Happy 20th Birthday GroupWise!
So, ready Mr. Music?
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear GroupWise,
Happy Birthday to you.
Hip Hip Hooray!
Hip Hip Hooray!
Hip Hip Hooray!
You can find the WP Chronology here.
You can read Dean Lythgoe’s blog entry here.
iPhone integration with GroupWise #2
List: ngw
Subject: [ngw] Novell GroupWise and the Apple iPhone
From: "Alex Evans"
Date: 2008-06-13 15:23:21
Message-ID: 48523C89.4E3C.0093.1 () novell ! com
[Download message RAW]
[Attachment #2 (text/plain)]
Novell GroupWise and the Apple iPhone
Apple recently announced iPhone support for Microsoft Exchange, based on the \
ActiveSync technology that Apple paid Microsoft for. This has prompted GroupWise \
customers to ask what Novell's plans are for iPhone support. Novell is committed to \
providing a solution that allows users access to their email, calendar and contacts \
on the iPhone, and is pursuing multiple avenues to address this goal.
NotifyLink and Toffa both plan to offer iPhone support to GroupWise customers.
There are a number of options that we have been considering:
1. Nokia enhance GMS to provide iPhone support. This had to be postponed due to the \
Apple SDK limitations. And I do mean postponed, not rejected. 2. Jailbreak the \
iPhone and use unauthorized APIs. That is not something that we feel we can \
recommend to corporate customers as an enterprise solution. 3. Create a web \
browser solution like IBM has. Not ideal as it does not sync any data to the device, \
allowing offline access. Much of the value of these kinds of solutions is having all \
the data to hand. 4. Rely on the SDK and create something in house. The SDK is very \
limited and does not allow enough access to the native apps and for services to run \
in the background 5. Do something around ActiveSync - a possibility that we are \
looking closely at, but it is a longer term strategy.
We are currently assessing other options and yes, we are also talking directly to \
Apple.
As Jay Parker mentioned in a previous post, IMAP and iTunes will work to allow cradle \
sync to the device
Thanks
Alex
Alex Evans
GroupWise Product Manager
aevans@novell.com
T: +1 801 861 7288
M: +1 801 368 8930
Blog: http://www.novell.com/communities/user/565
iPhone integration with GroupWise
Toy or not, companies will be looking to integrate the iPhone purchased by those “execs” that must be seen to have the latest shiny-shiny, to make up for their I-have-no-idea-what-this-is-or-what-it-does-but-everyone-has-one-so-I’d-better-have-one-too.
What is Novell doing? Here is an excerpt from Dean Lythgoe’s blog on GroupWise integration.
“iPhone - Apple. As you know, this is a very hot topic right now and many are looking to Novell to provide a solution in this space. We have been very hesitant to discuss publicly what our plans and discussions have been. As I said, this is a sensitive topic. I will say a few things. Novell is working with Apple. Apple's integration with Exchange was done by Apple using internal proprietary Apple interfaces and by licensing ActiveSync. The integration was NOT done by Microsoft. There are at least two GroupWise partners, NotifyLink and Toffa, who have announced solutions in this space. Novell is continuing to evaluate and work on solutions. See a post by Alex Evans in the NGWList for other information.”
His full blog entry can be found here.
Keep up the good work Dean.
GroupWise Upgrade 6.5.7 to 7.0.2
This is how I upgraded my Novell GroupWise 6.5.7 system to 7.0.2.
Novell have ensured that the
upgrade process to GroupWise 7 is as smooth as
possible, and realise that it may not be completed in
a single task. As such the upgrade can be broken up
over a number of days spread over months if required.
This is a good thing, as initially I had only a
single 3hr maintenance window per week to work with.
In the end I managed to get a Saturday to do the
work, and roped in a few mates to help out with some
of the other tasks.
My overall process follows Novell's guidelines and
goes like this:
Create SDD in advance called GW7SDD
Upgrade the primary domain
Upgrade the secondary domain
Upgrade the post offices in the primary domain
Install new GWIA in the primary domain
Upgrade the post offices in the secondary domain
Install new GWIA in the secondary domain
Create new WebAccess environment
Preparation
for the upgrade included the
following:
Top-down rebuild of GW 6.5.7 system
Printed config documentation from the Webconsoles of
each MTA/POA/GWIA/Webacc
Copied GW7 snapins to ConsoleOne
Logged a service call with Novell for support if
required.
