Strongback's Blog

Using VI or VIM for Linux - making your editor a much richer experience

2010-03-04T14:39:00.003-05:00

Vi is to the Linux/Unix world as 'edit' is to MS-DOS. If you use Vi, you are probably aware of vim, which a more robust tool, but very similar. I won't dive into the whole history - goto Wikipedia for that.

Unless you have specifically installed Vim on Ubuntu or modified the .vimrc file on OpenSuse, you will probably get the basic text interface to the text file you are editing. All the text will be one color and there are no line numbers.

Adding this .vimrc text file to your home directory will light up the editor like a Christmas tree. You'll be able to edit html, jsp, xml, properties files and more have a rich UI (for a text editor that is), that will really help you better manage your text files.

ftp://ftp.strongbackconsulting.com/.vimrc

For ubuntu, be sure and run "apt-get install vim" to get the latest version of it. It won't work until you do!

*NOTE: I am linking to this file from my own website, as the original author no longer has the site available (http://www.stripey.com/vim/). I do give proper credit, however to Mr. Smyler, as you have certainly made life easier!

Planning and tracking work items in Rational Team Concert

2010-03-03T14:36:00.002-05:00

Team Concert is such a cool flexible tool, and there are so many features that its easy to miss, yet its easy to get started with. It just 'grows' as your environment needs. I learned a few things from this video and and just have to share. I really like that you can edit code directly from source control, save it to a stream, associate it with a work item, and then submit it to a build all within the web interface.

The ability to do resource leveling using drag and drop between sprints is also wickedly cool. One view to see the work load of your entire team like a Gantt chart, but without the evil side effects like you have in MS Project.

Common installation issues/fixes with Rational Team Concert for Power Systems

2010-03-02T09:26:00.006-05:00

If you are installing the new Rational Team Concert for Power Systems (RTCp), which is the follow on to RTCi, there are a few common installation issues you might run into.

First, be sure and check all the system requirements for the product. RTCp server can be installed on i/OS, AIX, and Windows. I highly recommend that you install on a WebSphere App Server 7.0 server. Make sure you have the latest cumulative PTF (or at least the minimum). If you have multiple WAS server instances and versions, you should try to consolidate those as much as possible and try to keep the number of JVM's down. A WAS server can run multiple apps - you don't need a server instance for every app. I've seen a dozen servers run one app a piece before - terrible (and expensive) waste of resources. When consolidating, consider using the built in application server as it is a little bit lighter than a full WAS JVM and appropriate for lightweight .war files with no distributed caching or EJBs.

For i/OS V5R4 you'll need to confirm the following is installed first.

IBM Toolbox for Java (5722-JC1)
IBM J2SE 5.0 32-bit JVM (5722-JVM) or IBM J2SE 6.0 32-bit JVM
WebSphere Application Server – Express V7.0 or WebSphere Application Server – Express V6.1 (5722-WE2)
WebSphere Application Server V6.1 (5733-W61) or WebSphere Application Server V7.0 (5733-W70)

For V6.1 you need

IBM Toolbox for Java (5761-JC1)
IBM J2SE 5.0 32-bit JVM (5761-JVM) or IBM J2SE 6.0 32-bit JVM
WebSphere Application Server – Express V7.0 or WebSphere Application Server – Express V6.1 (5722-WE2)
WebSphere Application Server V6.1 (5733-W61) or WebSphere Application Server V7.0 (5733-W70)

If you do not have capacity to run RTCp on the i/OS, you can run it on an AIX partition, or a Windows server. The build toolkit for i/OS MUST run on the i. Keep in mind you can run build toolkits on every operating system (except z/OS), and control them from the RTCp server.

If you get an immediate failure when issueing the restore licensed program command, your i is probably not using English as the default language. If so, you'll need to specify the LNG parameter on the RSTLICPGM command:

RSTLICPGM LICPGM(5724Z01) DEV(*SAVF) LNG(2924) SAVF(QGPL/B5724Z01)

This is because there are no language packs for RTCp currently.

