Does Traveler have an issue with the Domino Domain?

This blog post is going to serve two purposes.  First, to give a heads up of something I ran into this week.  Secondly, if someone has seen this before, to give me a smack on the back of the head and and tell me that this is a known issue.  So here goes.

This week we were in the process of adding new mobile users onto our MDM system where Traveler is the endpoint for their mobile mail.  Like most other organizations I'm sure, we use groups to secure who can and cannot access the Traveler server.  During setup it was discovered that these users were not in one of the groups that Traveler users are assigned to, so, I added them in.  Since they are all on the same OU, I went into the Domino Directory, located those users, copied them out as a table and pasted it into Excel and then extracted their Domino email address from the column and pasted their addresses into the proper group.  I then saved the group out, replicated to my Domino server, did a show nlcache reset command on the Traveler server and informed the support staff that mail on the mobile device should work now.  After about a half hour, I started hearing reports that they still were not getting mail on the mobile devices.  To troubleshoot, I opened a browser and went to the Traveler server to try and log in with the users name and password.  While I didn't capture the exact error message, it told me that it couldn't access the users mail on their server.  The same message one gets if the users name is not in a security group or listed in the allow field for the Traveler server.  Wasn't making any sense.  I went into the Domino group to double check they were in there and that's when it stood out to me.

Normally are users are added in one at a time, so selecting them off the pick list is a straight forward process. Find them, click Add, click OK, save and close the group.  But like I said, these users were added in by my short cutting the process and pasting in their addresses.  When it pasted, it pasted the username in there with the @Domain at the end like is displayed in the People view of the Domino Directory.

Example: User Name/OrgUnti/Org@Domain

For fun, I removed all of the @Domains at the end of the peoples names, saved the group again, replicated again to the Traveler server, issued another show nlcache reset and after a few minutes attempted to access their Traveler accounts via a browser.  It worked!

So when I had a few minutes after that fun, I tried to see if I could replicate that behavior on my account.  I went to my Traveler test server, added the domain of my organization to my username, saved and closed, did the same steps above and when I tried to access me on the test server, it still worked.  So my only thought is that on initial setup it doesn't like the @Domain listed.

So what say you, Yellowsphere.  You ever see something like this?

iOS 6 oddness and Lotus Traveler Part 4 - It's fixed!

Okay, if you've been following the saga of the calendar entries with iOS6 and Traveler not playing nice, it appears to be fixed.  Just after lunch today I saw that iOS 6.0.1 had been released to the public and on the last bullet item of fixes it stated:

Fixes a bug affecting Exchange meetings

So when I had a few minutes this afternoon and after getting a ping from Sam on Twitter, I reconfigured my iPhone to authenticate with Firstname Lastname rather then my internet email address, which was the workaround.  After doing a quick sync to get my data back, I created a new entry on the calendar and now things are working correctly!  Also, Sam mentioned that he had older entries that were "broke" still on his device.  He reported that going in to update the entry and then save it back out cleared the error on those.  Huzzah!
So go quickly and download the update on your iDevices to 6.0.1!
So thanks to the IBM Traveler support team for getting this issue tested and handed off to Apple for them to fix! And thanks to Sam for testing that out for me as well!

A Traveler security "issue"

Once again, repeat after me, "IBM Lotus Traveler just works." 
Amen.

That's been the mantra since it's release and it does just work.  But I found an issue this week that had me calling support.  And with their help we got it fixed.  Here's the scenerio.
As part of our policy with mobile devices, you have to have approval for certain ones to be used.  When someone connects one to the system, we put them into "Deny Access" mode until they are allowed.  For one user, we set their deny access and went about our business.  After 30 days, that record removed itself from the LotusTraveler.nsf database.  Now after some time, the user has gotten approval for her device to be used and we told her to go ahead and set it up.  But it wouldn't work.  When I looked at her records in LotusTraveler.nsf, there was only the one there for her current device, but not for the one that needed approved.  At the Domino console, I typed the command
tell traveler security status <username>
It showed the current device information as well as the old device in question that was locked out.  So the Traveler server still had in it's back-end database this locked out device even after the 30 days had passed.  Support had me issue the command to clear up the lock out:
tell traveler security delete<device ID> <username>
Once that command ran, it removed that locked out record and Traveler data started to flow! 
The important thing to remember with managing a Traveler server is that even though the GUI doesn't show the record for the device, it may still be lurking in the background database.  But those two commands can help save the day.
It just works.

