Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Daniel Nashed – 17 June 2025 08:52:21
First of all the design task is now leveraged for updating all system databases during template setup for a new release.
The only important detail to know is that the database needs to have the admin server set to that server.
The background is that an automated process should not run wild on all replicas in your domain trying to upgrade the design multiple times.
There is also a new list of system databases automatically maintained: dominosystemdbs.ind.
The file is updated when the server starts and is leveraged by the design task.
I blogged about it before, but now here it is live in action.
The design task now writes a separate log file IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT/design_upgrade.log.
The file is automatically rotated like other system files with a date and cleaned up like other system logs when configured.
In this file you find additional information like if the admin server is set right or what got updated.
The file also contains run-time information per database and also information about the template version update.
In my case I had to run it again manually after server update, because my admin server was set to a different server for autoupdate.nsf.
Probably you don't want to look into the file on the server. Here is another option you might like.
You can run the design task on all system databases ( -sd ) and get them updated + get a mail with the log file ( -mt ).
If you want to use the standard design task operation only taking into account the admin server settings of the design task, just run the -sd switch.
In case you want the same behavior template setup uses, you can specify the new -adm option.
This would run the design task only on system database (or in general database) with the admin server set to this server also if the "Refresh on admin server only" option not set in the database.
In any case you would get warnings in design_upgrade.log if no admin server is set or "Refresh on admin server only" is not set.
Here is what I just did to upgrade my autoupdate.nsf design after I realized the admin server was wrong and I corrected it.
lo design -sd -mt "daniel nashed"
Refreshing design [autoupdate.nsf]
Updating 'ac Download' into database 'Domino Auto Update' from template 'Domino Auto Update'
Updating 'ac Edit' into database 'Domino Auto Update' from template 'Domino Auto Update'
Updating 'ac Enable' into database 'Domino Auto Update' from template 'Domino Auto Update'
Updating 'ac Formula Check' into database 'Domino Auto Update' from template 'Domino Auto Update'
...
Design refresh completed (1 sec) [autoupdate.nsf] 14.5 (02.01.2025 21:21:08) -> 14.5 (10.04.2025 16:57:53)
Mail example from production today
New Design Task Switches in Domino 14.5
-sd Refresh design of System Databases in dominosystemdbs.ind.
-adm Refresh design only if current server is Administration Server of database.
-mt name Mail design update log to the Internet Address name.
- Comments [22]
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1Jan 11.11.2025 13:10:11 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Daniel,
Ik don't get an attachment in my mail, but raw text, how is this possible?
2Daniel Nashed 11.11.2025 18:59:32 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Jan,
it's difficult to help if you don't provide details.
Not sure how this can happen and what the target adress is.
But even for a SMTP recipient it should be an attachment.
Maybe something is filtering it....
Do you get all the text in the body or is the body only having the summary?
I see this plus the attachment. There is nothing in the design task that could cause the attachment to be send as text.
Command line arguments: -sd -mt nsh@nashcom.de
Design refresh runtime: 2 seconds
3Jan 12.11.2025 7:09:29 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
I see it like this:
Message-ID: <OF8529D604.F8D80D3B-ONC1258D3F.00460A24@xxx.nl>
X-MIMETrack: CD-MIME by Router on DomServ3/XXX/NL(Release 14.5FP1|September 19, 2025) at
11-11-2025 13:45:01,
Serialize by Router on DomServ3/XXX/NL(Release 14.5FP1|September 19, 2025) at
11-11-2025 13:45:01
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: multipart/mixed;
Boundary="0__=4EBB07ACDFD58CB48f9e8a93df938690918c4EBB07ACDFD58CB4"
--0__=4EBB07ACDFD58CB48f9e8a93df938690918c4EBB07ACDFD58CB4
Content-type: multipart/alternative;
Boundary="1__=4EBB07ACDFD58CB48f9e8a93df938690918c4EBB07ACDFD58CB4"
etc etc
I have this only on one server, the other DO send attachments! I can find no difference in Configuration, notes.ini (mail related items) or serverdoc.
4Daniel Nashed 12.11.2025 7:36:33 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Jan,
the message is converted to MIME for some reason. But this should still work.
ButI can't help you via blog comments if you don't provide more details.
-- Daniel
5Werner Götz 06.02.2026 8:47:20 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hallo Daniel, kann es sein, dass in der 14.5.1 der Parameter -i nicht mehr funktioniert beim "load Design". Hatte das jahrelang am Laufen, und jetzt bekomme ich
Database Designer started
Design error: File does not exist
Design error for database 'designupdates.txt': File does not exist
Im log steht auch nichts, auch nicht mit -log
Absolute Pfadangabe hilft auch nicht
Liebe Grüße
-Werner
6Daniel Nashed 06.02.2026 22:53:35 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
The file must end with .ind. No other file extension is supported.
If you rename the .txt file to .ind it should work. I just tested it.
7Werner Götz 08.02.2026 9:16:36 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Daniel,
thank you so much for pointing that out.
I hadn't read anywhere that the file had to end in .ind.
That wasn't the case in earlier versions of Domino, and I didn't see it anywhere in the help section either.
-Werner
8Daniel Nashed 08.02.2026 21:29:56 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
@Werner,
This is because a new back-end API is used, which has a stricter check and can handle multiple file types.
This is also true for other parts in Domino, which support .ind files.
It was planned to have all servertasks changed to the new API in 14.5.1.
We should probably ask in the EAP forum which tasks have finally changed to the new API.
The tasks I know of
- DBMT which (already in 14.5)
- design task (already in 14.5)
9Denis Kopprasch 31.03.2026 6:09:59 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Daniel,
do you know how to restore the normal behaviour of the design task, so that it continues to log it's output to the log.nsf, maybe there is an undocumented switch or ini setting? I'm used to search the log nsf for design errors...
10Daniel Nashed 31.03.2026 15:06:33 Domino 14.5 Design task comes with some pretty useful new functionality
Hi Denis,
I would be interested why you don't want the new behavior but there is a documented switch.
-nologfile --> it's not undocumented. It's part of the design task help.
----
lo design -?
Purpose: Refreshes database designs from their template.
Usage: Load DESIGN [source] [target] [options]...
[source]: Server name containing the templates. Default is LOCAL.
[target]: Server name of databases to refresh. Default is LOCAL.
[options]:
-d name Directory name (relative to data directory) to refresh.
-f name File name of database to refresh.
-i name Database, folder or a file name containing a list of pathnames,
each of which may be a database or a folder to refresh design(s).
-t name Only refresh design of databases with this design template name.
-sd Refresh design of System Databases in dominosystemdbs.ind.
-adm Refresh design only if current server is Administration Server of database.
-mt name Mail design update log to the Internet Address name.
-log Explicitly enable logging of design changes to file.
-nologfile Logging will be redirected to the console.
-regex Run on databases matching the regular expression in pattern