What's in this Release

Calendar Express, a web client, is provided as part of the iCS 2.0. Calendar Express is JavaScript-based and runs on the browsers described at Recommended Browsers. Other clients, including for PDA and wireless devices, will be available shortly. Calendar Express lets a user:

• create and edit calendars (name, description, timezone) and calendar sets (a single composite view of multiple calendars), including support for:
• multiple owners of a calendar.
• simple access control (public or private read and write).
• multiple time zones associated with calendars and calendar sets.
• create and edit events and tasks (summary, date/time, location, description), including support for:
• recurring (repeating) events and tasks.
• notification and reminder (minutes, hours, or days before an event or task) emails to multiple recipients.
• choose multiple views such as overview, day, week, and month, and provides:
• table, list, and condensed views.
• viewing (without login) of public calendars.
• HTML rendering of summaries and descriptions.
• print preview
• find other calendars by id, name, or owner, including support for:
• subscription to other calendars.
• links to individual events in other calendars.
• import and export of calendars in text/calendar or text/xml formats.
• change the appearance and default settings.

Start and stop the Calendar Server.

Backup and restore the calendar database.

Create, modify, delete, or list calendars and their components.

Create, modify, delete, or list calendar users.

List or logout user sessions.

Display Calendar Server statistics.

iCS 2.0 can be localized for other countries and languages besides the default of US English.

iCS 2.0 includes a tool that automates simple customizations of Calendar Express. These customizations include the ability to change the name, branding, and icons. The Calendar Express user interface can be extensively modified by changing the server's Javascript and HTML. For example, a simple customization would be to add a frame for banner advertising. Refer to the the iCS white paper section that can be accessded from the Calendar Server Documentation site.

iCS 2.0 supports a plugin layer called Calendar Server API (CSAPI). Although LDAP is the default mechanism for user authentication and for storing user preferences, this plugin layer allows for custom plugins that can interface to non-LDAP user authentication and user preferences. Refer to the iPlanet Calendar Server Programmer's Reference that can be accessded from the Calendar Server Documentation site.
 

Supported Platforms

Solaris 2.6 and 2.7 (SPARC) with recommended patches. See:

http://access1.sun.com/patch.recommended/rec.html

HP-UX 11.00 (PA-RISC1.1 or better) with the following required operating system patches:

PHKL_18543
PHNE_16017
See http://hp.com for information on these recommended patches.

Read the installation instructions for these patches carefully. When these patches supersede another patch, the superseded patch must be removed before installation. These patches may also have dependencies on other patches, which must be installed first. Finally, your system may have these patches (or patches superseded by these patches) installed from the factory. Be very cautious when applying these patches.

Recommended Browsers

Solaris Tuning Recommendations

Configurable Kernel Parameters

• Dump kernel tcp settings.

/usr/sbin/ndd /dev/tcp \?
• Dump kernel tcp stats.

netstat -k [interface]
• Dump protocol stack summary stats.

netstat -s
Add these lines to /etc/system
set maxusers=2048
set ncsize=300000
set ufs_ninode=300000
• TCP connection has default hash of 256. SPECweb96 sets this to 262144. Add this line to /etc/system

set tcp:tcp_conn_hash_size=262144
• TCP CLOSE_WAIT interval. Solaris default to 240 seconds (4 minutes). SPECweb96 rules let you set it to 60 seconds. Add this /etc/rc2.d/S69inet

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_close_wait_interval 60000
• Tune the TCP window size.

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_xmit_hiwat 32768
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_recv_hiwat 32768
• Tune TCP slow start. It is advisable to set the initial congestion value to 2 since this is used by other vendors and will probably be the next standard anyway.  This gives slightly faster throughput for short, high-speed connections.

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_slow_start_initial 2
• Tune TCP connection request queues.

