These release notes contain important information available at the time of the Release 3.0 version of iPlanetTM Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack (also referred to as iPlanetTM Instant Messaging Server). New features and enhancements, installation notes, known problems, and other late-breaking issues are addressed here. Read this document before you begin using iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack.
These release notes contain the following sections:
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 includes the following features:
Before installing iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack, make sure you have met the minimum hardware and operating system requirements.
This release of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack supports the following platforms as servers:
A list of recommended patches for Solaris 2.6 and Solaris 8 can be found at http://access1.sun.com/patch.public/.
This release of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack supports the following client platforms:
This release of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack supports the following browsers for accessing the iPlanet Instant Messenger web client:
The basic minimum hardware requirements for installing iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 are:
The basic minimum hardware requirements for the client are:
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 has the following software requirements:
Subscriber provisioning can be accomplished with LDAP command-line tools. All iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack preferences are accessible with the iPlanet Instant Messenger. As such the use and deployment of iDA is optional, and is currently only recommended for sites that are using iDA along with iPlanet Messaging Server.
Solaris clients must use Java Web Start. Windows client can use either Java Web Start or the Java Plug-in.
For Solaris client platforms, you need to download both the JRE for Solaris and Java Web Start.
This section contains important information you should know before installing or upgrading the product. For complete installation-related information and instructions, see the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Installation Guide.
You can install and configure iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack in one of two ways:
Whether you install iIM Server in the iPlanet Portal Server environment or as a stand-alone server, you can use a variety of configurations to fit your site needs. See the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Administrator's Guide for more information on these configurations.
Currently, you must use the Solaris platform to install a portal deployment of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack.
Note
Most likely, you will install iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack and iPlanet Portal Server components on the same host. However, this is not a requirement. You might have installed iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack as a stand-alone server, and now you want to have it function within a portal framework, which you install on a second server. Or, you might want to separate the two servers for other reasons, such as load balancing.
In this type of configuration, you install iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack and a "disabled" (not running) iPlanet Portal Server on one host, and the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack client component and an "enabled," or running version of iPlanet Portal Server on the other host. This is necessary because iIM server authenticates the user's portal session using the iPlanet Portal Server session APIs.
To use this type of configuration, see the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Installation Guide for more information.
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 supports only flat namespace DIT (Directory Information Tree) layouts, not hosted domain namespaces. See the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Deployment Guide for more information.
The installer and documentation recommend installing iPlanet Delegate Administrator (iDA) for user provisioning, however, it is not recommended unless you are already using it in conjunction with iPlanet Messaging Server. Additionally, iDA is not included on the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack distribution CD.
For portal deployments, iPlanet Portal Server problem 4487666 prevents External Ldap attributes mapping added using ipsadmin from working. (This problem is recorded as 559333 for iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack.)
As a result, after completing the installation, you must fix the LDAP mappings created by the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack installer. For iPlanet Portal Server 3.0 SP3, you must remove and add the mapping from the Administration Console. For iPlanet Portal Server 3.0 SP3 with HP3 (and later), and when running multiple domains, you must manually add the attribute mapping. For iPlanet Portal Server 3.0 SP3 with HP3 (and later), with only one domain, the attribute mapping is added correctly, so you do not need to do anything further.
The mapping created by iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack is iwtUser-iIMUserId=uid. To convert this mapping from inherited to customized, or to manually add the mapping, select the appropriate procedure below.
For portal deployments running HP 3, during installation of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack, the entry for attribsMap is added to the default domain if it is not already present. If the ExtLdap server name is not entered in the iPlanet Portal Server's external LDAP configuration, users will not be able to log on to the iPlanet Portal Server Desktop. Instead, they will receive the error message, "Error due to misconfiguration on the server." Either both the ExtLdap server name and attribsMap entry should be entered, or neither should be present. Deployments using the internal LDAP configuration need to remove the attribsMap entry after the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack installation has completed.
During the installation, the installer prompts you to choose to start iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack at boot. If you do not select to start at boot, but would like to after completing the installation, you do not need to rerun the installer.
On Solaris, you can create the following soft links to accomplish this:
ln -s /etc/init.d/sunwiim /etc/rc3.d/S94sunwiim
ln -s /etc/init.d/sunwiim /etc/rc2.d/K94sunwiim
On Windows platforms, use the Services Panel to change the startup settings for the server and multiplexor to automatic.
When installing iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack on Windows platforms, users are not able to view the online help for iPlanet Instant Messenger (Problem 4554976). This happens because the installer puts the online help files into the client_files_install_dir/help directory instead of the client_files_install_dir/iimhelp directory.
