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Andy's Blog

Two quick things on this snowy morning

Andy Pedisich  February 25 2010 11:03:03 AM
I've floated this with the Notes forums and other appropriate places and have never had a solid response. Here's the skinny.

A user has two location documents, one for working off-line and one for working from the server.  The user also has a local replica of their mail file that is specified in the off-line location document.  User is working from the server-based mail file and server based location document.  

User shuts down her workstation. Goes home.  Has a nice dinner with her husband and their kids.  He's a fantastic cook, by the way, and works from home, so he can prepare dinner for her and the kids most of the time.  I wish I had the recipe for the chicken dish he made.  (The wild rice was fantastic!) They've known each other since grad school and they are both married and good friends, which is bonus turf for any relationship.  After dinner they put the kids to bed and have a chance to catch up on the day and share their wonderful experiences with technology.  They talk about the kids and school, and plans for the weekend.  They are both looking forward to some well deserved time-off this summer, and perhaps they will be able to stay at her sister's summer home on the Delaware coast to save money.  How nice that will be after this wicked winter of abundant east coast snow.  After a few glasses of really nice wine, they errm...  well they... I probably don't really need this level of detail for a technical issue, but clearly they are still in love after all these years.

The next day, she goes into work, after marvelous meal of home cooked waffles for breakfast (none of that frozen crap), and starts up her laptop in the office. As soon as the system lets her, she hits the Notes icon and Notes starts.  She hits the mail icon at the upper left toolbar and she's in her mail file.  But she's not in the server replica.  She's in the local replica. She closes the local replica and goes to the server replica, and everything is cool.

There is no indication why she ended up in her local replica, but since she is pretty high up on the IT food chain, she is concerned that other users are experiencing this same issue and would like it resolved.  However the issue is not consistently reproducible.  She is getting nowhere with the usual support sources.  She is hoping this doesn't cut into her plans for the summer.

Anyone else know someone in this situation?  Is there a resolution?  She has already put in tickets on it but to no avail.

The second item has to do with something that happened in the 8.5 code stream with the Notes administrator client.  What the heck happened to the % used column when looking at files on a Domino server? Does anyone else miss that?  I found it oh so helpful.

- Andy

Comments

1Matt Cook  2/25/2010 12:16:18 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

Definitely miss the percent used column. Especially since looking at percent used in database properties when moving from one database to another in administrator has caused me numerous faults.

2Timothy Briley  2/25/2010 1:40:01 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

"she goes into work and starts up her laptop in the office. As soon as the system lets her, she hits the Notes icon and Notes starts. She hits the mail icon at the upper left toolbar and she's in her mail file. But she's not in the server replica. She's in the local replica. She closes the local replica and goes to the server replica, and everything is cool."

I'm asking this because you're description is pretty explicit, yet appears to be missing something: "Was she prompted for location by Notes at startup? If not, does she manually change locations before clicking the mail icon?"

3Timothy Briley  2/25/2010 1:52:17 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

"I'm asking this because you're description is pretty explicit,"

Make that "I'm asking this because your description is pretty explicit,"

4Colin Williams  2/25/2010 2:01:42 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

We have users experience that same problem for as long as I can recall across all versions. Annoying because the users with this config are typically laptop users and thus higher up the food chain. No fix so far.

5Candice Malensek  2/25/2010 2:21:55 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

We miss the % used column also. That was always helpful.

I too, have experanced the problem where is takes me to the local copy of the mail file. It doesn't prompt me for the location it opens the last one used (Office) but it still opens the local copy of the mail. *sigh* Very annoying. Instead of using the tab that was left open I always use the "Mail" icon on my docked Open list.

6Andy Pedisich  2/25/2010 2:22:08 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

@Tim, yes it's explicit. The Notes client is not configured to prompt for a location upon startup. It should be using the same location document that was used when Notes was shut down. The client has experienced this same behaviour since Release 8.0 and still has it now.

- Andy

7DeAnne Matos  2/25/2010 2:55:12 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

Yes, we are experiencing the issue with the client defaulting to the local replica. The problem started with Notes 8.0 and has not been resolved by Lotus. Many of our users are experiencing the issue. In many cases the users do not realize that the client has defaulted to the local replica so they contact the Help Desk with complaints of mail delays. Our executives are also experiencing the issue and I can tell you that's not a good situation!! This is extremely frustrating and I wish that Lotus would fix the issue!! We have tried prompting for location but that does not resolve the issue. If anyone has a fix for this issue please help!!

8Cheryl  2/25/2010 4:07:21 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

I miss that % a lot. Found out from Andy Donaldson that is was discontinued in the admin client, but if you use webadmin it's there. I hope Lotus brings it back in the admin client!

9Jyotiprakash  2/25/2010 10:31:13 PM  Two quick things on this snowy morning

How the users replicate their local replica mail boxes with server? Manual replication?

Make it scheduled. Enable the scheduled replication in the Location document. Select "Replicate when Notes starts" and also select "Prompt before replicating".

Users will get a dialog box to replicate on startup of the Lotus Notes. You can also set replication interval to 1 minute.

Check the Notes Design Blog { http://www.notesdesignblog.com/NotesDesignBlog/NDBlog.nsf/dx/regarding-andys-blog-posting-abotu-the-going-to-the-wrong-replica.htm?opendocument&comments#anc1 }