/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_conn_req_max_q 1024
/usr/sbin/ndd -set /dev/tcp tcp_conn_req_max_q0 1024

HP-UX Tuning Recommendations

Configurable Kernel Parameters

1. Edit /stand/system to modify the kernel parameter you're interested in. This must be done with some care; the parameter must be listed exactly by name.
2. Run 'mk_kernel -o /stand/vmunix'. This builds the new kernel, kernel function set, and marks the kernel for replacement on reboot.
3. Reboot the system.

• max_thread_proc (maximum threads per process)

set to 8192
• nkthread (maximum threads in system)

set to 32768
• maxdsiz (max data segment size limit, heap memory)

figure 100K per concurrent user session, depending on the size of their inbox, a good number is 1GB (0x040000000)
• maxtsiz (max text size)

use 64MB (0x04000000)
• maxfiles_lim (max number of open files per process)

set to 32768
• nfile (max number of files systemwide)

set to 65536
• ninode (max number inodes in memory)

set to 32768

NOTE: It is also recommended that you increase swap space. For example, on a 128MB RAM machine, 1GB is an acceptable amount of swap space..

Known Limitations and Recommendations

Administration

The cscal utility fails to validate a specified calendar ID (CALID) or fails to validate a primary owner or other owners as valid users. (368514)

Recommendation: Ensure you use a valid calid, owner, or other owner when creating or modifying a calendar. For example, to verify that the CALID mycal exists, type the following command:

./cscal -v list mycal
 

Calendar Express

Unable to login using Netscape Communicator 4.05 (367638)

Recommendation: This version is not supported. Upgrade to one of the recommended browsers.
 

If a user session times out, this can fail silently (no error dialogs) and some links (New Event and New Task) are removed until the user logs back in. (356996)

Recommendation: The user session timeout value can be increased by changing the service.http.sessiontimeout value in the server.conf file. The default is 1800 seconds (30 minutes).
 

Finding a calendar may only return a partial list of calendars.

Recommendation: Only the first 200 calendars are returned. Narrow your search parameters to return less calendars.
 

Cannot save notification or reminder email addresses for linked events. (367015)

Recommendation: Subscribe to the entire calendar or make a copy of this event in your own calendar.
 

Unable to edit the number of recurrences for a weekly recurring meeting. (365755)

Recommendation: The original number cannot be changed. Delete, then recreate this meeting.
 
 

(UNIX only) Javascript error when viewing details of a newly created event. (368305)

Recommendation: Logout and log back in.

WCAP

A notification message for an event will contain both the RDATE and RRULE properties. (355760)

Recommendation: This message may not be interoperable with some iCalendar implementations.
 

Invalid RDATE, EXDATE, RRULE, and EXRULE property strings are kept when storing components or importing calendars. (354177)

Recommendation: Use valid iCalendar property values.
 

A RDATE value without "Z" is not parsed correctly. (354748)

Recommendations: The RDATE is stored in local time, instead of relying on a TZID parameter.
 

When importing a Date property, values without "Z" or a TZID are saved in GMT time. (355680)

Recommendation: Values without the "Z" should be saved in local time; otherwise, always include the TZID.
 

Importing all day events in daylight savings are 1 hour off. (357440)

Recommendation: Once these day events have been imported, adjust their times.
 

The set_calprops command does not validate owners. (353409, 358964)

Recommendation: Please make sure you use a valid owner.
 

XML formatted property values with "<>" characters may not be stored properly. (368453)

Recommendation: This can occur if there are embedded HTML tags in an email address. Try removing embedded HTML tags in the email address.
 

XML formatted properties with multiple values may not be stored properly. (355751)

Recommendation: Check if there are multiple values contined in a category or other owners property and, if so, try replacing muliple values with a single value.
 

Fetching components by id does not work with fmt-out="text/csv". (368814)

Recommendations: Use text/calendar or text/xml.
 

The get_all_timezones.wcap command does not return all properties. (362098)

Recommendation: The following properties are not returned: DTSTART, RRULE, RDATE, LAST-MODIFIED, and TZURL.

