ibm connect 2016 bp1491: virtual, faster, better! how to virtualize the rich client and browser...

BP1491: Virtual, Faster, Better!How to Virtualize the Rich Client and Browser PluginDaniel Reimann, panagenda Feb-01-2016

Introduction

• Daniel Reimann – Director Technical Account Management

Over 15 years of experience in Notes / Domino

Focus on IBM Notes Client optimization andinfrastructure analysis

German, lives in Boston, MA

Agenda

• Getting started

What can you expect from this session?

What we typically SEE at customers

What we typically DO at customers

• To roam or not to roam: that is the question

IBM Notes in virtual environments (recommended)

• Best practices

• Installing IBM Notes | ICAA in virtual environments(recipe)

• Summary


• Best Practices for deploying IBM Notes in virtual environments

• Giving an overview on the ideal IBM Notes architecture in virtual environments

• A recipe to set up and pre-configure the perfect IBM Notes Client | ICAA installation in a virtual environment


• Administrators that cannot invest much time in troubleshooting IBM Notes issues because of

too many responsibilities for other IT systems

steadily increasing complexity of IT systems

missing or unknown knowledge sources

“wrong“ or missing tools/solutions

• Administrators agree to set up IT systems when requested but rarely have time to adequately maintain them going forward


• Aged IBM Notes installations in virtual environments that are working “somehow”

Mostly Notes data directories on network drives which cause

• long startup times of IBM Notes (up to 60 sec)

• hangs and wait times due to interruptions and poor network latency

• high network traffic as IBM Notes is constantly reading / writing data

• frequently corrupted local applications

• permanently occupied disk space on file servers / SAN / NAS

– 120MB on average per user

– often because of old and outdated files, even templates


• Sparking their enthusiasm for IBM Notes

Especially in virtual environments, IBM Notes can be optimized to start up fast, run smooth and contribute to a positive end user IT experience by

• switching to local Multi-user installations

• frequently maintaining contents of IBM Notes data folders

• relieving network, file servers and / or SAN / NAS systems

• Encouraging administrators to spend a little more time on troubleshooting and analyzing IBM Notes

Solve root causes, not symptoms!

Agenda

• Getting started






• Best practices


• Summary

To roam or not to roam: that is the question

• Given the previous reasons why IBM Notes in virtual environments should not have any files in the network, the following logical questions arise

How can personal IBM Notes data folders of end users be maintained locally on the virtual environment servers?

• Think of having N servers in the farm where personal end user data potentially needs to be on every single server

How do end users get their most recent IBM Notes configuration no matter on which server in the farm they log on?

How to ensure that disk space used by IBM Notes data folders is cleared after log off?

How to avoid transfers of large IBM Notes data folders per user during log on and log off which increase wait times and cause network traffic?

To roam or not to roam: that is the question

• The answer is: Roaming!

To provide end users with their latest IBM Notes configuration, their data needs to be roamed onto the server they log on to start their session

Roaming can be achieved through own procedures (e. g. logon script),Domino Roaming or third-party solutions

IBM Notes in virtual environments

Log on to

virtual session

Roam

data

Start

IBM NotesLog on to

IBM Notes

(happens here:

logon script,

3rd-party

solutions)

Roam

data

(or here: 3rd-party,

i. e. panagenda

MarvelClient)

Work with

IBM Notes

Roam

data

(or here:

IBM Roaming)

Shutdown

IBM Notes

Log off from

virtual session

Backup

data

Backup

data

(happens here)(or here)

Clear data

Agenda

• Getting started






• Best practices


• Summary

• Use default setups for

IBM Notes Client 9.0.1 (Standard)

Client Application Access 1.0.0.1IF1 (ICAA)formerly known as IBM Notes Browser Plugin

• No need to make changes to MSI package (scripts can help here)

• Use default paths for Program, Data and SharedData folders

BP: IBM Notes & ICAA installation

BP: IBM Notes & ICAA install command lines

• IBM Notes Client 9.0.1 (Standard) install command line

setup.exe /s /v"SETMULTIUSER=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\Users\!USERNAME!\AppData\Local MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\ProgramData CITRIX=1 /lime "C:\Temp\NOTES901_msiinst.log" /qn"

