Leadership By Numbers

Category Management


Brilliant ! Microsoft pays Seinfeld 10 million to advertise Microsoft Vista as a Joke. No. Wait. That didn't come out quite right. Microsoft marketing has realized that Vista is under-appreciated and is spending oogles of money to better inform the spending public of their error. Hm. I'm still blurry on the details of this mission: is it aimed at customers who are misinformed buffoons, or at exposing the funnier side of Microsoft ?

When I was an IBM Business Partner, all the partners would beg IBM to compete with Microsoft's advertising budget. "Why," we would plead "can't IBM match those Microsoft dollars?" The answer can be paraphrased as, "we don't compete by advertising, we compete on value." I think the intention behind IBM's orientation, was to acknowledge the eventually everyone would wise up and pick the right product from the right vendor.

. Looking at Amazon's list of the top 10 laptops, shows that 1 is running Vista, 1 has the Mac OS, 3 have Linux and 5 come with XP. The new platform of choice is the mini-netbook, and its pricing ensures that Vista is not going to be seen. It looks as though the marketing focus of IBM was right.

What are the odds that this trend is going to change ? Nil. Read Gartner's latest prognostications and ask yourself if you expect to see an expansion of Vista for corporate or consumer customers.

In the mean time, even for all the advertising, I'm staying away from pleather.

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:28 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux Sametime


I don't know why, and IBM doesn't know why, but there are occasional times when the Sametime servers do not create instant or scheduled meetings. What's especially frustrating, is that there doesn't appear to be any trace or log information that would even signal when this failure occurs. We only know by personal testing, or when a client notifies us. I need these servers working 24x7.

Running a scrub of fixup, compact and updall against the stconf.nsf will return the server to full utility--but it has to be performed with Domino off-line.

My work-around has been to create a shell script, and run it weekly as a cron job. If you have the same problem, then you might need this simple solution. Note, that I'm relying on Daniel Nashed's excellent Unix/Linux Start script (which is referred to in my shell script as "Domino").

#!/bin/sh
# change this to #!/bin/ksh for AIX and Solaris
#include
########################################################################
# Main scrub Logic
# A cron job is expected to run this once a week
########################################################################
echo "Stopping Domino at $(date +%c)" > scrublog.txt
cd /local/notesdata
/opt/ibm/lotus/Domino stop
echo "Domino stopped at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/fixup stconf.nsf -f
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/compact stconf.nsf -C -D -i
/opt/ibm/lotus/bin/updall stconf.nsf -c
echo "Scrub job is complete at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
echo "Now starting Domino at $(date +%c)" >> scrublog.txt
/opt/ibm/lotus/Domino start

Total time for downing the server, and scrubbing the database has been less than 10 minutes.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Sametime

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:36 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8 Linux


After work, I set up a ND8.5 server on a RHEL 5x server. I wanted a quick look at some of the standard templates, through a web browser. I haven't been disappointed.

The Discussion database hasn't changed in it's web layout since (I'm guessing, here) R5 ? The new interface is very slick, the rich-text editor doesn't require an applet and it has a special Lotus logo, "Web 2.0 powered by Domino XPages." I'm sure that over the weekend, I'll be reading more and more blog entries with screenshots.

Clearly, a lot of pride has gone in to building this release.

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus Domino 8.5

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:48 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category


Cisco has just added a messaging platform competing against Microsoft Exchange, and it makes IBM/Lotus Domino look like a smart choice. With $215 million, Cisco purchased PostPath for its open-source e-mail and calendar system. Combining PostPath with WebEx gives Cisco an interesting, and cost-effective alternative to Exchange, which seems to be turning into a metaphor for a General Motors SUV.

Here are the best reads (so far) on the M&A:http://blogs.computerworld.com/r_i_p_exchange

Cisco is buying PostPath, and that is going to kick Exchange in the head.

http://daily-tech-report.com/2008/08/28/cisco-attacks-microsoft-by-acquiring-open-source-based-exchange-alternative-postpath-for-215/

For Cisco, the Exchange server was its Achilles' Heel as it had to rely on Microsoft's security to make this component secure. Now with PostPath, Cisco can now push a product which isn't based on Microsoft software - the added bonus is that with a small market share at present, PostPath won't be subjected to as many security attacks.

http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=161065&ref=g_homelink

PostPath has a Linux-based e-mail system that it has marketed as a replacement for Exchange: It can work natively with Active Directory and supports the Outlook client. PostPath's small size made larger companies hesitant to buy the e-mail system, a problem solved by Cisco's ownership. The Cisco/PostPath partnership will threaten the Exchange franchise.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/082808-cisco-buy.html?hpg1=bn

. . . customers will look at WebEx Connect and say this is scalable and secure and better than any IT infrastructure I can put together, and the cost differential is night and day

Cisco's direction makes it much simpler to have a discussion with senior management about the real value of a messaging system which is based on open-standards and is integrated with open-source.