When connecting to RTCp, make sure you have upgraded or installed the RTC 2.0 client. The RTCi 1.0 client will no longer work. The client versions must match up to the major/minor release levels, and preferably to the fix pack level.

If I run into other similar issues, I'll be sure and post them. The biggest issue out there is that the RTCp 2.0 InfoCenter is no where to be found, so you'll have to base your documentation on the WAS InfoCenter, the RTC 2.0 InfoCenter (for Windows and Linux), and the i/OS InfoCenter.

UPDATE:
The RTCp infocenter is at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/rtcihelp/v2r0/index.jsp.
Thanks to Kushal Mun for helping to find it. Its not exactly well linked.

I've got a golden ticket...to IBM Innovate in June

2010-02-26T14:05:00.004-05:00

Now, I am excited. I just got confirmed as a speaker at the Rational conference this June, now dubbed "IBM Innovate". This makes my fourth straight year of this conference, and my second year presenting. I submitted 3 abstracts, but this is the one that got accepted. Here is my session abstract:

Session: PWR-1068A: Spicing up your green screens with HATS and Dojo

When: Wed, 9/Jun, 01:45 PM - 02:45 PM
Where: Swan - Europe 11

Current abstract:
Learn to take your green sceen apps to Web 2.0 with HATS and the Dojo Tookit. IBM Rational HATS comes with many default templates making it easy to deploy a solution for green screens very quickly. However we'll show you how you can take advantage of the underlying Rational Application Developer and the Dojo Toolkit feature to really make your applications shine. The toolkit also gives you the ability to add features to your application that is easier to implement than writing custom components, while being cross-browser compliant.

When we submit our abstracts, what you see above is all we have to submit. The actual presentation gets submitted much later. In fact, few people even start on this until they know they've been confirmed to speak.

In case you are curious, here is the subjects of my other two abstracts that did not get approved:

Automate RPG deployment with iANT and RTCi
Regression Testing Terminal Based Systems

If anyone is really interested, and would like a webinar type of presentation, I might just do one on these if I get enough interest. For now, I'm going to focus on getting my approved abstract all 'purty'.

With that, let me ask you:

Are you going to Innovate? (cool double entendre isn't it?)
Are you using Dojo now?
What other JavaScript kits are you using?
What other neat GUI tricks would you like to see more of?

I'll take your suggestions and put these into my presentation and we'll see you at Innovate.

Looking for a few good men (or women as the case may be)

2010-02-16T19:50:00.004-05:00

No, I'm not in the dating marking. Actually we are looking for some help as Strongback is growing these days. I'm posting here since I get much more traffic than the web site. Eventually, we'll have a careers section. Here are the positions we are considering:

Account Executive
Experienced sales executive skilled in the ways and means of IBM land, particularly IBM software. Prior experience in VMWare and Novell software is a definite plus. This person must be able to generate leads, manage client relationships, cultivate customer loyalty, and identify cross-sell opportunities. Ideal candidate will be able to close software deals without technical sales support. Candidate will be responsible for a large territory, and also responsible for coordinating outbound marketing tactics.
Location: Orlando

QA Consultant
We need an experienced QA engineer who has a history as a consultant. Experience with Rational products such as Functional Tester and Performance Tester are a must. Candidate will work with customers to implement IBM Rational software, and mentor customers on creating automated tests and creating test plans. Rational Quality Manager experience is highly desired, but not required (expect to learn it otherwise). Candidate is expected to travel, specifically in the SouthEastern US and Puerto Rico.
Location: Central Florida (Orlando, Tampa, Daytona)

Virtualization/Middleware Consultant
Expertise in all of VMware portfolio. Experience with IBM WebSphere middleware a huge plus. Candidate must possess technical certifications in VMWare. Candidate can expect significant travel, specifically in the SouthEastern US and Puerto Rico.
Location: Atlanta, Orlando

Send your questions and resumes to hello@strongbackconsulting.com.

