I was bad, I lied.

My vacation wasn't much of a vacation after all. Sorry, I didn't get my notes in like I wanted to. So I will try again this week to get them dumped into my virtual purse.

Back to NaNoWriMo for me - another 10,000+ words to go!

Shame on Me!

I have been very lax in posting several very needed fixes here lately.  I apologize.  And I'll make this promise: Come back next week and you'll see new ones added quickly. Why?  Because I'm on VACATION!!

It is the first time in almost 7 years that I will actually have all of Thanksgiving week off, and almost 6 years since having Thanksgiving day and weekend off.

Prize Drawing? As in - should I have one?

Simply because I'm curious as to who else may follow me, or be subscribed to my blog, I've been thinking about having a drawing.  But I'm not sure for what, or when I should do it or how the rules would work.

If you think I should have a drawing, drop a comment here or shoot me an email at wmnug at yahoo dot com.  Given enough suggestions, I'll have  a drawing.  Just let me know in your comment or email what I should draw for...I have all sorts of Novell and partner (i.e. GWAVA, MA, Omni) swag, from old BrainShare backpacks to portfolios/pens/cups/gizmos and tons of t-shirts.  Granted, my smallest size t-shirt is a large.  I may - big may here - have a Ximian monkey laying around in a bag with no dog fur on it yet.

We're re:turning to the Novell we all once knew and loved...perhaps it's time I "re:turn" some of my swag to the daylight (and clean up my basement at the same time).  :)

Shame, Shame, Shame on you VMWare and Zimbra!

Those of us in the GroupWise community have been chattering about this all day.  VMWare sent out an email full of FUD and outright lies to drum up business on a webinar regarding Zimbra vs. GroupWise.  Very poor practice in my book, and very disheartening as I like VMWare but despise companies that knowingly lie out right.

Here's what the hubbub is about (go see Danita's blog for the exact email at

http://www.caledonia.net/blog/?p=482).

VMWare/Zimbra is using a JPG of an old wiki page, removed the disclaimer noting that the site is not an official Novell site and is instead a wiki page for the solutions community.  They've lied outright about no new versions of GroupWise being on the horizon and that GroupWise 8 support ends November 17, 2011.  GroupWise 8 General Support doesn't end until 2012, with extended support until 2013.  And GroupWise 2012 (a.k.a. Ascot) is already in public beta and was well received at BrainShare.

To top it off, the wiki that the original Zimbra email points to has been updated, so they resorted to using the old screenshot of the page rather than the direct link and resending the email.

I like VMWare and I did like Zimbra, but I abhore these types of marketing practices.  I am strongly leaning towards leaving VMWare out of the sponsors list of the next big event that I plan, and instead will let Microsoft and Novell represent their product lines unencumbered.  Including their respective virtualization product lines.  We may be a small group, but we're a vocal group.

VMWare you may be the big dog right now, but take a page from IBM and don't think that you'll never be toppled by a smaller dog.  Look at where Microsoft is in comparison to IBM now.

I hope the marketing team and execs at VMWare are hanging their heads in shame - as they rightly should.  Bad dog, VMWare, bad, bad, bad dog!

In fact I hate to refer to them as a dog...my dog's know better than to behave like this.  Heck, even the high-and-mighty Queen Tink (all 6 lbs. of her) knows better.

BrainShare Buddies - Thank you!

This year I had my own BrainShare Buddies of sorts.  I've been uncharacteristically un-organized for BrainShare.  I dont' know my schedule, don't have the extra ones I usually do, and have not *gasp* finished getting all my stamps for the various games.

Even bigger lapse and huge *GASPS* - I haven't mooched!  So atypical of me...so instead I stole one of the new geeko's from my buddy Paul LaMontague who was teaching an ATT class.  (I am evil after all).

Rhonda took my rolling backpack for me as we walked to a session today so I could inhale some lunch while getting to the other side of the Salt Palace.  Lee went and got me a 12-pack of water bottles the first day here so I'd have some for the trip back.  I've had doors opened, things picked up that I drop, extra CDs and such offered to me, and Rusty's been taking my backpack back the hotel when I can't get back but don't want to haul it for the evening events.

I've truly been spoiled this year and am very grateful for it.  Tonight GroupLink feed me dinner (I didn't really ask, I told them I'd be there).  Friday GWAVA's treating (I love them!).  I appreciate it all..and it reminds me again how BrainShare is like my summer camp.  I get to see my friends from Germany, Austria, UK, Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the rest of the globe.  And I miss the ones who aren't here.

What will I ever do without BrainShare?

BrainShare 2011 - Quick Update

We're at the mid-point of BrainShare 2011. I apologize for not posting earlier, but I've been so busy and disorganized this year that I'm only averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night...not a good thing for a cranky old broad.

There's so much energy here this year, even though there's fewer folks and I'm missing some dear friends this year, but still making new ones. And there's all sorts of good news. One of the very subtle changes – that many may not have picked up on – is the sheer accessibility and approachability of Bob Flynn, Novell CEO, and Jeff Hawn, Attachmate CEO, along with the other business unit executives. They are ALL willingly handing out their cell phone numbers to partners and customers alike.

So you're probably thinking what's the big deal about a cell phone number? Think about it. Do you have YOUR CEO's cell phone number? Did he give it to you the day one of you started at the company or did you get it only because he had a system failure of some sort and expected a call at some god-awful hour of the early morning? How many CEO's of large private or public organizations do you have cell phone numbers for?

