How is the Livelink Market Today? 1

[srinivenk]

I've been working with Livelink for the last 3+ years, mainly with Workflow development and a little bit of Administration.

I am debating between a longer-term career in Livelink (possibly as a consultant) or switching to other technologies such as Sharepoint (which I have some experience with) or pursue other opportunities outside of ECM that have come my way recently..

I know this forum has experts like Greg, Appu and others that would be aware of the current Livelink market. I would really appreciate your advice.

1. What is the Livelink market like today? Is the demand rising/reducing?
This post in 2004 helped me somewhat but it's too old -

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=751989&page=26

2. I know Livelink workflow, forms, live/web reports, basic admin quite well. Is that enough or do I need to know installation/oscript/event scripts, Etc. really well to start as a Livelink consultant?

3. How can I get a Livelink Dev installation going locally to learn the system further? Can I just install it on a dedicated workstation?

Any insight that you can provide will be very helpful.

Thanks,
Srini

 

[appnair]

If you think of working as a consultant get a copy of vmware and install livelink at least two or three versions on this vm image.A simple windows xp machine with some good ram should suffice.
If you are open to 100 % travel OT professional Services could use you.I turned them down in 2005 because I could not handle 100 % travel.The pay is extremely competitive.The work could also turn mundane unless you yourself find some new avenues for growth such as performance evaluation and things like that.Most of the PS work is pre-sales support and after sales intall of a base/prod sytem with some level of effort creating a community and security model.
There are plenty of OT consultants who do not program oscript so that should not be alimiting factor as well.
More and more Sharepoint installs tend to be centered around livelink at the back end.In fact at my presnt client I am archiechting a LL system that uses SP as the front end .

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

 

[srinivenk]

Thanks for your response Appu.

Based on your comment, it appears that Livelink is available for a download and install on my PC without any "partnership" etc. with Livelink, is that right?

Srini

 

[appnair]

you can get the software only from OpenText most of the times they will give you evaluation copies as well.

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

 

[srinivenk]

Appu, you said "If you think of working as a consultant get a copy of vmware and install livelink at least two or three versions on this vm image.A simple windows xp machine with some good ram should suffice."

I know I will need to install the LL IIS Server and SQL Server. Would I need to install Exchange Server, Active Directory, Domain Controller etc. as well? Would you recommend installing them all on the same virtual machine or having separate virtual machines for say LL Web Server, one for SQL, one for Exchanage/AD and so on?

Also, do LL consulting companies typically main LL Dev environments for their contractors to work with?

Srini

 

[appnair]

Would I need to install Exchange Server, Active Directory, Domain Controller etc. as well?

Exchnge is needed if you want to show that thru livelink explorer you want to show outlook integartion.
No need for a demo machine
AD-is needed if you want to practice how synchronization of a d query happens no need if you ask me
DC-ina typical dev environment I would not see the necessity

I am not sure if LL consulting companies provide dev environments,in my case I work for a openText partner,so I have access to almost very module that OT produces,so I install what I need on my laptop.Itypically run everything in my single instance as that is pretty much only relevant for my reasearch so I am not worries about performance.Howver you may need to adapt if say your client is very much onto search then you need big beefier boxes to host the partitions etc.

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

Certified OT Developer and probably certfiable

 

[appnair]

I thought to be clear on Exchange.Any LL install that has exlorer module installed can be made to store mails form Outllok.The explorer client is a microsoft office add in.So to demo outlook integration I just show it on my laptop,the way livelink looks like thru my regular company email on outlook.

However if you were prototying a hybrid solution involving LES,LEA and Bridge servers(managed folders) then you would probably need access to exchange jut to understand the architecture.For normal outlook integration,having your own exchange would be almost overkill

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

Certified OT Developer and probably certfiable

 

[srinivenk]

Thanks again Appu for the details.

I am almost sold into just installing LL over vmware on my laptop, each version as a separate stand-along installation (with sql and iis), virtual machine, just as you suggested.

I still have a couple more questions though:
1. What about backups? Does the vmware installation allow you to backup LL sql data and EFS from the virtual machines?

2. My Vista laptop has 3 GB RAM and I can upgrade to 4 GB. I am hoping that it will be enough to host 2 VM's (that I will not run in parallel) - LL 9.5 and 9.7. Do you see any issues with that?

May be in the future, I'll get a separate server box and install separate VM's for the IIS web server, SQL cluster, Etc. to simulate a typical real-world LL enviroment. For now, I am leaning toward the above set up.

Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks,
Srini

 

[appnair]

1)As far as I know VM it is no differen from a physical machine so I don't see why i should matter.Also once you make a good VM image just clone that and that should really serve as a backup wouldn't it.
2)You can run wo insances as well jus allocate memeory so ha it doiesno do a paging.About Vista I do not know I have alays heard bad stories about it.I have never worked in visa so I don't know first hand,but on a vista you can probably bing up a w2k3 image and hat should give you real wsorld simulation as well

Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?
James Thurber, New Yorker cartoon caption, June 5, 1937

Certified OT Developer and probably certfiable