The workaround is to rename the client_files_install_dir/help directory to client_files_install_dir/iimhelp.
After completing a fresh installation of iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack in stand-alone mode, you need to edit the index.html, iim.html, iim.jnlp, and iimres.jnlp files to meet your site's needs. You should edit these files to customize the text and title, and perhaps change the background. The index.html file provides the starting point for users of both the Java Plug-in and Java Web Start versions of iPlanet Instant Messenger. The iim.html file is called to download the applet. Generated during installation, iim.html has an applet argument that points to the multiplexor.
In the iim.html file, "<PARAM NAME="-server" VALUE="servername">" represents the iPlanet Instant Messaging multiplexor and port.
Note
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack ships with instructions for configuring and launching the iPlanet Instant Messenger client. Instructions are found in the installation guide and in the solaris.htm and windows.htm files, which get installed as part of the client component in the html directory. You should customize these setup instructions to meet your site's specific needs. For example, if you only want your clients to run the Java Web Start version of iPlanet Instant Messenger, or if you only have Solaris clients, you can remove the parts of these instructions that do not apply to your site. You can also fill in your exact web server URL for your clients. For example, the instructions currently show a URL to launch iPlanet Instant Messenger as:
http://webserver:webserverport/subdirectory
You would fill in the specific information for your site, for example:
For more information on customizing your iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack installation, see the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Administrator's Guide.
By default, iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack expects to find the iPlanet Instant Messenger software (client files) installed in the Web Server Document Root. However, you might choose to install the iPlanet Instant Messenger software files in a directory other than the Web Server Document Root. If you do not install the client files in the Web Server Document Root, you need to take additional steps so that web server can "serve" the files to the iPlanet Instant Messenger clients. This applies only to stand-alone deployments, not portal deployments.
If you install the client files in the Web Server Document Root, you do not need to do anything else.
Note
You either have to configure the web server to enable access to the directory where you installed the iPlanet Instant Messenger files, or create a symbolic link in the Web Server Document Root. Use one of the following procedures.
You also need to change the codebase parameter in the iim.jnlp and iimres.jnlp files, if you plan on using Java Web Start to launch iPlanet Instant Messenger.
Use your web server's administration interface to enable access to the directory where you installed the client files. For example, on iPlanet Web Server:
Use the ln command to create a symbolic link in the web server document root that points to the directory where the client files are located.
By using a symbolic link, you do not need to change the web server's configuration.
Note
For example, on iIM Server host iim.i-zed, if the iPlanet Instant Messenger software is installed in the /opt/SUNWiim/html directory, you could create a symbolic link iim, which points to /opt/SUNWiim/html, in the Web Server Document Root.
Users would then type the following URL to access the iPlanet Instant Messenger main page (index.html):
The iim.jnlp and iimres.jnlp files have a codebase parameter that needs to be changed to reference the web server and create a path to the iPlanet Instant Messenger software. The line to change is:
codebase="http://servername:port/path/"
You only need to include the port number of the web server if it is not using the default (80).
For example, on iIM server host iim.i-zed, if the iPlanet Instant Messenger software is installed in the /opt/SUNWiim/html directory, you could create a symbolic link iim, which points to /opt/SUNWiim/html, in the Web Server Document Root.
Then you would change the codebase parameters in the iim.jnlp and iimres.jnlp files:
codebase="http://iim.i-zed.com/iim/"
The iim.jnlp and iimres.jnlp files are used for Java Web Start configurations. If you are only using Java Plug-in, you do not need to edit these files as they will not be used.
Note
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack does not provide user administration tools.
There are no iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack specific commands to add, modify, or delete an iPlanet Instant Messenger user. Because users exist in the directory, use your site provisioning tools to perform these operations.
Likewise, you cannot disable an iPlanet Instant Messenger user. The only way to prevent users from using iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack is to delete them from the directory.
Before installing iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack on the Solaris 2.6 platform, you need to install the recommended patches and Java patches. Without these patches, the iIM Server graphical installation program fails with a message similar to the following:
/bin/java/jre/bin/../bin/sparc/native_threads/java: fatal: libCrun.so.1: open
failed: No such file or directory setup: The installation failed with errors.
This section contains information specific to upgrading from a beta version of iIM Server to Release 3.0.
The iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 installer includes an upgrade option to upgrade from beta versions. To preserve your beta installation, you must use the upgrade option.
As part of upgrading your iIM Server installation, the installer creates .new files in your config and html directories. These files contain all the changes made to their various corresponding files for this new version. For example, if you found an iim.conf.new file, it would contain all the changes for the iim.conf file for the new version. It will be necessary for you to merge these files into the corresponding old files. This was done to prevent the installation from overwriting your customizations to these files.