This one “small” gesture shouts volumes. The team wants to hear from us, expects to hear from us, and wants the good, the bad, and the ugly. And they got the bad and the ugly at the partner lunch. Punches weren't held. No I didn't speak up, because I didn't need to...others have the same questions and issues as I did and covered it better than I would have. We heard a lot of the same answers we've been hearing for years, but they are listening, and they have plans. Even bigger, they admit the mistakes of the past.

There are big changes coming by November 1^st. We're talking hiring...of people to get in front of the customers AND developers. The execs have spent time with the TTP group, getting the first round of the bad and the ugly. They spent time one on one with partners. Yes, I've already been in Bob Flynn's face, and Ron Wilson (Support), and John Delks, and I had a nice chat with Jeff Hawn while helping him find where we were schedule for lunch.

Tomorrow I get to have cocktails and bend their ears some more. And yes, I do have their cards, and their cell phone numbers, and they have mine. Unlucky for them, Ron and John never warned them about me...poor guys.

NoRM Seems to be Missing Pieces

I ran into an oddity today looking at Novell Remote Manager (NoRM) on fairly fresh servers that we had migrated a for a customer.  It looks as though Novell Remote Manager isn't installed properly.  (Please forgive my bouncing between NoRM and the full name as I'm trying to help other people's searches out).

The symptom on an OES2 SP3 Linux box with eDirectory installed is that Novell Remote Manager shows only the "View File Locations" option, and none of the other normal NoRM components.  I looked at the other servers and same issue.  Until...I came to their GroupWise WebAccess server.

The straight SLES 11 server hosting GroupWise WebAccess wouldn't let me login as admin or any other eDirectory account.  Which is not unexpected as it doesn't have any instances of eDirectory installed.  I could login as root though, and when I did I had all of the normal NoRM options available.  Made me scratch my head and go "hmmmm".

I discovered that logging on as root on the OES boxes worked too, and low-and-behold, ALL of the NoRM options were there.  Logged out, back in as admin and ta-da, only got the "View File Locations" piece.  I started digging, and digging, and digging.

After several frustrated attempts to find a TID on Novell's KB, I finally worded it in a way that I happened upon TID #7009282 which didn't quite fit, but had me double checking if my admin was definitely LUM enabled.  Then just two spots away I found TID #7007338 which points to a NAM / LDAP issue and TID #3401691.  Big SMH on this one.  TID #3401691 is a nice short tutorial in troubleshooting LDAP.

My customer's servers have been migrated from physical NetWare boxes to virtual OES2/SLES boxes - along with all of the services.  We moved the replicas off of the NetWare boxes and onto the OES2 virtual servers.  Let me repeat that: we moved ALL OF THE SERVICES.  Guess which one I forgot to update?  Yep, forgot to change the Preferred LDAP server from the old NetWare box that we pointed to during configuration and installation into their existing tree.

A quick change of the IP number for the Preferred LDAP server in nam.conf and a restart of namcd did the trick.  Here's what I did to fix the problem (in case you're in the same boat and don't fell like visiting Novell's KB).

1. Open a terminal window
2. Do a tail on the messages file using:  tail /var/log/messages
• You're looking for errors related to LDAP, such as "LDAP bind failed" or "Unable to get LDAP handle"
3. Used vi to edit the conf file:  vi /etc/nam.conf
4. Changed the IP for the preferred_server
5. Saved the changes
6. Restarted namcd using: rcnamcd restart
7. And to be on the safe side I also ran: rcapache2 restart and rctomcat5 restart
8. Tested NoRM login on both the OES2 and SLES-only servers

If this helps anyone, I'm happy.  But for me, I'm tucking this into my virtual purse for future reference.

And in case you're wondering what searches I used here's the list:

The Winner:

• only root user can login to novell remote manager

Losers:

• novell remote manager is only showing view file information
• NoRM doesn't appear to be installed properly
• NoRM not showing all options
• novell remote manager not showing all options
• NoRM has only limited functionality
• novell remote manager limited options
• novell remote manager not fully installed

Groupwise 8.0.2 HP3 Ships!

Not quite the full fledged support pack I was hoping for, but still happy to see HP3 is shipping now.  (Okay, so I'm a few days late, and one day later than I had expected due to an unexplained power outage at home).

Also release lately is a ZCM imaging patch.  We've been waiting on both for a few customers, so hopefully I'll get to put these in soon!

Enabling SSL for SOAP after the DataSync install

For whatever reason the Novell Support search engine failed to understand what I was asking it.  How hard is it to understand

How do you enable SSL on SOAP port for DataSync Mobility Pack AFTER the install?

You may be wondering why I'd want to do this, why not just enable SOAP to begin with.  Well, because I have clients who can't have their GroupWise systems restarted willy-nilly and they hadn't enabled SOAP for any reason prior to needing DataSync installed.  I knew it could be done, but I couldn't believe it would be easy.  (It's been one of "those" weeks.)

So I went back to the PDF I had for the Data Synchronizer for Mobility Pack and found a better term to search on.  And then I did a D'oh SMH!  It really IS that easy to enable/disable SSL for SOAP to your heart's content.  (Well, other than the fact that the POA will need to be restarted to accept the change.)

So, here's the instructions on how to do this:

1. Open up ConsoleOne however you are using it (for my clients, that means getting to it from the Linux server hosting the MTA).
2. Open the Properties for the POA object (not the PO, the actual agent).  Pick GroupWise | Agent Settings and check/uncheck the box for "Enable SOAP".
3. Pick GroupWise | Network Address and from the pull down in the SSL column for "Internal SOAP" and select "Disabled" or "Required". 
4. Restart your POA
   
5. In Synchronizer Web Admin, (https://data_sync_server:8120/login) click the GroupWise Connector to display the GroupWise Connector Configuration page.
6. In the GroupWise POA SOAP URL field, use https for a secure SSL connection or http for a non-secure connection.
7. Click Save Custom Settings.
8. Click Home on the menu bar to return to the main Synchronizer Web Admin page. 
9. In the Actions column for the GroupWise Connector, click to stop the GroupWise Connector, then click to start the GroupWise Connector with the new setting in effect. 

