Day 2 and 3 of training... phew

Wow, I had no idea training could be this exciting without a short Irish man hopping around. All love for the short Irish aside, I've learned a ton the last few days. Notes and Domino is fun and I really enjoy what I'm doing. I sometimes wonder if this is what I was meant to be when I grow up or if I should throw in the towel for some other non-IT passion. Then I'm able to help solve a tricky issue or smooth some ruffled feathers and I realize (with a lot humbleness!!) that I'm pretty good at what I do. So, that said, on to the top three new things that I've learned from day 2 and 3 that will make me a better Admin....

#1. There IS a way to prevent users from forwarding all their mail to hotmail! The past two days have been mostly about Domino Server documents and Configuration documents, Mail Routing, etc. If I understood correctly, if I make one small little change from enabled to disabled and the users will stop being able to use the "send copy to" function. This isn't to say our environment was set up that way, just that someone had asked me once if Domino could do that and I honestly didn't know the answer. Nothing upsets me more than not knowing the answer to a question.
#2. I did not know you could make custom password quality. I knew from registering users that it defaults to 8 (i think) and then you can slide it higher or lower based on what you want in your environment. What I didn't realize, if you want you can change that setting to allow custom configuration to match say Active Directory. Handy if none of the Lotus magic formulas for security match what someone has set for the password complexity for AD.
#3. When I first set out to document the top 3 things I learned there really were 3 things. Now that it's after midnight and I can barely remember how to spell Domino, I can't remember the third thing I was going to blog about. Be assured, the companies money hasn't been wasted and I really have learned a third interesting fact. Maybe I'll put the top 4 new things I learned on Friday. I'd hate to think you weren't getting your money's worth. Oh wait... this is free! Good night all!!

Lotus Notes 8.5 Admin Bootcamp - Day 1

Back to blogging truly about Notes "stuff"....

I'm in Dallas this week attending training by Workflow Studios. First, Dallas is definitely not Fort Worth, luckily my company was nice enough to put me up in a hotel so I don't have to make THAT drive every day! I'm not going to cover everything we talked about, only the things I didn't know from day to day work the last few years.

1. A compact -D will discard any indexes on a database. Never thought about it but I can see where that might be useful in cases.
2. I didn't know if you were on a users PC that didn't have Designer or Admin you can drop key files so you can  work in the Designer and Admin clients with loading an AllClient package. I will be updating my flash drive with those files so I can be ready for anything when on the road.
3. DECS - cool, lots of possibilities for my company to collaborate with other systems. Currently use NotesSQL but this would us to write to those DBs as well. It's been around awhile, just something new I've learned today.

The instructor covered a lot, however, most of it was repeat for me. Now tomorrow's blog post of new things learned will be waaaay more. Hope you enjoyed!

Wow, name change finally official

I changed my name with Social Security, with voter registration, with DMV, and everywhere else I could think. For some reason I just never thought about the most important place... Planet Lotus!! So now that Yancy was wonderful enough to sneak that into his schedule I'm now officially a "Kelly". I decided the website needed a refresh with the change. I hope everyone enjoys!!

I vote Conan O'Brien

Today was a momentous day. Sure I've had plenty of momentous days in the last year but today was the day I renewed my domain for this blog. Sure it was only $10 out of my pocket to spout off about random stuff to random people. For a split second I almost decided not to renew and hang up my blog. Then I looked at my blog and remembered what fun it was to type and tell stories to the masses (aka one or two people) that read this stuff. I decided to pay my $10 and hope that one day I would feel inspired again. I didn't think it would be about 6 hours later that I spout off the famous words... "I'm totally blogging this!".
I've heard all the fun stories about Lotusphere 2010 and yes I'm very jealous. Come on, I had Bob Costas and you guys had William Shatner for goodness sake. Yes, I'm stomping around shouting "no fair!!!". So I was sitting here tonight with my wonderful husband watching Tonight Show reruns and talking about how we loved Conan O'Brien and will miss him. That's when it hit me. Lotusphere 2011 there won't be Shatner jokes. There's no more confident shouts that everyone is sure that this year will finally be the year of The Shat. I decided if we have a new GM and the Lotus community as a whole is being listened to that I wanted to start a new chant. Sure we could have Leonard Nimoy or maybe the actor who plays Sheldon on Big Bang Theory would be enjoyable (I love that guy!). However, I'm sticking my neck out and calling it first... OGS 2011... Conan O'Brien. Who's with me??? Coco... Coco... Coco

In the interest of actually talking about Notes stuff... I passed my first certification test and I'm officially an IBM Certified Associate System Administrator. Hopefully, I can still be the "Notes Apprentice" without anyone crying foul since I'm all certifiable now :) Anyway, it's nice to be back blogging. Hopefully I can do better this year.