I'm going to quote myself on this subject (http://www.leadershipbynumbers.com/ms.nsf/d6plinks/BMAA-7GVM8H):

My Notes client is on Eclipse, relying on ODF with Symphony, and running Linux (where it fits). I support Mac, Linux and Windows for the users, and I can pick any OS for the back-end [for the server].

Oh, and did I forget to mention Sametime and Quickr integration ? Or, that Ubuntu is getting the Notes Client ?

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:27 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino ND8


The best news is that everything works as detailed. The UI is light and fast (even through our SSL gateway).

The testing group has been generally positive ("wow, it's fast!"). But, because it is lightweight, it is also feature-lite. It's good enough to be an 85% solution (especially, considering the limitations of the iPhone keyboard).

My biggest surprise is that it works well-enough on some Windows Mobile devices.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, IBM/Lotus Notes

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:37 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category


I'm upgrading our test ND802 servers, and was surprised to find that 64 bit Linux is now supported. The release notes are a little unclear, because on the section with tables for supported releases, there is no mention of the 64 bit RHEL/SLES Linux. I asked IBM/Lotus technical support to confirm the 64 bit choice is accurate, and it's a thumbs-up.

RHEL 5.1 (64-bit) is supported per the Release Notes. Here are all supported versions of Linux:

• Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 x86 (32-bit);
• Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10 x86_64 (64-bit);
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.0 and 5.1 (32-bit)
• Note: XGL and SELinux must be disabled;
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.0 and 5.1 (64-bit)
• Note: XGL and SELinux must be disabled

[EDIT]: Nathan Freeman suggests that a clearer distinction needs to be made between the underlying 64 bit Linux OS and the 32 bit ND802 Domino Linux code. I think I read the announcement with glasses of an Enterprise tint, and others are looking for a complete 64/64 Linux and Domino pairing (which is still to come).

Right now, I'm building a new cluster of RHEL Domino servers. They are going to be running ND802, and I'm ecstatic that the OS can be 64 bit. Because, in a larger, complex work environment it takes a significant pool of skilled labor to install and configure the base server. Network services, SNMP, backup and storage sub-systems all have to be locked up for a solid, stable server. Upgrading an OS is not common, and is usually postponed for complete hardware upgrades. It's simply less hassle to build a new system with a current OS, than it is to upgrade an existing server with its applications.

If I had built my RHEL servers as 32 bit, then it would be years before we could revisit the 64 bit upgrade path. Right now, I have the opportunity to install 64 bit RHEL 5x, and when the full 64 bit Domino Linux is released, it'll be much simpler to nudge Domino over to 64 bit.

I'm not sure how many IBM/Lotus professionals understand how lucky they are with their platform. It's an amazing technology that supports in-place upgrades for Domino.

Technorati Tags: Linux, IBM/Lotus Domino ND8

Posted by Jack Dausman At 3:47 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category IBM/Lotus


CRN Tech reviews the leading contenders in Mashup Editors: Google Mashup, IBM/Lotus Mashup, Adobe LiveCycle, Magic Software, and Yahoo Pipes. Here's the summary statement:

The IBM Mashup Center provides a slightly more attractive alternative because of the platform's flexibility and easy-to-deploy approach

Technorati Tags: IBM/Lotus, Mashup Center

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:09 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration Blackberry IBM/Lotus Domino


Talk into your Blackberry, and it sends out a text e-mail. Sounds hands-free, to me.

Technology Review talks about Jott and fills in some details (as well as identifying some competitive offerings).

What's interesting to me is that the voice processing is so good because it's low-tech. There is a call center in India which handles the transcription.

More importantly, services like Jott continue to demonstrate that the horizon for mobile messaging is continuing to expand.

Technorati Tags: Jott, Blackberry, IBM/Lotus Domino

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:19 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino Programming


Here's a quick overview on the weirdness of soft-deletes and the ($Trash) folder in Domino e-mail. Some, not all, but some of our e-mail accounts do not correctly flush out their soft-delete documents in the trash folder after the designated 48 hours. If you've exposed the design of a mail account, then you know that the trash folder has a special structure to it, which is used by the hard coded name of ($Trash).

We've been in the midst of a very complicated upgrade cycle that includes R5 clients. I was not present at the first stage of the upgrade process, and not every IBM Best Practice was followed. The consequence of some earlier decisions has produced ($Trash) folders which never empty.