War and Peace - A review. Plus, musing about NYC

This week, myself and a co-worker were fortunate enough to go to the Metropolis of New York City to attend the inaugural "Mobile War and Peace Workshop - Lotus Traveler: The Limits and Beyond" presented by Teamstudio and led by the one and only, Mr. Paul Mooney.  Now, if you are a frequent reader of the old "House O' Blog", you might ask why I would want to attend a workshop on Traveler since I have already implemented a setup in my work environment.  I asked myself that question too to be honest.  But let me tell you, I am glad I went.  If nothing else, for a sanity check.  As Traveler becomes more and more strategic of a platform within our workplace, making sure we are on the right path is always a good thing.
As always when Paul presents a topic, he comes prepared.  And the key to his preparation is his no-nonsense real world experience that he brings to the table.  Plus, the topics that are being covered is not from an IBM'er, (not that it's a bad POV), but from someone independent and does this for a living.  So if it's crap, he'll tell ya.  But fortunately for us, Lotus Traveler is the opposite of that.
The workshop walked through not just "how" to install the service into your Domino environment, but things to take into consideration and possible pitfalls along that way.  Whether you are brand new to the product or have already put one into production, there is something for everyone. Plus, the networking with others is always invaluable.  It's great to hear what others run into and share with them things that you see.  Oh, if you were wondering if this was a hidden sales pitch from Teamstudios, you can forget that.  Yes, they do give a quick review of their offerings, but the day is really all about Lotus Traveler.  So, if you have the chance to go, DO IT.  Well done Teamstudios and Paul!
Now, aside from being in NYC to get my learnin's on, I also had the chance to go look around at things.  I hadn't been there since 1988 and boy things have changed.  Times Square was overwhelming but at the same time beautiful.  The lights, sounds, people.  A lot for a redneck to take in, but stunning none the less.  Now, I can't say that I would ever want to live there, but Manhattan is a wondrous place.  And the cab rides, that's where the fun comes in.  I have never been in a car going those speeds with that many other cars around me.  Exciting and freighting all at the same time.  That's New York City.  Or parenthood.  I'm not sure.

SnTT - Another fun day with Traveler

Had two things come up today that I wanted to share with the class.  Both were goofy things with Traveler.  Not bad, just goofy oversights on our part.  Ready?  Here goes.

1. My buddy from the hardware team, (the group that is responsible for taking care of all things hardware, including mobile devices), calls me first thing this morning from the executive floor.  One of the execs was having an issue with items in the outbox on his iPhone not sending.  The iPhone was just sitting there in the connecting state with that little spinning icon, but nothing going out.  So we went to work trying to think of anything and everything we could do to fix this.  Which included me resetting the account from the Traveler server side.  When that didn't work, he removed and reinstalled the profile on the iPhone.  Still, nothing worked.  Was it something wrong with the iPhone?  Nope.  But that's when the exec said something.  "You know, I got a couple of big attachments yesterday, could that have something to do with it?"  Bingo.  Mail quotas and Traveler don't play well together.  Well, at least the way the users want them to, I'm sure.  He was over his quota by 20 MB or so.  We had the exec clean up his mail, I ran a compact -C on the server, presto.  Mail was once again working.  So, dear fellow Domino/Traveler Administrator, when someone is saying mail isn't syncing on their device, first stop, quota town.  Goofy, right?
2. For our second tale of woe this evening, we turn to the tale of my boss getting an iPhone.  Sure.  She's allowed to get an iPhone, but I have to wait until June.  Dang Verizon.  Well anyways, she wanted her phone set up on Traveler.  Again, not a big deal.  I walk her through connecting up to the Traveler server, (which took forever because she has nails and nails can't type on the iPhone screen...comedic hijinks ensues), generating her profile and installing it on the device.  Again, no brainer.  But I found it odd that it didn't prompt her for a PIN as our security policy dictates.  Didn't think too much of it for a while.  I then realized that I hadn't added her name to the group that is allowed to access the server.  If you're not in that group, no Traveler for you normally.  I know it works for others, but why not for her?  Simple.  Since she's my boss, she's in the admin group for our Domino Domain.  The admin group is listed in the Domino Directory security tab as server admins.  So in Traveler, even if you have security set to only allow certain people or groups access the server, the overall admin fields in the Domino Directory trump the Traveler security.  So after adding her to the group and waiting a while, she got the security policy we have set for Traveler.