Ode to Joy

When Benjamin Zander translated this for us I was moved. In case anyone else was curious and couldn't remember....

Original...
Freude, schöner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Tanslates to....
Joy, beautiful spark of gods
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter drunk with fire,
Heavenly one, your sanctuary!
Your magic binds again
What custom sternly parts.
All men become brothers,
Where your gentle wing rests.

Late as always but finally...

My Lotusphere Review....

Winner for Best Moment - Ben Zander and singing Beethoven with everyone. Yes, I cried a little but I saw the two guys (names withheld to protect their man cards) next to me wiping their eyes as well. From a sad low to extreme high with happiness and faith in all fellow humans... wow, what an amazing speaker! After this entry, I'm off to find the translations of Ode To Joy.

Other amazing moments...

• Meeting FireFighterGeek! I know some might be shocked to learn, but I really enjoy hearing what he has to say. And after his and Gabriella's security session, I have a new found respect for both of their knowledge.
• Bruce was nice to me this year! No, Bruce wasn't mean to me last year, but it was nice to be remembered. Even though I totally stumbled when he asked if he should start blogging since it seems to be all the craze. I listen to his podcasts, I go to IdeaJam, I follow him (and Gayle!) on Twitter and totally forgot about his blog. He quite enjoyed when I wholeheartedly agreed that he should blog. He laughed and then I realized I also follow his blog. Oops. Luckily he is quite humble and enjoyed laughing as I turned bright red.
• I jumped into the blogger's picture!! It didn't appear to be an invite only thing, and I do blog! Hopefully no one minds another happy face in the bunch :)
• The Nerd Girl session. I work in a predominantly male environment and most of the Lotus community is even men. It was nice to have all the major women players front and center. Hearing some talk about their need to be accepted for their knowledge, and others about their shyness, really helped. I'm not like them completely because I built my home computer from scratch and mod it regularly and love anything and everything Star Trek, but I'm also a girl when it comes to not trusting my own abilities and needing to be accepted. It was nice to find a room that understood that. Now if I can just get someone to explain how to be confident and not considered a b**ch!?!
• Seeing Terry and Dec again! They're awesome and also my two favorite Spherians!!
• Talking with Gregg about how he manages to read so much, and about Ender's Game, which is my all time favorite book.
• Meeting new faces.... Mobley, NotesEvangelist, MaryBeth!!!!, BillMalchisky, Gregg and so many more
• Seeing old faces... Paul, Buchan, Jonvon, Bruce, Chris B., Turtle (and Nora!!), Francie, Grey, Phil, Matt, and so many more!

The not so favorite moments....

• The fact that my Andrew had to leave Monday to get back to work. I'm still thankful that he let me be the one that stayed but I missed him terribly.
• That I missed almost all the after hours nightlife. I started feeling sick by Sunday and didn't even make it to the Wednesday Party at Universal.
• That I had sooo many sessions to attend that my brain also exploded at some point.
• That I missed SHOW101. I have the slides though so I'll try to read them with an Irish accent for the full effect.
• That I didn't get to meet... Duffbert, DominoYesMaybe, and several more. Next year!!

I'm sure I'm missing some more highlights but as so many have already said... Best. Lotusphere. Sure I've only been twice, but the enthusiasm of BobP and so many new features has me excited about my career choice still.

Thank you everyone!

As many already know, Andrew and I are now engaged. I know it's just not possible I could be any happier. I've been on cloud 9 since last Friday! He romantically waited until the end of the fireworks show at Epcot before going to one knee. So we've decided that the wedding date will be July 4th so we'll have fireworks every anniversary. He truly is the man I've waited my whole life for. Thank you God!

For those that heard the happy news at ESPN Club shortly after... can someone please send me pictures?!? I know there were cameras going off, and I would love to have one of those shots.

