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live blogging the Sametime 7.5.1 Open Mic call this morning


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So while I wait on hold for it to begin, I will take a few guesses at questions that might get asked.  This session is being recorded by IBM

  • Provisioning
  • Performance
  • Policies
  • Stlinks
  • Telephony integration
  • Peer to peer audio and video

Ok, here we go...  Bill McAnn was the call moderator. hey took some questions from the forum first to prime the call
  • Lock a client to connect to a specific Sametime server geographically? Yes, point to a home Sametime server.
  • I have installed Sametime 7.5.1 client and did the Outlok disablement hook after following the workaround.  But when upgrading to FP1 it came back.  This will possibly be fixed in a later version, but not 7.5.1  Technote #1259391 addresses the issue

off to the live calls
  • I know the voice and name of this caller!  But I wont call him out.  He wants to build a silent install package to dump out with SMS.  There is some issues with this.  There is a new client with the proper fixes, including CF1.  It comes with the installer and since it is a full client you have to open a PMR to get the updated installer package.
  • Provisioning the preferences in the Sametime client. One is the site update.  One is the plug-in customization.ini, but that only gets read once.  Does the site update have to be a feature jar file?  The feature jar file approach is delivering a new or updated piece to the plugin_customization.ini filer.  This file is read each time the client is started.  The ini provides the default settings preferences.  End user overrides in the client preferences will still overtake what is set in the ini file.  You cannot swap it out at install time.  An update site must be a jar file
  • Policies regarding chat recording, with the value set to save or not save.  If you uncheck this does it force down to users not saving chats.  Lotus says unchecking this does not set auto-save in the client.  Checking this forces the user to save chats.  There is actually two policies.  One allows them to save at all and the other allows auto-saving.
  • When was the silent install that includes the msi, when was it released?  Sep 21st or so was the release date.  Also, they want to fill in the community name and pre-configure TLS?  Craig jumped in to say he belive it is possible now.
  • They have multiple servers, a web portal with stlinks, web conference server and chat servers.  People get logged off when the move around servers, why?  Jennifer at Lotus says Portal was giving a new IP address coming in so it was being seen as another user.  She gave the example to ignore when you come in twice that goes in the config section.  The user must also be homed to a Sametime server or cluster.
  • The CF1 version of 7.5.1 takes care of a lot of issues but one they had.  When you install and launch the client the Terminal Services application continues to run?  Harry, dev manager at IBM, asked to clarify operating system and client.  It was OSX 10.4.10 with Sametime 7.5.1 CF1.  When you launch the Sametime client it also launches Terminal Services.  They do not quit and continue to stay launched.  The client works fine, but you must manually quit the Terminal Services.  The Sametime 8.0 beta weas brought up to try it there.
  • The next caller wishes to turn off the resert button in the client.  Craig said there is no policy or previous request to turn this feature off.  The caller saysd for compliance reasons they muyst lock the user from being able to change communities.  Craig says 7.5.1 said you can change the host without resetting the user, which could be an issue.  He referred to the policy to force the default community.  Unless you have multiple communities, then this policy would apply.  The caller has Facetime in the middle to capture for compliancy.  Lotus suggests hiding the Sametime MUX so no user can directly connect to it.
  • The user policy, user preference, and then plugin_customization.ini is the order of load for the Sametime Connect client.
  • I missed one call for a person coming in, sorry
  • The next caller asked about the StReflector being set up.  If you are doing many audio or video chats then moving it to another box will assist in performance.  Voice chats work fine internally but not over VPN nor outside, including NAT.  The reflector will let each clients see the others IP address.  Point to point will always be first, then the reflector.  With exxternal users with symmetric NAT you put the reflector outside the organiuzation.  A normal or non-NAT firewall, the clients will still try to do point to point.  The reflector must be able to go through the firewall.
  • Prudential wants to deploy a basic client and send out the features, yet they cant lock them down.  They want a list of what cnd cannot be locked down.  The only settings available for lockdown are those in the policies on the server
  • Can you secure audio and video to a particular group?  Yes, use policies