*NOTE: All candidates are subject to a criminal background check as required due to our relationships with our vendors. Strongback is an equal opportunity employer and does NOT discriminate with regard to race, religion, ethnicity, sexual preference, or national origin. Strongback does, however have a strong policy against smoking. We neither hire nor retain smokers. Employees who smoke are subject to immediate termination. Former smokers are subject to reduced benefits.

POWER7 PVU licensing changes (or lack thereof)

2010-02-14T09:55:00.005-05:00

Last week, IBM announced the new POWER7 architecture chip. I won't get into the details about the processor technology, but suffice it to say, its packs a punch. The real question, is how does it affect software licensing? These processors come in 4, 6, and 8 core versions, meaning that on an 8 way system, you could have as much as 64 processor cores in operation.

IBM's software licensing is based on either authorized user, floating user, concurrent user, or processor value unit (PVU for short). The PVU scale varies based on the processor and the processor version. For example, POWER 5 is typically rated at 100 PVU's per processor core. POWER6 bumps up to 120PVU's per core. Surprisingly POWER7 is generously rated at no more than 120 PVU's per core on the higher level machines, and 100 PVU's on the lower 750/755 series. This means if you are upgrading from POWER6 to a POWER7 your software licensing costs may not change at all. If you were planning on moving from POWER5 to POWER6, you can instead bump up to POWER7 with approximately the same licensing cost difference but substantial performance gains - or reduce your licensing costs and obtain the same performance.

The entire chart on how to calculate your PVU is shown below. Keep in mind that if you have 8 cores, you could have your system partitioned via LPAR or a POWERVM, and utilize only 2 cores for example for that one virtual system.

There were a TON of other announcements last week. I'll post those separately as time allows.
Keep an eye out for Rational Developer for POWER Systems, Rational Team Concert for POWER Systems, and the new Rational Compilers for POWER Systems.

HATS Webinar on Feb 19th

2010-02-11T22:56:00.002-05:00

Strongback is offering a webinar on Rational Host Access Transformation Services on Friday February 19th at 11AM. If you have been considering or have used the product in the past, please join us on this webcast.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Lotus Symphony 3.0 beta now available

2010-02-04T11:15:00.003-05:00

This posted on EdBrill.com just moments ago:

Key new features in Symphony 3.0:
VB Macros support
ODF 1.2 support for improved file interoperability
embedded audio/video allows users to add media directly to slides, documents and sheets
autotext support to create "chunks" of text that are used frequently and quickly inserted
digital signatures
redline support --- shows edits made to document
usability enhancements

I know some are asking, "What happened to Symphony 2.0?" The answer is, since this new release is aligned with the OpenOffice 3.x codebase, we chose to move the version number up to alignment. Symphony 3.0 is going to be exciting and further help liberate IT organizations from paying high Microsoft taxes -- get started now by downloading the beta and providing feedback.

I have the 1.0 version, and have consistently preferred the OpenOffice 3.0 over Symphony as OO was more robust, performed better, and had a better features. I'm anxious for this to go GA.

Crazy Error: VMware Infrastructure Web Service at "http://localhost:8222/sdk" is not responding

2010-02-03T14:38:00.003-05:00

This morning, I had to add some patches to my VMWare server (yes, I need to move over to ESX), and needed to reboot. Upon bootup, when trying to get into the Virtual Infrastructure management console, I was presented with the ominus error message "The VMware Infrastructure Web Service at "http://localhost:8222/sdk" is not responding (Connection Refused).".

Not sure what it was, and assuming it was a kernel problem (which I did install multiple kernel patches on my Suse machine, I downloaded the latest release of VMware server and installed it. The vmware-config.pl script ran into a couple of errors as well. The Internets came up with a few results:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/176054
http://www.stknetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77:vmwareserver-error-sdk&catid=41:configuration-examples-misc&Itemid=76

However, these are all related to VMWare server running on Vista 64. Mine is a 64 bit OpenSuse Linux machine. The solution to the Windows problem was to add a localhost entry to the hosts file. Well, I had a host file and had no problem with it previously.

