Notes 8.5 Roaming User Quickstart Guide 

IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 Client (multi-user)

Install Notes in multi-user mode on several computers.

Below are selected install screens: multi-user, location and applications.


Install Notes in multi-user mode to enable use among multiple accounts.


When installing Notes in multi-user mode, the program and data directories are:

1. Notes bin: C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Notes
2. Shared stub notes.ini: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data\notes.ini
3. Shared templates: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data\Shared
4. User data: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data

Notes and integrated Sametime are installed by default.



IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 server (32bit)

Install Domino as a mail server.  Other configurations are certainly possible though this is the minimum configuration.




IBM Lotus Domino Designer, Admin 8.5 Clients (includes Notes)
       
Install the Domino Admin Client for administering roaming users.  Admin is installed in single-user mode.  Below is the installer minimal application selection for the Admin Client.






Roaming enablement can be administered through the user registration page or through selecting users in the Domino directory.  The screenshot below illustrates how users can be selected and then roamed using the roaming enablement tool.  



Roaming settings for Domino are available in this dialog.





Administering file server mode roaming is done using the Roaming Policy that can be configured using the Admin Client.  The steps are as follows:

1. Establish a share on the desired files server and set permissions as needed
2. Create a new policy or use an existing one
3. Assign Roaming policy to the top-level policy.
4. Assign the top-lever policy, that may include other policies,  to a user or group

Establish a share for persisting the roaming data files.  The share name will be used in the policy definition.  The complete share name here is \\rwilsond\roaming


Create a Roaming Policy that specifies \\rwilsond\roaming as the share location.  It is also possible to use a mapped drive letter such as R:.  In the policy below, the roaming setup dialogs will be shown and the end-user can disable and re-enable roaming for their Notes clients.


Assign the Universal Roaming Policy to the higher-level policy below.


Assigning the Universal Roaming higher-level policy to a specific user through their person doc.  It is also possible to use groups and other standard Domino assignment methods.




Because this example has the roaming configuration set to show prompts, the following screens show prompts on the Notes client.  If the configuration were set to no prompts, these would not be displayed and the update would be transparent to the user.  Based on adminp scheduling, there can be some latency between the time roaming is enabled by the administrator and when the client is actually roaming enabled.

The end user is prompted to convert to roaming.


The roaming process is now done and a completion dialog is shown.  Note also that the replication page has been updated with the roaming folder.



Notes Seamless Setup
Whenever an end user logs onto a new computer and starts Notes, the setup process will be run to configure Notes for use.  To avoid the user having to enter information, such as user name, home server, etc, these values can be provided using a setup response file.  Below is a sample response file that provides responses for the Notes setup process.  In Drop 11, the Username, KeyfileName and Domino Name can be provided in the response file.  To avoid the need to create a response file for each user, Notes 8.5 GA will provide a way to set the Username, KeyfileName and Domino name using OS environment variables.  This will then enable providing a generic response file for many users and specific user-related responses using the OS environment.  If any of these three settings is not provided, the setup UI will prompt for it.

Setup.txt
Username=user64
KeyfileName=C:\DominoTools\user64.id
Domino.Name=rwilsond/ibm
Domino.Server=1
Domino.Port=TCP/IP
AdditionalServices=-1

The stub notes.ini file in the multi-user install can be configured to user a response file.  The response file for many users, in the Notes GA case, can be provided on a shared file server for many users.  The example below shows a response flies in the same directory as the notes.ini file.

Ref: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data\notes.ini

Shared notes.ini stub
[Notes]
KitType=1
SharedDataDirectory=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data\Shared
InstallType=6
InstallMode=1
NotesProgram=C:\Notes\
ConfigFile=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\ApplicationData\Lotus\Notes\Data\setup.txt


Roaming setup also includes the ability to use OS environment variables to define Notes setup response file setting values.  To use this feature, you can add environment variable references as setting values.  You can determine the name of the environment variable to use.  The response file processor determines that the setting value is an EV and will copy its value as the setting value. Below are two examples showing the new and and traditional methods for specifyng data to the response file.

Using environment variables in setup response file
        Domino.Name=%SERVERNAME%
        Domino.Server=1
        Domino.Port=TCP/IP
        AdditionalServices=-1
When a user logs into a new computer, using one of the above configurations, a splash screen will be shown followed be the password prompt.  Upon entering a correct password, the Notes Home page will be shown and the user can now use any of there application.  If the end user is configured for roaming then replication of the roaming data will occur for standard settings and all other settings will roam in the background after Notes states.








An end-user's roaming configuration can be empirically checked for completion by seeing the roaming folder on the replication page and a complete roaming status in their person doc.