Converting from Agent to Service Out Of Office ( OOO ) is pretty simple on the configuration side. A few things to remember before you change your mail server to Out of Office Service:
1. All mail users need to have Lotus Notes 8.x or above installed
2. All mail users need to have Lotus Notes 8.x or above mail templates
3. The Lotus Domino directory on the mail servers must have the new 8.x or above design template applied
4. All servers in a domino domain that are mail servers, included clustered servers, must have steps 2 and 3 complete
5. All servers in a domino domain that are mail servers, included clustered servers, must have their configuration documents setup for Out of Office Service. After this is configured, the server must be restarted for the OOO Service to work.
To setup the Out of Office Service on a server, open the server configuration document, go to Router/SMTP > Advanced > Controls. Under the Miscellaneous Controls heading and Out-of-Office type: change from Agent to Service
After this setting is configured, the server must be restarted for the Out of Office Service to work.
In one instance, after the server was configured and restarted, I had issues with existing OOO agents still running. I figured out that before the OOO Service was turned on, the users already enabled their OOO using the agent. Also, the users didn't have manager access to their mail files so when they enable and disable their OOO, an adminp request was generated. Here are the following steps I took to convert them to the OOO Service
First I opened the user's mail file ACL. I explicitly put my name in the ACL and gave myself manager access. Then I made myself the mail file owner through mail preferences. Close the mail file ( you might have to close all Lotus Notes windows ) and re-open
Next I opened the user's OOO preferences. I made a note of when they left and when they are coming back. This is important because we will disable their OOO and re-enable it.
Next I disabled the user's OOO.
Then using my admin client I opened the user's home server ( just so happens the user's home server is the administration server too ) and submitted a console command:
tell adminp process new
I waited a few minutes and went back to the user's mail file. Then I enabled their OOO using the dates I recorded before I disabled it.
Next I checked the admin client under Server > Status > Schedules > Agents, to see if the agent is still scheduled ( Also doing a tell amgr schedule to see the OOO schedule and see who is still running the agent OOO ). The status should show the OOO agent still running.
Next I disable that same user's OOO
Next I waited for agent to disappear from the Agents view in the admin client ( or from the amgr schedule )
Finally I enabled the user's OOO again. You can submit the command "tell router O" to display the active OOO users using the OOO Service. Verify that you see that user's OOO. At this point I changed the mail file owner back to the user, and removed myself from the ACL as manager of the mail file.
It might seem like a lot of disabling and enabling of the OOO but I had to do this for 12 people and this was the only process that worked for me.
References:
The IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Out of Office service: Best practices
Designating the Out of Office service type
Good write-up, your article is the first one that I read that mentions what you had to do for the users which already had the OOO enabled. IBM makes no mention of this in their documentation. I'm wondering what issues you had with those that were enabled, I really don't want to have to go through what you did. The only part I could see being easier for me is that my users are manager of their mail files, therefore I can skip the adminp process part if I really need to take that route.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marc, I was in the middle of converting some mail users and this worked for me and I decided to blog it. The enable and disable of ooo was a pain but there was only ~7 people. I speculate the reason IBM doesn't have anything is eventually those users with agent ooo will come back and disable their ooo and the next time they enable it, it will use the service.
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