And again thank you to everyone for all their well wishes and congratulations!! I promise I'm getting better at realizing why people are coming up to me and saying congratulations :)

The Eleven Commandments - Review

I'm attempting something like Live Blogging.... I'm not that technically advanced so I'm just going to
write this blog during the session.
The session started at 11am for me (yes, the lunch period) because of a work emergency. Luckily, Wild
Bill didn't mind me sticking around while he got prepared. Then he very graciously let me come up to the
front table and use his wired connection. So before he bashes the Admins too bad, I wanted to say "Thanks
Bill!" for helping this Admin.
On with the review....- Started with a great slide show of pictures of the presenters, Bill Buchan and Paul Mooney (for those
that didn't know). Paul aka Frodo, Bill aka Fred Flintstone, and even Ed Brill as Dr Evil. Even blessed
with the pic of Bill with jacket taped on.
- Duffbert is next door and came over to shush the crowd. Bill ran over to his side to taunt.
- They're offering donuts and doing general silliness show as everyone still files in....
- Usual Pledge... check
- Intro spoilers: Bill is Paul's father!
- Developers are "God" like and Bill is now wearing a tiara/Halo to represent the developers
- Administrators are "Evil" and Paul immediately goes after the end users with his evil trident
- Admin Commandment #1: Stubborn refusal to change crap, hatred of everyone, feet up means everything is
running, favorite word is "no". Because change is bad for the environment and service is good. Are you
meeting your SLA and can you measure your success.
- Developer Commandment #1: Good attitude and empathy, ability to change without failure, multiple code
ability, never call the customer idiots, favorite word "yes". Because change is GOOD.
- Admins2: Preventing changes on the fly protects your services. Change control is risk management.
Implement strict change control. What's your process? Where is your documentation?
- Developer2: Change control is risk management. All changes are well understood and documented.
Development sandbox, User test environment, Production.
- Admins3: Failure to secure means your a target. Anonymous editor access to directory. Everyone's ID
still in the NAB with password LotusNotes. Anonymous editor access to donation site, all credit card
details still available. Open ECL's? Be aware of Domino Security model and conduct informal audits -
catalog.nsf, ACL view. Know your group infrastructure and how it relates to security. Who is allowed Full
Access Admin?
- Developers3: Failure to understand security leads to: private information becoming public, unhappy
customers, reputation as an ass. Users should only be allowed to see what you allow them to see. Database
ACL, Roles, Reader/Access Fields.
- Admins4: ECLs! Prevent unsigned code and provide extra security. Too many times see any code available
to execute in Domino. A good/bad developer could have a fun time there. Simple steps to execute: register
two signer id files, one for restricted and one for unrestricted. Push down but decide replace/refresh.
This is NOT as simple as it is documented. This is a slow process to allow time to make sure all signers
of agents in your environment. Make sure you don't disrupt service in environment. (Check pmooney.net for
code to evaluate all agent signers in environment)
(Mooney sneaks over to disrupt Duffbert's class again. Sure he'll be back before next Admin commandment)
- Developers4: Write maintainable code. Majority of time is spent updating code then writing new code.
1200 lines of code in a single function, no errorhandling. It might be you that has to fix it later so
write it correctly the first time. Re-use code, check everything at the start of your code, test early
and often.
(Nice bull joke by Bill!)
- Admins5: Thou shall understand your environment. Sometimes your not the one deciding hardware
acquisitions. Slow/poorly managed RAID arrays SERIOUSLY hamper server performance. Sharing arrays with
other products can make performance totally inconsistent and unreliable. Know your DMZ, your VPN, your
architect, your SAN, anything that might effect your environment.
- Developers5: Thou shall measure twice, cut once! More time thinking and less time coding. Whiteboard
and meet instead of always fighting fires. (Paul hugs audience member that has to use Vista...awwww) If
you get ambiguous specs, then get it in writing. Don't rush code to the fingertips. Slow down.
- Admins6: Thou shall review the catalog! Records everything in your environment. Open $replica for
proof. Neglected catalog leads to poor security. Applications end up with default access to high or
anonymous access. Go to the ACL view and look at -Default. Developers tend not to look at impact on ACLs.
Use the catalog.
- Developers6: Thou shall understand @Formula! So you don't end up writing something horrible in the
wrong language. Use the best features of each language. Call between your languages to get the best from
all languages.
- Admins7: Thou shall monitor mail usage! Router task is too good and often ignored. Unrestricted mail
usage can hamper server performance. Often we are too forgiving on internal mail messages. Attachment
control. (IdeaJam to limit attachment size on the client instead of waiting for the hit on the server)
Implement DAOS!! Space saving is huge.
- Developers7: Thous shall understand versions! Servers upgrade first, then clients, then developers and
code. You'll code with features that aren't available to your users.
- Admins8: Thou shall maintain your servers! Compact -C and -d every night, too much. Wrong maintenance and
wrong parameters too frequent or not enough. Understand the tasks! What does compact do? Update versus
Updall. Fixup, when? and consequences.
- Developers8: Thou shall keep up with Evolution! Things change - new releases, new techniques, changes
to business. New vs mean new capabilities. Old, ugly inefficient apps, code and developers. Stay on top
of everything like release notes even. Keep up! You're not alone out there. Go out to the blogs and see
what's going on.
(and now another hug for the Vista guy, this time from Bill)
- Admins9: Thou shall not set 300 year lifespans! It's easy! Use policies in registration. ID VAULT!
License tracking
- Developers9: Thou shall Log! We need to know before the users tell us. Don't make the log so big that
it crashes the server though.
- Admins10: Thou shall manage the minions! We owe a level of service to the users. (Crowd gasps!) They
need to leave you alone, make it happen. Look at support calls and see where you can prevent problems.
Wrong location documents, wrong replicas, archive issues. Policies, lock them down.
- Developers10: Thou shall be organized. Develop a system and stay on top of things.
- Admins11: Learn NSDs! Debugging them is not that hard. It's written in Klingon but it IS telling you
whats wrong. Download the NSD debugger tool for FREE from IBM.
- Developers11: Thou shall learn Web Services! Enough said!
WrapUp....We share the same goals in the end and hate the end users together.
Bill is now giving the speech on professionalism! lol Basically, choose when and where to have
excitement. Promises us that his excitement her is more controlled when meeting with customers.
And finally... Chinese Curse: May you live in interesting times.
Great session as always!!!