We do have analysis tools that can tell us many things about our databases, but there is nothing in the Domino Object Model (DOM) which allows access to documents which have been marked as soft-delete. It's a feature. After all, if I soft-delete a document, it would be a problem for it to show up in a document collection containing current documents. Soft-deleted documents are not given any easy DOM. Go ahead and try to create a document collection of the ($Trash) folder--your count will always be zero.

But there are ways to gauge the size of the trash contents.

Method one: count everything else. If I look at the database properties, I can read the total count of all the documents. Everything. The ACL is a document, the design elements are documents, the mail rules and so on are all documents. Even the trash documents !

If I count the documents in the ($All) view of my mail file and subtract it from the total number of database documents, then I'll get a set which includes the trash documents. If the difference is, say, 50, then I know there isn't much in the trash. On the other hand, if the difference is 4,276, then I know there are a lot of documents that need to be cleaned out of the trash.

Here's a quick excerpt of my code that produces an estimated trash count:

Set allview = svrdb.GetView({($All)})
allviewcount = (allview.EntryCount)
alldbcount = (svrdb.AllDocuments.Count)
doc.trashcount = alldbcount - allviewcount

Method two: run a console statement and read the size of the ($Trash) view. A faster method is to let the server report on the database properties. Entering, "show database names.nsf" will return the number of documents (and their types), including deletion stubs (very useful information, but not needed for our analysis), and the sizes of the application's view.

If there are a lot of documents in ($Trash), then we can expect a corresponding increase in the size of the view. This is a harder value to interpret, but it's clear that 0 means empty and 45K suggests a lot of documents (as it turns out, over 2,700 documents).

Here's a snippet of my code for capturing the console statement:

consoleReturn = session.SendConsoleCommand( dbsrv, {sh database } & doc.filepath(0) )
doc.databaseinfo = Today() & Chr(10) & Chr(10) & consolereturn

I'm taking the string that is returned from the SendConsoleCommand and storing it in a document. On the form which displays the document, I use a computed text value that is formatted for Courier (so, the columns all line up, nice and neat). You'll see that I've added the function Today(), because I need to know the last time I took a snapshot of the database values.

When we find a mail account that isn't correctly processing soft-delete documents, we manually purge out the documents and then reset the expire date.

Here's a code sample for resetting the expire date:

If db.getoption(dbopt_softdelete) Then 'Needs to be set and reset
db.undeleteexpiretime=49
db.undeleteexpiretime=48
Else
Msgbox "Soft Delete Is Not Enabled"
End If

Now you can ($Trash) talk with the best of them.



Technorati Tags: ($Trash), IBM/Lotus Domino

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:15 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration IBM/Lotus Domino Linux


Jay Lyman, 451 Group analyst, has noticed that "Companies are increasingly choosing free community-driven Linux distributions instead of commercial offerings with conventional support options." Naturally, I agree. Linux licensing needs to be more flexible to compete with a Microsoft-free line-up.

Recently, I found myself explaining to upper management that Ubuntu, CentOS, et al. aren't really "free-os." But I was struggling for terminology that defined the uniqueness of these Linux distributions. When Lymon discusses Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu and CentOS, he uses the term "community" distros.

To demonstrate the symbiotic relationship between the commercial and community Linux ecosystems, Lyman explained how a school district rolled out Fedora on a handful of machines for a small project and ended up liking it so much that they adopted Red Hat's enterprise Linux distribution across the entire district. In that scenario, small-scale usage of the free Fedora distro translated directly into a major commercial support contract for Red Hat. In turn, Red Hat invests its resources in Linux improvements that trickle back down into Fedora.

So, I'm going to try to slip in "community Linux" instead of "free OS" where I can, and maybe the picture will get clearer.

Technorati Tags: Jay Lyman, Ubuntu, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:21 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration Linux


It looks as though Dell is upping the ante against Asus with its Splashtop "Latitude ON" is a pre-boot Linux environment that will included its own ARM processor and flash memory. It's a computer inside of a computer.

APCMag has a screen shot of Latitude ON, and an overview of its features. My read is that if Dell actually ships Latitude ON, then its greatest impact will be to de-sensitize Linux for the masses.

The second benefit, is that for those of us who tire of Linux tuning our installations, I'm guessing that any laptop that can run Latitude ON will be able to work with a standard Linux distro.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Latitude ON, Linux

Posted by Jack Dausman At 6:03 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux Management Open Source
The recent brouhaha over the "Microsoft Free" announcements by IBM is still resonating. DesktopLinux.com (from eweek) covers the Open Colloration Client Solution and LinuxInsider.com covers "Lindpendence" efforts which recognize the Microsoft-free nomenclature.



Bob Sutor has posted his PDF for the LinuxWorld keynote. I think his frank assessment of the promise of Linux (and all of open-source) is worth reading as a wake-up call to those comfortable with the technical superiority of their favorite open-source under-dog.