• IBM Client Application Access 1.0.0.1 (ICAA) install command line

setup.exe /s /v"SETMULTIUSER=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\Users\!USERNAME!\AppData\Local MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\ProgramData CITRIX=1 /lime "C:\Temp\ICAA1001_msiinst.log" /qn"

BP: ODS (templates)

• The ODS of local IBM Notes applications and templates should always be the native one according to the used IBM Notes release (see next slide)

• Although any IBM Notes version can deal with older ODS versions it causes the need of internal conversion during usage

• That causes unnecessary file I/O operations on disk

• While most administrators take care of upgrading the ODS of applications, templates are often not taken into account

However templates are also touched by IBM Notes quite often and should be optimized as well to gain a performance boost

BP: ODS (templates)

ODS = On Disk Structure

• ODS 16 = Notes 2


• ODS 20 = Notes 4 (or templates)


• ODS 43 = Notes 6 & 7

• ODS 48 = Notes 8.0

• ODS 51 = Notes 8.5 / 9.0

• ODS 52 = Notes 9.0.1

The difference between ODS 43 and 52 = up to 80% LESS FILE I/O; average 50% less.

BP: ODS (templates)

• To upgrade the ODS of all shared templates in a virtual IBM Notes Multi-user installation the administrator can follow these steps

• Add the following line to the shared notes.ini in %ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data

CREATE_R9_DATABASES=1

• Make sure that the Administrator account used to log on to the virtual server does not have a personal IBM Notes Data directory yet (in %LocalAppData%)

• From a command prompt type the following commands

cd “%ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data\Shared”

“%ProgramFiles(x86)%\IBM\Notes\ncompact” -ODS -*

• Copy all upgraded templates over to other servers if needed

BP: notes.ini

• A properly configured shared notes.ini can be essential for smooth running virtual IBM Notes environments

• The shared notes.ini is used by every IBM Notes client session for which there’s no personal IBM Notes data folder yet

• It is located in %ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data

• It is used as a template notes.ini out of which all parameters are transferred into a users personal notes.ini upon the very first IBM Notes start

• Find some useful shared notes.ini parameters on the next slide (additionally to the standard entries)

BP: notes.ini

• Ports=TCPIP

• TCPIP=TCP,0,15,0

Note that this sets port compression to OFF, which is appropriate in virtual environments; Port compression adds 5% CPU overhead and with 60 concurrent sessions this would result in needing 3 dedicated CPUs for just port compression

• DISABLE_CLIENTRECORD=1

This disables logging of client information back into the public address book as all virtual environment users share the same servers in the farm anyway

BP: notes.ini

• CREATE_R9_DATABASES=1

Enables IBM Notes 9.0.1 to use the latest ODS version for newly created local applications. Make sure to not use CREATE_R8_DATABASES (Lotus Notes 8.0) or CREATE_R85_DATABASES (IBM Notes 8.5 / 9.0) to avoid the use of an older ODS in IBM Notes 9.0.1

• Log=,1,0,7,40000

This disables logging, which is optional but gains a slight performance improvement

• ConfigFile=H:\NotesConfig\config.txt

For ConfigFile details see next topic

BP: notes.ini

• All parameters for copy & paste

Ports=TCPIP

TCPIP=TCP,0,15,0

DISABLE_CLIENTRECORD=1

CREATE_R9_DATABASES=1

Log=,1,0,7,40000

ConfigFile=H:\NotesConfig\config.txt

[always keep a blank line at the bottom!]

