© 2014 IBM Corporation

BP106: Managed Mail File Replicas -– How to Win Over Users

Norman Cox, Shelter Mutual Insurance Companies

Don Martindale, Shelter Mutual Insurance Companies

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The Highlights

About us and Shelter Insurance.

What our users were saying

Overview of Managed Mail Replica (MMR).

Steps to setup

Demo

Problems/Solutions found.

Wrap-up

Who are we?

IBM Notes™ Admins

Development Dabblers

Cube dwellers (Material Sources for Scott Adams)

Former inconspicuous conference attendees

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What is Shelter Insurance

Located in Columbia, Missouri, USA.

1,850 Employees.

– 1000 in Home Office

– 550 in branch offices.

– 300 remote users.

Servers located at the Home Office

Operate in the following states:

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User Perception

Symptom

– Notes is slow.

Cause

– Slow connection.

• Work from home.

• Hotels.

• Even branches occasionally.

– Other application on pc.

– Physical distance.

– Other items out of our control.

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Managed Mail Replica (MMR)

New to Domino 8.5.2.

A new improved version of Local Replica.

Automatically Send/Receives mail.

I/O primarily in background.

Other functions (Delete, Read Marks, Folder Moves, etc) on scheduled replication.

Pushed from server.

No end-user interaction needed.

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Benefits to the User Perspective

Less latency.

– Server accessed under the covers.

– Mail delivery not dependent on replication schedule.

Work is done behind the scenes.

User is oblivious to server roll-overs.

Fewer location decisions.

User experience is more consistent.

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Benefits to Admins

Users are happy.

Little intervention needed.

Uses existing architecture.

Lowers network traffic.

Lowers server load.

Local Replica is self-healing.

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Two Setup Options

A. Create notes.ini settings on each client machine, either manually or scripted.

- or -

B. Set everything up in policies with a few clicks and let Notes do the manual labor.

We chose B!

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Great Checklist Available from IBM

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Note: This is a partial list. See resources at end for link to full list.

Desktop Settings DocumentTabs\Sections Affected

Mail Tab\Mail Settings

Mail Tab\Managed Replica Settings

Mail Tab\Client Settings

Preferences Tab\Replication\Default settings for a local replica

Preferences Tab\Replication\Default replication schedule

Preferences Tab\Mail

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Mail Tab\Mail Settings

Local mail file – Gets everything started.

Mail file location – Points to server until Local Replica is completed.

Use Local mail.box to send messages – Outgoing email is sent through local mail.box

immediately.

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Mail Tab\Managed Replica Settings

Your discretion.

Amount of free space . . .:IBM Recommends setting.

We chose the defaults and did not have minimum free space.

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Mail Tab\Client Settings

Auto-retrieve document setting: Enable document w/o attachment.

Enable server to poll for new mail . . .: Enable.

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Preferences Tab\Replication\Default settings for a local replica

Create a full-text index . . . : Enable.

Encrypt replicas: Locally encrypt.

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Preferences Tab\Replication\Default replication schedule

Use your normal schedule.

Bonus - Select replicate at shut down and start up.

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Preferences Tab\Mail

Check for new mail – Enabled replication for after no network access or hibernation.

Mail checking interval – Any value since live connection, but keeps the client checking the

server.

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Bonus – Server Configuration document

Settings are not just for Smart Upgrade.

For those who want more control.

Default is 25 concurrent replica creations.

I started at 2 and let it grow to 20.

I could find no advice on deciding this number.

Peace of mind.

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Our Process

1. Created a Desktop Policy Settings document configured for MMR.

2. Created the explicit dynamic policy so we could stage the migration.

3. Created a group for MMR users.

4. Assigned the group to the explicit dynamic policy.

5. Sent out email notifying people their mail file would be “tweaked” *.

6. Added departmental or geographical sub-groups to the MMR Group.

7. After 24 hours, sent follow up email to the new members.

8. Go back to step 4.

9. When all users were migrated, incorporated MMR desktop policy settings document into

the default organizational policy and retired the explicit dynamic policy.

