Lotus Notes R8.5 Technical Brief
by Darren Duke
01/20/2009
Introduction
Back in March of 2007 we did one of our most popular articles ever with the R8 Technical Brief and subsequent update). Well, the tradition continues with latest release of IBM Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes. What the R8 release did for the Lotus Notes client, the R8.5 release does for the Domino server. Not since the release of R4 (the addition LotusScript) has there been such an update to the Domino platform. Seriously. Everything you thought you knew about Domino has changed! Released at the beginning of January it is now available from Passport Advantage.
Read on to find out what is new and why you NEED to upgrade. And upgrade now.
Quicklinks:
- DAOS (Domino Attachment and Object Service)
- DCT (Domino Configuration Tuner)
- Improved Mail Router
- “Shared Login” replaces “Notes Single Login”
- ID Vault
- Better Non-Notes (Outlook/Exchange/other) Calendar Compatibility
- iNotes Improvements
- Dynamic Policies
- Better Roaming
- Add to Folder Dialog Remembers Previous Folder
- Conclusion
- Downloads and Other Links
Shared Mail is dead. Long live DAOS.
Domino Attachment and Object Service stores a single copy of an attachment per server. For example if 15 people are all sent the same email with a 10MB attachment, Domino will store the attachment in DAOS and insert a pointer in each email. We have seen savings of over 40% in mail and mail archives files internal to STS.
Highlights of DAOS
- New ODS format (51)
- Must use transaction logging to enable DAOS (CPU utilization for Transaction Logging has been reduced by approx 50% in 8.5 too)
- Attachments are stored at the file system level on the server and are (by default) encrypted with the server ID file
- Database specific not entire server, new compact option -daos on|off with -c enables or disables DAOS (load compact -c -daos on mail\mailfile.nsf)
- OS file size is very different to Domino Admin file size and there is a new column in the admin client "Logical Size" (see below)
DAOS alone is worth upgrading for. With disk savings that are staggering (up to 40% in internal testing) forget about buying that new SAN and use the money saved in the budget to bring in STS to help upgrade you. Oh, and it works. Not like Shared Mail at all. Check out the devworks link in the Darren Duke Blog for important information you will need for backing up DAOS enabled servers. IBM has also released a DAOS estimator tool so you can see what the savings will be before implementation. See the Tools section at the end of this article for the download location.
Available to scan 7.0 servers and above, ships with 8.5 but is available as a download for other versions. Will scan you server for configuration “suggestions”. Most are useful, but some will make your users scream for your head when opening views. A nice tool, but please make sure to use with a parent present ;)
All you need to do is to create a database from the DCT.NTF template and off you go. This template is installed on the local Notes client when the 8.5 Administrator client is installed. For those not running the 8.5 client see the Tools section at the end of this article for the download location.
Several improvements have been added to the router including large volume email throughput and several router processors have been move to their own threads. There should (hopefully) be less chance third party programs (AV scanners, etc) from bringing the router down and locking threads.
Now controlled via a policy, Share Login allows a Windows user to open Notes without an Notes password prompt.
Password Recovery always sucked. ID Vault is a much better implementation of this. Far easier on the administrator, help desl and the user. A massive step towards ID sanity.
There is also the possibility to reset you Notes ID password via the web too if you have forgotten it or lost your ID file (?). You still need to be able to login via the web, but as most organizations have a policy sync web and Notes passwords I'm not sure about this one.
There are slew of notes.ini settings to allow for better compatibility between Domino and Exchange. Domino is fully RFC 2445 compliant, Exchange not so much, so IBM has added some ways to get around that until MS embrace the standard (that wasn't supposed be as funny as it came out). Anyway if you organization needs this functionality check out the administrator help.....read it a few times as these settings may cause some issues with rescheduling, custom repeating meetings and weekend rules.
Tons of new formats and even Notes application and Team Room calendars. When can we get Quickr Calendars? Anyway, this is boon for users who have to mange or view several calendars at once.
These can be overlayed on your personal calendar, simply by selecting a check box:
Here is my calendar with a week showing (obviously the screen shot only captures two days) with no other calendars selected:
Here is the same calendar view, now with an additional calendar overlayed, this time in green:
DWA is dead. Long live iNotes. Yes, it is now called iNotes again. And it has been completely revamped. In fact iNotes now looks exactly like Notes Standard email, together with sidebar and all (including widgets), calendar overlays and Quickr integration (save as Quickr link, etc):
Also “Lite” has been updated to add the calendar:
New Ultralite mode allows for iPhones via the safari web browser. You really should be using a BlackBerry you know ;)
A long standing issue with Domino policies has been addressed. Users can now belong to more than two (Org and Explicit) policies at a time and are determined by defined policy precedence levels. These policies can also be managed (and assigned) via group memberships as opposed to the person documents.
Title says it all. Feeds now roam, and the replicator page has made all “roaming” applications as a single entry. This has been completely revamped and there have been rumors that the new roaming will “not be supported” with BES. Haven't tested this, but you should really be using the new R8 contact synchronization anyway.
A pet peeve of mine.....Old versions of the Notes client used to insist on having a bout of amnesia when moving documents to folders. You would move one, select the folder from the dialog, then another and have to go find the folder again. Argh! Well, now it seems as if the 8.5 client remembers the last folder chosen.
Really? You need one? This is a must upgrade for all Domino customers. If you are off support contact STS, get back on it and install this version of Domino. You will not be disappointed. DAOS has the potential to save organizations $1,000's, $10,000's or even $100,000's per year alone. And this is "just" a point release!
From a server perspective, this is the biggest release for increase functionality and performance EVER. Also RIM announced that BES 4.1.6 is fully certified to work on Domino 8.5 (just 10 days after the gold code was released).
As a long suffering Lotus Notes application advocate, this is the single most important developer release ever – superior even to R3-R4 and the Lotuscript addition with the move to xPages in the Notes client IBM really are creating a write once, run anywhere application development environment (there are some blog postings indicating xPages will be in the Lotus Notes 8.5.1 client, and indeed we even saw it working at Lotusphere).
Bottom Line:
If you're contemplating the switch from Domino to Exchange stop right now. Upgrade (in place most of the time) to 8.5 and it will save you a ton of cash, time and training. It is estimated that the migration cost is over $300 per user and the upgrade cost is less than $60, and that is pre-DAOS. Should your organization require resources to help with any aspect of you design, development, testing, training or implementation please don't hesitate to contact STS for a quote.
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