Considerations for coexistence 

This article represents Phase 4 of Upgrade Cookbook: Upgrading from Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5.x to 8.0.2

Previous Table of contents

This page contains the following sections:

• Specific areas of change
  
• System databases
  
• Templates and design elements
  
• New features
  
• Applications
  

---

Specific areas of change

Encryption Key Length * Many changes were made to encryption key length in Notes and Domino 7 and 8, to provide enhanced security. * These changes are backward compatible, so older keys can be used on new Notes clients, but newer keys cannot be used on older clients. So you'll have to be aware of this while you still have 6.5.x version clients in the environment InfoCenter topic: Security - new features - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Smart Upgrade * If you are upgrading from 6.5.2 or earlier, the Smart Upgrade kit download will not occur as a background task in the Notes client so users will not be able to use their Notes client while kit download is occurring. Wiki article: Tips and tricks for troubleshooting Smart Upgrade issues Technote: Best practices for configuring the Smart Upgrade Kit database (#1297993) Technote: Information on rights and permissions related to Notes installs, Smart Upgrade, and SURunAs (#1393963) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Clustered Servers * Upgrading your clustered servers at different times is supported, so you can have a mixed 6.5.x and 8.x cluster during the coexistence period of your project. * Keep in mind however that the cluster replication task will not restrict the replication of any design elements. The Domino Directory 8 design is backward compatible with Notes and Domino 6.5.x. Other databases may, however, cause issues on earlier Domino servers and Notes clients. * If you want to keep design elements at the same version as the server, do not put Domino 6.5.x or 7.0 in the same cluster with Domino 8 servers. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Resource Reservations * Resource Reservations has seen significant changes since Domino 6.5. Prior to Domino 7, the resource and reservation functionality was distributed amongst the resource template, the router task, and the schedule manager task.Beginning with Domino 7, this functionality was combined into a single server task: Rooms and Resource Manager or RnRMgr. * If you are upgrading directly from Domino 6.5.x or earlier be aware that Resource Reservations databases (RRDB) based on a 6.x or earlier design do not function properly on Domino 8 servers. * Overbooking of rooms and resources can easily occur if you attempt to use a pre-Domino 7 RRDB on a 7.0 or later server. So you’ll want to replace the design of the Resource Reservation template immediately.

Flat Certification *Support for flat certification was removed in Notes and Domino 7.0, due to its inherent lack of security and its inability to be used with AdminP * If you are upgrading directly from Notes and Domino 6.5.x to 8 and are still using flat certification, you must convert all flat names to hierarchical names as part of the upgrade project. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mail Templates * To operate correctly your mail template cannot be a higher version than if you are upgrading your Notes clients directly from Notes 6.5.x to 8, it is essential to upgrade the clients prior to the mail template upgrade, as the use of the 8 mail template is not supported with the Notes 6.5 client and will cause issues. * If you have users who delegate mail access to others (such as a Personal Assistant) you need to upgrade both Notes clients to 8 before either of the mail templates is upgraded. Technote: Supported configurations for Notes/Domino 8.0 and 8.5 (#1358406) Technote: What new features in Notes 8 require a Domino 8 server or mail template? (#1282123) Technote: Various desktop policy settings pushed to Notes clients after Domino Directory template (pubnames.ntf) is upgraded to 8.0 or 8.0.1 (#1299046) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Out of Office service * Domino 8 introduced the option to use the router to process Out of Office responses, using the Out of Office Router service. * If this option is configured on a Domino 8 server which has Notes 6.5.x mail templates, the users with the 6.5.x template will not be able to utilize the new Out of Office Router service. These users will still be able to continue using the Out of Office Agent, but they will not be able to use the new features such as Out of Office start and end time setting. Wiki article: Out of Office service: Best practices developerWorks article: The new IBM Lotus Notes 8 Out of Office functionality Technote: Knowledge Collection: Out of Office functionality in Notes/Domino 8.0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Policies Most of the new capabilities of Policies in Domino 7 and 8 will be ignored by Notes 6.5.x clients. For example, Policy lock-down settings will have no effect on 6.5.x clients, and the new types of Policy Settings (Mail, Productivity Tools and Activities) will also be ignored. Technote: Various desktop policy settings pushed to Notes clients after Domino Directory template (pubnames.ntf) is upgraded to 8.0 or 8.0.1 (#1299046) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

