LDD Today

Ask Professor INI

Favorite Notes.ini variables
In a recent poll in the Partners Forum 2003 discussion database, Lotus Business Partners were asked to list their favorite Notes.ini variables. In this case, "favorite" means the variables Business Partners most often find themselves tweaking and modifying after installing a new version of Notes. Among the usual spoofs (for example, RunFaster=1), the following variables were mentioned:

Client_Clock
This undocumented variable, when set to 1, enables Remote Procedure Call (RPC) tracing on the Notes client. (Notes clients use RPCs to communicate with Domino servers.) The output appears on the client's status bar.

Debug_Console
This variable (briefly mentioned in the documentation, but not fully explained) is often used in conjunction with Client_Clock. Debug_Console=1 opens a DOS window that lets you visually monitor RPC traffic in real time.

Debug_SSL_All and SSL_Trace_Keyfileread
These variables help to debug SSL problems. Debug_SSL_All=3 is an undocumented variable for enabling SSL logging. SSL_Trace_Keyfileread is a documented variable for viewing information on the current keyring in use on a Domino server. Setting SSL_Trace_Keyfileread=1 enables viewing of protocols other than HTTP to see whether a valid keyring file is present in the Server document or in Internet site documents.

PercentAvailSysResources
This is an undocumented variable that has been mentioned in previous installments of Ask Professor INI, including the column about memory management variables. This setting limits the maximum percentage of physical computer memory Notes/Domino can consume. For example, PercentAvailSysResources=30 sets this limit to 30 percent of total computer memory.

Server_Restricted
This documented variable enables/disables access to a server. If access is disabled, the server does not accept new Open Database requests.

Transaction logging settings
Although documented as primarily a server feature, you can run transaction logging on your Notes client. For example, to create a log with a maximum size of 500 MB, add the following variables to your client's Notes.ini file:

Note that not all these variables are documented. Also, running transaction logging on your client is not a documented configuration.

UserInterface
This undocumented variable controls the language (English, German, and so on) of the Notes client interface. This lets you set the language of choice when you install Notes, for example UserInterface=French.

Interestingly, most of these variables mentioned by Business Partners are either undocumented or are used in a way contrary to standard documented practices. This may be yet another indication that the Notes.ini file is still being used to creatively solve problems far beyond what we normally document and support.

And Professor INI's all-time favorite? It has to be Buffer_Pool_Size; no other variable seems to generate more discussion and controversy.

And now a few questions
We conclude this month's column with some answers to questions you've sent us recently.

Q. Since upgrading to R6.0.2 CF1, we have been seeing errors logged on the console:

Warning: Cannot record event - cannot keep up with event occurrence rate! The EVENT_POOL_SIZE param in Notes.Ini can be set up to 5Mb. It defaults to 3Mb.

I have tried setting the value of this to 5, 5000000, and 5242880. I've even tried numbers up to 10Mb, but I still get this error. Can you tell us how this parameter works? With the Event task shut down, I don't see much activity on the console at all, but the error goes away.
This error message usually indicates that the Domino server process Event Monitor (or the server itself) is too busy. This can be caused by a number of factors, including more event notifications occuring than the server can process. To help the server handle these events, you can use the undocumented Notes.ini variable Event_Pool_Size. This sets the maximum amount of memory used to queue events. (The units used to set this size is megabytes in Domino 6 and bytes in R5.x.) In Domino 6, the default is Event_Pool_Size=3, which limits to 3 MB the maximum size to which the memory pool can grow for unprocessed events, unprocessed notifications, and event suppression memory. To help reduce the chances of receiving the "Cannot record event" message, you can increase this setting up to 20 (2097152 in R5.x). Note that you need to restart the server after changing this variable to release the Domino shared memory in which the pool is stored.

Q. Is there a Notes.ini variable for setting the "Prompt for Location" in Notes 6?
In Notes 6, the Prompt for Location option is no longer generally available since users already have the option to change the location upon startup in the password dialog box. However, if you have installed Single Log On when you installed your client, this option still exists under Additional Options, since the Password Dialog box will not show up under these circumstances

In R5.x, Prompt for Location can be set through the Preferences variable, if you can figure out which one of that long string of numbers controls this setting. Professor INI has seen information and products available on the Web for deciphering the Preferences variable, but we're not in position to comment on their effectiveness. Officially, Preferences remains an undocumented and unsupported variable, and we do not recommend modifying it. (For more information on the Preferences variable, see this previous installment of Ask Professor INI.)

Q. Is there any way to enter the password of my account in the Notes.ini ? This is to authenticate automatically instead of typing the password every time.
This question has been asked before, and the answer is still the same: no. Your password is stored in your User.id file, not Notes.ini.

Q. Where is my spell dictionary saved, in a database or text file?
Spell checker dictionaries are saved in text files, identified by the DIC extention (for example, us.dic and user.dic). To see where your dictionaries are stored, look at the Spell_Dir setting in your Notes.ini file.


Do you have a Notes.ini question? Send it in to Professor INI. We'll answer as many questions as we can in future "Ask Professor INI" columns. Keep in mind, however, that we may not be able to answer every question, nor can we quickly respond to requests that require immediate attention. If you need an immediate response to a question, we recommend you post it in the Notes/Domino 6 Forum or Notes/Domino 4 and 5 Forum where someone from the general Notes community might be able to help, or contact Lotus Support Services.