General rants about Notes 8.0.2

I really struggled with whether or not to complain about Notes 8.0.2 but after another day of running into the same problems I decided what's the point of my blog if I don't speak out. So here goes...

1. Why wasn't the Single Sign on feature set to install by default? I get more calls from folks that went and found my installs and didn't know to turn that feature on and are now upset that they have to put their password in all the time.

2. Why wasn't the new "Synchronize Contacts" feature a default setting after the upgrade? They turned on adding Recent Contacts which has caused me tons of issues. Seems like the added benefit on no longer manually choosing to update to DWA would make this feature a plus that they'd wanted immediately noticed.

3. Recent Contacts is an awesome feature that is very annoying when you're moving between domains, which we currently are. I used to get regular calls from users until I explained it would be better to turn the feature off for now or to go regularly clean up your Recent Contacts. Sure this is an inhouse annoyance because of our situation. I only mention it because I'm curious why this feature was turned on and #2 wasn't.

4. Display New (unprocessed) Notices in calendar. Again, why wasn't this a default setting? Very cool feature!

Perhaps I'll find the answers to these and even more at Lotusphere. Or perhaps someone will explain to me... when do I scrap the roll out plans for 8.0 and start testing 8.5 for deployment instead?

Almost a year since I started blogging

Wow, it's been almost a year since I was at Lotusphere and caught the blogging bug. This week I'm desperately trying to catch up on everything in the office and pack for my Friday flight. It will be a little different this year attending as the only Administrator with two Developers. It should still be fun though and I plan on learning twice as much this year since I actually think I have a little bit better handle on all this Notes stuff.

A few folks that I'm looking forward to seeing again... Terry and Declan, Greyhawk, Jonvon, The Captain, The Old Git, Big Tony, Bill...the list really does go on and on!!! I was blessed with meeting a ton of really great people last year. Also looking forward to meeting more folks (maybe even MaryBeth or Yancy!) and who knows, maybe even getting to stand on the stage for the blogger photo!!

Basically it's just overwhelming to me that it's already been a year and I get to see everyone again. I hope this year is just as fun as last... or better!