for personal desk-side help
 The “Doctor” can be a power user
– Make sure it’s someone with good soft skills, and good hygene
 Provide special desk-side help for Administrative Assistants to high-level,
very visible executives
 Do everything possible to work with these special cases
 It ensures management acceptance at a high level
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce Scope Creep
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
Not all Applications Need Testing
 Those that you create with standard templates will not need testing
 Custom applications with high visibility and line of business apps
must be tested
 The challenge is identifying these applications
 One way to find them is to turn on Activity Logging now
 Activity Logging is turned on using server configuration documents
 An ACTIVITY.NSF database will list both active and inactive databases
 This will steer you to the most active databases that need to be tested
 It might not alert you to a database that is only used by the board
of directors once a year
Setting Up Activity Logging
 Set up activity logging in server config documents
 Select all the server tasks you would like to use to produce activity logging data
 If you want to see activity trends, enable all tasks except for Domino.MAIL
Setting Up Trend Analysis
 Enable activity trends collector in the same config document that
you used to set up activity logging
 If you activate it in the default config document, it creates an
Activity.nsf database on every server in the domain
 Then it collects data from the log every night at 3:23 am
Setting Up Activity Logging and Trend Analysis
 The last key to the configuration of activity and trend analysis is
that the Catalog task must be enabled
 Make sure there are no errors when the activity trends are rolled
out
 Check the Run Log for details about the collection process
Expect LOG.NSF to Grow Larger
 Activity logging causes Domino to write information to the Log.nsf
about the tasks in which you are interested
 This will cause your logs to grow a bit larger
 The data is kept in a few hidden views in a form that is not meant
for humans to see
 It is waiting there for us to access in two ways:
 Activity analysis and activity trending
Unbelievable Information
 Activity trending gives you an unbelievable amount of data about
your environment, such as:
 How your protocols are used
 How your servers are utilized during prime time
 Growth rates for databases
Find Out Which Databases Can Be Removed
 A favorite element of Activity.nsf for an R8 upgrade is that database
inactivity is also tracked
 Lets you rid your systems of dead mail files and applications that
are truly no longer being used
 Some investigation using Activity.nsf will probably save you gigabytes of disk
space
 And you won’t be wasting time backing up obsolete databases
Create a Test Environment
 You’re going to need to know:
 How versions interact
 How to manage the new environment
 All in a place where you can afford to break things a little
 You’ll need a couple of test servers to mimic your production
environment as closely as possible
 But how do you get a test environment with limited budgetary resources?
How to Test on the Cheap
 Scavenge machines
 Ask for old machines as they come out of production
 Any old pieces of junk will do, as long as you can install an operating system
and get a server going
 You need to provide a place to test concept, not performance
 Temporarily “borrow” them
 Arrange to take a new server for a week or two before it goes on to production
 Get a state of the art server to test throughput and to run tests on timings for
compact and updall
– Especially if you are going from R5, R6, or R7 and want to bring all files
to the new ODS
Who Tests What
 Ensure that proper testing done by the people who use apps
 Stay out of it yourself
 Have all apps “signed off” by owners when it’s proven that they run
under Release 8
Take Me to the Pilot
 Build a Domino 8 Pilot Server in your domain
 Let a small number of Notes 8 users live on it – maybe 50
 For best results, pick users carefully
 Technical types and power users are good
 You must have “normal” folks on there too
 They do things that you’d never think of!
 And don’t forget to give them a discussion application or Teamroom
to air out their issues
 A word of warning!
 Don’t let VPs, CIOs or CEOs on a pilot
 They won’t give you the feedback you need
 They get crabby when there is downtime
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce Scope Creep
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
Mail Template Customizations
 If your enterprise has customized the default mail file template, do
not merely redesign your mail files with the Notes 8 template
 To ensure that all things work correctly, examine the current
template and look at all customizations
 Compare with the functionality of the Notes 8 mail template
 If your customizations are still needed, create a new template
 Make a non-replica copy of the MAIL8.NTF
 Add your customizations
 Then TEST TEST TEST before you use it to redesign mail files
Deploy It with Seamless Upgrade Desktop Policy
 Use a Desktop Settings Policy to
deploy the mail template
It can automatically redesign the mail file
the first time a user logs in using Notes8
 Include the automatic Upgrade of
custom folders
It’s on by default
 Avoid prompting the user before
upgrading the design
There are certain cases where this has
value, such as when user have multiple
Notes client systems to be upgraded
But it generally just trouble for everyone
Upgrade Address Book First
 It’s usually not possible to “flash cut” all servers to Release 8
 There will be a period of coexistence where the servers running the previous
release lives with servers running 8
 Prove that this can happen by upgrading the address book first,
before any server
Examine Your Customizations
 All customizations to your current address book should be evaluated to see
if they are still needed in Release 8
 You might find that views you added are now part of the new version’s Address Book