BP: ConfigFile

• IBM Notes can be set up unattended by using a so called ConfigFile – often referred to as config.txt or setup.txt

• The ConfigFile needs to be referenced in the shared notes.ini using the parameter ConfigFile=Drive: or UNC\folder\filename.txt (see previous topic)

• For more details the following IBM technote provides some very good examples on how to create a ConfigFile as generic as possible

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21112835

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21112835

BP: Frequent maintenance

• IBM Notes data folders need frequent maintenance to reduce the probability of local database corruption and damage

• At least the following local databases should get periodical treatment

Compact desktop8.ndk

Compact names.nsf

Compact bookmark.nsf

Compact log.nsf

• Quite frankly, this is a challenge (needs scripting / third-party solutions)

BP: jvm.shareclasses

• In IBM Notes the jvm.shareclasses file (*xpdplat_.jvm_G11) is stored in each users Data\workspace\.config\org.eclipse.osgi folder and has a size of 64MB

• To optimize file I/O, speed up the IBM Notes Client start and save storage (about 900MB per server == 15users), this file can be shared across all users of the virtual environment server

1. Create the following folder “C:\Temp\NotesShareClasses“ and set folder rights for “everyone” to read / write access

2. Change the value of this parameter “jvm.shareclasses.loc=“ in %ProgramFiles(x86)%\IBM\Notes\framework\rcp\deploy\jvm.properties

• from “${rcp.data}/.config/org.eclipse.osgi“

• to “C:/Temp/NotesShareClasses“ it’s important to use “/” instead of “\”

BP: JVM memory allocation

• To speed up the IBM Notes JVM it’s useful to optimize memory settings

• Open %ProgramFiles(x86)%\IBM\Notes\framework\rcp\deploy\jvm.properties

Modify vmarg.Xmx from “-Xmx256m” to “-Xmx1024m”

Modify vmarg.Xms from “-Xms64m” to “-Xms256m”

• The implicit rules

Do not change vmarg.Xmx to more than -Xmx1024m regardless of how much memory you have

vmarg.Xms should always be ¼ of what you changed Xmx to

BP: Workspace improvement

• Every IBM Notes Client start in a virtual environment is a first (setup) start and takes at least 23 sec

• ~65% - 70% of time during first starts is used to build the workspace folder(at least 15 sec)

• A typical new workspace folder (IBM Notes 9.0.1 FP5IF1) consists of

>200 files

>150 folders

>85 MB (including 64MB *xpdplat_.jvm_G11 file)

• Building the workspace folder causes lots of file I/O


• Accelerate the IBM Notes Client start to be >65% faster (with less file I/O)

1. With a non-admin user (Windows + IBM Notes) run an initial setup of IBM Notes

2. Start IBM Notes 2 times and wait for 2-3minutes each

3. Shutdown IBM Notes

4. Create the following folder %ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data\Common

5. Copy the workspace folder from %LocalAppData%\IBM\Notes\Data to%ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data\Common


6. Delete the following files / folders out of %ProgramData%\IBM\Notes\Data\Common\workspace

a. UDM

b. Logs all but .prov2install

c. .metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.collaboration.*

d. .metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.rcp.personality.framework

e. .metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.rcp.security.auth

f. .metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.rcp.managedsettings

Agenda

• Getting started


Virtual environments






• Summary

Installing IBM Notes in virtual environments

• A step-by-step recipe for an IBM Notes installation including other components


• The following components will be considered on the following slides

IBM Notes 9.0.1 English

IBM Notes 9.0.1 MUI Pack for G1 (add only German and French)

IBM Notes 9.0.1 MUI Pack for G2a (add * but set Danish to be default language)

IBM Notes 9.0.1 MUI Pack for G2b (add *)

IBM Notes 9.0.1 MUI Pack for G3 (add *)

IBM Sametime 9.0.0.1 (20150825-0430) embedded

IBM Connections Plugins for Notes 4.5 (20150921-1143)

IBM Notes 9.0.1 Fix Pack 5 Interim Fix 3


1. Install IBM Notes 9.0.1 english

IBMNotes901\setup.exe /s /v"SETMULTIUSER=1

MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\Users\!USERNAME!\AppData\Local MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\ProgramData

CITRIX=1 /lime "C:\Temp\Notes901_msiinst.log" /qn"

2. Install IBM Notes 9.0.1 MUI Packs

IBMNotes901MUI_G1\setup.exe /s /v“ADDLOCAL=German,French /lime

"C:\Temp\Notes901MUI_G1_msiinst.log" /qn"

