You’re cruising along happily in your Microsoft universe when all of a sudden a customer comes and asks for you to install Lotus Domino for their groupware system.
After in vain trying to convince them of using Microsoft Exchange Server, you finally give in, and start the research for what you need to do. You head to the computer
stores, and they have virtually every iteration of style of book on Microsoft products, but none on Lotus Domino. And when you do find a book, its about development,
not installation and administration. Not having the time or money for official training you just install it several times until you think you have it right. That’s
exactly what I did the first time. And then I attended the class for System Administration, and I had to go and make several changes to the installation.
But, I want to share my experience to make it a lot easier. Installing and using Domino Server isn’t that difficult. It may look different than anything you have
ever used, but, that is testimony to its multi-platform roots. And with IBM heavily pushing Domino Server to replace cc:Mail sites, this may become something you
will see often in the near future.
What we want to go over here is a preferred way to get Domino Server into operation using Windows NT Server as the platform. It is possible to install Domino Server
on NT Workstation, Windows 95, OS/400, and others. However, many of the situations will be where an existing Novell Netware site will want to move from cc:Mail
to Lotus Notes. (Note: It is rumored at this time that Lotus Notes will no longer be released for the Novell Netware platform.) The easiest way for them to integrate
the systems is to install a Windows NT Server dedicated to running Lotus Notes.
Installing Windows NT Server
The installation process for Windows NT Server should be the same installation you have done many other times, only with a few minor modifications and considerations.
Primarily, you should ensure that you have the correct protocols installed to match the network it will be installed on. If the network uses TCP/IP, and you can
use a dedicated server, the best protocol to use is pure TCP/IP. If it is a Novell Network using IPX/SPX only, you may wish to install both TCP/IP and NWLink IPX/SPX
for future growth.
Integration with other server systems should be minimal. It should be best to install the system as a stand-alone server, not part of any existing domain. No trusts
should be used. The server itself should be as secure as possible, so that that only thing recognizable from a port scan would be that it is a Lotus Domino Server.
It is not necessary to set up any user accounts other than what is necessary just to administer the system. The Domino Server will take care of everything else.
It is also important to remember that you will usually use Domino’s Web Services, so you do NOT want to install Internet Information Server. If you already have,
you may go in and change the port it uses from port 80 to something like 8080. That way you may still run Web based administration tools for the Windows NT Server
if necessary, but not conflict with Domino’s Web Server.
Once the Windows NT Server installation is completed, you will want to choose a name for the Domino Server. This does not have to be the same name as what you named
the server, but that is usually preferred. For our example, lets use a domain name of vf.net, the host name of the NT server as winnt1, and notes1 as the name of
the Domino server. When installing on an IPX/SPX network, you will just want to use a machine name that matches what you will call the Domino Server.
You may decide you need to use the Windows NT Server for things other than Domino. That is not as much a technical problem, but a management issue. It has always
been my belief that any major service, such as a database, or email, or groupware, should have its own server. In my experience, by giving these intensive processes
their own server, it is less likely to interfere with file and print services, which are usually more mission critical to the enterprise. Also, should you be required
to perform maintenance such as adding memory to a Domino Server (Which can use quite a bit) you won’t have to take down an entire site, just notify everyone to
log out of email. And, of course, the fewer loads on a server, the less likely it is to crash, all other things being equal. Face it, no server software is as reliable
as administrators would like them to be, having them crash once a week, or once a year.
If you use DNS or WINS for your TCP/IP network, you will want to configure them now. For DNS, add a host (A) record of domino1 to the IP address, and a mail exchange
(MX) record pointing to notes1. If the IP address of the server ever changes, you may just change the host record to point to the new system. From a client machine
you should now be able to ping the server machine.
Your Windows NT Server is now ready to become a Lotus Domino Server. The rest of our installation is for the Domino software, version 4.6.
Installing Domino Server
Now for the fun part. We’ll try going step by step on the installation, and show why we choose the options that we do. Hopefully this article will cover any variations
that you require. We are going to assume that you will only require a single Domino Server. If you are an organization that requires multiple servers, you should
really hire a Certified Lotus Professional to do your installation. Having multiple sites greatly increase the complexity of this software.