I then tried to telnet to localhost:8222 and it bombed, but telnet to 127.0.0.1:8222 worked fine. I double checked, and lo and behold, I no longer had the localhost:127.0.0.1 entry. Once I added that, I reran the vmware-config.pl and restarted vmware, and voila! it worked!

SO - lesson is, make sure you have the above entry in your /etc/hosts file!

Error in HATS toolkit after applying RAD 7.5.5 fix pack

2010-01-28T22:48:00.002-05:00

This blog entry popped up on my radar tonight. If you have a HATS project and are suddenly getting and extra 'Web Content" folder. This, fix will correct the problem.

http://www-949.ibm.com/software/rational/cafe/blogs/hats-tricks/2010/01/28/creating-projects-with-hats-v75-after-applying-rad-v755-fix-pack-may-cause-problems

Thanks to Gerald Mitchell for the post.

So, what is the 'Facebook for the Enterprise'?

2010-01-25T10:07:00.001-05:00

Its also the fastest growing product in IBM's history. Hmm...

Watch to find out.

Domino 8.5 fixpack 1 Heap Overflow via DOS attack

2010-01-23T23:21:00.002-05:00

Just saw this issue pop up on my crawlers.

http://intevydis.blogspot.com/2010/01/lotus-domino-7-probably-8-ldap-heap.html

No indication if this is specific to a particular operating system. Secunia, vulnerability intelligence provider, rates this as a moderately critical issue. It is currently unpatched.

Beta 3 of WebSphere Portal 7 Now Available

2010-01-20T09:07:00.004-05:00

I just saw that IBM released beta 3 of Portal 7 this week. I didn't see it on my #ls10 radar on twitter, so I guess I'm not following enough Portal geeks out there.

New features in Beta 3 include:

Tagging allows users (and entire user communities) to classify, organize and structure content autonomously. It can add valuable meta-information and even lightweight semantics and allows non-expert users to develop folksonomies that categorize content available in the system.
Rating allows users to vote for the popularity of portal content and helps other users to quickly identify hot items
Virtual resources based security concepts to control which and how users and groups can tag and rate
Full xmlaccess support for tagging and rating
Powerful APIs to create, delete, update and query tags and ratings
Lotus Web Content Management enhancements including: content model simplified by merging Sites and Site Areas, enhanced workflow model providing support for Bi-directional workflow traversal, and taxonomy driven option selection element
Extend and integrate Lotus Web Content Management with external applications via Java Messaging (JMS)

Also IBM is announcing a Portal Hypervisor edition for use with WebSphere Cloudburst. This is a preconfigured image that can be deployed onto VMware ESX/ESXi and VSphere. I don't see in the documentation that it is available for PowerVM, but you can bet that is in the works as there are a LOT of AIX installs out there.

Then they have a new beta for WebSphere Portlet factory. Portlet Factory beta's new features include:

New visual application development features with palette based drag and drop design capabilities
Enhanced Web 2.0 support enabling creation of even richer and more interactive applications
Expanded theme support for generating visually compelling user interfaces out-of-the-box including page tabs, paging button and links
New transformation capabilities providing the ability to easily manipulate, filter and merge data from multiple back-end systems
New remote deployment feature for hassle-free application deployment to remote systems
Improved Web service and improved application and memory performance enabling creation of faster and more scalable applications

Now Portlet factory, is a tool that you can use to build not only portlets, but also plain old java web apps. Its name is a bit of a disguise for some of its hidden gems. I've deployed web apps to tomcat with this tool before. Now, its no substitute for a pure ground-up high performance app, but if you need an application with lots of features and you need it quick, this is a real productivity tool. Of course, it shines in developing portlets because doing a portlet has quite a bit more complexity that a Java EE web app.

I'm dowloading the latest beta now. I still have not had a time to review the last beta, so I guess this is good timing!

IBM Rational Products and WIndows 7 Support

2010-01-19T18:40:00.002-05:00

The following is from the IBM Support site. For those preparing to deploy or run the SDP on Windows 7. Note that some products are also supported on a linux desktop environment.