 It’s a golden opportunity to get rid of obsolete and ad-hoc views
 Follow the rules for address book customization that are in Administrator’s
Help
How to Upgrade the Design
 Make a non-replica copy of Pubnames.ntf and put in needed
customizations
 And document all of your changes to help with future upgrades
 Replace design on a local replica
 Push it to the Administration Server
 Issue this console command to reindex views
 LOAD UPDALL NAMES.NSF –R
 Replicate to other servers
 Then run updall on the address book on all servers
 It’s best to do this after hours on a Friday or Saturday
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce Scope Creep
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
Build Client and Server Kits
 Create installation instruction documents for both clients and
servers
 These are step by step guides with plenty screenshots
 They are the proper recipes to help you reach your design goals consistently
 This is mandatory, even if you create automated procedures
 Installers will have something to fall back on should problems arise
Client Install Kits
 You can build client install
executables using the InstallShield
OEM Tuner for Lotus Notes
This will let you create a “package” that
can be deployed using Smart Upgrade
Add or Remove Features
 The Tuner effectively lets you craft a client package exactly as
specified in your requirements and design
Craft the Kit for Any Delivery System
 Create a single or multiple executables that can be delivered via
Smart Upgrade
 Or include your package with any of the 3rd party desktop management
packages
Server Install Kits
 There is no Lotus installation methodology built for servers
 But you can still make it easier for installers
 Expand the installation files
 Put them directly on the server
 Put them on a network share
 Put them on a CD for remote sites
 Create a menu system for installation
 Reduce risk of “Fat Fingering” typos
Server Installation Scripts
 A simple set of CMD files can make the difference between a quick
install or a tedious one
Backout Plans
 Before you do any upgrading, put together Backout Plans
 These are the actions you would take if the installs failed and you had to take
the system back to the pervious release
 Backout plans can make the difference between success and terror
 Remember that you must test your Backout Plans
Server Upgrade Sequence
 Upgrade “first production” server
 In many cases, this will be the Administration Server
 Upgrade infrastructure servers like replication hubs first
 If these are down, few will notice
 This gives you the chance to push more Domino 8 servers into the domain to give one
final stability check before unleashing them on users
 Messaging systems such as Mail routing hubs, SMTP
 Mail servers are next
 But not mail templates
 Wait until the client software is upgraded for mail template upgrades
 If your mail servers are clustered, use that to your advantage
 Upgrade the primary servers first
 Users can always fail over to the secondary servers if there is a problem
Agenda
 How to secure funding and reduce Scope Creep
 Ensuring acceptance by the user community
 Making sure applications will run right under Notes/Domino 8
 A safe way to implement the mail file and address book redesigns
 Building server and client kits to ensure consistency
 Important things you can do now before the upgrade starts
Consolidating Servers
 Domino 8 outperforms previous versions
 Upgrading is an opportunity to consolidate servers
 But how do you figure out which ones can be consolidated?
 One way is to look at the average number of users per hour on a
server
 This should be done in conjunction with analyzing the system at an OS level
 There are no views in STATREP.NSF to support this kind of research,
but they’re relatively easy to create
This is What You Want
Here’s How to Get It
 First, you must be collecting
statistics from your servers
 Configure this in the
EVENTS4.NSF, known as the
Monitoring Configuration Database
You’ll need to load the COLLECT task on
the server doing the collecting
Also add COLLECT to the SERVETASKS
line in the server’s NOTES.INI
Collect Stats Every Hour
 It’s best to have a single server collect stats from all servers ever
hour
 This gives you a consistent snapshot of the statistics generated by servers
Create a new view in STATREP.NSF
 You’ll need a flat, non-categorized view in the Monitoring Results
database so you can export to a spreadsheet
 You don’t have to do it yourself
 I’ll upload (will upload) a customized STATREP.NSF to my blog
 It has a lot of cool views
 You can just download it!
Export the Data in This View to a CSV file
 Export the data to a comma separated value (CSV) text file
 Open it with your favorite spreadsheet
 The spreadsheet must be able to do pivot tables
 If you’re using Excel, just take all the defaults when
creating the table
 Place the server names in the top of the pivot
 Hours in the left column
 And users in data section
 Change the formula for the data to be
“average of users” rather than
“sum of users
 It will look as follows
It Will Look Something Like This
 Your data will differ, but it should look something like this
 You’re actually seeing the average number of users per hour
Turn on the Chart Wizard
 In Excel, just click the Chart Wizard
 The default chart type is not the one we want
 Right click the chart for a menu and select Line Chart
Easy to Clean Up
 It’s quite easy to clean it up and put into a monthly report
 But you can use it to help compare loads on servers
 And to help you decide on which servers to consolidate
Very Important! Keep the Idle Users Off
 Inactive users stay connected to Domino for four hours
 They take up valuable resources
 And gives you an incorrect active user count
 Use this Domino NOTES.INI parameter
 SERVER_SESSION_TIMEOUT=30
 This disconnects them after 30 minutes of idle time
– Lotus recommends 30 to 45 minutes as the lowest value
 They don’t have to re-enter their passwords if they become active again
Ten Other Things You Can Do Now
1.
Audit your servers – gather information on:


