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发信人: Lg (创造人生的传奇), 信区: Linux
标 题: Smoothing out the wrinkles in Domino R5
发信站: BBS 荔园晨风站 (Sat Dec 11 22:44:20 1999), 转信
Smoothing out the wrinkles in Domino R5
How to get started with Lotus Domino R5 Server 5.0.2a for Linux
Summary
Domino offers more features than anything else like it, and it can be a
powerful tool -- if you can get it to work. Find out the pleasures and pitfalls
that Nick Petreley has discovered. (2,800 words)
By Nicholas Petreley
omino Server is the focal point of messaging for many a corporation. One reason
it has been so successful is its platform neutrality: you can find Domino
Server for Linux, Windows NT, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, OS/2, AS/400, and the S/390.
But there are other reasons as well, including its rich set of fault-tolerance
and load-balancing features. As far as I know, Domino Server is the only
messaging system on Linux with transaction logging, a feature that minimizes
data loss in the event of a power failure or system crash.
Domino also allows you to compact databases, back up data, and perform recovery
operations without having to take the databases offline. Almost all
server-management features are available from a single GUI administration tool,
the Domino Administrator. Irritating and counterintuitive as it can sometimes
be, the Domino Administrator is still one of the most powerful tools available
for administering the broad feature set of this messaging, Web, and application
server.
You can also perform many administration tasks using the Java-based Web
interface, but it is only a fraction as functional as the Windows-based Domino
Administrator.
I wouldn't say that Domino's support of these Internet-standard protocols is
quite perfect yet (more on that later), but it has all the essentials. Domino
Server now supports all the important Internet messaging and Web application
protocols, including IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, S/MIME, LDAP (version 3), SSL, and
X.509 certificates. And Domino also has an improved Web interface to mail and
databases. The default mail interface is Java based, and it's quite an
impressive piece of work. You really have to try it for yourself to believe it.
The test bed
I tried the North American, gold version of Domino Enterprise Server 5.02 for
Linux. (Gold means it is the final, frozen code, but the CD-ROM Lotus provided
me was hand created.) My test system was a 333 MHz Pentium II system with 128
MB of RAM, running Caldera OpenLinux 2.3 and Red Hat Linux 6.1.
The server installed and ran identically on both Caldera and Red Hat, so there
seem to be no distribution-specific issues if you run either of those. It's
probably safe to assume it would also install and run identically on a Mandrake
6.1 system, since Mandrake is based on Red Hat. And IBM/Lotus has pledged
support for SuSE and TurboLinux as well.
Domino theory
The CD that Lotus provided did not include any installation instructions, nor
do you get any instructions if you download a trial version from the Web. You
can, however, download Server_Setup.pdf, an electronic version of the document
in Adobe's Portable Document Format.
That is, you can download it if you can find it, as Lotus has buried the
document deep within its archives. To make matters worse, wading through the
online document resources can be an excruciating experience, since the Web
interface is slow and the search engine often fails to produce useful results.
Save yourself the trouble of looking and just click on the link here or in our
Resources section below.
Once you're ready to go, installation is a breeze. Here is a brief summary of
the steps you'll have to take:
Create a user and a group specifically for running Domino. The defaults for
both user and group are notes. You can use the following commands to create the
defaults:
/usr/sbin/groupadd notes
/usr/sbin/useradd -d /home/notes -g notes -s /bin/bash -p password notes
Substitute your choice of password for password.
Log in as root.
At the command line, change to the linux directory on the CD-ROM.
Enter the command ./install to start the installation program.
At this point, the installation program will ask you a series of questions. All
of them are self-explanatory. The default program directory is /opt/lotus and
the default data directory is /local/notesdata. You can install Domino as a
mail server, applications server, or enterprise server. I installed the full
Domino enterprise server.
Finish this part of the installation by following the prompts.