Yep that easy.  Hopefully this helps out someone (including myself) that is searching using a similar term and not getting anywhere on the Novell site.

Why a Blog might be like a Purse

As I was researching an issue for a client today, one of my results had one of my own blog posts as the number 1 selection.  Made me giggle.  Anytime I see one of my posts at the top of a search makes me laugh. 

Since I use my blog as a spot to store "reminders" to myself, I don't really think of it as useful to many others.  If it is then great!  I'm happy to  have helped, and if it doesn't it's no big deal.  I don't claim to be an expert at anything, which is partly why I always laugh when I see my own blog posts show up in a search. 

I'm not *that* special, I just seem to know how to find those ellusive TIDs and tricks that are well hidden and then forget them as quickly...which is why I put them in my blog. My blog is kind of like a purse in that sense.  I stuff everything I could possibly ever need into it, but God help me if I need to find it in a hurry later on.

miggui and OES2 SP3

Have you been seeing this error lately?

Authentication to the server failed. Unable to retrieve the tree certificate. Verify the eDirectory credentials. Refer to the migration.log for more details.

Novell has a TID related to it, #7008691 that notes it has been reported to engineering and that there is a development build of the utility that you can contact Novell support for.  Calling Novell support may not be an option for some (as most of the time you have to open a call that then is "supposed" to be reimbursed - yeah, right).  Good News Everyone!  (Imagine this in Professor Farnsworth's voice - the old guy from Futurama - and it seems much funnier).  I have a work around for this.

Are you ready?  It's really rather annoyingly simple.

1. Verify logins are enabled on the source server.  Just to save yourself a SMH later on like I did late last night.
2. Launch the miggui utility on the target Linux server.
3. Log into the target server FIRST.
4. Log into the source server LAST.

If you still get the error, then close the miggui (don't save the project) and try again.  It's usually worth the effort and has worked at sites where they're experiencing issues with SLP or DHCP or just some unknown infrastructure issue.

If that still doesn't work and you need to look at the migration.log file, simply click on the "View Logs" icon to the left of the miggui screen.  Or you can find it in the /var/opt/novell/migration//log directory.  Project Name would be whatever you saved it as.  Default names are usually NewProj#, where the # just increments by 1 the more times you launch the utility.

Refer to Novell TID#7002862 for a litany of troubleshooting tips if you're still having issues.  Or feel free to email me - although I may be slow to respond and I'll try to lend a hand.

I was very annoyed with this late last night as I've been using the miggui smoothly for sometime.  It never mattered before which way I logged into a server, and usually I could start a new project without any issues.  I'm currently working on a project where we're consolidating file structures to new servers and I need to run several iterations to attach to different servers.  It's the first project with this particular consolidation pattern on OES2 SP3 that I've had this year. Imagine my surprise when I found I have to close the miggui in between projects simply to be able to attach successfully to the next server in the list to consolidate.  Grrrr.....

How to Remove an OES Linux server from an eDirectory tree

OES2-Linux has a different method for removing eDirectory than most NetWare folks are used to.  Long gone is the familiar  NWCONFIG | Remove Directory Services menu options with all the appropriate warnings.  Backpedal to text-based interfaces.  Don’t get me wrong, I love text interfaces and it’s one of my biggest whines about Apple OSes.  But for NetWare folks, trying to find the quick and dirty method to remove a server from a tree so they can put it into another tree is mind-numbingly annoying.  Thus this blog post.  (And I promise to add screen captures to this post at a later date).

Here’s the step-by-step to remove a Linux server from a tree followed by how to add it to a new tree.

1. Make sure time is in sync on both trees:  ndsrepair –T
2. Verify the server being removed has no replicas on it: ndsrepair –P
3. Remove the server from the tree:  ndsconfig  rm  -a cn=admin.o=company
• NOTE: There is no need to stop the ndsd service as ndsconfig will do it for you
4. Use ConsoleOne or iManager to remove any remaining server related objects (average server will have somewhere around 12).

To add a server to an existing tree:

1. Using: ndsconfig  add -t treename –n servercontext  -S servername -a cn=admin.o=company gets you the error message of “This Operation is not Allowed in OES”
2. Use YAST2 | OES Install and Configuration  - make sure you have your OES media handy
3. Click accept, on the next screen you’ll notice all the options have “Reconfigure is disabled” next to each component.  Simply click on the word “disabled” to change it to “enabled” in order to reconfigure eDirectory (and any other components you may wish to change)
4. Click on eDirectory to enter the tree name, point to a server holding a replica, provide the needed credentials, input the context, NTP time servers, and configure SLP settings.

To create a new tree using the server:

1. Use YAST2 in the same fashion as above, but instead of selecting “Existing Tree”, select “New Tree” and the rest of the steps are the same.
2. If this is the first server in a new tree, you’ll want to make it an SLPDA now just to make your life easier.
3. Use an outside source for NTP Time Server such as us.pool.ntp.org

A dash of humor

Note to self: Don't use your Android phone as a means of creating a blog post for here.  The auto correct is most annoying and requires that we log back in at a later date and fix it.

