Are you Attending Lotusphere? Are you planning on attending sessions to learn about Sametime 8.5.2? Here is a great way to get ahead of the game and maximize what you learn while attending Lotusphere.
If all those version numbers in the title don’t confuse you I don’t know what will.
Notes 8.5.3 ships with Sametime 8.5.1, but can be upgraded to Sametime 8.5.2. Depending on your entitlement there are two packages you can download to upgrade the embedded Sametime client, depending on your entitlement.
Under the Notes/Domino product family you will find part number CZZ92ML provided as part of the Sametime Entry entitlement
either way to get the installer for the Notes client you are looking at a 2GB download. The Installer is the same in either download. Once you extract the zip file you are looking for SametimeEntryClient\sametimeclient.for.notes directory if you used CZZ92ML or SametimeStandardClient\sametimeclient.for.notes directory if you used CZYF7ML where you will find installs for Windows, Mac and Linux.
For Windows it is an installer, for Linux a couple of package flavors, and for Mac there are install instructions available in a readme file.
I have already heard a number of people as “why didn’t they just ship it with 8.5.2†fair question, the answer I am sure has to do with timing of the Sametime 8.5.2 release and time to package in Notes 8.5.3 for shipping. The reality is I don’t care what version of Sametime ships embedded with Notes, what I care is that I can get the version I want without changing the Notes client version so this is fine with me.
Just a friendly reminder that on September 30th (as in 2 days from now) the Sametime 7.5.x family of products hits the end of Support. Sametime 7.5.x was released between October of 2005 and May of 2007.
When using DB2 you might want to use the Control Center GUI to query or manage a database that resides on a remote machine, took me a little time to work out and I promised others I would share this. I am sure there is more then one way to accomplish this, your mileage may vary.
Before you begin you need to collect the following information
Fully Qualified Hostname where the DB2 database resides
Services file entry for the database – this will include the instance name and port number (default is 50000, but could be different depending on your DB2 Configuration
The Database Name to connect to
The operating system of the DB2 Install
Username & Password to connect to the Database
You can get this information from your friendly Database administrator or find it yourself. If you have access to the physical machine where DB2 is installed you can get the instance name and port number from the services file on that machine.
Before you begin edit the Services file on the machine with the DB2 Client, simply cut and paste the entry from the DB2 host machine for example this would represent two unique DB2 instances
db2_LC3 50000/tcp DB2_LC25 60000/tcp
From the DB2 Control center (on the client machine) launch the Configuration Assistant
From the ‘Selected’ dropdown choose Add a Database Using Wizard
Select Manually configure a connections to a database and click Next
Select TCP/IP as the communications protocol
Enter the FQHN of the DB2 server and the Service name (that you added to the services file above) use the “Retrieve†button to fill in the port number (from the services file)
Fill in the database name (in this example I am connecting to an IBM Connections Profiles DB named PEOPLEDB. Assign an Alias – Aliases must be unique, for example I might connect to a production and test PEOPLEDB, the aliases must be unique (aliases are also limited to 8 characters the first of which must be alpha). Optionally you can add a descriptive comment.
Simply accept the defaults on this screen
Use the dropdown to fill in your operating system, and fill in the Instance Name, the instance name is the same value you put in the System file
Fill in the system name using the same value as instance name above, the other fields should already be filled in
Keep the default of Use authentication value in server’s DMB Configuration (unless you are using a different authentication method). Click Finish when you are done
Click on Test Connection to verify your work
Enter your database username and password (username is most likely LCUSER for an IBM Connections database) and click Test Connections
If you see this you have completed the setup successfully, if not go back and double check your work
I am pleased to inform you that IBM has signed an agreement with Yahoo that will allow customers to extend the Sametime connection to Yahoo through mid 2011. This is for existing gateway customers, already connected. The replacement will be a Sametime Connect client plug in offering to connect to Yahoo using Yahoo IDs to authenticate. IBM will make this plugin available to existing and new customers. The exact release date this summer is not yet finalized, but our intent is to have this released before the Yahoo Gateway access is removed.
Please refer to the Lotus Sametime Support site for updates on this topic. “
So while Yahoo support is still going away, you have a bit longer. As for the replacement plugin, that will simply allow you to use your Sametime client to chat on Yahoo IM, but will require you to use a Yahoo ID and Password, this is similar to the AOL Chat integration that was in the Sametime 3.1 (I think that is the version) client.
IBM is hosting an Open Mic conference call on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. US Eastern Time (15:00 GMT) to share more information and address your questions about the decommission of Lotus Sametime Gateway interoperability with the Yahoo! Messenger service in 2011.
There have been rumblings about this for a while, but Yahoo will be discontinuing their support for the Sametime Gateway, I received this notice from IBM today. Hello! This email contains important information about changes to IBM Sametime and Yahoo! interoperability in 2011. Our records show that at one point your company registered your IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway for interoperability with the Yahoo! Messenger service. Today, your Lotus Sametime Gateway integrates directly with the Yahoo! Messenger servers through single sign-on capability, letting your employees use their corporate Sametime identity to exchange presence information and text chats with Yahoo! Messenger users. Yahoo! Inc. has notified IBM that it intends to discontinue this method of interoperability in the near future. Sametime interoperability with the Yahoo! Messenger service is currently scheduled to be discontinued in January 2011, however IBM is in discussions with Yahoo to extend this date. We are also exploring other ways to provide Sametime interoperability with the Yahoo! Messenger service and hope to have an alternative before Gateway services are discontinued. IBM intends to host an Open Mic conference call on Wednesday, 10 November, from 10am to 10:30am Eastern Standard Time (USA east coast time), during which we will share more information and address your questions about this change. The Open Mic details will be added to the Lotus Support Technical Exchange page closer to the event. In addition, we will keep you informed of any further changes by e-mail or by a News item on the Lotus Sametime Support site. Please note that the Sametime Gateway will continue to function as normal for AOL, Google, Microsoft OCS and other Sametime communities.