After upgrading, find the .new files, and merge the changes into your existing corresponding files, taking care to preserve your customizations. This step is necessary for the new version features to take effect.
When merging the changes, compare the old files with the .new files, line by line, and edit your existing files to incorporate these changes.
See the upgrade instructions in Appendix B of the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Installation Guide.
After upgrading, remove the iim30_install_dir/SUNWiim/java directory. It is no longer needed. This applies to Solaris installations only.
Note
If you upgrade from a beta version to Release 3.0, the iim_server.db_path parameter no longer exists in the iim.conf file; this situation is listed as Problem (4533831). Currently, instead of iim_server.db_path, the server uses the iim_server.instancevardir parameter to set the directory to contain runtime files, including the user profile database, logs, and other files created by the server and multiplexor at runtime.
This new parameter will be present in the iim.conf.new file. You need to merge the iim_server.instancevardir parameter (and potentially other new parameters) into your existing iim.conf file. See "Upgrading from a Beta Version to Release 3.0" for more information on upgrading your system.
The install/upgrade creates the following .new files in the html directory. If you have modified the corresponding original files, you need to look at these .new files and merge the changes into the original files. The files are:
For all files except iimres.jar.new, the merged changes are text-only changes.
The install/upgrade does not create a new iimres.jar file in the html directory, but instead creates an iimres.jar.new file.
If you have customized the beta iimres.jar file, you need to first merge those changes into the iimres.jar.new file, then copy iimres.jar.new over the existing iimres.jar file. If you have not customized the beta iimres.jar file, simply copy iimres.jar.new over the existing iimres.jar file.
This section contains troubleshooting information.
If iPlanet Instant Messenger users have problems connecting to the iPlanet Instant Messaging server, check the mux.log file for host name lookup failures. You need to set up DNS correctly if there are host name lookup failures.
If you install the client HTML files in a directory other than the web server document root, you can create a soft link under the web server doc directory pointing to the html directory. When you do so, you need to also change the iim.jnlp and iimres.jnlp files to include the directory name in the codebase line.
If you do not do this, and you then launch iPlanet Instant Messenger by using Java Web Start, you will receive an error that the iimres.jnlp cannot be downloaded. If, at this point, you change the codebase of all the relevant files and you still cannot launch the Java Web Start version, this is because it still uses the cached iim.jnlp file and not the new one. Users need to then remove the Java Web Start cache from their machines for this to work.
If your directory does not permit anonymous user search, you will see an error similar to the following:
DEBUG: Searching for user by uid:
filter=(&(|ojbectclass=inetorgperson)(objectlass=webtopuser))(uid=unknown))
base=o=i-zed.com,o=i-zed
You need to configure a specific user to be able to search your directory. See Chapter 2 of the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Administrator's Guide for steps to do this.
If the credentials you configured for the specific user to search the directory are invalid, you will see errors similar to the following:
If this happens, correct the credentials you supplied for the iim_ldap.usergroupbinddn and/or iim_ldap.usergroupbindcred parameters in the iim.conf file.
When you see an error similar to the following, this means that for the given uid, the LDAP directory is not using the mail attribute. iPlanet Instant Messenger uses this attribute to forward alerts to users who are offline:
ERROR: Cannot find MAIL address for user msg-admin-1
By default, the iim_ldap.user.mailattr contains the value mail. Change this value to your site's value.
This section describes any errors or changes to the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 documentation set.
The section titled "Viewing Online Help," which occurs in both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Installation Guide, no longer applies. You do not need to perform any additional steps to cause the iPlanet Instant Messenger help to be displayed.
The iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Administrator's Guide states that the iPlanet Instant Messenger online help files are installed in the html directory. This is incorrect. The online help files are installed in the iimhelp directory (relative to the directory where you install the iPlanet Instant Messenger client files).
The section titled "Using External LDAP with iPlanet Portal Server" in Chapter 2 of the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Installation Guide is superseded by "Ensuring That LDAP Attribute Mappings Work (Portal Deployment Only)" of these Release Notes.
iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 includes the following known limitations and considerations:
Creating a conference room sometimes sets the wrong default access. For example, you might create a conference room with default access allowing everyone to join yet users cannot see the conference room. The Room Administration window then shows the default access as None.
The workaround is to change the default access from the Room Administration window to Join or Manage, depending on the level of access you want the room to have.
Currently, configuring multiple iIM servers to communicate with one another might produce inconsistencies; for example, users might not be able to see all the participants in a chat room, or they might not be able to see all the messages in a news channel. This appears to happen only when users on one server attempt to communicate with another server.
