Location : Cleveland, OH
Sadly, one of the few Open Mic sessions I've missed happened to be the one with the most awesome content.
Back on 13 March, IBM hosted an Open Mic Webcast titled "Install Utilitles for Lotus Notes." It was my mistake not to read the abstract, as I was thinking "InstallShield Tuner" for some reason. This open mic, which you may reference here, did not cover InstallShield Tuner. No, it covered two amazing tools that you NEED to put in your toolbox.
Let me explain.
IBM introduced NICE, the Lotus Notes Install Cleanup Executable tool. Cleaning up after a failed install, failed uninstall, or a failed upgrade is a major pain in the a$$. Now, with NICE, it is a fast and easy process. The executable is available in the Utility subdirectory of the Notes install kit. If you prefer, you may also download it here. What does it do? From the TechNote, NICE "...removes various files and settings, including registry setting values, program files, and Notes user data files. When would you use NICE? Again, from the TechNote, you would run NICE:
The next part of the TechNote is pretty cool.
For all situations, the following occurs:
They also talked about UpdateSiteMgr.exe, which you can investigate for yourself, here.
The coolest tool, IMHO, is Multi-User Migration Assistant (MUMA). This tool will quickly (when I say "quickly," it only took 2 minutes on a pretty slow VM) migrate a single user Notes install to a multi-user Notes install. Think about that for a minute. It converts a single user Notes install to a multi-user Notes install. No more waiting 40 minutes to uninstall and reinstall a Notes client. It's all done for you in a matter of minutes. Maybe seconds, depending on the workstaion. If I am not clear as to this tool's ability, here's the abstract version:
MUMA, like NICE, can be found in the Utility folder of the Notes install kit. This is a brilliant piece of work and should be added to your toolbox. Especially as it is fully supported by IBM (got a problem? Open a PMR!) and while IBM prefers that you use Notes 8.5.3, it is supported from release 6.5.x to current.
Save time and, more importantly, your sanity. Familiarize yourself with these two tools.
Oh, in the same webcast, IBM also reviewed UpdateSiteMgr.exe, which adds or removes features from the Notes 8.5.3 install package. Yes, that is cool, too, however my real excitement is reserved for MUMA and NICE.
Link: Open Mic Webcast: Install Utilities for Lotus Notes - 13 March 2012 (presentation)
Link: Using the Lotus Notes Install Cleanup Executable (NICE) tool
Link: Using the Lotus Notes single user to multi-user migration assistant (MUMA) tool
Back on 13 March, IBM hosted an Open Mic Webcast titled "Install Utilitles for Lotus Notes." It was my mistake not to read the abstract, as I was thinking "InstallShield Tuner" for some reason. This open mic, which you may reference here, did not cover InstallShield Tuner. No, it covered two amazing tools that you NEED to put in your toolbox.
Let me explain.
IBM introduced NICE, the Lotus Notes Install Cleanup Executable tool. Cleaning up after a failed install, failed uninstall, or a failed upgrade is a major pain in the a$$. Now, with NICE, it is a fast and easy process. The executable is available in the Utility subdirectory of the Notes install kit. If you prefer, you may also download it here. What does it do? From the TechNote, NICE "...removes various files and settings, including registry setting values, program files, and Notes user data files. When would you use NICE? Again, from the TechNote, you would run NICE:
- Clean install -- Remove the existing Notes installation, and clean the registry, to prepare for a clean install.
- Failed install -- Detect the install version from the registry and clean up registry settings and files on the system to prepare for a clean install of the same release.
- Failed upgrade -- Detect the install version from the registry and clean up registry settings and files on the system to prepare for a clean install or the upgrade release.
- Failed uninstall -- Detect the version from the registry and clean up registry settings and files on the system to prepare for a clean install.
The next part of the TechNote is pretty cool.
For all situations, the following occurs:
- If a Notes version is not detected in the registry but files exist in the default location , you are prompted to remove those files from disk. For example, if there is no entry for Notes in the Add/Remove Programs dialog, NICE detects whether there is a key in registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Notes, gets the PROGDIR and DATADIR information from the registry, and does the deletion. If there is no key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Notes, NICE does nothing.
- If there is no Add/Remove Programs entry for Notes, but there are registry keys in either HKCU\Software\Lotus\Notes\Installer or HKLM\Software\Lotus\Notes, you can remove those registry settings. For example, if there is no Add/Remove Programs entry for Notes, NICE gets the PROGDIR and DATADIR information from HKLM\Software\Lotus\Notes and continues to remove program files, remove shortcuts, and clean the registry.
They also talked about UpdateSiteMgr.exe, which you can investigate for yourself, here.
The coolest tool, IMHO, is Multi-User Migration Assistant (MUMA). This tool will quickly (when I say "quickly," it only took 2 minutes on a pretty slow VM) migrate a single user Notes install to a multi-user Notes install. Think about that for a minute. It converts a single user Notes install to a multi-user Notes install. No more waiting 40 minutes to uninstall and reinstall a Notes client. It's all done for you in a matter of minutes. Maybe seconds, depending on the workstaion. If I am not clear as to this tool's ability, here's the abstract version:
You can use the supplied single user to multi user tool to migrate a Notes single user install to a Notes multi-user install for an existing Notes release prior to upgrading to a new release. This enables you to convert an existing Notes single user install to a multi-user install for both Notes basic and Notes standard configuration deployments. It also enables you to convert a simulated multi-user install (where the user's data directory is on a mapped drive) to a true multi-user install. This tool is available for Lotus Notes 6.5.x, 7.x, and 8.x installations on supported Windows platforms only.
MUMA, like NICE, can be found in the Utility folder of the Notes install kit. This is a brilliant piece of work and should be added to your toolbox. Especially as it is fully supported by IBM (got a problem? Open a PMR!) and while IBM prefers that you use Notes 8.5.3, it is supported from release 6.5.x to current.
Save time and, more importantly, your sanity. Familiarize yourself with these two tools.
Oh, in the same webcast, IBM also reviewed UpdateSiteMgr.exe, which adds or removes features from the Notes 8.5.3 install package. Yes, that is cool, too, however my real excitement is reserved for MUMA and NICE.
Link: Open Mic Webcast: Install Utilities for Lotus Notes - 13 March 2012 (presentation)
Link: Using the Lotus Notes Install Cleanup Executable (NICE) tool
Link: Using the Lotus Notes single user to multi-user migration assistant (MUMA) tool
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