Ever had one of those days where your forehead begins to hurt from the self-inflicgted slaps to the head when having a D'oh moment?  My week's been kind of like that.  First, I allowed myself to be talked into a GroupWise upgrade and migration in the same day.  Which lead to the second error of forgetting to setup the NCPFS so the Linux-only server hosting the POA could chat appropriately with the OES server hosting the MTA and GWIA.  Third slap came from the "damn, I forgot to buy oil for the old truck" when realizing it needed not 1 but 2 quarts of oil.  Fourth and fifth slaps came later that night/wee morning hours when I realized I'd forgotten to register the codes for an OES box that I was rebuilding for the 2nd time to host WebAccess.  It was a long day.

Today I had another one when I realized that I had inadverenty missed renaming the database.zmg file for the the workstation image I was creating for a customer with a failing workstation hard drive and I've effectively overwritten our company's image database.  (Luckily for me we're small and only have 2 hardware-independent images).  Still, rough end to a long week.  I think I deserve a Jack & Pepsi tonight, too bad there's none in the house.

@^%$!@# !!! Unable to locate file \/wpgate/GWIA/gwac.dc

I hate this error.  I run into it during migrations often.  And then I forget how I fixed it. Which makes me go searching again only to find that Google doesn't find the particular error message so I hit the KB on Novell and dig around until something jars a memory loose and I remember.

So, out of frustration, here's the fix (and so I can find it easier next time!):

***NOTE***  ConsoleOne needs to be run on the Linux server hosting the MTA not a Windows workstation.

1. Open up ConsoleOne and check the path to be sure it points the correct mount point on the Linux server.
2. Change the UNC path if needed.  If it comes back as a "\" or an empty UNC path, the fix gets harder.
3. If the path becomes a "\" or "\\wpdomain.db" or some convoluted conflagration of borked up path names clear out the UNC path in the MTA.  Close it.  
1. Click on Tools | System Preferences | Linux Settings and delete the UNC path there.  
2. Open up the MTA object again and BROWSE, not type, to the correct UNC path (i.e. /media/nss/GW_VOL/domain/wpdomain.db).
4. This should fix the dreaded error that prevents you from getting to your GWIA eDir object.

I wish I could say this has been fixed, but I'm currently working on an 8.02 HP2 migration where this got borked up again.

Special BrainShare Registration URL

I got my own registration URL courtesy of Novell.  It will help me track how many people are registering either because of BrainShare Buddies or because you know me somehow.  If you us my URL, I'll enter you into a drawing for some Novell spiffs from my personal stash - including one of the coveted Blue Novell BrainShare backpacks that has never been used.  Other spiffs will include "vintage" t-shirts and a Ximian monkey.

https://www.novellbrainshare.com/slc2011/portal/registration/mary

The URL doesn't give you any special discounts, but you will still be allowed to enter any discount codes you may have, such as GWAVA or a PartnerNet discount.

Please feel free to pass this info on, I'm hoping this becomes a fun game for all and helps bring some attention to the BrainShare Buddies idea that I started years ago.  If you're coming to BrainShare, have been before and are interested in becoming a Buddy let me know.  It doesn't take a lot of time and is a fun way to network and help out new attendees.

Last Day for $400 discount on BrainShare

The big discount ends today!  Early Bird discounts will continue though until September 1st, it's just that the amount drops a little bit each time.

BrainShare will cover all of the Novell, NetIQ, and SUSE product lines, so basically it's still the BrainShare we know and love, with just a few new names added.

Also, I'm working with Novell to get a special code for folks to use - no discount or anything - and I'll be doing some drawings for "vintage" Novell spiffs from my personal stash.  Part of my normal BrainShare Buddies stuff that I do.  Nope, Novell doesn't pay me to do this, it's just something I've found useful for others over the year.

Anyone wishing to volunteer to help, drop me a note/comment/holler/whatever and I'll get you details as I work them out.

Novell announces new Exec team - and I'm kind of happy about it

Today, Attachmate announced the new Executive line up for the Novell Business Unit.  The good news is I know a large number of those folks and one that I know doesn't run from me - John Delks.  At least I hope he won't run from me, but there's the chance that either Ron Hovsepian or John Dragoon, or both forewarned him about me.  Guess I'll have to wear my running shoes at BrainShare this year.

I am liking what I'm hearing out of Novell though.  The re-commitment to giving the products the attention they deserve, the continued support of NetWare for loyal customers who've been unable to move to Linux, and the comments from friends still working there who were guarded but are more excited than they've been in years about working there.  Dean Lythgoe and Alex Evans are still on board and leading the GroupWise charge, which is great news as I still can pester them.

Top that with relocation of the headquarters back to Provo and there's only two things that still make me sigh with frustration: support being in India instead of returning to regional centers, and development not returning to the US/UK/EU for the non-SUSE products.  At least that's how it stands for now.

Novell's New/Old Headquarters

Now, don't get your panties in a wad, I'm not exactly slamming India's talent base.  It's just that there are cultural barriers causing issues with quality coding and an understanding of how business is done in these regions.  If Novell were "my" company, I'd keep commodity programming in India (primarily bug fixes and management tool development like iManager) and move the new development (new features/enhancements/product lines) to US/UK/EU.  We might see more stable code then and hopefully bug fixes would happen faster if customers could work with support staff in their own time zones and regions.

I will repeat what I've said to Colleen O'Keefe on multiple occasions - "it's not the accents or any language barriers that I have trouble with, it's the cultural differences".  Main issues being that India still has issues with treating women with respect and being equals, they do not have the freedom to, and often are discouraged from, think outside of "the box", and business processes/operations are different than what is "normal" for US/UK customers.

