Note: For in-depth information on the Administration Process and the tasks it can carry out, see Administering the Domino System, which is part of the Domino 5 Administration Help.
Cross-domain processing With Domino R5, you can now use the Administration Process to create administration requests that work across domains. That is, the Administration Process can run an administration request on one domain and then send that request to another domain for processing. The administration requests that can be processed across domains are:
To set up cross-domain processing:
Create replica You can use the Administration Process to create replicas of databases across domains. (Just select the database and choose Database - Create Replica from the Tools pane in the Domino Administrator.) As with any administration request, you must have the correct access rights in place in order to process the request. In addition, when you create the Cross Domain Request Configuration document for outbound requests, you must specify the servers in the receiving domains on which replicas may be created. Enter this information in the field "Only submit Create Replica requests to the domains listed above if the destination server is one of the following." If the field is left blank, an error message displays, and you cannot save and close the document. If you enter an invalid server and/or domain name, the "Check access for replica creation" request fails, and a message to that effect appears in the Administration Process Log. The following flowchart shows the series of requests the Administration Process carries out to complete a cross-domain Create Replica request.
Delete person You can delete a user's name from the Domino Directory (by choosing Actions - Delete Person) and have the resulting administration request processed in the Domino Directory of another domain. When deleting a user across domains, no attempt is made to locate a mail file in the destination domains.The following requests are not generated:
In addition, when you delete a nonhierarchical server name on the source domain, the following Approval requests are generated on the destination domain:
In addition, when you rename a user from a flat name to a hierarchical name, the following Approval requests are generated on the destination domain:
Checking the Administration Process Log As part of the "Check mail server's access" request, the Administration Process examines the mail file on the old mail server and identifies any agents scheduled to run in the mail file on the old mail server. If it locates any agents, it writes a message to that effect to the Administration Process Log so that you can reschedule the agents to run on the new mail server.
Routing configurations for moving mail files When you use the Administration Process to move mail files, your routing configuration may affect the user's mail delivery. If your configuration routes mail to the user's old and new mail servers through intermediary hub servers, mail addressed to the user may become undeliverable. To determine the correct destination for a mail message, Notes relies on information in the Mail file field and Mail server field of the Person document in the Domino Directory. Given specific mail routing topologies and Domino Directory replication schedules, inconsistent Mail file and Mail server fields in the Person document on replicas of the Domino Directory on different servers could result in undelivered mail. To determine whether the potential for this problem exists in your environment, learn more about the move mail file requests in the sidebar "Roadmap of Administration Process requests: Moving mail files."
Additional R5 administration requests Domino R5 includes many additional administration requests and features, including requests for updating fields in the Server document, delegating mail files, and new secondary requests for renaming in unread lists and deleting private design elements. You can also now use the Administration Process to add a deleted user to a Terminations group. Finally, you can use two new views in the Administration Requests database: Administrative Attention Required and Cross Domain Delivery Failures. Updating the Server document Domino R5 offers five new administration requests that update fields in the Server document. These requests are generated when the server determines that a particular field is blank or contains incorrect information. The fields are blank after server registration and during initial server startup. They also may contain incorrect information when changes are made and the Server document is not updated. The update server administration requests are carried out on the administration server for the Domino Directory, according to the "Interval" setting in the Administration Process section of the Server document. Then, the Administration Process updates the corresponding field in the Server document, as shown in the following table.
New Secondary Administration Requests There are two new administration requests that are executed during the processing of other requests: Rename in unread lists, and Delete private design elements.
Rename in unread lists The "Rename in unread lists" administration request checks all databases on the server and substitutes a user's new name in any unread lists that it finds for the old name. "Rename person in unread lists" is a secondary request that is generated after the Rename person administration request is processed. Unread lists are created when you access a database and do not open every document in the database. Any document that you do not open is added to the unread list. The documents in a user's mail file are a good example of this. When a user first opens a mail file, all unread messages display in one color (red), mail messages that have been read display in another color (black). Any messages that are not read are added to an unread list and display in the original color until they are read. After the message is opened, it is removed from the unread list.
The "Rename in unread lists" request is triggered by the successful completion of the "Rename person in Address Book" request. It is carried out on all the Domino R5 servers in the domain, according to the "Execute once a day requests at" setting for the Administration Process in the Server document. The Administration Process updates any databases containing old user names with the new names.
Delete private design elements Private design elements are design elements, such as folders, views, and agents, that the user creates. The "Delete in Reader/Author fields" administration request locates any private design elements created by the deleted user, and generates an "Approve deletion of private design elements" request. When the administrator approves this request, a "Request to delete private design elements" request is created. The "Delete private design elements" request is triggered by the completion of the "Request to delete private design elements" request. The "Delete private design elements" request is carried out on the server containing the database with the private design elements, according to the "Interval" setting in the Administration Process section of the Server document. Then, the Administration Process removes any private design elements that were signed by the deleted user from the database. Adding a deleted person to a Terminations group When you delete a user from the Domino Administrator R5, the Delete User Options dialog box appears. Enter the Terminations group name in the Add to group field. Doing so will add that user name to the Terminations group, thereby denying the deleted user access to servers. To create a Terminations group, create the group in the Domino Administrator and assign a Group Type of Deny List Only to that group. For more information on creating groups, see Chapter 5 of Administering the Domino System. New views in the Administration Requests database Domino R5 contains two new views to assist you in monitoring administration requests and correcting failed cross-domain administration requests. These views are the Administration Attention Required view and the Cross Domain Delivery Failures view. The Administrative Attention Required view displays warnings generated while administration requests are being processed. The warnings do not indicate errors or failures to process the request; they indicate that situations exist that the administrator needs to be aware of. The Cross Domain Delivery Failures view lists any administration requests that did not complete during cross-domain processing. Use this view to determine the cause of the failure and correct it.
To access these views:
Restoring the user's name To restore the user's name:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mary Jrolf earned a Master of Technical and Professional Writing Degree from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She has worked as a software technical writer for 14 years. She now writes technical documentation regarding the Domino server, most recently contributing to the Administering the Domino System for Domino R5. Dave Wilson holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (English) and a Bachelor of Science Degree (Mathematics) from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He has worked as a software engineer for 14 years -- five at Iris Associates working on User and Server Administration and the Administration Process. His current hobby is trying to remember what his hobbies were before he began developing code for R5.