The diversity of client access to Domino:
The question is, how can I improve the functionality and the client access of an IBM Domino Server?
About 4 years ago I saw this slide at an IBM event for the first time. Finally, since the 31th Dec of 2016 we have a stable client for each access method.
Focus on the mail client, especially Verse and Outlook:
The slide from IBM suggests, that I can access the same Domino server with all those clients simultaneously.
However, Traveler and IMSMO/Outlook access will not work at the same time.
In my case, for testing purposes, I accepted the challenge to install and configure the access with Verse and IMSMO at the same time to a single server.
And no, it 's not supported by IBM, but I did it anyway.
Questions to begin with:
- Linux or Windows?
-
Domino 9.0.1 FP 7 / 8
?
-
SSL and ID-Vault (Web access)?
-
Replicas of all mailboxes?
My setup:
- I have an IBM Domino server 9.0.1 FP7 running on CentOS 7.
- SSL and ID-Vault are enabled and working for the access.
- Created a replica of each mailbox (for the test users) to this server.
- Configured the iNotes access on this server.
- Copied the install files for Verse and IMSMO to this server.
and I’m ready!
Installing Verse on Premises (VoP):
There is no classic installation for Verse on Premises. To use VoP I need to copy a few files to the specified folders on the Domino server.
The guideline from IBM is suggesting to configure iNotes before installing VoP but I did it
afterwards and found out, what iNotes is used for in Verse on Premises (Version 1.0):
Calendar, Contacts and To-do’s are currently only working in iNotes.
To finish, I restarted the http task on the Domino console and I was able to use the new mail client immediately!
Pitfalls:
- The mail template is one of the parts I have to touch during the configuration. In my case I'm using multi language template, so it was a little challenge to getting Verse working for this mailbox.
Install IMSMO:
To start, get the REST service running on the server. I can find how to do it in detail into the installing instructions for IMSMO of IBM.
Starting the installation of IMSMO like an installation of IBM Traveler. On Linux it is even easier than on Windows. Just execute the ./install script and confirm the default options…
After finishing of the configuration, I restarted the whole Domino Server. ..
On the console I can see Traveler (yes Traveler!) is starting.
Get your client ready, i.e. Outlook 2016:
Install the Outlook-Plugin (IBM Mail) on a Windows Client to have access to a Domino server.
Make a new profile for Outlook, - choose “IBM Mail“ - enter your username, hostname and password.
If you get 4 green dots, - your Outlook is ready.
Pitfalls:
If I like to open another person's calendar and see the scheduling and free/busy time, this is only available if the Sched/RnRMgr/CalConn Task is running on the Domino, where IMSMO is actually installed. I didn’t found that part into the deployment guideline.
IBM Verse:
Just enter the address of the webserver where Verse is configured: https://verse.acme.com
Enjoy to give your users the choice of their preferred client for e-mail and calendar.
As a User of Lotus Notes for a long time, - to be honest, I prefer Verse now.