Still, all-in-all I'm getting more comfortable with the acquisition and the loss of jobs for many, many friends, Ron and John included.

There's still room! This Friday - Lunch-n-Learn

I'm working on some last minute addition of useful TIDs and latest information on the Attachmate buyout.  We still have room for Friday's Lunch-n-Learn at Optimal Solution's offices (my current employer) if you'd like to join us. We'll feed you at a minimum, and you might just win a fun prize to boot.

Here's the key topics in case you're interested:

• Best Practices for scheduled events
• Basics of GroupWise Health Checks
• GWCheck Switches you may have forgotten about
• Why Top-down Domain rebuilds are needed
• Recovering from a server hardware failure
• Future of GroupWise and latest on the Novell Acquisition by Attachmate

 
Optimal's offices are located in Wyoming, MI off the 131 and 54th Street. 

Brainshare 2011 Call for Papers

Novell is calling for submissions for Brainshare 2011 - deadline is May 31, 2011.

Get the details at
www.novell.com/brainshare

Novell Re-org continues

We all heard that the executives - including Ron and John - were all gone last week.  Then Ken Muir was gone.  And the "pruning" continues...I just heard one of my favorite Novell Trainers is gone as well.  I'm beginning to think we'll be at a skeleton crew of people I know and I have to wonder if I have the energy to re-train an entire new set of exec's, PMs and engineering staff to understand the needs of my customers.

I feel a change in the force...the "dark side" is pulling harder.  Maybe I should reconsider my Linux cert paths and go after Red Hat after all...

Novell Aquisition

What does this mean?  Well for me it means I have to get in front of an entirely new set of executive faces as Ron Hovsepian, Dana Russell, John Dragoon, Colleen O'Keefe, Joseph Wagner, Russell Poole, Scott Semel, Jim Ebzery, Maarten Koster, Tim Wolfe, Jose Almandoz, Ryan Richards, Willard Smith, Markus Rex and Javier Colado now officially gone from Novell.

I hope I can twist their arms as much as I did Ron and John and I hope I can count on the continued support of my branch of OpenHorizons and my regions big IT event that's coming up in 2012.

You can see a "leaked" email at http://liubinwei.blog.51cto.com/1806384/555387

The Big EveNt has a new location for 2012

The event formerly know as WMNUG's The Big EveNt has a new home for 2012.  We'll be at Cornerstone University's Bernice Hanson Athletic Center.  It's close to I-96 and right off of Beltline.  Across the street from the Meijer Gardens, there are hotels nearby as well as the entire Celebration Cinema North complex.

We're happy to have found a new home for the event (even though we're now paying for space) and are working on a million details.  A new 501(c)3 is needed, along with a new charter as we pull the event from the rubble of WMNUG and make it stand on it's own as an IT event for all with a broader focus and more user group involvement.

The dates will be in the first week of June, we just need to pick the days and come up with deposit money somehow.

It's soul remains the same - a volunteer-driven communty event for everyone in IT.  The goals are to continue being able to keep the event free for attendees and spread the cost among our wonderful and generous sponsors.  The more sponsors the lower the cost for all, so if you've got a good contact with a company you'd like to see there please let me know!

A formal board and titles haven't been determined yet, but the core group from the previous events remain, and we're adding more folks on as people volunteer to help out.  Nice reprieve for me! 

So stop by every so often to look for updates on the event.  We're skipping this year (again) so that we have enough time to plan a great event - and yes - it does take about a year to pull something like this off.

Novell's acquisition won't affect the event, they'll still be involved, but their new "siblings" may be along for the ride as well.  We couldn't do it without Novell or GWAVA or Dell or any of the other sponsors that have helped us move this forward.

Acquisition is now complete - Novell's website has changed

The deal is done and Novell is now officially a part of the privately owned holding company Attachmate.  More changes will be coming, I expect much of management will change over at some point.  That means BrainShare is a must this year so I can get in front of the new players and let them know they need to support the local user groups and partners at least as well as we have been.

Check out the details at Novell's site and I'll dump more info here as it becomes publicly available.

GW Console - for Linux!

Tay Kratzer has a free tool out, something we've been needing for a while.  A nice little console tool for you GroupWise admins still new to Linux (like me!).  Gert has this link posted on his Twitter and at GWCheck site as well.

You can find the tool at: http://sites.google.com/site/tiarrallc/

I'm hoping to show it off at the Lunch-n-Learn coming up May 13th at my new company's offices.

Also, if you've been hearing FUD (pay attention West MI K-12 districts) about the demise of GroupWise it's just that - FUD.  Some local "partners" have been calling Novell customers saying they (the "partner") haven't heard anything from Novell about the buy out and are certain of GroupWise's imminent demise.

That's not exactly true.  We - as partners and customers - HAVE heard from Novell and Attachmate that both companies are dedicated to the future of GroupWise.  Ascot is still being worked on and is currently looking for beta sites.  The folks doing the calling are looking to improve their bottom-line by getting you to migrate to soemthing else.

So, please, ignore the FUD.  Make your decision to stay or migrate on sound information.  I hate seeing money wasted on unnecessary migrations.  I'm not against change, in fact there's some really cool stuff out there that's new and exciting - and not Novell owned - that I'd love to get my hands on.  But I'm not going to tell you to migrate to it just because I think it's cool.  In fact I won't tell you how to run your IT shop.  It's not my shop and it's not my decision.  I will however offer my opinion if you ask it, and it will be unbiased and based on my decades of experience in the field not on what makes my pocketbook fatter.

I'm done...anyone else need the soapbox?