So there you have it folks.  Two issues that are easily fixed and even more easily overlooked.  Continue on now about your business.

Today's Traveler issue - Name lookup and the power of Getting Social

Had a weird issue come up today that I hadn't seen before.  One of the support team came to me today saying that someone with in our organization couldn't find their name when they do a name look-up against the corporate directory on the iPhone.  But here's the kicker.  The person has a last name with just 3 characters.  And, his first name has just 3 characters.  So here's what I did to troubleshoot.
1.  Looked up other names.  Like mine.  No problem.  Both first and last name.
2.  Looked up other people I knew, but first name only, that had 3 character first names.  Can't find them by first name, but the longer then 3 character last names returned their name.
3.  Checked it on the Android and the Windows Mobile.  Worked fine there returning 3 character last names.
4.  Opened a ticket with support.
5.  Twittered the problem.
And Declan Lynch fired back with the answer within minutes. It's a configurable setting in a config file.  That's when support got back to me with answer, too.

• On your Traveler server, go to the \Lotus\Domino\data\traveler\cfg folder.
• Locate the file NTSConfig.xml 
• Open the file in notepad, and locate the line <PROPERTY NAME="NAME_LOOKUP_MIN_LENGTH" VALUE="4" /> 
• Change the value from 4 to 3.
• Save and close the file
• Restart the Traveler task on the server.
• Bingo.

Note that this appears to be only an "issue" with the iOS devices.  Droid and Windows Mobile worked fine.  Not sure about Nokia, since we don't have any of those to support.  So thanks to the power of being social on Twitter and Lotus Support, an unknown problem was resolved in minutes!  I blogged the other day about the "Get Social" theme from Lotusphere this year.  It works.  Join the conversation, if you haven't already.  There are a lot of good people out there like Dec and Gregg, (who also fired a response) that are willing to help.  The Lotus community is something else.  Thanks, guys!

A Lotus Traveler upgrade issue - Self-inflicted

Let's face it.  Lotus Traveler has been the true gem in the Lotus software portfolio.  All of us who are Admins of the server know, it just works.  So going into today's upgrade of my production server from beta to the full 8.5.2 version I didn't think it was going to be a big deal.  But then the problems started. But as I came to find out, they were self-inflicted.
After upgrading to the latest 8.5.2 code and applied FP1, I saw that there was a hot fix available for the server to resolve an SSL issue.  It's a manual install that requires copying a couple of files and then editing the VersionInfo.txt on the server.  Not a big deal, right.  Well, that's what I thought too.
After installing, I fired up Domino and made sure the Traveler task started, I went off testing my iPod Touch and my Windows Mobile 6 device.  Mail was syncing and all was working well.  I then went off to test the install on Droid.  As part of the upgrade from beta to full production version, you have to un-install and reinstall Traveler on the Droid.  Since I had the installer .apk in my Gmail, I ran the install from that.  When the install of the Lotus Traveler Installer finished on my Droid, it came up and asked for my server name, user name and password.  I entered all of the information required, but it wouldn't connect to the server. Error connecting to server was the message that kept popping up.  Tried EVERY combination that I could think of for user name and server name.  Nothing.  But I found out the problem.
You need to be VERY careful when copying in the new information for the VersionInfo.txt file.  Turns out that when I copied over the information from the readme, I didn't do it correctly.  Instead of the lines reading:
#Lotus Mobile Installer - Android
Lotus\ Installer.Android.filename=LotusInstaller.apk
Lotus\ Installer.Android.version=8.5.2.1 201012142159

it looked more like

#Lotus Mobile Installer - Android
Lotus\ Installer.Android.filename=LotusInstaller.apk Lotus\
Installer.Android.version=8.5.2.1 201012142159

So after correcting that, it worked right away.   So be warned.  While copy and paste can be your best friend, it can also be your downfall ;-)

An interesting iPad/Traveler situation this week

Had an interesting situation happen with an iPad this week that I wanted to share with the class.