(With this last one I gave Novell Technical Support a
date and time that I was intending to conduct the
upgrade so that they could be on hand should a fan
distribute the proverbial).
My
rollback plan consisted of a number of
technologies.
First of all, I was installing the new GW7 components
into a subdirectory of SYS:\SYSTEM so that they
wouldn't over-write the 6.5 nlms.
I also had the SAN administrator take a clone of the
mail LUNS on the SAN
I had copies of SYS:\SYSTEM on both mail servers
I took copies of the Domain and PO databases
The
rollback process was to be like this:
Unload all agents
Comment out all agent load lines in the AUTOEXEC.NCF
Dismount all mail volumes on server
Detach LUN's
Attache SAN clone and mount on server
Load original 6.5 agents
I tested this procedure a number of times in a test
environment and it worked perfectly. I didn't have to
use the rollback however.
The
update process.
The first step in the update process is to upgrade
the schema. As I was already running 6.5, this wasn't
required.
My original process worked along the lines of several
3 hour sessions of work.
Session
1
Set all logging to VERBOSE in ConsoleOne
Stop the GW driver in IDM and unload DIRXML.NLM
Unload all POA's, MTA and GWIA on servers
Shutdown the webaccess services
Clone mail LUNs
Start all MTA's and POA's
Disable incoming SMTP mail at gateway
Comment out the MTA load line in AUTOEXEC.NCF
Copy the GW7SDD to the server
Unload the MTA for the Primary domain
Change the GW driver in IDM to GW7.0
Create a backup copy of WPDOMAIN.DB
Connect to Primary domain with ConsoleOne and run
RECOVER to actual location
Run a validate to actual location
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\domain to the domain
directory
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\po to the wpoffice
directory under the domain directory
Run the \gw7sdd\agents\install.exe and install to
sys:\system\gw70
Add the primary domain to the upgrade list
Complete the install but do not launch the MTA
automatically
Edit the autoexec.ncf and modify the load line for
the MTA to suite
Load the MTA and wait 60 seconds, watching the admin
recover status until complete
Confirm the domain is upgraded in ConsoleOne
Allow 15mins for admin changes to sync to the rest of
the system
Total time - 35mins
Repeat the above process for Secondary domains
ensuring to connect to the secondary domain.
Upgrade
Post Offices in Primary Domain
Comment out the load lines for the POA's in the
AUTOEXEC.NCF
Unload the POA
Create a backup copy of WPHOST.DB
Connect to Primary domain and rebuild the post office
Copy the *.dc files from \gw7sdd\po to the root of
the post office folder
Run the \gw7sdd\agents\install.exe and install into
sys:\system\gw70
Select the post office and complete the install, do
not launch the POA automatically.
Edit the load line for the poa to suite the install
location
Load POA and watch the console screen for the agent
for errors
Confirm PO has been upgraded in ConsoleOne.
(IMPORTANT) Copy the \gw7sdd\client\ofviews\win\*.vew
to the PO\ofviews\win folder on the server
Total time: 30mins
Repeat
for all other PO's in the primary
domain.
Install
new GWIA in the primary domain
Unload the GWIA on the server
Comment out the load lines in the AUTOEXEC.NCF
Create a copy of the gwia.cfg in sys:\system\
Run \gw7sdd\internet\gwia\install.exe and install
into sys:\system\gw70
Enter the path to the primary domain
Finish the install and check the database version for
the GWIA in ConsoleOne. Change to 7.0.1 if necessary
Edit the AUTOEXEC.NCF to reflect the path to the new
GWIA location
Load the GWIA
Transfer the settings from the old GWIA to the new
one by comparing them in ConsoleOne.
Post
session 1 upgrade activity
Re-enable SMTP gateway traffic
Restart WebAccess
Re-enable the GW IDM driver
Install GW7 client and test login
Set appearance to GW 6.5 at the domain level
Remove unused SAN clones
Session
2
Disable incoming SMTP traffic at gateway
Unload POA's MTA's, GWIA of secondary domain
Clone the email LUNs
Load MTA and POA's on secondary domain
Upgrade
Domain, Post offices and GWIA's as per session 1
ensuring you connect to the owning
domain.
WebAccess
I created a completely new WebAccess environment
running along side the old 6.5.
I created two WebAccess servers and configured them
for fail-over (How I did this will be the subject of
another blog). In front of the WebAccess application
is a content switch to load balance between them.