Blogger Issues

Okay, for some reason I have yet to determine, I cannot respond to your comments.  I'm sorry about that.  But for the person who asked for a link to one of the YouTube videos I mentioned previously try this one out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGM4WrI0OZY

Be advised it's an HD video, so adjust your settings accordingly.

GroupWise client vs. Outlook 2010

Let me qualify this by saying, I've worked in a variety of email clients and email systems over the years.  I've used cc:Mail, GroupWise, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Evolution, and custom in-house systems to name just a few.  So, it's not with any malice that I'm making this particular post, instead it's out of utter frustration.

Email clients should not be so convoluted as to be counter-intuitive and cause an end-user hours of wasted effort that should be intuitively simple.  So why did the Microsoft programmers decide that users of the Outlook client really only need 1 address book?  Seriously?  Have you kids never worked in or with an administrative support position before?  What Executive Assistant doesn't have more than one address book?

In GroupWise, it's a piece of cake to add an additional address book.  No special contortions to go through to find out how to do it, simply open your address book, click File | New Book and give it a name, viola, all done! And if you're looking for a particular contact, GroupWise (at least in version 8) searches all of your address books, not just one.

Outlook on the other hand has you doing mental gyrations that rival my cat's physical contortions while sleeping.  (Maine Coon kitties are large and manage to get themselves into the weirdest pretzel-y sleeping positions).  The Microsoft documentation isn't much help, instead if you need to create another book in Outlook check out the blog postings that come up in an internet search...they're much more helpful.

It makes me wonder if Microsoft ever consults their non-technical user base.  Those users for whom Office and Outlook were supposedly written. Because, from my viewpoint anyway, it sure doesn't seem like it.  The ribbons features in Office 2010 have generated more support calls than I remember for any previous releases and the complaints I've been hearing from non-technical (i.e. not IT staff) users make it clear that no one consulted them on the changes.

Reader Warning: A bit of a Rant follows

Which may be the big driver behind the moves to OpenOffice and LibreOffice.  There simply aren't that many users that need all of the extra "bulk" that's been added to Microsoft Office lately.  Maybe Microsoft should rethink the various versions of Office...have a "Lite" version for basic users of word processing and spreadsheets, a "Standard" version for office workers who need a bit more graphical capabilities, a "Pro" to be the Standard + Database functionality, and then an "Expert" for the heft that is the current version of Office Pro.  And price it accordingly, because these days it's really hard to beat free licensing.

GroupWise IMAP error of NO LOGIN - fixed!

I was called in to help a customer who's environment is all new to me.  They were having issues with migrating email via IMAP from GroupWise to Google Apps.  They kept getting an authentication error whenever they tried for two sites.  The rest of their post offices went fine, it was just these two (with different admins) having the issue.

After digging around in their system for awhile and not seeing anything that jumped out at me, I was given access to an email account that I could use to test with.  I reset the GroupWise password and tried to telnet in.  (The story about telnetting from XP is another story...).  Each time I could telnet to port 143 okay, but received the following error:

NO LOGIN GroupWise Login Failed

and on occassion I'd get this:

BAD LOGIN

No error number and nothing more descriptive than that message in the GWIA either.  I scratched my head a bit, did much Google and Knowledgebase searching to no avail.  I checked the post office links and found they were using UNC, changed that to IP and still no go.  I unchecked LDAP and checked eDirectory and still no go, so I tried POP3.   Back to the Post Office Links and finally something popped at me, the GWIA was set to being Direct only.  I set it to C/S and Direct and tried POP3 again.  This time POP3 errored out, but with a more useful error that led me to trying out WebAccess.  WebAccess popped a similar error which was quickly resolved by change the eDirectory password for the user and then both POP3 and WebAccess worked.  IMAP however, still refused to work. 

I verified that GWIA didn't have LDAP service enabled, because the POA already had it enabled.  IMAP and POP3 were both enabled on GWIA and not on the POA - just as they should be.  No help there.  The Security Tab in the POA had the "Source" of the password set to LDAP, I toggled it to eDirectory and still no go, so I set it back to LDAP.

Then I ran across a very old TID about Default Class of Service, only it was referring to POP3 not IMAP.  I figured it couldn't hurt to check it out, and there was the final piece of the puzzle.  IMAP had been set to Prevent access.  I switched that to Allow access and tried again.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!  It worked!  I went back through all the previous changes setting them to their original configuration - except for Default Class of Service and now I received that dreaded NO LOGIN erro, but this time it was delayed, as if it was trying to authenticate.  I changed the Post Office Links back from Direct Only to C/S and Direct and things worked again.

So final changes were this:

1. Change Default Class of Service to Allow Access for IMAP4
2. Change Post Office Links to C/S and Direct

Hope this helps someone!

GroupWise Ascot on YouTube

Alex Evans and his crew have been busy posting videos demoing some of the changes being made to GroupWise Ascot (next rev of GroupWise).  I strongly recommend you take a look at them.  Lots of positive changes are being proposed and there are several changes that I know I've been waiting for.

If you've got a few minutes, drop in, take a look, and leave a comment on the videos.  I know Alex and the team would like some more input from heavy GroupWise users and I know any comments would be much appreciated.  I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far and it makes me hopeful that perhaps I can get my new job to switch back to GroupWise...or at least let me make a GroupWise system for me to use.  :)

For those of you in the MidWest that can/could make it, Open Horizons is having it's first event in Indiana.  I'm hoping to bring a similar event with Open Horizons to Michigan before Summer is out.  Stayed tuned as I need to coordinate with Norm, who's busy planning a wedding, starting a business, being a dad, heading up Open Horizons MidWest, and providing support to the Novell community at large.

Looking for a job? New lead!