Microsoft Windows 7 support for Rational products

News

Abstract

The Detailed System Requirements Documents for all IBM Rational Products should be reviewed for Operating System and Environment support. This document serves to notify you which Rational Products Support Microsoft Windows 7 as of its release.

Content

Change History

Microsoft released Windows 7 in October 2009.

Where Windows 7 is mentioned below, the business release versions included (unless otherwise stated) are:

Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Enterprise

Details can be found on the Microsoft Web site: HERE

IBM Rational intends to provide client-side support for the following versions of Windows 7.

Windows 7 Professional 32 and 64 bit
Windows 7 Enterprise 32 and 64 bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 32 and 64 bit

Note:

Server components may not be supported on Windows 7
Refer to the product specific platform support pages and Technotes for Windows 7 support restrictions or limitations.

Rational products currently supporting Windows 7

IBM Rational Team Concert
IBM Rational Synergy
IBM Rational Change
IBM Rational Focal Point
IBM Rational Test RealTime

IBM Rational Doors Web Access

IBM Rational Application Developer
IBM Rational Software Architect
IBM Rational Asset Manager
IBM Rational Publishing Engine

IBM Rational Personal Communications (PCOMM)

IBM Rational Host Access Client Package

IBM Rational Host On-Demand

IBM Rational ProjectConsole
IBM Rational SoDA

LotusSphere 2010 - Blogging from the sidelines

2010-01-18T10:25:00.003-05:00

This year, I am sadly missing LotusSphere, IBM's annual collaboration conference due to some prior commitments. Sigh. I am, however, very intently, watching the blogosphere and the twittersphere for updates, and it appears Lotus is making a LOT of new strides and releasing a dizzying array of new features for their software portfolio. Among those, and just since the opening session and business partner day yesterday are:

Announcement of Project Vulcan - a social and business analytics project involving Lotus Notes, Quickr, Connections and new software from IBM focused on Continuity, Convergence, Innovation & New Opportunities.
Announcement of Lotus Quickr 8.5 with key features of running on Domino 8.5.1
An expansion of the LotusLive offering. One major advantage of the LotusLive Notes offering -- it is designed specifically with hybrid (on-premises + cloud) environments in mind.
IBM announced Lotus Notes Traveler Companion, which is IBM's first-ever application available on the Apple iPhone App Store.
IBM will be producing a Lotus Traveler server for running on Linux environments (currently only available on Windoze).
Lotus Notes Traveler client for Google Android coming in 2H10
Lotus Notes and Domino will be moving to a closed distribution model - meaning that only partners that are capable of properly implementing and servicing the product will be able to sell it (Strongback Consulting is already there and has over 14+ years of expertise in Notes/Domino)
IBM and partners will be reselling the RIM Blackberry components that support Quickr and Connections - this means getting your Lotus Quickr wikis, blogs, and documents natively on your Crackberry.
Sametime 8.5 is now delivered in a Collaboration Server and Meeting server edition as well as a new Proxy Server edition.

You can keep up with the events and happenings of LotusSphere by looking for the #LS10 hashtag on Twitter. Look at my twitter widget on the right hand side of this blog for my retweets.

Making the installation of SNAPPS Templates much Quickr

2010-01-13T13:37:00.006-05:00

For anyone using Lotus Quickr (formerly Quickplace), the guys at SNAPPS have created some freely available templates for use. Whenever I install Quickr for a customer I often install these templates with the base installation as a bonus.
After you've installed something repeatedly, you often think 'hey.. I could script that!'. And so I did. You don't have the full flexibility of scripting in a Domino environment, but there are quite few things that you can do in a batch/shell script by calling the specific items in the Domino program directory. Now, this part is really just for upgrading or registering the newly created SNAPPS templates. My step just speeds up the command line portion of it and allows you to run a single batch file instead of 16+ commands. This is for Windows only, but a shell script is just a AWK away. If you have more fancy things to add to the script, please leave a comment.