A user brought our support team an iPad to set up for him.  Not a big deal, right?  Our team followed standard protocol for setting up the iPad, usually an extremely painless and quick process.  But after installing Traveler on the iPad, the device would not sync.  Thinking that an error had occurred during installation, they removed the Traveler account, I deleted the device on the server and they started over.  After another installation attempt, no go.  So to make sure that there was no problems with Traveler or his mail file, we used one of out test iPod Touch devices and set his account up on that.  No problem whatsoever.   Mail flow was fine. Calendar and contacts came down to the device also.  So it was back to head scratching time.  My advice was to have the user take the iPad to his home PC and with it connected, do a reset. in iTunes.  That usually wipes the device and resets everything back up.  That didn't help either.  We also noticed that even though nothing was syncing to the device, (no entries in the contacts, calendar or mail), that type ahead was bringing up some addresses in a new message.  Very odd since nothing was showing in the PIM apps.  I decided to hook up the iPad to my PC and use the iPhone Configuration Utility to look at the console of the iPad for anything weird.  I'm glad I did.  I started seeing a lot of weird errors like this:

Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: terminate called after throwing an instance of '
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: NSException
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265] <Notice>: '
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad ReportCrash[268] <Notice>: Formulating crash report for process dataaccessd[265]
Wed Jan  5 13:47:40 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad ReportCrash[268] <Error>: Saved crashreport to /var/mobile/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/dataaccessd_2011-01-05-134740_UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad.plist usinguid: 0 gid: 0, synthetic_euid: 501 egid: 0
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd[265]) <Warning>: (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Job appears to have crashed: Abort trap
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) <Warning>: (com.apple.dataaccess.dataaccessd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
Wed Jan  5 13:47:41 UserFirstName-UserLastName-iPad kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[265] Builtin profile: dataaccessd (sandbox)

So obviously there was a problem on the device.  Our support team shared this information with the user, and it was agreed to wipe the device completely and set it up with a new account.  Once that was complete, Traveler set up and worked without a problem.  

So, what was the problem? Not sure.  We figure that somehow his account on the device became corrupt.  We knew it wasn't Traveler since it worked fine on the iPod Touch.  Truly and odd situation that was pretty much out of our league.

But my take away for you, dear reader, is if you have a growing user base and support a lot of these devices, get the iPhone Configuration Utility and also talk management into buying you an iPod Touch to have around for troubleshooting.  It can really pay off in the end.

Migrating Traveler

We've all come across it.  There comes a time in an admins life when you have to move a server instance from one piece of hardware to another piece of hardware.  Usually it's an EOL situation, hardware upgrade or even for DR testing purposes.  Moving Domino is usually an extremely easy task.  Shut down Domino on the old server, install the application on the new server to match your old server, copy/paste, rename servers, reboot, smoke cigar.  But when another Domino based add-on into gets in the mix, things could get a little tricky.  Or at least, a heightened paranoid level.  But as I found today, moving Traveler to a new server because the old one was EOL, was really pretty straight forward and simple.  And didn't require the users to have to do anything.  Here's my steps:  (Mind you, YOUR mileage may vary so test or have a good backup on hand, just in case.)
1.  Shut down old Domino server, not the hardware.
2.  Copy/paste all Domino .nsf's from old server to new server.
3.  Copy over the servers .id and .ini
4.  Don't forget the .kyr and .sth files too!
5.  On the old server, access the folder \Lotus\Domino\Data\traveler
6.  Copy all of the folders that exist there.
7.  Paste the folders to the new server under the same folder structure.
8.  Finish renaming and readdressing the servers as needed.
9.  Don't forget to disable the Domino service on the old server before you reboot!
10.  Reboot servers and launch Domino on the new server.
That's it.
Once the server came back online, I did a sync with my iPod touch and whamo-o!  Instant sync.
Earlier in the week, I had opened a ticket with Lotus support, and they had informed me that move to a new server was not a problem, but the users may have to resync all their data and that could take a while.  That's when I got to thinking and found that all of the current sync data exists in the above folder structure.  Copying those folders to the new server made the first sync to the server appear like it hadn't missed a beat.  I love it when Lotus makes things nice and simple.  Time for that cigar.