I have another job lead for West Michigan in case anyone's looking for a Sr. Systems Engineer spot.  Needs Microsoft, HP and Cisco skills.  Drop me a note at wmnug at yahoo dot com if you're interested and I'll pass on the recruiter info to you.

OpenHorizons US/MidWest is on the move!

Open Horizons, once a bastion of the EU, has arrived in the US thanks to Norm O'Neal.  A "beefed up" from of NUI (at least that's my description), OpenHorizons focuses on the important topics for today's IT shops that have an investment in Novell technologies.  And as most Novell customers know, that means a shop where there's a bit of just about everything.

OpenHorizons is hosting an IT in Action event in Indianapolis on March 17th.  The cost is minimal, a paltry $149 (okay, so maybe West Michiganders have been spoiled by having The Big EveNt be free, but not everyone can mooch like me), and you get to hear presentations by industry experts like Erno de Korte and Sander van Vugt.

Take a minute to look at the session offerings at http://www.open-horizons.net/us/march-17.



Eventually we'll be brining an OpenHorizons even to West Michigan as well.  I just need to get my bearings again and my feet under me after the recent job acquisition.
I hate to admit it, but after looking at the speaker bios I'm feeling really old.  Tim Toepp's been involved with Novell products since NetWare 3.12 and NetWare Personal....I'm older than that.  Anyone else remember ELS I and ELS II, OfficeAutomation?  NetWare 86? 

Good thing I paid attention to my profs and keep on learning new stuff - thank you again Drs. Medley, Pidgeon, Teague (RIP), and Mason.  You taught us Cal Poly kids well.

New Jeopardy Question for you

Topic: Operating Systems
Answer:  This Linux distro has a geeko as a logo
Question: What is SUSE Linux?

In case you didn't know, Watson - the computer that beat the reigning Jeopardy champions, is based on Novell's SUSE Linux.  For many that may be no news, for others it might be. Anyway, Novell did a write-up, here's the URL:

http://www.novell.com/promo/suse/ibm-watson.html

I've been busy decorating my new office with some of my accumulated Novell Swag, and I added a new piece that just arrived on Saturday.  A ZENworks 11 shirt that says "he11o" on the front.  I'll try to get a picture posted a bit later.  It's a sweet shirt, even if I'm too big for it.

I'm wondering though, have any of you run into the issue with creating Windows 7 images using Audit mode where it doesn't exit Audit mode properly and pops up a "Windows cannot complete the installation" error after running sysprep?  Seems it's been an issue since it was at an RC version, but there's no single fix for it yet.  That's what I'm troubleshooting this week.  If I come up with anything useful, I'll post it here.

Another reason to love Novell

I'm currently working on finalizing an imaging process (and the needed step-by-step documentation) for a customer using ZENwork Configuration Management.  It's a very slick solution and works great.  Windows 7 on the other hand, not so slick, and something of a PITA when it comes to USB drives.

Part of the process requires the use of an .XML file for an unintended install.  Easy enough, copy the little file to a USB flash drive, pop that in the machine being used to create the image and off you go, right?  Wrong.  Windows 7 64-bit doesn't like my 16GB SanDisk Cruzer device.  Stomach falls to my knees as it has my GroupWise archives that I've yet to fully export.  Quick, run pop the same device into my work laptop.  No go.  Pop same device in my trusty, personal Toshiba laptop that's NOT running Windows 7 and it's seen just fine. 

What's a girl to do?  Grab one of her 4GB Novell USB drives from last BrainShare and voila, we're in business!  Just another reason for me to love Novell and all of their partners who take such good care of me and provide me with fun "toys" like my little 4GB USB drives.  Luckily I have several of these little goodies so at least one is always in a laptop bag somewhere.  So once again, it's Novell to the rescue for a Windows issue.

Looking for a job?

OneCommunity is looking for an MCSE with Novell experience to join their team.  If you're interested, shoot me an email at wmnug at yahoo dot com and I'll get you some more info.

BrainShare 2011 dates - October 11-14

Danita Zanre pointed out to the NGWList just a few minutes ago that BrainShare 2011 dates have been announced as being October 11-14.  Woo-hoo!  Go BrainShare! Go BrainShare!

I hope to get some more notes posted soon, but have been very busy the past few days with the new job and all sorts of activities. You can now find me at Optimal Solutions in Grand Rapids.  So, if you're looking for a reseller in West Michigan (or anywhere in Michigan really) you know who to talk to now.

And if you're looking for help in Indiana, Illinois or anywhere in the MidWest really, call on Norm O'Neal at OneCommunity and they'll be happy to give you a hand as well.

Pre-planning for migration to Linux

As I work on this contract gig I was reminded again of how smaller shops may not be taking into consideration all the things you need to plan for when migrating from NetWare to Linux.  Things like DNS/DHCP being hosted on NetWare and the fact that you can't do an in-place upgrade.

DNS/DHCP on NetWare has a really nice management tool, unfortunately it didn't get ported to OES-Linux.  Best bet is if you have another method for hosting DNS/DHCP, such as Cisco gear, I'd suggest moving it off before doing a migration.

SLP is another thing you need to consider.  It's easier to create a second SLPDA on a new Linux box that is in place prior to migration, that way you can tweak it if need be without causing your end users a lot of downtime.

And then there's the tree CA that needs to be moved.  None of this is a big surprise though as we have been in migration mode for years.  I just haven't put together a full checklist yet.

The good news is the migration tool works really well, so move of data and such works awesome, it's just that you need another physical or virtual server to move to.  No in-place upgrades, sorry folks.

Employment Rocks!