Log in as the notes user (or whatever alternate username you chose in the first
step). You can do this with the command
su - notes
You must now change to the data directory, because the next step assumes that
the notes.ini file, which resides in the data directory, is in your current
working directory. If you chose the default data directory, use the command
cd /local/notesdata
To start up the server for initial configuration via a Web interface, run the
command
/opt/lotus/bin/http httpsetup
Substitute your own program directory if you chose something other than
/opt/lotus.
Now run Netscape and point it to the URL
http://your-domino-server.com:8081
Substitute the domain or IP address of your server for your-domino-server.com.
You are now using a Web-based program, which will perform the remaining
installation steps. The procedure is self-explanatory.
Jot down the full name (first, middle, last names) you specify for the
administrator, as well as the passwords.
Once you are finished with the Web-based portion of the installation, you may
start the server. Remain in the data directory and start the server with the
command
/opt/lotus/bin/server
Again, substitute your directory for /opt/lotus if you chose something other
than the default program directory.
Once the server is running, you should be presented with a > prompt, where you
can enter various server commands. You won't need to enter any server commands
at this time, but you may need to later. See the tip on converting databases to
accommodate IMAP clients, below.
For an example of what you should see during the Web-based configuration steps,
click here:
As you can see, my test server hostname is oxnard, with the domain montalvo.com
(these are fictitious names for the purposes of this discussion). The server
name is Montalvo. The administrator name is Oxnard Montalvo, and the password
is fake-password.
The Windows pain
Figure 1. Choosing a server name.
Click on thumbnail to see full
image (35k)
There is no graphical administration client for Linux, so you'll need to run
the Windows version to create users and manage your databases. You can download
the Domino Administrator client demo by visiting
http://www.lotus.com/home.nsf/welcome/r5trial. (You'll have to register.) When
you get to the point where you need to specify what you want to download,
choose the Domino Administrator demo.
You can install the graphical administration tool for Windows at any time, but
don't launch it until you have completed the Web configuration described above.
When you launch Domino Administrator for the first time, it will ask you for
your Domino server name, which is usually formatted as hostname/Server. In my
case, the information is oxnard/Montalvo.
The Windows-based installation program will create your user ID file (as
user.id) based on this information. Complete the installation by answering all
the prompts according to how you want to set up and use Domino.
Figure 2. Choosing a user name.
Click on thumbnail to see full
image (37k)
Before you start working with your server, note that the Domino Administrator
program will need access to the cert.id file. The Domino Administrator program
uses the file to verify that you are authorized to create and certify new
users.
You created the cert.id file when you ran the Web portion of the installation.
The server then deposited the file in the server data directory. The Domino
Administrator, which runs on Windows, will need this file. So before you get
started using the Administrator, copy the cert.id file from /local/notesdata to
a floppy or to some other location available to your Windows machine.
Once you have completed all the steps above, you'll want to create users for
your system. At this point, you use the Domino Administrator program for
Windows. If you already have some Domino R5 servers running on platforms other
than Linux, then you're no doubt familiar with the Domino Administrator. There
are few or no special instructions for Linux servers from here out.
It is beyond the scope of this article to cover the Windows administration
client. But take it from me: you'll need yet another manual unless you're
already familiar with Domino or Notes servers.
Fortunately, the Domino Administrator starts up with a screen that includes a
link to a decent tutorial and another link to the Administrator Help database.
I strongly recommend that you browse one or both of those links before you
attempt to create users for your system.
Avoiding the wrinkles
They say we learn from making mistakes (which makes me one of the smartest
people alive). Here are some tips based on the many mistakes I made while
testing Domino R5.
Whenever you do anything at the Linux server, do it from the Domino data
directory. It won't hurt anything, and sometimes you have to do this for things
to work right.
If you're using Linux as your Web client during the Web portion of the
installation, you may have some problems finding the Next, Previous, and Finish
buttons on the page. On my Linux-based Netscape browser, the text on the
buttons is unreadable (it looks fine in Windows). The position of a button
usually gives away its function, though. If it isn't obvious to you, play with
the buttons that appear near the top of the page and you'll figure out which is
which.
