Finally, a new book on Lotus Notes and
Domino specifically for Domino Administrators. However, it is already a
little dated, as it focuses on Notes and Domino 8 and the most recent version
of the software is 8.5. But do not think that there is no value in this
book. After reading this book, you will have an excellent understanding
of the Notes client, how to troubleshoot some of the most common error
messages and issues in the environment, how to upgrade your Notes clients,
a very good understanding of Policies, and more. It is amazing the amount
of information packed into this 280 page book.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1: Lotus Notes
Chapter 2: User Support and Problem
Management
Chapter 3: Finding Additional Help
Chapter 4: Lotus Notes Tools and Plug-ins
Chapter 5: Managing Upgrades
Chapter 6: Using Domino Administrator
to Manage Client Settings
Appendix A: Domino Development
Index
Mark Elliott, the author of Survival
Guide for Lotus Notes and Domino Administrators,
has written an excellent introduction to Domino Administration. While geared
for new Administrators, old hands will find value in this book, too. Elliott
begins the book with a chapter on the Notes Client, which is more than
a cursory overview. He provides general enhancements to the Release 8 client,
specific mail and calendar enhancements, and then shows you how to get
more out of Notes. Incredibly, he shows one feature, Copy as Table, which
is underutilized but extremely useful. The Domino Administrator will probably
find the most value in Chapter 2, User Support and Problem Management.
From database maintenance to specific errors, including some of the more
"unusual" error messages, Elliott provides excellent guidance.
Many of the items covered in this chapter would take someone hours, if
not days, to research and correct. Whether you read the chapter or refer
to the comprehensive Index, this is one of the best chapters in the book
and one that will provide immediate value to the Domino Administrator.
The last two chapters, Managing Upgrades and Using Domino Administrator
to Manage Client Settings, take two topics and make them accessible to
the new Administrator; Upgrading the Notes Client and Policies. Both topics
can be daunting to any Domino Administrator, mainly because of the wealth
of information, but Elliott makes the topics extremely accessible and easy
to understand.
While a book on a technical topic can
be difficult to read, Elliott does not fall into that trap. Survival Guide
for Lotus Notes and Domino Administrators is written as if he was talking
to a friend, new to Domino Administration; plenty of annotated screen shots,
links to additional information on the internet, and supplementary Notes
and Tips. When describing error messages, he not only gives you the resolution,
he provides the symptoms and a little analysis, which allows the reader
to improve their troubleshooting skills and understanding of Notes and
Domino. When an error points to a specific application, he is not shy about
telling the reader to contact the developer for resolution. However, there
was one which made me smile. Elliott was describing how to resolve an issue
with a Mail Folder and tells the reader to "contact the application
developer to resolve this issue." If that were taken literally, Lotus
Support would have to be engaged. While this book is highly recommended
for those that provide end-user and infrastructure support, I was surprised
that Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM) was not included. A new feature in
Release 7 of Lotus Domino, this would be very beneficial to new Domino
8 Administrators. The only other area that could have been improved was
the references to Lotus TechNotes. Elliott provides the full IBM Support
Site URL's, and they are rather long. However, if he provided the reader
with the simple URL of http://support.lotus.com
and then gave the Tech Note reference number, the chances for improperly
entering the IBM URL would have been minimized. Whether new to Notes and
Domino Administration or experienced, this is an excellent, well written
reference book.
Users cannot mentally handle local replicas?
Thu, Sep 2nd 2010 6:20p Gregg Eldred This is from the "What's New in Domino 8.5, 8.5.1, 8.5.2" document (emphasis mine):
If you've ever wished using Mail were free of delays, but don't have the mind space for creating and maintaining a local replica, the new managed replica feature might be for you. When you create or convert an existing local replica to a managed replica in Notes, or your Domino administrator sets it for you via a policy, Notes creates a local mail replica and marks it as a managed replica. The next time you ope [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
notes
server
47
Star Island by Carl Hiaasen
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred The emergency medical technicians have
been called to a hotel in South Beach, responding to call concerning a
twenty-two year old female who has swallowed a "mix of vodka, Red
Bull, hydrocodone, birdseed, and stool softener." A rather typical
call for South Beach with the exception of the appearance of Bang Abbott,
an overweight, intrusive paparazzo. He wants to have exclusive right to
the pictures of the woman on the stretcher. However, when the EMT's wheel
out the woman, he realizes that this [read] Keywords:
207
Do You Know This Person?
Mon, Aug 30th 2010 8:20p Gregg Eldred Sorry, this is just too good not to share, and I actually received permission to post it. :-) [read] Keywords:
Backroads of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohios Most Scenic Backroad Adventures by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 12:00p Gregg Eldred After reading several Backroads books on
other states, I decided that it was time to discover what the series had
to say and show about my home state of Ohio. Much like the other books
in the series, Backroads
of Ohio: Your Guide to Ohio's Most Scenic Backroad Adventures,
by Miriam Carey and Ian Adams, will appeal to residents of the state of
Ohio or those vacationing within its borders. For residents, this book
will provide you with short, interesting trips that would appeal to every
family mem [read] Keywords:
267
eWeek: Why Sharepoint 2010 Has Developers Excited
Wed, Aug 18th 2010 10:10a Gregg Eldred Microsoft's SharePoint 2010 may be one of the industry's most under-rated products, largely because it means so many different things to different people so no one group or demographic claims it over another. However, Microsoft has been adding more and more features to enable developers to better leverage SharePoint 2010. And as such, developers have responded, prompting SharePoint's popularity to rise among developers, according to Microsoft. SharePoint Server is one of the fastest-growing prod [read] Keywords: application
development
microsoft
office
server
sharepoint
workspace
113
MWLUG Logo in LEGO
Tue, Aug 17th 2010 11:51p Gregg Eldred Number Two Son's creation, 2 foot square. It's "sad" to report that he needed to purchase no new bricks. [read] Keywords:
American Craft Brewery Hops Across The Pond
Mon, Aug 16th 2010 11:50p Gregg Eldred This past weekend, I enjoyed a Stone Levitation, an excellent beer but one that seemed higher in IBUs than the quoted 45 (I'm certainly not complaining, a beer with high IBUs is perfect on a hot day, and Sunday, it was hot and humid). Now, from National Public Radio's Marketplace, I heard this today. One of the big guys in craft brewing, Stone Brewing out of Escondido, Calif., is looking to expand up and out of the U.S. market, into Europe -- a place known for a fiercely, shall we say, traditio [read] Keywords: wiki