---

System Databases

Domino Directory (names.nsf) * Upgrade the Domino Directory offline and deploy to the domain ahead of the first server upgrade. * Opportunity to set configurations manually rather than the first server setting them automatically (e.g., message recall is enabled by default if the server upgrades the directory design. * Server_Upgrade_No_Directory_ReDesign=1 * If you must preserve customizations, you can modify the design offline rather than waiting for the first server to upgraded then applying them. Admin Requests (admin4.nsf) * Should be upgraded with the first server. * Prior to the upgrade, review database for orphan or abandoned documents with $NoPurge values Events (events4.nsf) * Should be upgraded with the first server

Resource Reservations * Significant changes to Resource Reservations introduced between 6.5.x and 7.0. * Prior to upgrading, ensure you understand the changes and constraints Domino Domain Monitoring * Domino Domain Monitoring corrective actions are now disassociated from the actual event form in modular documents * Event form has Lotus, Custom, and Stock tab

---

Templates & Design Elements

Design Task

* System database templates have replica IDs that remain consistent from release to release but they are not always replicated across the domain.

* If the Design task runs on multiple or all servers, either....

1. make sure system templates replicate to all servers so when Design task runs it uses the updated template

or

2. disable or change the Design task activity on pre-8.x servers until old templates have been replaced.


Mail Templates
* Standard mail and iNotes (DWA) mail templates are no longer separate; there is one template, mail8.ntf (Domino 8.0.x)

* Upgrade mail templates after clients have been upgraded
Tip: If you don't want to enable design or document compression right away, make sure those options are unselected in the template before applying to new or existing mail files.

---

New Features

Mixed release clusters
* ... cluster replication will fall back to nonstreaming with pre-8.0 servers or those specifically disabled using notes.ini setting
* ... out of office must run as an agent


Message Recall feature
* Message Recall works only with mail accounts hosted on Domino 8 servers

New ODS version
New ODS version for Notes/Domino 8 is 48 and is optional, but is required to support...
... reduced I/O requirements
... design and document compression
... database names list for optimized user renames
... DAOS (Domino Attachment and Object Service)
... enhanced user activity logging (where reads & writes become reads, add, updates & deletes)
.
NOTE: See technote #1267844 for info on how to enable ODS 48 as the default and how to upgrade existing apps

---

Applications

Planning

Start thinking about applications from the outset

• there is a lot of work that can be done prior to the actual upgrade
• details about your application landscape will be needed in requirements and architectural discussions

Create an inventory of applications

• This is a great opportunity to clean up your application environment
• Identify
• Current owners
• Current user population (executives, managers, entire organization, small groups of people)
• Type of application (template based, custom, back-end integration and connectivity, complexity)
• Current issues (after an upgrade, it is extremely important to know if the upgrde broke the application or if it was already broken

Determine what to do with the applications

• Do you upgrade the design?
• Do you fix issues before or after the upgrade?

Plan your upgrade in "small" steps

• Prioritize those that must be fixed before upgrade and plan the effort and resource to perform that remediation, including those with existing issues if necessary.
• Correct minor issues with the applications
• Concentrate your efforts on issues that are simple and easy to fix
• Don't try to introduce new features at this point
• Upgrade applications based on standard templates
• Notify users first and make sure that they have the necessary training
• Change the design of applications to incorporate new Notes & Domino 8.x features, if appropriate

Testing

Based on your application inventory, group applications...

• Based on standard design templates
• Complexity
• - External tools and products
• - Back-end integration
• - 3rd party software
• - Applications using undocumented functions and features
• Importance & Audience
• - Is this a mission critical application?
• - Are executives using the application?
• - Is this a company-wide application?

Test a sample of applications..

• Mission critical applicaitons based on different designs
• Applications used by executives
• Complex or custom applications
  - back-end integration
  - reliance on 3rd party software
  - applications using undocumented functions and features
  - extensions or add-in tasks using nsf_hooks, ext_mgr, and home-grown APIs
  - use recompile all (LotusScript) to check for LotusScript issues
• Sample of applications using a common or standard template

Leverage tools to assist with your testing

• Get the Domino 8.0.x specific rule rule sets for the tools you're using
• Good at pointing out the most prevalent areas that could result in problems
• Use the results in priortization effort

Don't forget to document your findings and notify application owners

Remediation

Use the priorities and testing results to guide remediation efforts

• Cover the most important items that must be fixed prior to upgrade
• Create a small break-fix team for unforseen problems after the upgrade for lower priority applications

Put applications into the test environment for acceptance testing

On successful testing, archive copies of new templates

Execute the Upgrade

Depending on the server upgrade strategy...

• all critical applications must be fixed for in-place server upgrades
• critical applications must be moved to new servers

After upgrading the server or once applications are deployed to new servers:

• make sure that you document and resolve any new issues
• start to look at new application features and how they can benefit your company
  
  

Previous Table of contents