Customer Reviews

Lotus Notes and Domino 4.5 Architecture, Administration, and Security

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a well thought out well-written reference and learning tool for today's most used groupware product, Lotus Notes. It contains some erroneous information related mostly to the OS/2 operating system but truth be told most Notes implementations today are done on the Windows NT operating system. This is a must read for any Notes administrator serious about best practices related to administration. Buy it. Read it. Use it. Be successful.

I have to agree with the reader from Alamedia CA. My company just went through a large conversion to Notes 4.5. Currently I only have tops... 6 mos experience in Notes Administration. When I say Notes Administration I mean everything from creating users and troubleshooting to bringing up new servers and database developement. There are plenty of occasions a reference book is needed.

I found that the author does a great job at providing the reader with useful information, in an easy to follow manner, rather than assuming experience and knowledge. The author identifies key elements to a successful roll-out, gives installation guidelines, explains all parts of Notes and how they work together, provides the how to's of Administration and tops it off with Security issues.

It may not include all information wanted on OS/2, but nowadays how many shops are OS/2? Let's keep in mind that this book is focused on LOTUS NOTES DOMINO Archetecture, Administration and Security.

This author also has a study guide out for the CLP exams, all of the reviews I have read are excellent, I'll reserve that review until I take the test.

Unlike some other reviewers, I found this very useful in explaining some things better than the product documentation. I'm afraid OS/2 is not that important these days (my company doesn't bother putting it on my professional resume anymore), so I'm not that interested about any alleged details which are missing or incomplete in that area. This book takes the time to explain advanced concepts for those who already understand the basics in Notes. Despite the mention of 4.6 on the cover, this is hardly mentioned - but I think this is the fault of the editors, not the authors. I would look forward to an updated version for R5 of this book.

I'm beginning a review of this book for our local PC Users Group. So far I'm just into the beginning of Chapter Three and have already found several glaring errors.

In the section "Operating System Platforms", on page 30, there are several omissions; Table 2.3 for Notes server platforms, IBM OS/2 Warp Server SMP is omitted. It should also be noted that AppleTalk is supported on OS/2 servers only with the addition of LAN Server for Macintosh (although AppleTalk is a poor choice for Notes).

In Table 2.4, TCP/IP is omitted as a protocol for OS/2 Warp, which has been natively supported since before Windows 95 was released.

Page 21. It is stated that HTTP services are only supported on NT an Unix. I've been providing Domino HTTP services in a production environment on Warp Server since Domino's release.

Pages 33-34. It appears that the authors have a bias towards the Windows platform. While later in the chapter they state that you should be sure to apply the latest patches to OS/2 if you are running it on that platform, they fail to mention how it is even more important to apply the latest patches to NT. I work with both operating systems, and I find NT to be *much* more vulnerable to TCP/IP attacks (due to a poorly written TCP/IP stack, according to the CIAC), which in my opinion can be disasterous in a system provideing Internet services. This was exemplified in March with NT machines going down nationwide from TCP/IP attacks.

Page 37. The authors state that OS/2 "will provide adequate performance for large Lotus Notes installations." I'm supprised that they didn't decribe the NT platform as only "adequate". My Notes programmer spent nine months last year at IBM migrating their Charlotte site to Notes, and reports that they found Notes' performance on Warp Server to be much superior to it's performance on NT server using the same hardware.

In chapter three, they again make the mistake that TCP/IP is not supported on the OS/2 client. Also in chapter three, table! 3.4, they error in stating that OS/2 (server, I assume), can only support 100 Netbios sessions. Warp server can support up to 254 Netbios sessions *per adaptor*, and can have four adaptors using Netbios.

Given this many errors and important omissions this early in the book, I would hesitate to use or recommend it as a reference.