Although the Web part of the setup is easy, don't be careless, because you won'
t be able to rerun that portion. When I tried it, my Domino server went
bahooties and ate up all the available memory. If you make lasting mistakes
here, it's easiest just to delete the program and data directories and
reinstall Domino Server.
Although every other service seems to work fine (including IMAP, POP3, LDAP,
and NNTP), I had no luck at all with IIOP support in Domino. Feel free to try
it yourself, but you've been warned.
Don't experiment with commands at the Domino Server prompt. Familiarize
yourself with command syntax first, then try the command only when you're
reasonably sure it will work, because if it doesn't work, the Domino Server can
go bahooties on you even after you've killed all the server processes. In one
case, the Domino Server wouldn't start because of a lack of memory, even though
Linux appeared to have plenty of free memory. In another case, the server
wouldn't start, but it also didn't complain about anything. It just dropped
back to a shell command prompt. In fact, this was my first experience ever
where it was easier to reboot Linux than figure out how to recover gracefully
from a program error.
As I hinted earlier, Domino Server's adherence to Internet standards isn't
always perfect. When you create a user, you have the opportunity to specify
which kind of mail database to use. If you select Notes as your format, you can
still get to your mail from a POP3 mail client without doing anything special
to your server or database. But you can't get to your mail with an IMAP mail
client. So if you need to give your users access to their mail via IMAP clients,
be sure to specify IMAP as the format when you create their mail databases.
If you got overanxious and already created your mail databases under the Notes
format, it's not too late to give your users IMAP access. Go to the Linux
Domino Server prompt. (It should appear as a > after your server is fully
started. If it doesn't, press Enter and it should appear after that.) Assuming
your mail databases are in the default subdirectory, /local/notesdata/mail, you
can type a command such as the following to enable IMAP on all your mail
databases:
load convert -m mail/*.nsf * mail50.ntf
Or if you want to convert a single mail database, use something like this for
the database joeblow.nsf:
load convert -m mail/joeblow.nsf * mail50.ntf
IMPORTANT: The documentation is incorrect regarding the syntax for this
command. Worse, if you check the online technical resources at
support.lotus.com, you'll find a correction that is even less accurate (at
least with respect to the Linux-based server). So use the syntax above to avoid
spinning your wheels.
How do you use the Web interface to mail and administration? Good question, but
it isn't answered anywhere obvious. First, turn on Java support in your browser
if it is not already on. Then, for the Web interface to the oxnard.nsf mail
database, simply point your browser to
http://your-domino-server/mail/oxnard.nsf
If you want to get to the main database for some administration tasks, point
your browser to
http://your-domino-server/names.nsf
Substitute the host/domain of your server for your-domino-server.
The verdict
Domino really has no single competitor on the Linux platform for those looking
to exploit its full feature set. You'd have to combine several other products
to get the same results.
And if your company is already running Domino or Notes servers, that is an
obvious reason to consider Domino for Linux. If you're looking to expand your
Domino support on standard Intel hardware, the closest competitor to Domino on
Linux would be Domino on Windows NT. Considering the cost difference between
Windows NT (with ample user licenses) and Linux, Linux is the preferable
platform for just about any server.
Finally, you might want to consider Domino even if all you want to provide are
standard Internet mail services such as IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and LDAP. Domino can
be overkill in some situations, and it's easier to implement antispam features
in competing products like CommuniGate Pro. But Domino's ease of programming
and its features like database encryption make it tempting even if all you want
are standard Internet features. (LinuxWorld is currently testing another
possible alternative, HP Open Mail. Watch for our review.)
Are you considering Domino Server for Linux? Would you be interested in How-To
articles covering the details of administering Domino Server? Let us know!
--
☆ 来源:．BBS 荔园晨风站 bbs.szu.edu.cn．[FROM: bbs@210.39.3.71]
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