Websphere: Replacing the default IBM self-signed certificate with another certificate

Just in case I will need it the next time … This article is a good description how to

  • Adding trusted root and intermediary certificates to the Cell default trust store
  • Generating a certificate signer request
  • Installing a signed certificate
  • Configuring the servers to use the signed certificate

Although the article is written for Lotus sametime in can be used for other Websphere servers as well.

Using Sametime Web API features with SSL

If you want to use the Sametime Web API features of the Sametime Standalone or Sametime Embedded Client in Notes if you have enabled SSL for awareness / presence information you need first to do some steps on the client side in order to enable SSL for the Sametime Web API:

  1. Download the Sametime SDK (Software Development Kit)
  2. Extract the files somewhere, for example to C:\STSDK (you only need to extract the folder client/connectWeApi)
  3. Navigate to C:\STSDK\client\connectWebApi\samples\com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.webapi.ssl.feature
  4. Edit the file “ssl.txt” with a text editor
  5. Edit the last two lines so they look like this (make sure they point to the right path where you extracted the files in step #2 above):
    • com.ibm.ssl.trustStore.59669=C\:/STSDK/client/connectWebApi/samples
      /com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.webapi.ssl.feature/testtruststore.jks
    • com.ibm.ssl.keyStore.59669=C\:/STSDK/client/connectWebApi/samples
      /com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.webapi.ssl.feature/testkeystore.jks
    • Attention: You need to escape the “:” with a “\” in Windows and the line breaks above should NOT be there in your file (they are just for displaying it correctly here on the site)
    • The above is only as a demo. You can use your own key and trust store files here (and would need to apply the correct password in this file as well!)
  6. Save the file
  7. Navigate to your workspace config directory. The location is different if you are using the Sametime Standalone Client or the Embedded Client in Notes:
    • Sametime Embedded Client:  <Notes Data Directory>\workspace\.config
    • Sametime Standalone Client: %userprofile%\Application Data\Lotus\Sametime\.config
  8. Open the file “rcpinstall.properties” with a text editor
  9. Add the following two lines to the end of the file (again, make sure you modify the path to point to the location of the ssl.txt file in step 4 above):
    • -Dcom.ibm.pvc.webcontainer.port.secure=59669
    • -Dcom.ibm.pvc.webcontainer.ssl.configfile=C:/STSDK/client/connectWebApi/samples
      /com.ibm.collaboration.realtime.webapi.ssl.feature/ssl.txt
  10. Save the file
  11. Check if there is already a file “webcontainer.properties” in the “.config” directory. If yes, rename it to another name.
  12. If you are using the Sametime Embedded Client in Notes enable the Web API feature (if not already done before).
  13. Now start your Sametime Standalone Client or your Notes Client and log in to Sametime
  14. Wait about 15 seconds after you have successfully logged in.
  15. If you have used a self-signed certificate above, open your browser and go to https://localhost:59669/stwebapi/listservices and accept the self-signed certificate forever

[Thanks to Luis Benitzez]

IBM Redbook: Creating Integrated Web Experience with IBM Lotus collaboration software

An interesting new redbook “IBM Redbooks: Creating Integrated Web Experience with IBM Lotus collaboration software”  discusses how to take a specific set of products (IBM Lotus Domino, IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM Lotus Quickr Domino, IBM Connections and IBM Sametime) and use them to create an integrated web environment.

The purpose of this guide is to describe all of the steps required to create a specific example of an integrated web environment based on Domino, Sametime, Portal, Connections and Quickr Domino:

0. Preface

1. Introduction to Creating Integrated Web Experience with IBM Lotus collaboration software 

2. System architecture

3. Prerequisite information

4 Installation of the integrated web environment servers

  • 4.1 Lotus Domino server installation
  • 4.1.1 Domino LDAP – Advanced configuration and verification
  • 4.1.2 Domino HTTP – Advanced configuration and verification
  • 4.2 IBM Sametime installation
  • 4.3 IBM Connections installation
  • 4.4 Websphere Portal installation
  • 4.5 Lotus Quickr for Domino installation

5. Implement and test single sign-on

6. Integration overview

7. Portal Integration

  • 7.1 Portal and iNotes integration
  • 7.2 Portal and Connections integration
  • 7.3 Portal and Quickr Domino integration
  • 7.4 Portal and Sametime integration

8. Connections integration

  • 8.1 Connections and Sametime integration
  • 8.1.1 Connections integration with STProxy for chat and awareness
  • 8.2 Connections and Quickr Domino integration
  • 8.2.1 Communities integration with Quickr Domino
  • 8.2.2 Activities integration with Quickr Domino

9 iNotes integration

  • 9.1 iNotes — Sametime integration
  • 9.2 iNotes — Quickr Domino integration

10. Quickr Domino integration

  • 10.1 Lotus Quickr for Domino and Sametime integration
  • 10.2 Lotus Quickr for Domino and Lotus Connections integration