IBMNotes901MUI_G2a\setup.exe /s /v“INITIALUILANG=da REPLACELOCALDB=1 LOCALDBLANG=da

/lime "C:\Temp\Notes901MUI_G2a_msiinst.log" /qn"

IBMNotes901MUI_G2b\setup.exe /s /v“/lime "C:\Temp\Notes901MUI_G2b_msiinst.log" /qn"

IBMNotes901MUI_G3\setup.exe /s /v“/lime "C:\Temp\Notes901MUI_G3_msiinst.log" /qn"


3. Install IBM Sametime 9.0.0.1 (20150825-0430) embedded

Sametime9001emb\setup.exe /s /v"/lime "C:\Temp\Sametime9001emb_msiinst.log" /qn"

4. Install IBM Connections Plugins for Notes 4.5 (20150921-1143)

IC45Plugins\setup.exe /s /v"/lime "C:\Temp\IC45Plugins_msiinst.log" /qn"

5. Install IBM Notes 9.0.1 Fix Pack 5 Interim Fix 3

Notes901FP5IF3\ClientUpdate.exe /s /v"/lime "C:\Temp\Notes901FP5IF1_msiinst.log" /qn"


6. Optimize IBM Notes 9.0.1 Installation with the following best practices of this presentation

ODS (templates)

notes.ini

ConfigFile

jvm.shareclasses

JVM memory allocation

Workspace improvement

• A step-by-step recipe for an IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) installation including other components

Installing ICAA in virtual environments

• The following components will be considered on the next slides:

IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 Multilingual

IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 MUI Pack for G2a

IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 MUI Pack for G2b

IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 MUI Pack for G3

IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 IF 1



1. IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 Multilingual

ICAA1001\setup.exe /s /v"SETMULTIUSER=1

MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\Users\!USERNAME!\AppData\Local MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\ProgramData

CITRIX=1” /lime "C:\Temp\ICAA1001_msiinst.log" /qn"

2. IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 additional MUI Packs

ICAA1001MUI_G2a\setup.exe /s /v“INITIALUILANG=da REPLACELOCALDB=1 LOCALDBLANG=da /lime

"C:\Temp\ICAA1001MUI_G2a_msiinst.log" /qn"

ICAA1001MUI_G2b\setup.exe /s /v“/lime "C:\Temp\ICAA1001MUI_G2b_msiinst.log" /qn"

ICAA1001MUI_G3\setup.exe /s /v“/lime "C:\Temp\ICAA1001MUI_G3_msiinst.log" /qn„

3. IBM Client Application Access (ICAA) 1.0.0.1 IF1

ICAA1001IF1\setup.exe /s /v"/lime "C:\Temp\ICAA1001IF1_msiinst.log" /qn"


4. Optimize IBM Notes 9.0.1 Installation with the following best practices of this presentation

ODS (templates)

notes.ini

ConfigFile

Agenda

• Getting started






• Best practices


• Summary

Summary

• It is highly recommendable to run local IBM Notes Multi-user installations in virtual environments

Users benefit from fast IBM Notes starts, less database corruption, improved stability

Administrators gain better network quality, free managed storage, less support incidents, satisfied end users

• Invest a bit more time in maintaining your IBM Notes virtual infrastructure

[email protected]

Thank you!

Questions?

Thank you

Acknowledgements and Disclaimers

Availability. References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM

operates.

The workshops, sessions and materials have been prepared by IBM or the session speakers and reflect their own views. They are provided for informational

purposes only, and are neither intended to, nor shall have the effect of being, legal or other guidance or advice to any participant. While efforts were made to

verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this presentation, it is provided AS-IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. IBM

shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this presentation or any other materials. Nothing contained in this

presentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms

and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.

All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved.

Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect

of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results.

Acknowledgements and Disclaimers cont.

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2015. All rights reserved.

• U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

• IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Lotus and IBM Lotus Notes, IBM Notes, IBM Client Application Access, IBM Notes Browser Plugin are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

• Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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ibm connect 2016 bp1491: virtual, faster, better! how to virtualize the rich client and browser...

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