I signed an offer letter today and will start my new permanent gig on February 14th.  It's a consulting company, so I'll be available for "rent" after the 14th.  Nope, I'm not taking 2 weeks off, instead the new company is willing to wait while I finish up a short consulting gig for a local school district that could use an extra pair of hands.

Good news for you all, is that there will be a few scrubbed checklists that come out of this work that I'll be posting somewhere in a PDF format.  I'm still looking for a way to post my handouts from the Teach an Old Dog New GroupWise Tricks sessions I did at GWAVACons past...with a few updates of course!  So if any of you know of a good way to do this that allows for downloads I'd appreciate a heads-up.

And for those that aren't aware yet, there is a new Hot Patch for GroupWise 8.02 that addresses a security vulnerability in the GWIA.  You'll want to get that on fairly soon as 8.0.3 is a little ways out just yet.

Details on the hot patch can be found here:
http://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=HJuDB3wNoeM~

GWAVACon News

Just because I didn't make it to GWAVACon doesn't mean I can't watch it from afar.  :)

The big news is that Danita - GroupWise Goddess Extraordinaire - managed to take a nasty fall and not be able to travel as a result.  Norm O'Neal, of One Community and Open Horizons fame, has stepped up to present Danita's sessions for her - Go Norm!

Seems everyone is having fun, some have made it out to the Santa Monica Pier and the weather looks awesome...all making me drool with jealousy.  I see several familiar faces and backs of heads in the photos posted so far.  I hope everyone's learning all sorts of good stuff and will share when they get back.

In the meantime, I'll be available for work about mid-February if anyone needs any contract work.  Job hunting is a full time job!

IDM 4 Job Lead - anyone interested?

I have a job lead for someone with hands-on IDM 4 experience, preferably with AD/eDir/Notes driver experience.  Drop me a line if you're interested and need the contact info.

The Big EveNt - back in 2012

Chad, Rusty and I had a very nice lunch yesterday - thanks for picking up the tab Chad! - and we're off and planning for 2012.  We could use some more help though, so anyone interested in helping out please shoot me an email. 

It will still be a user-lead event, but it won't be a strictly WMNUG event any longer.  We want all of the Linux, Adobe, Microsoft, VMWare, Novell, SharePoint, HDI, ITIL, PMI, and whomever I'm forgetting user groups in town involved.  We want this to be a truly, everything and anything IT related event.

Any ideas or suggestions of what you'd like to see are most welcome as always.  And yes, our goal is to keep it free or as cheap as possible to our attendees.

I'll be posting meeting dates here until we decide if we all want to maintain a blog just for The Big EveNt or if we'll put in some group space like a Google Site or mooch some Vibe space from Novell.

Stay tuned!

And for those that are curious...nope I don't have a new job yet, but I've got some good interviews under my belt so I'm hopeful that I'll land something soon!

BrainShare 2011 delayed

I'm sure you've all heard by now that it's delayed, if not, now you know.  With the buyout by Attachmate things are simply on hold, it will happen though.

In the meantime, GWAVA is picking up the slack at GWAVACon.  And for the US, it's in Torrance this year.  Nicely situated between DisneyLand and Magic Mountain, it's also close to the beach.  I should know, I worked in Torrance in high school and college.  It's where I learned to drive a big rig and operate my first computer - an old NCR mini-system.

Anyway, if you have the approvals and can swing it, I strongly suggest you attend.  Not just because I've gone in the past and been a presenter, but because it truly is a worthwhile event and the networking opportunities are even better.  I do know the hotel is already sold out, but I'm sure there's still rooms available nearby somewhere.

Besides, who doesn't want to see Richard Bliss on stage doing a prize drawing?  :)

8201 Error on Archive location in GroupWise 8.x

If you've used GroupWise long at all you've probably seen this error pop up from time to time and you know it has multiple possible causes.  However, none of the TIDs that I've come across seem to have the particular issue I've been running into noted.  Good news is I have a work around. First though, you'll need some background info.

1. All of our archive locations are locked by default.
2. Default archive locations for this environment are to the users home drives.
3. GroupWise version on the backend is 8.01 HP2, client is at 7.03 or higher up to 8.0.2.
4. Home drives are on an OES2 SP2 - Linux server
5. The server is virtualized on VMWare's VSphere (was ESXi to begin with)

The symptoms are usually experienced by a new archive user, but not always.  What happens is the user goes to Open Archive within the GroupWise client and they immediately get an 8201 error.  For some users it moves from an 8201 error to an 8209 error after several unsuccessful attempts to get at the archive.  This occurs for PC users only, our Mac users don't get to archive unless it's to their local drive and they have to agree to be responsible for the backup of the archive.

Here's the workaround:

1. Unlock the archive location for the given user (use ConsoelOne, right click on the user, select Client Options, pick the File Locations tab)
2. If there is an existing archive, copy that folder to the user's local drive.  I generally use c:\grpwise\archive to keep within the 8.3 file format.
3. Close the GroupWise client.
4. Open the GroupWise client and change the File Location (Tools | Options) to the new spot on the local drive.
5. Have the user select Open Archive.  
6. Go back to the mailbox.
7. Archive a message that is "ok" to potentially lose (only had this happen once, but it's a caveat you'll want to be aware of)
8. Open Archive and verify the message is there.  Close the GroupWise client.
9. Copy the archive from the local drive back up to the server, and lock the archive location again (if you want).
10. Open the GroupWise client, verify that the File Location is pointing back to the original location.
11. Open Archive, verify that they can see at least the message that was just archived.

This has worked for everyone reporting the issue here.  Hopefully it will work for everyone else as well.