11. Sametime Integration

  • 11.1 Sametime and Connections integration

12 Creating common navigation across the products

  • 12.1 Customizing the WebSphere Portal theme
  • 12.2 Customizing IBM Connections theme
  • 12.3 Customization of Lotus Quickr Domino theme
  • 12.4 Navigating from iNotes to other products

Lotus Quickr Connectors: Location of the system-wide settings of the connector registry keys

Please be aware that the location of the system wide registry keys for the Lotus Quickr Connector are different if you are using Windows 32-Bit or Windows 64-Bit:

Location of the system-wide settings of the connector registry keys:

Windows 32-Bit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\Lotus Quickr

Windows 64-Bit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\IBM\Lotus Quickr

The user-specific settings are the same for both 32-bit and 64-bit and are located in:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\IBM\Lotus Quickr

IBM Sametime 8.5.2: Some things I learned during installation

Just for my reminder for the next time here are two things I learned today during a Sametime 8.5.2 installation. I did a test installation following the instructions in Frank’s presentation.

However the installation of the Meeting Server failed with the following error:

ADMA0158I: [EJBDeploy] Error executing deployment: java.lang.RuntimeException. Error is Application “com.ibm.etools.ejbdeploy.batch_extension” could not be found in the registry.

To solve this error I  deleted the contents of the following directory EXCEPT for the ‘config.ini’ file (there is a technote describing a similar issue while upgrading to Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1):

$WASHOME/deploytool/itp/configuration

I also had also to delete the reference to the Meeting Server in the Websphere profile registry. Just delete the line referencing your meeting server installation (something like “<profile isAReservationTicket=”false” isDefault=”false” name=”meetingSTMPNProfile1″ path=”C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\meetingSTMPNProfile1″ template=”C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profileTemplates\default”/>) in the file

$WASHOME/properties/profileRegistry.xml

After I did that, I restarted the installation of the meeting Server and everything went fine then.

Later I had also a problem while installing the Media Manager. As soon as I started the installation manager on the machine it failed without an error message (no splash screen apeared at all). You just saw a java dump appearing but with no real information about the crash reason.

I think that the issue might have been related to my specific environment. I installed the servers in a Virtualbox environment and I solved the issue by decreasing the RAM for the machine temporarily to 3048 MB and adding a second virtual processor. I have no idea why this might have been an effect but afterwards the installation manager could be started without problems again and the Media Manager installation went fine.

Lotus Quickr (Domino): Increase number of feed entries

By default RSS feeds in Lotus Quickr (Domino) display only the last 10 entries. If you would like to see more entries in your feed reader, you need to modify the feed URL. Just add the keyword “pageSize=NN” to the URL where “NN” is the number of entries you would like to see.

E.g. if you want to see the last 50 entries instead of the last 10 entries for the following feed:

http://quickr.acme.com/dm/atom/library/_Ptestplace_RMain.nsf/view/_Ptestplace_RMain.nsf_FCD0EF97D625305B90525670800167213/feed?sK=modified&sO=desc

you need to modify the URL like

http://quickr.acme.com/dm/atom/library/_Ptestplace_RMain.nsf/view/_Ptestplace_RMain.nsf_FCD0EF97D625305B90525670800167213/feed?sK=modified&sO=desc&pageSize=50

Lotus Quickr Connector: Re-Enable Bubble Notifications

The Quickr connector displays a notification if a document has been successfully uploaded or if an error occured. However it could be that these notifications suddenly  no longer appear. This could be e.g. if another program disables notifications completely.

You can re-enable these notifications by setting the following registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“EnableBalloonTips”=dword:00000001

After a restart of the PC (or the Windows explorer) the Quickr connector should display the bubble notifications again.

If you want you can configure the connector so that you will only be notified if an error occurs. For this go to the Connector preferences “Place Monitor -> Display only error is bubble notifications”.

If you want to set that preference automatically for all users you can set the following registry key on the machine:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\Lotus Quickr\Desktop Integration\Monitor]
“NoShowInfoBubbles”=”1”

Lotus Quickr (Domino): Create a new SEARCH.NSF

It is not really new but just to make sure anybody is aware of it:

In earlier versions of Quickr, creating a new SEARCH.NSF for a  Quickr place was a manual process. With Quickr 8.5.1 and a current fixpack level (not sure which fixpack exactly introduced it…) you do have a QPTOOL command available to do the job.

Just run delete the existing SEARCH.NSF of a Quickr place and create it by running the following command on the Domino console:

load qptool createsearch -p <placename>

I recommend to do that every time you e.g. move a place from one server to another. In case you do have a Domino cluster, be also aware of the fact that the SEARCH.NSF is not a replica and needs to be created on all cluster members seperately (The QPTOOL REPLICAMAKER command will take care of that automatically).