Moving your GroupWise PostOffice to a new server
You're going to need to bring down the MTA and POA to do this so pick a time when people aren't needing the system urgently.
We work in I.T. We're used to doing the late shift... aren't we?
First things first. Know a little about your GW system. Are your POA's, MTA's etc configured for TCP links or UNC paths? Also know where your log files are currently going and where to change this information.
1. Shutdown the MTA and POA. If you have more than 1 post office in your domain, shut the others down also.
2. Copy the PO data to the new location.
You can use whatever you like. I'm lucky, my PO resides on a SAN LUN so it can be easily pointed at any server with a HBA. But you can use XCOPY, DBCOPY, even the Server Migration Utility. While the copy is occurring carry on with the next steps.
3. Edit the post-office object in ConsoleOne and change the UNC path to reflect the new location.
4. Edit the post-office agent in ConsoleOne and change the network address to reflect the new server. You can also change the port if required. Check the log file UNC path to ensure it's still valid and change if necessary. I like to keep logs local to the post-office so I change this to reflect a path on the local server.
5. Select the Domain MTA and edit the Link configuration of the post-office in ConsoleOne to reflect the network address and port of the new server. Save this.
6. Edit the links for your Web Access Gateway if you use it, to reflect the new server network address. Save this.
7. Edit the links for your GWIA to reflect the new server network address. Save this.
8. If your NGWNameserver DNS entry points to the old server, make sure you update this information if required.
9. Load the MTA for the domain if the data copy has completed.
10. Rename and rebuild all post-offices in the domain and reload the agents on their respective servers. (I have two post-offices in the domain and until I had rebuilt the second post-office it wouldn't redirect clients to the moved post-office)
11. From the MTA Agent screen press F10 and view the configuration information. Ensure it reflects the changed network address/port of the new server for the PO in question.
12. Test.
As mentioned previously I assume the use of TCP links rather than UNC between the different agents. If you use UNC paths the process is the same except you will need to ensure the /USER-userid has the required filesystem rights to the new post-office location.
LINUX. If you're running your GW system on Linux the process is the same. But rather than use the MTA agent screens that appear on NetWare, you will need to use the web consoles for your agents.
I highly recommend you run up a test environment and test your proposed course of action.
GroupWise vs Outlook
"Yes, there are features that Outlook/Exchange has that GroupWise does not, and we hear about those all the time. What we don't hear is the dozens of client features lost when you go to Exchange/Outlook. Let's face it, the people asking to go to Outlook are end users, not IT people. So it's the features that matter to them.
Here's a few highlights of features lost when moving to Outlook ...
1) Cannot silently retract messages: Outlook can retract, but whether successful or not, the recipient knows that the attempt was made (and the attempt includes the subject line).
2) Tracking sent items: Outlook sends copies of messages to every recipient; it is not a link as it is in GroupWise. Therefore, if you want to know if someone opened or received your email, you must ask for a receipt at the time you send it. However, not getting a receipt back does not mean the email delivery failed. It could be that the recipient's system doesn't want to give you back a receipt (Outlook users can make that choice themselves, separate from their server). Additionally, GroupWise users often track a message to see that it was deleted and never opened - or that the message had been replied to. You'll never be able to tell that with Outlook.
3) Viewing attachments: In Outlook, attachments must be opened or saved. There are no viewers. So if you get an attachment made with a program you don't have, you are out of luck. Well, IT-savvy folks will figure a way around it, but regular users won't know to save it, then Open With a compatible program. BTW, there is no "Open With" in Outlook.
4) Reminder Notes: No such thing in Outlook. There are notes, which are dated, but they are not related to the calendar and therefore cannot recur. The equivalent in Outlook is an All Day Event. All Day Events appear at the top of the calendar day before 8 a.m. (or whatever is set for the work time).
5) Recurring appointments: Not all recurring appointments are a pattern (every Monday, the last Friday of the month, every 14 days, etc.). Some are random, like taking vacation days. GroupWise has a calendar where you can just point and click the dates you want to recur. Outlook does not. To use the recurring feature in Outlook, there must be a pattern.
6) Calendar PopOut: In any GroupWise calendar, you can hover your mouse over an item (appointment, note or task) and a yellow popout will display giving you all the details except for the message (from, to, cc, place, time, subject). In Outlook, there is no popout. So a lengthy subject or a place or the from or the due date of a task is viewable only when you open the item. Yes, it's a few seconds - but when you do it dozens of time a day, that adds up.