Domino server versions

Hardware – disk space/RAM/CPU

Operating system – will you upgrade OS?

Add-on products

Special purpose servers that might need attention during upgrades

Third-party and other software

Anti-viral and UCE software
You’ll use this information in your upgrade planning to decide how to treat
each server
Ten Things You Can Do Now … (cont.)
2.
Remove back-up copies of LOG files and Notes.ini files from the
data directories
3.
Remove old core dump RIP files and debugging files
4.
Remove old NSD logs from IBM_Technical_Directory so that new
entries won’t be mixed with old ones
5.
Get rid of any restored files, especially those not in the data path
Ten Things You Can Do Now … (cont.)
6.
Remove obsolete person documents

Talk with Human Resources – validate who should be in Notes and who
should not be in Notes

7.
Review connection documents – eliminate duplications in
replication schedules

We tend to make connection documents in emergencies

8.
You’ll be amazed at how many licenses you’ll save
And then never get rid of them
Eliminate unused applications and mail files

Use Activity Logging and Activity Trending to find unused databases and get
rid of them
Ten Things You Can Do Now… (cont.)
9.
Analyze logs for error conditions that can be fixed prior to the
upgrade
10. Analyze statrep statistics and conduct performance monitoring
now so you have a clear benchmark for the new version

Keep a non-replica copy of a recent statrep so that you’ll have some
historical data to compare to post upgrade
server statistics
Things that will be available on the blog
 This presentation
 The Intel server installation system
 The customized STATREP.NSF
Thank you!
 Any questions?
 Fire away!
 Q&A
 Andy Pedisich
President – Technotics, Inc.
[email protected]
http://www.technotics.com
http://www.andypedisich.com