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Daniel Nashed

 

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What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

Daniel Nashed  24 February 2024 21:22:12
Over the years I have spent a lot of time to make it easy to run Domino on Linux.
My start script project helped many customers to manage their servers  (https://nashcom.github.io/domino-startscript/)..

The start script has been available first for HP-UX, then Solaris and AIX until Domino 5.0.3 started to provide Linux support.
Later when sys-epoll and posix threads (pthreads) have been introduced to Linux, it became mainstream, more scalable and stable than Windows.

I still see most customers are running Domino on Windows.
But with a little extra know-how running on Linux could make admin's life even easier than on Windows.

HCL Domino Container Community Image

The HCL Domino Container Community project even allows to install and update all add-ons in a very simple way.
With the new MyHCLSoftware and my Domino Download script (https://nashcom.github.io/domino-startscript/dominoctl/) you can even fully automate downloads and container builds.

For containers there is an equivalent of the Domino Start Script -- dominoctl (https://nashcom.github.io/domino-startscript/dominoctl/).
The Domino Start Script is also running inside the container and works hand in hand with dominoctl.

All in all for native Domino on Linux and running in a container environment, this should be pretty easy today to run Domino on Linux.

New native Domino start menu

Today I worked on another additional helpful component. In a similar way as I added the build menu to the container image, I am now introducing a simple Domino Start Script menu with the mostly used options.

Image:What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

If you invoke the start script without parameters, you land in a new menu.
The menu also offers an option to setup the server using OTS and shows the server status.

Now with all those options and scripts I might need to add some additional howto documentation.
I am also working on an install script, to install Domino native with all the options -- basically by re-using the build.sh script from the container project.

So with all of this available what prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

If you are running Domino Windows I want to hear from you.
What prevents you from not making the move?

I hope you are attending Engage conference in April and you might want to join us in the Domino on Linux round table session -- which would be an excellent opportunity to provide feedback as well.

-- Daniel

Comments

1Lars Berntrop-Bos  25.02.2024 21:04:55  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

One major thing is creating Office documents, pretty easy on Windows.

2Daniel Nashed  26.02.2024 14:32:30  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

@Lars, that could be on a gateway server with a proper service defined.

Maybe we sync at Engage what would be missing here. And what we could do.

I don't have many customer with Office integration on server side.

But I would be interested to understand what would be needed here.

-- Daniel

3thorsten ebers  26.02.2024 21:37:44  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

Hi Daniel,

I guess a lot of admins would like to switch to Linux but the company likes to stay with windows...

4Uwe Brahm  26.02.2024 23:55:09  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

My topics would include:

- Windows Server 2022 is fully supported, but Debian Linux 12 (the distro that we would be using) is not fully supported afaik.

- Would the current backup solution (IBMs Tivoli) run without issues on that Debian 12 version?

- - If not, is there any other backup software that we can use with our existing tape based backup hardware system currently running flawlessly with IBMs Tivoli and Domino to ensure timely and fast recovery?

- We usually utilize ZFS as the major file system in-house on Linux, but we do not know anyone using this filesystem with Domino in the long run.

- We have no performance information with the Domino server and the backup solution we need to be using instead compared to Windows.

- We run all kind of software written in LotusScript, Java, XPages etc. Will there be any chance of running into issues?

- Do we have the time to review all of the Domino code that we have written in the last 20 years to ensure a smooth operation?

- We have bought and licensed other third party software - will that work on Linux without issues?

- ...

5Peter  28.02.2024 9:07:43  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

Uwe has some Points, but we are running Domino on Linux for 20 years now and made sure from the beginning that Third-Party-Software and Backup are working on Linux, which might be a problem if your firm is not linux-enthusiastic from the start.

6Carl Tyler  13.03.2024 19:29:05  What prevents admins moving to Domino on Linux?

Here are just my reasons:

1) Familiarity, I know Windows, there is no time required to learn the new OS. I know the old DOS commands etc.

2) Bad experiences in the early days of Linux, having to compile kernels to get a network driver to work etc. (these were early days)

3) Finding the time to learn all the things in Linux I need to know, iptables,

4) Which Linux version to use, there was a free version, but no longer supported with Domino?

5) Time, lack of it to learn and get around to it.

I love the concept of containers, and I really want to move there, just a case of finding the time to learn it all.

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