SnTT: A Lotus Traveler Memory Issue, but there is a fix!

Let me start off by once again saying how much I love Lotus Traveler.  I think any admin that has set it up and rolled it out to their users has the same warm feelings for it.  But after returning from Lotusphere and installing the 8.5.1.1 CF1, (to allow for meeting acceptance on the iPhone), that love hit the rocks a little.
I started getting phone calls from people saying that mail was not syncing down to their devices.  Seeing the same issue with myself, I quickly jumped on the server and saw the following errors go flying by on the server console:
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
02/22/2010 09:38:54 AM  Failed to authenticate with server SERVER2/CERT: Your public key was not found in the Domino Directory
Thinking the problem was with a corrupt Domino Directory, I stopped the Domino server, ran ncompact -C -d -i names.nsf, followed by a nupdall -R names.nsf, and restarted the Domino service.  Once the server was up and running, mail started flowing back to the devices and all was well once again.  But then the problem started happening again....and again.   No real reason that I could see, just the weird error.  So today, I finally got around to opening a ticket with support and I'm glad I did.
It seems that there are known memory issues that have been recently uncovered.  When Traveler starts running into low memory issues, it starts causing issues like mine.  Support sent me a link (http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24019529) to the fix.  If you have already downloaded 8.5.1.1 CF1 for Lotus Traveler, make sure you download and implement 8.5.1.1 IF1.  Lotus support told me that they have had good luck with this patch solving the memory issues and returns Traveler to its happy, running state.
I won't be able to install the patch until my planned downtime on Saturday, but at least my issue is a known one and not something too weird.  I hate getting those "it ain't working again" phone calls.
Stay tuned for results!

ND8 Upgrade Step 2.5 - Traveler rocks, but Quickr.....

Now that I have my admin server up and successfully running on Domino 8.0.1, I felt it was time to start playing with the other "toys" that are available to Domino customers. Namely Lotus Notes Traveler and Quickr Entry 8.0.1.
If you haven't heard about Traveler, I highly recommend you taking a look at it if you don't mind Windows Mobile devices. I know, it's no iPhone, but it allows you to wirelessly,(only wireless, there is no add in for cradle based devices), sync your Lotus Notes PIM data to the handheld. Currently, I am only using it on the internal wifi at the office on an HP iPAQ and was amazed at how easy it is to set up. To be honest, the A.D.D kicked in and I didn't even read the instructions, I just blew through the install and it was up and running. But that's when I hit my first hiccup.
Had I read the installation instructions I would have noticed that it does have a really nice automatic configuration untility built into the installation package that adds the needed internet site to the server configuration document. But when the new config is added, it also knocks out any other config you have in place. Which explains why my iNotes login stopped working correctly. So it was time to remove the Traveler service from the servertasks= line and set the "Load Internet configurations from Server\Internet Sites documents:" to disabled. Once that was done and the HTTP task restarted, things started working normally again. That's when I made sure that my test mail server was clear of anything else...and I upgraded that to 8.0.1 and installed Traveler there. It worked and I was happy. I have to say that the engineers did a really nice job putting Traveler together. The speed at which it works really blows me away after what I have seen over the past couple of years using other PIM sync apps. Another perk to the product is that you don't need to have it installed on your own mail server. You can install it on any Domino server within your domain and it will "talk" to your home mail server and sync the data across. My only wish for the product is that they are able to make it work with Palm OS based wireless devices. Oh, and iPhone/Touch too. To find out more about Traveler, check out the information on Lotus website.
So with that task behind me, I turned my attention to Lotus Quickr Entry 8.1 that is part of your Lotus entitlement. But that too led me to a quick stop point when I found out, via Twitter (thanks Phig!), that the internet sites configurations are not supported on Lotus Quickr. So, I'll have to circle around and hit that one again when I have my test app server upgraded and give that another shot.
So there are lots of really cool stuff available out there, for free, as part of your entitlements with Lotus. Spend some time and get to know them! You'll thank me!