John Fontana of NetworkWorld gives the following quote for Sutor, regarding open-source increasing its adoption:

"I'm getting tired of waiting," Sutor said. "Either it's going to happen or it's not going to happen."

Technorati Tags: Bob Sutor, Kevin Cavanaugh, Microsoft-free

Posted by Jack Dausman At 2:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration Blackberry IBM/Lotus Domino Messaging And Collaboration
I had pinned my hopes on Blackberry Connect, as a sort of universal portable e-mail client. Nokia, now, has started to pull back on their commitment to the Blackberry Connect. On the other hand, IBM has worked out some terrific packaging with AT&T and Sprint for Domino integration through Lotus Traveler.

Lotus Traveler is, ultimately, a better solution. My discomfort is that I already have a RIM base, and I'm starting to get the idea that within a year I'll be supporting Blackberries, iPhones and the Lotus Traveler.

It's getting really tough to future-proof.

Technorati Tags: Lotus Traveler, iPhone, IBM/Lotus Domino, Blackberry Connect

Posted by Jack Dausman At 5:53 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Administration
Inside CRM has a terrific listing on the The Power User's BlackBerry Guide: 121 CrackBerry Tips, Hacks and Resources

This is one of those sites that is worth adding under your Blackberry bookmarks.


Technorati Tags: Blackberry

Posted by Jack Dausman At 12:13 AM Location Washington, DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category
Wow. Just, "wow." The blogsphere, analysts and news sources are all over IBM's announcement. "Microsoft-free" is a visionary term distilled from years of Redmond co-opetition while struggling to find a balance with open-source. It's a tough message that doesn't leave any room to negotiate a retraction. There's no going back.

• IBM has announced that an alliance of Novell, RedHat, and Canonical is presenting a Linux desktop standard. "Linux is far more profitable for a PC vendor and the operating system is better equipped to work with lower cost hardware than new Microsoft technology."
• It's being reported that Lenovo might join the Alliance.
• The desktop standard is known as the Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), which is a software suite consisting of Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony and Lotus Sametime.
• Lotus Symphony will be included in the Canonical repository.
• IBM intends to sell pre-configured Linux appliances for SMBs. "Lotus Foundations Start is the first product of IBM's Blue Business Platform initiative designed to simplify the acquisition and use of information technology (IT) for small and medium businesses (SMBs)" (All quotes are from IBM's press releases.)

Analysis:

• OCCS is well thought out. It is not simply a cobbled amalgam of stray Lotus projects hammered into a Linux package. Read IBM's overview (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/occs-overview/).
• This is good timing for IBM. Exchange upgrades are so expensive, that there is a trend for companies to move to hosted solutions. Vista has not done well, and it's successor, Windows 7, is not exciting anyone.
• Adding Canonical, with it's no-cost Ubuntu linux is brilliant. Putting Lotus Symphony in the Canonical repository is brilliant.
• "Microsoft-free" is a parade banner. It's going to define the public perception of IBM. It's only as good as long as the crowd is following IBM. But, Microsoft-free is not copyrighted. If Zimbra, for instance, becomes significantly less expensive and better supported, then IBM could be challenged for their "Microsoft-free" title.
• Linux licensing is going to be problem on the server side. RedHat and Novell SuSE only offer a subscription model. Drop their subscription, and there will be no more patches and updates. Microsoft allows updates without their full Software Advantage pricing. So, over three or four years, it turns out that Microsoft Windows Server can be less expensive. Either the commercial Linux vendors need to match Microsoft's pricing, or IBM needs to work with Canonical for the server side of this equation.

[08/08/08 Edit]Application Development Trends quotes Gartner analyst, Michael Silver, as he sizes up the cost justifcation for a Linux desktop:

Windows is not a huge cost when you get it on a new PC, and the annualcost to get a supported version of Linux with seven years ofsecurity-fix support could end up costing you more than you're payingfor Windows. Windows has at least 10 years of security support and it'sfree.

The Gartner picture is pretty accurate for the traditional Linux vendors, but Canonical isn't being factored into these numbers. Ubuntu is Free Opensource (FOSS), so the cost of deployment and maintenance is very, very low. Ubuntu maintains its own repository, and Ubuntu accounts are updated for free. Unlike Novell SuSE or RedHat, Canonical doesn't create its own core Linux OS, but relies on the venerable Debian distribution. The risk that Debian would begin commercializing its releases is unimaginably small. Having a Debian root ensures that Ubuntu will continue to price its client at zero.

I think the industry is at a tipping point, and we are going to see some unexpected migrations into desktop Linux for corporate use.

Technorati Tags: Linux, IBM/Lotus Notes, Microsoft-Free

Posted by Jack Dausman At 1:48 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)