Andy Yiu’s Blog

If you are deploying Sametime 8.0 using a software distribution suite such as Microsoft SMS, you need to take a look at IBM Technote 1302764 and the attached hotfix.

This hotfix corrects a defect that prevents it from being executed by a non-administrative account, using the Windows Run As functionality to give Administrator rights. It also resolves the problem of running the installer using the methods listed above as the System account.

In 7.5.1 and above, a new feature was added to manage the size of the various meeting diagnostics files.  This registry setting can be used to split C++ diagnostics into module specific files, and they will respect the size limit specified.

MaxLogSizeMb=dword:00000400
ModuleLogEnabled=dword:00000001
Enabled in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lotus\Sametime\MeetingServer\Diagnostics]

The example above enables the splitting of the modules, and will limit them to 1024mb each as defined by the MaxLogSizeMb parameter.  When the 1024mb limit is reached, the current file is renamed/backed up, and a new one created. The server will then keep the current and the immediate prior file.  Files older than that will be removed.

The summary.diag file can also be disabled altogether by setting the “SummaryLogEnabled” to 0. However this is not recommended as it does help with troubleshooting issues.

For the last year, IBM and VMWare teams have worked on together to write and publish the following paper.  It’s short but it outlines some of the performance measurements.  Please note that the loads were run in a controlled environment so actual deployment experiences may vary.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/ibm_lotus_sametime_ref_arch_vi3_wp.pdf

After a few weeks of working on final projects and exams for my MBA, I am finally back and have time to continue blogging again.  As many of you heard, Sametime Advanced was finally released.  You can now download this from your normal channels.  Stay tuned and I will start posting regularly again.

In the existing world of the Sametime Gateway, here is some more news.  Effective March 5th 2008, AOL has implemented rate limits to limit the number of messages that can be transmitted via the gateway over a period of time.  Additionally they are implementing URL filtering to prevent messages that contain URLs that link to executable content.    If you have any any questions about the specifics around this policy or want to contact AOL to voice your thoughts, additional information is available in IBM Technote# 1296449.

It looks like a solution to the previous post on Google problems with the Sametime Gateway has finally been found.  Full details are available in IBM Technote 1295506, however this is what you need to know.

The Talk service offered by Google Apps for your Domain must be disabled in order to establish awareness between the Sametime Gateway and Google Talk. If the Talk service is already enabled, you have several options to disable it:

Standard/Premium/Education accounts:
The administrator can simply disable the Talk service from the dashboard to allow XMPP federation to occur between the Sametime Gateway and Google Talk.

For Team Edition (TE) accounts:
There is a problem whereby XMPP federation between the Sametime Gateway and Google Talk breaks as soon as the first user signs up for a TE account. This occurs because the Talk service is automatically enabled for the domain provided by the user. In our case, this is typically the corporate domain (the domain being used to establish XMPP federation with Google Talk).

Google is in the process of implementing a fix soon that checks for existing XMPP federation and disables the Talk service for TE domains automatically upon detection. This will keep XMPP federation from breaking for new domains in the future.

For those who are attempting to deploy the Sametime Gateway currently and have discovered that the corporate domain has already been registered for a TE account, owners of these domains can address this situation on their own by upgrading the account from a Team Edition to a Standard Edition. This is free and requires proof of domain ownership. Once the account has been upgraded, the IT administrator can then manually disable the Talk service from the Google dashboard. See the following document for more details:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=86647

Google Apps for your Domain may be to blame.  It appears that a single user that registers the corporate domain for this service may be responsible.  How do you verify this?

1.  Visit http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new
2. Click on  “Administrators …”
3. Type the domain (example: domain.com) in the ‘Enter your domain name’ box
4. Click on get started.

If the domain name is already registered, you will get a message indicating so. (In this case, you will just get a message indicating that some users have signed up.)

Next challenge….finding out who registered.  More details to come in IBM Technote 1295505.

The IBM Software group is pleased to host an Open Mic conference call on the topic of Upgrading to Sametime 8.0.  This opportunity to speak with experts on this specific topic is completely free of charge.

The call will take place on Tuesday, March 11, 2008, with two sessions:
10:00 AM EDT (2:00 PM GMT, Tuesday, March 11, 2008)
9:00 PM EDT  (1:00 AM GMT, Wednesday, March 12, 2008)

For dial-in information as well as instructions about how to submit a question in advance, refer to document Sametime Open Mic conference call: Upgrading to Sametime 8.0 - March 11, 2008.

Everyone at one point or another has had to call up customer service to take care of an issue. From working in Technical Support, I have seen a fair share of people I have seen and heard of people who have managed to bypass the normal process and get attention as quickly as possible by as many people as possible. An interesting article has appeared in MSNBC about what some customers have done to get the attention they need after they are neglected customer service representatives. I still remember the times where I have asked an ISP (who shall remain unnamed) to troubleshoot my internet connectivity issues. After four on-site service calls, and ten calls to customer service, I was told by unruly customer service manager to stop calling customer support and I’ll have to live with the twice a day sporadic outages that reset my VPN and VOIP services. Some companies have now decided that dropping customers is better than maintaining customers. With the current economy as it is and the U.S. on the brink of a recession, I am not sure how some businesses can justify dropping customers instead keeping a customer and give them incentives to make the content. Some studies have even shown that attracting a new customer can cost eight to ten times more than maintaining an existing customer. Take a read of the article “Customers backlash against bad service“.

Here is the video which is referenced in the article:

The Social Networking space has continued to grow at an astonishing rate over the last few years.  It all started with a few sites such as MySpace and Facebook, but now there are more than a dozen social networking sites.  People that participate in such sites do not have a single profile on a single site, but instead have to work on maintaining multiple profiles on multiple sites.  At what point will people say there are too many social networking sites out there and decide to choose and stick with one?  Will there ever be a Social Networking Aggregator developed to automatically migrate data from one site to another?  Personally with all of the public Social Networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Windows Live Spaces,  I find myself overloaded with information with people revealing too much personal information through these channels.