Daniel Nashed's Blog

Notes/Domino 9.0.1 Feature Pack 9 shipped

Notes and Domino 9.0.1 Feature Pack 9 is available.

The client side and server-side introduces fixes and also new features.

The official "flixlist" can be found here --> http://www.lotus.com/ldd/fixlist.nsf/0/12d957b7c277fc728525816300434c53

Here are the highlights and some important comments.


JVM Update in Notes Client & Domino Server

The security fixed version introduced with a JVM patch for FP8 is included in FP9:

Notes/Domino - Java 1.8 SR4 FP5

But this is still just the runtime in the client. The compile time support for Java 1.8 has to wait for FP10 because it also needs an update Eclipse version.

The Designer compile is Java 1.6 SR16 FP45


Notes Client Updates

Some of the changes need an updated mail-template. Some changes need notes.ini parameters or other settings.
But some other new functionality is enabled by default.


High resolution support for the Notes client

The Windows client now scales correctly text and icons with high resolution displays (higher the HD) and also with custom DPI settings.
This was a long waited feature request. FP8 already had some improvement but the main change is shipped with FP9.


Full fidelity for fonts in Notes emails

There is a change in the fonts used for the MIME body for messages to render fonts better in other clients.

In my tests it turned out that this causes interoperability issues with Notes clients.
When using sans-serif fonts in outgoing messages the messages are displayed with a serif font depending on your Notes client configuration.

It happens when you are using "Disable Embedded Browser for MIME mail" via preference (notes.ini BrowserRenderDisable=1).

Also in any case when the message is put into edit mode.

IBM is currently looking into this issue and I will post an update what I find out.


Improved handling of non-English characters in internet messages

Notes and Domino now support RFC2231, a standard internet protocol for handling non-English characters in internet messages
 to improve message fidelity in communications with other applications that support this standard.


Improved name lookup in Notes

Searching by through typeahead or in the ambiguous name dialog, returns the same results as searching by .
For example, searching for don smith or smith don returns the same results, including variants such as Donald, Donovan, Smithfield.

This is also a long waited feature. But it needs the updated pernames.ntf template provided with 9.0.1 FP9 and add a notes.ini setting AllowWildcardLookup=1.



Domino Server Updates

Enhancement Request To Be Able To Increase The Amgr Queue Beyond 100 (SPR #RSTNA4SL7C APARID: LO87242)

The Agent Manager's Eligible queue is now able to change from the lowest value possible at 100, to 255 which is the highest value possible via an INI AMGRMaxQueue.

I worked with one of those customers who has the requirement to run many agents in a very tight schedule. In there environment even on a fast server not all agents have been scheduled.
This parameter allows to increase the queue. But sadly the parameter is just a BYTE and cannot be increased about 255.
I would have wished they would have increased the limit to a higher value (which would have been a bigger change) and I would have wished that the parameter would be 255 by default.
But it should already help for most environments.


Databases and views can be opened more quickly in databases that are enabled for transaction logging

It takes less time to open databases and views that are at ODS 52 or higher and enabled for transaction logging.
Previously, performance for opening databases or views could be slow in frequently updated databases.
This improvement is due to the implementation of less contention with update operations.

So it is really important that your servers have translog enabled! We have still seen customers not running without translog.
And it is important that you update your ODS to 52 via create_r9_databases=1 and compact -C.

I have not seen any performance values. But this should improve also performance for NIFNSF enabled databases.

Enabling and managing inline view indexing

A view index is an internal filing system that Notes® uses to build the list of documents to display in a database view or folder.
By default, view indexes are updated on a server at scheduled intervals.
To update a view index immediately after documents change instead, administrators can enable inline view indexing.
When you enable inline view indexing, a critical view is always kept up-to-date for your users.

I have not looked into it in detail yet. But it is a bigger change and the release information does not contain all the details.

Here is the documentation update with all the details -->https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSKTMJ_9.0.1/admin/admn_inline_index_enabling.html
The documentation contains information how to implement it and also how to query information, statistics and other details.

I hope those additional comments on top of the release notes are helpful for your first look into FP9.


-- Daniel

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