Follow all the instructions from the SNAPPS team for the initial download and setup of the QEngine and QContacts applications, and copying the other templates into your LotusQuickr directory. Then, copy the following into a batch file and insert into your Domino program directory. Then at step 3 of installing a single template, execute the batch file. This will install and register all the SNAPPS templates.


REM #################################################
REM Install and/or upgrade the SNAPPS Templates
REM Copyright 2010, Strongback Consulting
REM www.strongbackconsulting.com
REM
REM Obtain the SNAPPS templates via http://templates.snapps.com
REM #################################################
echo ### REGISTERING qactivities ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qactivities
nqptool register -install -p qactivities

echo ### REGISTERING qannounce ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qannounce
nqptool register -install -p qannounce

echo ### REGISTERING qcontacts ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qcontacts
nqptool register -install -p qcontacts

echo ### REGISTERING qideas ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qideas
nqptool register -install -p qideas

echo ### REGISTERING qissues ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qissues
nqptool register -install -p qissues

echo ### REGISTERING qmeeting ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qmeeting
nqptool register -install -p qmeeting

echo ### REGISTERING qphotos ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qphotos
nqptool register -install -p qphotos

echo ### REGISTERING qpresent ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qpresent
nqptool register -install -p qpresent

echo ### REGISTERING qsite ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qsite
nqptool register -install -p qsite

echo ### REGISTERING qsurvey ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qsurvey
nqptool register -install -p qsurvey

echo ### REGISTERING qproject ####
nqptool upgrade -f -p qproject
nqptool register -install -p qproject
echo ----- Registration Complete ------
pause

Then you can use the Domino Admin console to add owners to all the places at once.

IBM announces a new support portal

2010-01-12T16:43:00.004-05:00

For those (like me) tired of digging through dozens of different URL's to find the right product support site for the right IBM product, fear no more. IBM has announced the new support portal open for business as of yesterday.

As part of the IBM CIO transformation initiative, IBM has developed a best in class online technical Support Portal that helps differentiate IBM products in the marketplace. It is a no charge, value add to our clients and IBM Business Partners.

The portal is a unified, centralized view of all technical support tools and information for all IBM software, systems and services. Clients can tailor the pages to suit their needs, focus on the products they care about and organize the pages to reflect the way they work. The portal simplifies their online technical support experience, reduces the time it takes to find the information they need to solve problems, and alerts them to information that can help them avoid problems.

The new support portal is available at http://www-01.ibm.com/support/electronicsupport/portal.html.

Learn how to use it at with this video.

Java EE 6 released

2010-01-07T15:18:00.002-05:00

After several years of development and LOTS of community involvement, Sun has announced the release of Java Enterprise Edition 6 or Java EE 6 for short. Please, please don't call it J2EE anymore!

There is a good article on the Sun Developer site on the new features of Glassfish v3 and JEE6. Another good presentation based overview of the new features are here.

Now, your next question will be "When will IBM have Java EE 6 in WebSphere?" Well, based on prior experience, look for IBM to release a feature pack for Java EE6 later this year, and possibly have a point release of WAS and WAS ND sometime early next year (perhaps named WebSphere 7.1 if prior numbering proves anything).

Properties based configuration in WebSphere App Server 7

2010-01-07T13:43:00.006-05:00

One of the new features WebSphere Application Server 7 is its properties file based configuration. Since version 5 WAS has had a scripting interface called wsadmin (it was an xml interface in prior versions), which is accessed from the WAS_HOME/bin directory as wsadmin.bat or wsadmin.sh. This scripting interface allows live interaction with the server, or you can feed it a script to run several commands at once. In prior versions of WAS, some of these scripts could be very complex if you needed to update several configurations, and subsequently could take on an application development lifecycle of its own. WAS 7 makes this much easier by referencing parameters to be changed by a simple properties file.