When I install a Windows NT Server, I try to partition the drive space into a C: drive for processes and applications, and have all the data on a D: drive. This
way it is easier to backup data. In this instance, I would install the Domino program files in the C:\NOTES directory, while putting the data directory in D:\NOTEDATA.
When I run backups, I may only run a backup on the total D: drive.
Start the installation of the software. First, you will be prompted for installation options. I always pick Custom Install just to review the options (Figure 1).
You will also be able at this point to select your installation directories. Continue on and the installation will complete by copying all the necessary files.
To begin configuring the server, you will start the Domino Server Administration program. First prompt is about this being the first Server in your organization.
Select First Server and continue on. Next option is Quick and Easy or Advanced Setup. Again, I like the Advanced Setup option just so I can verify all settings.
Your next prompt gives you several options for users to connect with. You have the option to allow HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, and others (Figure 2). Select your options
that you wish to allow access to. This is why you do not want other services installed on Windows NT Server, since many would be duplicated here.
Final set of options give you details about your installation (Figure 3). Going from top to bottom, you have information about your Organization. The Organization
Name should be your company, domain name would be your Internet domain name. For the Certifier and Company names, shorter is better, such as an abbreviation if
you have a long name. Example would be Cooper, Smith, Jones, & Company would be CSJC. The certifier password should be changed to something that your Notes Administrator
would actually be able to remember and use.
Next set of options is where you will set the server’s name. In our example, this will be NOTES1. Administrator’s Identity will be the network or notes administrator.
Again, change the password to something that can be memorized.
For network options, this is where you should Customize and use only TCP/IP if possible (Figure 4). Put in the Fully Qualified Domain Name for the server. You
will want to turn off NetBIOS over TCP/IP, as this usually isn’t necessary. If you already are running TCP/IP, you won’t need the NetBIOS.
The rest of the settings are for remote access direct to the Domino Server. If you will be using these, I suggest finding someone who can work with you on these
settings. They can be added after the rest of the installation. Click FINISH, and the server files will be created.
Once completed, select Exit to Workspace. We now want to configure Domino to work as a Windows NT Service. In the c:\notes directory, there is an executable called
NSERVICE.EXE. Run that, allow it to finish, then go into the Control Panel, Services, and make sure that Lotus Domino Server starts automatically.
We want to enable a process called Shared Mail. This will save space on the server by having carbon-copied messages saved in one space rather than in each person’s
mailbox. Edit the NOTES.INI file in the system root directory (C:\WINNT). At the end of the file, add the line Shared_Mail=2 to the file. Save and exit. Now you
can start the Lotus Domino Service from the Services icon in the Control Panel. A text box will come up and start all the different parts of the Domino Server.
Congratulations, it’s installed, and its time to add users.
You are probably still in the Notes Administration program (assuming you’ve been following directions) and that is where you will add users from. The Notes Administrator
has many options, but, for this, we’re just going to cover adding users, since that is what you’ll need to do to get this operational for your clients.
Click on the People icon. From there, Register Person (Figure 5). You’ll be prompted to verify that you have licensing, and then you’ll be asked for your certifier
password. That is the password you entered earlier. From there, you will be at the Register Person prompt. The options should be left at default. The option to
Add NT User Account is tempting, however, it will not add new users to groups, or create home directories, or anything else except basic creation. Continue on,
and you’ll be at the register person screen. Everything here is fairly self-explanatory, but make sure Set Internet Password is set if you’ll be using Internet
connectivity for this system. The Mail menu should be okay as default, and the Other menu will allow you to make a comment (“Parts Manager”).
One important thing: Where to store the User ID. If you put it in the Name and Address Book, once the client downloads it, the user.id file is removed from the
server, and exists only where the user puts it. If it is configured so that this is saved to the user’s home directory, that is fine, since you run tape backups,
and you will be able to recover the user.id file if necessary. The best option is to save it to a floppy diskette, and keep this diskette safe. You can fit many
users onto the same diskette. This is also good, so that you know what the original password is. If a user forgets their password, you can copy the safe copy of
the user.id file to the user’s h:\notes\data directory, give them the original password from when you first created the user, and they are back in business. Since
you are allowed to do both, that is the best suggestion. Once it is complete, click on Register and this will create the user’s ID file, create the mail file, and
add the user to the Name and Address Book.
Continue this process for the users necessary to be added. Once they are all complete, you will then need to install on their desktops.