Lotus Notes upgrade from 5.06a to 6.5.2

[eastwood357]

Hi

Our notes team is keen on upgrading the citrix client on the citrix servers from 5.06a to 6.5.2. Thier mail files on stored on a network drive.

Does anyone have any experience in rolling this out? This would be a first for me on notes, as i am a Exchange admin by default.

 

[keithlages]

Brief steps for installing a Notes client on a Citrix Metaframe server appear below. For customers requesting this information, for now direct them to following publicly available IBM Redpapers:

IBM Redpaper "Implementing Windows Terminal Server and Citrix MetaFrame on IBM xSeries Servers"

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp3629.pdf

Refer to the following sections in "Chapter 5. Installing and configuring the software":
5.4.3 Notes R5
5.4.4 Notes 6

Or, IBM Redpaper "Implementing Windows 2000 Terminal Services and Citrix MetaFrame on IBM Netfinity Servers", section 4.6.6 Notes R5.

Notes R5:

1. Log on to the server as Administrator and ensure no users are currently accessing the server.
2. In Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
3. Click Add New Programs.
4. Click CD or Floppy.
5. Click Next.
6. Run the Lotus Notes 5 install program setup.exe from the CD-ROM.
7. Click Next to continue on the first Notes install screen.
8. Click Yes to accept the Notes licensing agreement.
9. Enter the company name in the appropriate fields. Do not enter a user's name in either field as data entered here will be seen by all users.
10. Click the check box Shared install.
11. Enter the destination folder as D:\APPS\Lotus\Notes (may vary depending upon your environment).
12. Notes installation will now copy files to the hard drive of the server.
13. Click Finish when completed.
14. Create a folder on the server called r5clienttemplate (on the root of the location where the user home directories are stored). Share the folder using the same name for the share and set Permissions to give Read access to everyone.
15. Connect the standard user's home letter to this share. For example, enter the command:
NET USE H: \\AUTS03\R5CLIENTTEMPLATE
16. Run the D:\APPS\Lotus\Notes\setup.exe Notes installation program.
17. Click Next to continue on the first Notes install screen.
18. Click Yes to accept licensing of Notes.
19. Click Next to accept the existing Company name field.
20. Change the destination folder from C:\Lotus\Notes\Data to H:\Lotus\Notes\Data and click Next, where H: is the letter of all users' home drive.
21. Click Finish when completed. Do not launch Notes now.
22. After the program has been installed, click Finish on the Add/Remove Programs window.
23. Using Windows Explorer, cut and paste C:\WTSRV\NOTES.INI (equivalent to moving the file) to the directory H:\Lotus\Notes.
24. Create a common desktop icon for all users to run Notes.
a. From the Windows Explorer menu, select File > New > Shortcut.
b. Enter D:\APPS\Lotus\Notes\Notes.exe in the location field and click Next.
c. Enter Lotus Notes in the name field and click Finish.
25. Still in Windows Explorer, right-click on the newly created Lotus Notes shortcut.
26. Select Properties and then select the Shortcut tab.
27. Set the Start in: field to H:\Lotus\Notes.
28. Copy the contents of the r5clienttemplate directory (including the Notes folder within that folder) to each user's home directory (or H: drive). This is a standard Lotus Notes administration task.

Notes 6:

Note: Support for Citrix Metaframe with Notes 6 begins with the 6.0.2 release. For earlier releases of Notes 6, this is an unsupported configuration.

1. Log on to the server (directly, not remotely) as Administrator and ensure no users are currently accessing the server.
2. Create a folder on the server called r6clienttemplate. Share the folder using the same name for the share. Set Permissions to give Read access to the Everyone group and Full rights for Administrators.
3. Connect the to the above share with your standard user's home drive assignment. For example, if your home drive is typically H: enter the command:
NET USE H: \\TERMSERVER \R6CLIENTTEMPLATE
4. In Control Panel, double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
5. Click CD or Floppy.
6. Click Next.
7. Run the Lotus Notes 6 install program setup.exe from the CD-ROM.
8. Click Next to continue on the first Notes install screen.
9. Click Next to continue.
10. Select "accept the terms in the license agreement" and click Next.
11. Enter the company name in the User Name and Organization fields. Do not enter a user's name in either field as data entered here will be seen by all users.
12. Select Install this application "Only for me (Single User Install)" and click Next.
13. Change the Install data files to: from C:\program files\lotus\notes\data\ to
H:\notes\data and click Next.
14. On the Feature Install window deselect Modem Files, Client Single Logon Feature, Domino Enterprise Connection Services and click Next.
15. Click Install.
16. Click Finish when complete.
17. After the program has finished installation, click Next.
18. Click Finish.
19. Using Windows Explorer, cut and paste C:\WINDOWS\NOTES.INI (equivalent to moving the file) to the directory H:\notes\data.
20. Edit the NOTES.INI file and add the following entry below the [Notes] line:
Directory=H:\notes\data
21. Create a common desktop icon for all users to run Notes:
a. From the Windows Explorer menu, select File > New > Shortcut.
b. Enter C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Notes.exe in the location field and click Next.
c. Enter Lotus Notes 6 in the name field and click Finish.
22. Still in Windows Explorer, right-click on the newly created Lotus Notes shortcut.
23. Set the Target: field to
"C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\notes.exe" =H:\notes\data\Notes.ini
Note: There is a space between the single quotation mark (") and the equal sign (=).
24. Set the Start in: field to H:\Lotus\Notes\Data.
25. Copy the contents of the r6clienttemplate directory (the Notes folder within that folder) to each user's home directory (or H: drive). You may wish to automate this process using the following script:
if not exist h:\notes md h:\notes
if not exist h:\notes\data md h:\notes\data
if not exist h:\notes\data\notes.ini xcopy /s
"\\FILESERVER\r6clienttemplate\notes\data\*.*" "h:\notes\data"
Note: There is a space between the quotation marks on the last line.
26. Set up each users Notes client. This is a standard Lotus Notes administration task.

 

[eastwood357]

Hi Keith

Thank you very much for the info you provided, unfortunatly the notes department say this is helpfull, but does not help as they have notes 5.06a users on the server with thier drive already setup.

If they install as mentioned above, it will wipe out the users bookmarks and address list. They need to update to ver 6.5.2 or 6.5.4 without effecting the users data.

Thanks once again for your reply

 

[keithlages]

Then all that needs to be done is ensure there is a backup of the server and all the user's notes & data directories.

Copy each user's id file, names.nsf, bookmark.nsf, user.dic and any other customized files (I usually grab all the nsf files).

Make sure the users are logged off Lotus Notes. Install 6.5.x to the citrix server (configured as above). Paste a copy of the new data directory to each of the user's network drive. Paste the nsf and id files into the data folder for each user. From an admin's lotus notes, open each user's mail file and replace the design to R6.

Then have the user log into Notes. It should take a while to update the user's environment but that should do it.

I just finished doing this for approx. 100 users and it wasn't easy fixing little issues but there is no clear documentation and I had to hunt for the best way to get it done.

Good luck!