7) Sending Appointments: When an Outlook appointment is sent, a copy of - not a link to - the appointment is sent. Therefore, when the organizer changes the appointment, an additional message is sent to the original recipient to alert them. If the recipient deletes that email notice, the calendar item is not updated (yes, it's true, folks!). Ditto when deleting an item: the recipient must click "Remove from Calendar" or the item will stay on there forever. Also, for any update, if the recipient acknowledged the update on the calendar, the matching email that arrived stays in the inbox until the user deletes it. If you do a lot of calendaring in GroupWise, the Outlook calendar is very painful. There are several more issues regarding calendaring in Outlook that I won't take space to go into here.
8) Recurring appointments: if you delete a recurring appointment in Outlook, it does not go to the Trash. It is not recoverable - and you are out of luck.
9) Tracking calendar items that were sent: There is no sent item when an appointment/task is sent. The organizer of the appointment automatically gets a copy of the appointment put on their own calendar. That *is* the tracking copy (it makes for a very busy calendar for a secretary who does a lot of scheduling, and she's probably not even attending any of the events herself!). If that tracking copy is deleted (also out of Deleted Items), there is no way to manage that item. If an appointment/task needs to be changed or removed, it must be done on each recipients account.
10) Recipients of meetings can move the item: It's hard to imagine that this is permitted, but it's because the structure of Outlook is that copies are sent to recipients, not links. You can understand why it is possible for a recipient of an appointment (group meeting) to be able to accidentally drag that appointment to a new place/time on their own calendar. Yep, just click and drag the appointment is all it takes. They get no warning they've done it. The organizer gets no warning they've done it. And in opening the item, there is no way to tell what the original date/time was. The only fix is for the organizer of that appointment to send an update (how would she know she should?).
11) Tasks: Unbelievably, Outlook tasks sent to multiple people cannot be managed by the person who sent them (called the Organizer). Remember, a copy of the task is sent to the recipient and changes to tasks require an update message to be sent. For tasks, apparently Outlook is unable to update tasks if sent to multiple people. Therefore, if you sent a task to 2+ folks and then you need to change the task or recall it, you cannot. That change (or removal) would have to be done individually for each recipient.
12) Viewing Tasks in the Calendar: If you want to see future tasks on your calendar in Outlook, you cannot. The task list that appears on the Day or the Week view is a static list of tasks as of today. Clicking on a day in the future changes only the appointments, not the tasks. Therefore, to see future tasks, you must look at the task list (where there is no calendar).
13) Losing attachments when changing type: Just like GroupWise, Outlook can change an email to an appointment by just dragging from the mailbox to the calendar. However, in Outlook when you do this, if the email had an attachment, that attachment is gone. Only the contents of the email stay intact. A difference from GroupWise is that Outlook keeps the email in the mailbox (GroupWise converts it, Outlook copies it).
14) Discussion threads: The relationships of posted items in a discussion thread are lost when converted to GroupWise and cannot be reestablished.
15) Dragging contacts to an email: In GroupWise (I think this began with 6.5), you can drag contacts from the Contacts folder and drop them on the mailbox to begin a new email message. This is very convenient when needing to select several people. In Outlook, you cannot.
16) Resources: What GroupWise considers resources, Outlook generally would set up as a public folder. But there are many resources that need an actual account for a variety of reasons. All accounts in Exchange require a license, even those tho are not real people. Thinking of all the fictious mailboxes you set up for groups or pseudnyms, those will cost $. Even conference rooms often need an account, having a public folder may not be sufficient.
And oh by the way ...
17) Document Management: GroupWise is the only DMS that allows you to send a document from the library in an email that is addressed to both internal and external folks - and each party gets what they need. Internal folks get a link to the document so any changes they might make are updated in the actual document. The external folks get a copy of the document as it existed at the time the email was sent. All other DMS' will do both things, but they must be done in separate emails. (I hear the groaning now). Yes, the workaround is for an internal person to receive a copy of the document - one email to internal and external with a copy of the document. Why is that so bad? This is why ... because one of the favorite features we hear about for Outlook is the ability to modify an attachment and the changes stick. Yes, they do ... to the file that is attached to that email. We all know the danger of modifing an attachment in an email. But in this scenario, the internal person thinks they are making changes to the document in DMS and they are not."
The whole document can be found here.