To demonstrate, we'll update a JDBC property on our test WAS environment. We start by extracting the current configuration. First, start wsadmin in a new shell window.


wsadmin.bat -lang jython

wsadmin> AdminTask.extractConfigProperties('-propertiesFileName server1.props -configData Server=se

rver1')

This will extract the entire current server properties to a text based properties file in your WAS profile bin directory. Open it up and take a look at it. I recommend using Notepad2 for readability if you are on Windows.

Notice that it is broken into sections. To get only a particular section, just substitute the resource name for the configData argument in the extractConfigProperties argument above.

In this example, I want to turn verbose garbage collection on. I simply change this value to 'true' and save the properties file. I'm choosing this value because turning on verbose gc makes troubleshooting JVM heap dumps easier to troubleshoot. I use this with the IBM Support Assistant (which is free) to help troubleshoot problematic environments.

Its a good idea to validate your new properties before you apply them. To do this we issue AdminTask.validateConfigProperties('-propertiesFileName server1.props') at the wsadmin prompt. If valid the prompt will return 'true'.

Next, we apply the properties with AdminTask.applyConfigProperties('-propertiesFileName server1.props'). If successful, the command should return two single quotes ('').
Finally save the configuration with AdminConfig.save().

To confirm that our new setting has been applied, open the administration console and go to the JVM settings for your server. These are found in under 'Servers - Server Types - WebSphere Application Servers' on the left navigation bar. Then go to 'Java and Process Management' under the 'Server Infrastructure' heading. On the next screen click 'Java Virtual Machine'. Your configuration should look like the image shown.

If you have trouble with the commands you can get help by using the help interface, for example:

AdminTask.help('extractConfigProperties') or AdminTask.help('applyConfigProperties'). If you are really lost (and just not familiar with wsadmin), call Help.help() to get started. Of course you can always call our office to get some support too.

As you can see the benefits of the new properties based configuration is easier scripting, and therefore easier automation for your environment. Its a simpler configuration and one that more easily be adapted for disparate environments.

147% ROI upgrading to Lotus Domino 8.5.1

2009-12-29T22:48:00.003-05:00

Ed Brill posted this earlier today

http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/dx/147-roi-for-upgrading-to-notesdomino-8.5-forrester-webcast

Forrester Research's Ted Schadler and Jon Erickson spoke with numerous Lotus customers who had completed the upgrade, and calculated the economic benefits in aggregate. The result: An astounding 147% ROI for upgrading to Notes/Domino 8.5, with a payback period of only one year.

This is a fantastic point here. The new features of Domino in the latest release are quite significant. DAMO alone can save you 47% of your storage space while still providing brick level back up and recovery. Try doing that on Microsoft Exchange!

WebSphere Portal 7 - Open Beta

2009-12-22T23:52:00.003-05:00

IBM is working on the next release of WebSphere Portal and is gathering information from the community on how to improve the overall experience. If you have Portal or are considering using Portal, you might be interested in seeing what is coming in the new year with Portal :

Enhanced theme support enables addition of blogs, library and wiki templates to portal pages using page builder
Expanded virtualization support for VMWare and multiple profiles
Page builder enhancements; catalog search, tab navigation widget, style and layout features, inline assembly
Administration enhancements: xml based configuration of sub policies, People finder and person card enhancements
Lotus Web Content Management enhancements including: Collaborative content management with Projects. Create, edit, preview and syndicate multiple changes together using a Project; publish in a single operation
Lotus Web Content Management content authoring usability enhancements including favorites, localized authoring templates, folders, a new rich text editor, additional enhancements...
Lotus Web Content Management enhanced ECM integration support
Lotus Web Content Management support for WebSphere Application Server Resource Environment Provider, additional administration improvements

Please visit IBM WebSphere Portal and Lotus Web Content Management Beta Forum for additional enhancements and specific release details.

This is a significant version with far more features and changes in performance due to its native WebSphere Application Server 7 foundation. There is a significant focus on virtualization with this release and as such the Beta is available in VMWare vdisk format, which I am downloading as I write this.

I'll post in the coming weeks my feedback.

