A Yuletide Gift

Rather off-topic, but a good read none the less.

My dad grew up on a farm not to far from where I write this.  He often tells me stories of growing up, when his father finally got a paying job, having previously been a sustenance farmer.   When my grandfather passed away, they found years worth of paychecks that had never been cashed.   He simply didn't see a need for that much money.

A Yuletide Gift of Kindesss [Smithsonian]

How To: Compact Only Your Databases That Are Behind the Server ODS Level

Useful tip on how to compact only the databases on your server that aren't up to the ODS level set on the server.

In the compact task there is an option that allows you to run an undocumented ODS-run copy-style compaction only to databases that have a version ods less than that specified in the notes.ini of the server (eg Create_R85_Databases = 1) .

load compact-ODS

Very useful to avoid time-consuming copy-style on everything or having to specify each database.

Credits for this tip go to Vincenzo Capponcelli who originally posted them in Italian here: http://www.zoolotus.org/blog/vcapponcelli.nsf/dx/2311201012.02.48VCAEYC.htm

Admin Notes: How to debug SMTP task

Sometimes things go wrong.   They just don't work.  For me, it was when someone complained that their emails weren't getting through to a mailbox, from a specific client.

Sure enough all I saw in the mail logs was:

11/18/2010 11:00:27 AM SMTP Server: mail.server.com connected

11/18/2010 11:00:28 AM SMTP Server: mail.server.com disconnected. 0 message[s] received

Yeah.   Really useful.

So, off to find out why.   First step, IBM support site.  And, I found what I was looking for: Domino Router notes.ini debug parameters for SMTP

The basic premise is this:  There are 2 debug parameters that will be useful.

SMTPDebug - This parameter can be set to enable the capture of inbound SMTP protocol conversations. This is for all messages received by the SMTP listener from all clients and servers via the SMTP protocol.
Possible values are:

1. Enable minimal logging of the SMTP listener

2. Enable information logging of data sent and received along with some additional debugging information. This setting indicates commands and responses being received/sent along with the number of bytes being transmitted, but does not include the text that is transmitted.

3. Enable verbose logging of data sent and received. Along with the information recorded at setting 2, this level shows the actual text received/sent via SMTP. Note that this does not include the text body of messages.

4. This is the most verbose you will get for logging (note that this is an undocumented value -- the documentation only lists up to 3, which is strange, as it is documented on the IBM support site...).

I, of course, jumped right to option 4.

SMTPDebugIO - Enables the logging of all data received by the SMTP listener task.

0. No logging

1. Number of bytes sent and received during the SMTP conversation

2. There is no number 2.

3. Logs all data received by the SMTP task

4. RFC822 data (all message data)

Again, I went for option 4.

I set the parameters through the Domino Server Console (You can do it through Domino Administrator, or directly at the server console) using the Set Config command.  In this case:

set config SMTPDebug=4

set config SMTPDebugIO=4

Now, send in test message yourself to see what you should see:

(names changed to protect the innocent)

You have a lot more information now to figure out why the message isn't being received.  Just don't forget to disable the 2 debug settings later using the following commands:

set config SMTPDebug=1

set config SMTPDebugIO=0

Would you like to attend sessions on Lotus Domino Security?

One of my interests, aside from Lotus Domino Administration is security.

 

I've been thinking about preparing a few submissions to present at various Lotus conferences on exactly that.   Lotus Domino and Security.  All on the Administration side.

 

Things like forensic investigations, securely configuring your servers, etc.

 

But, I'm not willing to do all the work if people aren't really interested in attending.  (I'm selfish that way.)

 

Let me know in the comments if this is something that would interest you.

Losing that connection...

I realized tonight that I've been missing something.

Due to changes at work, home and school, I haven't been as active online as much as I used to.  And I've missed it.

I had the opportunity tonight to catch up a bit with and old friend (he can interpret that as he wishes) over Skype tonight, and it kinda hit me.

Sure, some of the fault is my own, but at the same time, there have been some restrictions put in place at work as well.

Twitter is out, and I'm much more handicapped about what I can blog about.  (Because if I was going to leak sensitive information, I'd do it on MY blog...)

I'm going to try and make a bit more of an effort, because I feel like I'm drifting away from the community where I found so much acceptance, even though I am ... Canadian.

Security, Privacy and the Generation Gap

A video I spotted got attention on the i-Sight.com Investigation Software blog, and sparked a blog post on social media in the enterprise.

 

I find it refreshing as I seem to defend social media and its usefulness around the office quite a bit.