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Demo

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Issues We Ran Into

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Issue with Notes clients failing to replicate

Symptom – Replication process stalls

Appeared to be a semaphore issue.

Answer – This was in 8.5.2, but the bug was fixed in 8.5.3. Upgrading cured the issue.

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Issue with existing local replicas

Symptom – Client continues to point to server replica

Probable existing corruption in local replica

Do not believe caused by MMR

IBM’s answer – LotusScript to delete local copy before conversion

Our workaround – Have affected users force local copy to open

(File\Open\Lotus Notes Application\local replica)

Affected users – 2%

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Minor Issues

Migration had not occurred

– Discovered user was opening notes and closing quickly. Notes was never given a

chance to perform conversion.

Errors of missing design elements

– Deleted Local Replica and let it rebuild.

Local copy had no documents

– Deleted Local Replica and let it rebuild.

If there are issues, deleting the local replica and letting rebuild automatically will fix most

problems. Also, if a new PC is setup for the user, the MMR is automatically applied.

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Our only admin issues

Lack of oversight at server level.

Norman has fat fingers.

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Additional Resources/References

Managed Replicas Explained –

http://www.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Managed_Replicas_

Q&A: Understanding Managed Mail Replicas -

http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21448134

IBM Lotus Domino and Notes Information Center -

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.help.do

mino.admin.doc%2Fsuper_welcome.html

Domino 8.5.2 Admin Help What’s new in Domino 8.5.2

Configuring managed replicas using the Desktop Settings document - http://www-

01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21437957

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Related Presentations

CUST102: Nationwide Tips & Techniques for Deploying IBM Notes

Managed Mail Replicas (MMR) – David O’Neal

ID112: IBM Domino Policies: Deep Dive & Best Practices – Mark Skurla

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Sample Initial Email

Tonight and tomorrow, your mail account will be updated in the background. There will be no need for any

intervention on your part.

Once completed, you should notice an improvement in response time within your IBM Notes mail file. Other

IBM Notes applications will not be affected.

The easiest way to see if your account has been updated is to look at your mail quota icon. As you can see

below, the mail server is listed and the icon is in the "old" format. Your account is still in the old format if it

appears like this.

OLD:

You will notice that the file location shows as "Local" and your quota icon is different. You will need to

double click on it to see your file size now.

NEW:

In the last year, people who were on the pilot noticed a drastic improvement. Emails and attachments open

much faster. Your lag time where you click and wait should be drastically reduced.

Note: If you have the "new" icon, you were already converted and should not see any change.

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Sample Follow Up EmailThis is in regard to the email you received yesterday afternoon about the tweaks being made to your IBM Notes Mail File.

By now, everyone receiving this email should have had their mail converted over to the new format. The easiest way for you to check is to

see if your quota icon in your mail box looks like this and the location of the mail file shows as “on Local”:

If you do not see this, please try closing Notes completely and re-opening. If you still do not see the new icon, please reply to this email

and someone from the Notes Support team will contact you.

You might be wondering some things.

Just what is different?

The primary difference is that your IBM Notes Client is looking at a copy of your mail file stored on your personal laptop/desktop. When

you click on an email, it only has to go to your hard drive to retrieve it. Previously, it had to communicate with the server here in the home

office each time. The local copy and the server copy synch with each other in the back ground.

Will there be lag time for the files to synch?

Previously, if you were using the local copy, the synching happened on a schedule. Now, every time you click to send a new email or the

server receives a new email, the two copies of your mail file are forced to synch. New mail is more or less instantaneous in both

directions.

Are there any caveats to this?

Other functions (Moving emails to folders, Email marked as unread, etc.) are synched every 15 minutes. The only way you will notice is if

you perform one of these functions and then open your mail on another computer, either on a client or through iNotes, or a smartphone.

Also, if you send or receive an email with an attachment, it will start to send instantaneously, but could take longer to finish, depending on

size.

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What we covered

You know to let policies do your heavy work.

You have an overview of MMR.

You have examples of why to implement.

You have checklist of setting up MMR.

You have tips of where to deviate from IBM’s suggestions.

You saw real world problems with solutions.

You have sample communications to put your users at ease.

You can improve your users perception of Notes.

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