Calendar Server

Admin ports less than 1024 cannot be opened. (362800)

Recommendation: Change the service.http.admin.port value in the server.conf file to have a value greater than 1024.
 

While the server is under heavy load, log files can get bigger than the limits specified by logfile.maxlogfilesize and logfile.maxlogsize. (357861)

Recommendation: Periodically delete your log files or back them up to tape.
 

If the LDAP server goes down while the calendar server is under heavy load, a server process may become unavailable. (366618)

Recommendation: Shutdown the Calendar Server until the LDAP server is back up or setup another LDAP server for failover.

Potential Problems and Solutions

See also the previous section, Known Limitations and Recommendations, and the following section, Corrections to the Documentation, for other issues that might affect product capability or use.

Installation

(Solaris only) Error message "Installation of  partially failed". (364450)

Solution: This message can be caused by an incompatability between the tar used to package the product and the one used during installation. Use the 'which tar' command to determine which tar was used. You must use the standard Solaris tar, which is usually found in /usr/bin/tar or /bin/tar
 

(HP-UX only) Error message "Failed to startup server" after successful installation. (368821)

Solution: The server may have started but the shell script that is used to verify this startup has timed out.
 

(HP-UX only) No display when redirecting to a remote display. (365001)

Solution: This is a known problem in the HP-UX java sdk. Older version (such as 1.1.2) work but newer versions (such as 1.1.7) do not work. Use the '-nodisplay' option at the console.

Administration

None of the admin utilities will return to the command prompt and nothing is logged to the admin.log file. (367278)

Solution: Stop the Calendar Server. Then, in the <server-root>/cal/bin directory, remove the lock/__db_lock.share file.

Calendar Express

Microsoft IE 4.x clients are reporting scripting errors.

Solution: Customers may have an old version of the jscript DLL. Please have them go the Microsoft website to fetch and then install the latest version of this DLL.
 

If a summary contains embedded HTML tags, its display may span multiple days. (358674)

Solution: Remove the HTML or increase the size of the browser window. This will be addressed in future versions of this client.
 

Trying to create a Calendar Set that was just deleted can cause a Javascript error. (362517)

Solution: Close the Properties window after deleting a Calendar Set, then reopen this window to recreate the same Calendar Set.

Calendar Server

• The server can become unavailable if the file system it is installed on becomes full. (357995)

Solution: You should periodically monitor the disk usage and if it gets close to becoming full, free up some disk space or add more disks. An unsupported disk usage monitor, csmonitord, is provided to send email to a list of addresses when a configured threshold is reached.
 
• Server performance is slower than expected for your machine configuration.

Solution: Edit the server.conf file.
• Increase the number of processes to match the number of CPUs:

service.http.numprocesses 4
• Put the calendar database on a large and fast RAID disk partition:

caldb.berkeleydb.logdirectory "/fastdisk"
caldb.berkeleydb.homedirectory "/fastdisk"
• Put the http caches on a large and fast RAID disk partition:

service.http.dbcachesize "/fastdisk2"
service.http.dbtmpdir "/fastdisk2"
service.http.attachdir "/fastdisk2"
• Reduce logging verbosity:

logfile.loglevel "Warning"

 
• You have more than 100,000 configured users.

Solution: Edit the server.conf file:
• Increase the authentication cache:

service.authcachesize "500000"
service.authcachettl "172800"

 
• If you have more than 5,000 logged-in users per CPU.

Solution: Edit the server.conf file:
• Increase the maximum number of sessions:

service.http.maxsessions "10000"

 
• If you have more than 1,000 concurrent connections per CPU.

Solution: Edit the server.conf file:
• Increase the maximum number of client threads:

service.http.maxthreads  "2000"

Corrections to the Documentation

How to Report Problems

Where to Go for More Information

For the Calendar Server installation instructions, visit:
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/calendar.html

For the Netscape Directory Server 4.1 installation instructions, visit:
http://home.netscape.com/eng/server/directory/4.1/install/contents.htm

If you can't find the information you need, please contact Netscape technical support.