Product dead = blog dead, hahahaha

Saturday 7th April, 2007

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Workplace Services Express 2.6 base install overview (repeated from IdoNotes)

Thursday 27th July, 2006
We had a customer request this for testing purposes on their test server so we wiped the and reinstalled the OS.  We went with Windows 2000 since it is a test box to save some 2003 licenses.

Download:
  • You need 4 files (or the cd's).  You can get the part numbers on-line but it is almost 3GB worth to download
  • Put them all in a single directory and unpack them there.  It will create all the necessary folders and structure if you keep using the same exact path for each unpack.  This in turn makes another 3GB of unpacked files on the server too

Install:
  • There is a file called launchpad.exe that brings up some Java and a GUI.  Unfortunately that damn thing would never come up, ate CPU like a Survivor winner and hung with an ugly grey box
  • I opened the install guide and went with the command line install instead
  • The old 2.5 version seemed to honestly take between 30-45 minutes
  • This one was the following:
  • Started GUI at 9:22am
  • Switched to command line at 9:26am
  • Started install at 9:27am
  • Install completed at 11:40am

So that means it took 2 hours as compared to the previous 30-45 minutes.

With that being said, it still worked fine and installed flawlessly past that point.  The page loads are always horrendously slow the first time.  This was no exception and the install guide even tells you to do so.

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If you run Workplace Services Express, a tuning pdf for you

Friday 26th May, 2006
IBM has taken it upon themselves to introduce a tuning document for you to get every inch of performance you can from the servers.  You can find it under technote #1222385 on the supoprt site.

The table of contents loooks like this:
Image:If you run Workplace Services Express, a tuning pdf for you

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Day 1 of the IBM Workplace Collaboration Services Class

Monday 13th February, 2006
The idea of the class is load and configure WCS 2.5 for both Messaging and Team Collaboration.  The installation itself for the instructor machine I talked about in the last posting.   Here is the class layout for Day 1
Modules
Section 1 : Introducing Administration Basics for IBM Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5
                 Module A: Introducing Workplace Collaboration Services Architecture
                 Module B: Deploying IBM Workplace Collaboration Services
                 Module C: Administering the IBM Workplace Environment
                 Module D: Administering Users
                 Module E: Maintaining the IBM Workplace Environment


So there is no way in high heavens to make it through this all the first day.  To start the class, the first thing we had the students do was launch the installation of the code we had on the machines.  Recall that DB2 was already there and running.  Knowing that the install in this version is very specific about file names and locations that it has to grab and unpack, meant a lot of planning time for us.  Even with this done, it would take a long time for the install to finish.  Cloudscape has to be created from the pack and loaded on the machine.

So if you are running a local DB2 store and doing a migration later, then both run at the same time for a while.  There are some glaring questions on the amount of hardware required to run a fully operational infrastructure, but that comes in a later posting.  The remainder of the day was making sure everyone was caught up and moving along in the install.  Including disabling security and preparing to move to the centralized TDS on the instructor server in the room.  We had two spare machines in case someone really goofed up ready to go.

The students will find out tomorrow how the machines run fully loaded even with the horsepower I stated in the last posting

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Base server install for IBM Workplace 2.5 Bootcamp class

Thursday 9th February, 2006
Hardware was dual CPU and 4GB RAM on every machine, which is barely enough to make things go fast.  Startup takes forever.

The approach for the class is to load just the software necessary on the box to let you get right into configuring and launching when the class begins.  The load consisted of the following:
  • Tivoli Directory Server 5.2
  • IBM DB2 8.1 with FP4a and hotfix
  • Workplace 2.5
  • Windows XP machines for the classroom
  • IBM HTTP server 6.0.2
  • Cloudscape will load with WCS

Tivoli install went smooth outside of the sample LDIF file provided with the course material.  I will cover that shortly.  The big topic is DB2.  It states that you need FP4a and also a hotfix.  Well we did the FP4a with no issue.  Then we did the supplied hotfix that came with Workplace 2.5 and it broke everything with DB2.  So it was a full uninstall and reinstall of DB2.  After that the machines were left as is for the class to begin on Monday.

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Starting the blog off with a bang..

Wednesday 8th February, 2006
I pondered starting this blog and found out that this is a great way to do it.  I am preparing to teach the enablement class for midwest Business Partners to get certified in IBM Workplace Messaging and also take the part of the class on Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 : Team Collaboration.  So what you will get is a breakdown of the install and then the class day-by-day.

The template will update shortly, but I am going with the out of the box approach until I get time..

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