Spring Framework 3.0 Released

2009-12-22T23:26:00.004-05:00

Spring Framework is a Java API framework that has captured the hearts of many developers. The latest release from SpringSource, the company who sponsors the project announced the latest release. Key features include: Spring expression language (SpEL), Extended support for annotation-based components, standardized dependency injection annotations, declaration model validation based on constraint annotations, comprehensive REST support, rich native Portland 2.0 support and more. The latest release is compatible with Java EE 6, in terms of runtime environment, supports JPA 2.0 final, JSR 303 validation mode, and eve the newly introduced @ManagedBean (JSR-250 v1.1) annotation for component scanning. Read Juergen Hoeller's Blog for all the details about the Spring 3 release. There is also a great presentation on InfoQ on the new features.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you should also know that the term "J2EE" should be eliminated from your vocabulary. That is because the "2" was a reference to Java 1.2. Java is now at version 6 and earlier this month Sun has announced that Java Enterprise Edition 6 is now gold. So.. make that "Java EE 6."

Lots of reading material for the holidays!

Rational Team Concert 2.0.0.2 released

2009-12-19T09:32:00.002-05:00

The most recent milestone for RTC snuck out the door last night. Most notable is support for the Eclipse 3.5 client.

Another new feature is work item templates. These can be created from an existing set of work items, and then be used to create new work items. template creation wizard also lets you to define attribute variables which can be assigned values each time you instantiate the template.

You can also check in, edit, and delete documents now using the Web UI. File locks can now also be managed using the Web UI. There is now a command line interface to check in/out and edit files (for us command line junkies).

Another favorite is an updated Scrum template for Agile planning. The prior one was overly complex for new teams just getting started with Agile.

More details on the updated and new features can be found on the 'New and Noteworthy' page.

Download the latest release here.

RSC = Innovate

2009-12-19T08:56:00.002-05:00

I guess it was just a matter of time before it happened, but I like the change. IBM has rebranded their Rational Software Conference to the 'Innovate Conference". After having merged the WebSphere Technical Exchange and SOA conference into "Impact", it only makes sense to rebrand the Rational Conference. Tivoli is the "Pulse" conference. This might open the attendance up to newcomers who otherwise have not heard of Rational Software. So, I've got one paper submitted. On to create at least two more. Hopefully one will get approved and I'll get my golden ticket!

Microsoft Snake Oil

2009-12-14T13:11:00.004-05:00

Ed Brill once mentioned this guy on his blog and I go back and check it every once in a while. He's been blogging about his company's move from Notes to Exchange and the effects its had. There are some real eye-opening comments for both IBM and Microsoft fans. His last post was back in August, but it brought to light the flexibility that Notes/Domino has in its programming and architecture. Domino has hands down the best rooms/reservations system, which is increasingly critical to large enterprises. Small businesses don't worry about it so much as they may only have a single conference room, if at all.

We’re down to 75 apps. All mail is finally off the system. Apps still send outgoing emails, but we have no more incoming emails. Room reservations are finally gone. I expect some people will be surprised that they stayed on Notes so long… the truth is, Exchange couldn’t compete with the flexibility of the Notes reservations system. We had a customized system that would allow people to order different table/chair configurations for conference rooms. The only way we got off of Notes for meeting reservations was to force it via management…. just telling people that they were losing functionality and had to deal with it.

Now, imagine telling your SVP of Sales to 'just deal with it', after moving to Exchange. Yeah, that will go over well.

So, the moral of the story is to do your due diligence before you migrate off your email system to a competitor. No matter what Microsoft says, there is NO migration tool for custom Lotus Notes apps! I've used their tool. The only thing it is good for is moving standardized, Lotus provided templates such as the discussion room, and document library template. If you have a custom CRM application, or help desk app, or any other custom coded Lotus Notes application, Microsoft (or one of their partners), will gleefully run this tool which will give you a general relative score of how complex the application is. They will then say "Oh we can migrate that - its just Notes. Here is our services proposal. No problem."

Be sure and ask for a chaser if you drink that snake oil.