Sametime, LDAP and Notes 6.51

Added a new Sametime server Monday night. Nice speedy new hardware, and upgraded to Sametime 3.1 IF1 (Have to wait for new version of LVC before LIMWC 6.51 can go out). I decided it was a good time to start using LDAP for authentication of the Sametime clients, since that would allow for Quickplace interop. Evidently, I missed a technote when searching the KB - LDAP and Notes 6.5x clients don't play well together.

The Notes 6.5x client defaults to the Notes abbreviated name for login - LDAP doesn't get that. Hell, it didn't get using the shortname without editing the search filters! The other thing that using LDAP wreaks havoc on is the presence awareness in the Notes client - oops! Sure, there's a technote on extending LDAP to use the abbreviated name, but it's not working correctly either. It seems to be truncating the field value so only part of the name is displayed, so this means that we still can't login using the abbreviated name.

I'm on the phone now with IBM and hopefully will have some good news later.

UPDATE:
After 90 minutes talking to IBM, we nailed it down to a couple of issues.

First, I used the search filters in the technote. The search filter has a problem returning more than about 200 characters, and since there were 5 attributes being returned, it went over the limit. Cleaning out a couple of filters that weren't necessary resolved that.

Second, Sametime and anonymous bind to LDAP don't work "that well." Binding with a user ID to LDAP resulted in the notesmail attribute popping up, and so authentication and presence awareness are working.

Hopefully, the technotes referenced previously will be amended to add these suggestions since they are already in the internal technotes that were used by the support tech I spoke with.

Which OS Are You?

BBspot - Which OS Are You?

As for me,


Which OS are You?

And now for something "work related"

Since one of my reasons for starting the blog was work-related, I thought I'd take the opportunity to post something in that vein.

Looking at beta 2 of Notes last night, I came across something very good. Domino Web Access nee iNotes worked in Firefox! I didn't notice anything in the release notes specifically, but it was a good thing to see this. Also, as noted elsewhere, the UI has changed a little, and I think I like it. I recall seeing that it was supposed to look similar to the Workplace UI (gasp).

Anyway, it a first step. More to come...

Three days in a row!!

A new record, posting three days in a row. I don't know what to do...Maybe I'll take a day off.

So, anyway, since I'm in a vacation recap kind of mood, let's get back to the middle of the state. Driving home, we went through the "heartland" of California, and it was interesting to see the changes, as I said. It was also interesting to find modern oases. Out in the middle of nowhere, an exit appears and there's a row of gas stations - usually with gas much cheaper than what we paid for at home - and fast food restaurants, and the occasional local eatery. Even saw an Indian restaurant at one stop. To both my wife's and my joy, one place had an In-n-Out Burger. There's nothing like an In-n-Out burger to a southern Californian. My wife likes the cheeseburger with onions, for me a single, animal-style, no tomato. Like manna, especially when it was 103 outside. Excuse me, while I wipe the drool from my mouth.

More on the "lost month"

On our way back from Tahoe we spent a night in Modesto. Yes, it was planned - and actually a nice stop instead of driving all the way home after the gold mine exploration.

Everyone always talks about the Bay Area, or southern California areas and how nice they are. The central regions of California really have their own beauty to them. Even in the dry summer months, the background sea of dried yellow grasses with the oak trees sprouting from below are quite a sight. Coupled with the sheer agricultural output of the area and it's amazing. We visited a cheese factory, yes a cheese factory, that produces one million pounds of cheese each day! Not bad for a place almost in the middle of nowhere, eh?

The other amazing thing is how much the area has grown, how much new housing is going up - many parts are looking too much like Irvine, or Thousand Oaks, or "insert your local new area here". It's unfortunate that urbanization/modernization is causing many areas to lose their community character. Or they need to rebuild downtown to reflect the "bygone" era to retain a sliver of what it used to be like.

More later...

How to go a month between blogs

OK, I didn't realize that I had gone a month between blogs. I've got a couple of weeks covered - I was on vacation for one, and at a seminar for the second.

As far as vacation goes, we went to Lake Tahoe for 5 days. I hadn't been to Tahoe for over 20 years, and it was great to go back. It's beautiful in summer, all the trees, surrounding mountains, and of course the lake. Even though it has lost some clarity, it's still clearer than any other lake around. Took the kids on a waverunner one afternoon - what a kick with my daughter (5) and son (9) - laughter and wide smiles at 30 MPH. Next day, the whole family took a powerboat out for a trip over to Emerald Bay and the requisite speeding on the way over. All in all, a very relaxing time. On the way home, we snuck in some "education" and visited a working gold mine - everyone donned a hard hat and went 400 feet below to see how the mine works and the history of mining. Actually a very entertaining hour.

More stories coming, really!