When installing iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack on Windows platforms, users are not able to view the online help for iPlanet Instant Messenger. This happens because the installer puts the online help files into the client_files_install_dir/help directory instead of the client_files_install_dir/iimhelp directory.
The workaround is to rename the client_files_install_dir/help directory to client_files_install_dir/iimhelp.
When using the poll option, it is important that you do not forget to enter a subject in the subject line. If you do forget, the following message will appear: "There are no users in the recipient list!" At that point you can click OK or you can close the window. However, in both cases the window will close and you will lose the poll.
When a user's status is set to Away, if the iIM server is restarted the user's status is automatically changed from Away to Online when the client reconnects.
On Windows 98, when Internet Explorer 5.0 is the browser, the User Search window might not display the full list of groups. The list entitled "add users to contact group" could consist of items that are not visible to the user.
On Solaris only, when you receive an attached file sent through Chat, you cannot use Launch to open the file as you can on Windows. The workaround is to click Save in order to save the file to disk and then to open it with the appropriate application.
In a News Channel tab, when you right click the mouse and change any of the settings that involve tabs and tools, such as showing and hiding them, the effects will be temporary, lasting only as long as the News Channel tab is open. Therefore, any changes you make will not be saved. The workaround is to use the News tab in the User Settings window to make permanent changes to your News Channel setup.
When you shut down then restart the iIM server, existing iPlanet Instant Messenger chat sessions or chat room sessions do not reestablish their connection to the server. Thus, users who were chatting when the server was stopped then restarted are not able to chat. The workaround is to have users exit existing chat sessions before shutting down the iIM server. After the iIM server is restarted, users can start chat sessions.
The News Channels, Chat, and User Settings windows are not always quickly accessible. When any of these windows are on your computer desktop, but in the background, clicking the respective button on the iPlanet Instant Messenger window might not bring them to the foreground. The workaround is to either move other windows out of the way and click the window you want or to click the window's icon from the task bar (Windows platforms only).
News channel messages are not marked as read from one iPlanet Instant Messenger session to the next. Thus, news channel messages that users have read during one session appear as new messages at the next session (log on).
iPlanet Instant Messenger does remember during a session which news channel messages have been read.
When using Java Web Start on Solaris to launch iPlanet Instant Messenger in secure mode in the iPlanet Portal Server environment, clicking the Help button after accessing the Netlet window stops the Netlet from working. When this happens, iPlanet Instant Messenger disconnects.
The work around is to restart the Netlet applet by clicking another link on the Portal Desktop page then clicking the link for iPlanet Instant Messenger.
In a stand-alone deployment, if you do not install the iIM client files in the web server's document root, the installed jnlp files do not work; the codebase lines are not automatically set to your site's web server. The workaround is to manually change the codebase line for the iim.jnlp file and the iimres.jnlp files. See Chapter 3 in the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack Release 3.0 Administrator's Guide for a more detailed explanation of the workaround. (This is not a problem for portal deployments).
On Solaris only, an upgrade from a beta deployment that was installed or last upgraded before 09/26/01 fails unless a parameter is added to the iim.conf file. Add the iim.instancevardir parameter, for example on Solaris:
iim.instancevardir = /var/opt/SUNWiim
Then, restart the iIM server. More information on this problem is provided in the section "Old Parameter in iim.conf File."
The value for this parameter is the directory where you chose to install the runtime files directory.
Note
If you choose to install only the iIM multiplexor (that is, you want this host to provide only the multiplexor process and not the server), after installation, both the iIM multiplexor and server are started. This consumes unnecessary resources.
Depending on your situation, use one of the following workarounds to prevent the server process from starting:
From the installer, when the Help window and HTML panel for the database location initially appear, they are not large enough to display all of their contents. The workaround is to increase the window size.
If you install the iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack server and client components at different times, and then later you uninstall the components, select "Partial" from the Uninstall panel then select the components you want to remove. Note, in this situation, if you select "Full" from the Uninstall panel, it does not remove all the components, but only the most recently added component.
On Windows NT only, running the uninstall utility does not remove java/jre, License.txt, or readme.txt files and directories. The workaround is to remove these directories manually.
On Solaris only, if you remove and reinstall iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack, do not enter a different user identification or a different user group than you entered in the previous installation. iIM server uses the user and group values to set the ownership of all the installed files. If you enter a different user or group, the installer does not update the owner and group settings for the existing server.log and mux.log files. As a result, iIM server cannot access these log files. When you restart iIM server, log messages are rerouted to standard output instead of to the log files. To work around this problem, when the installer prompts you for the owners of the installed files, enter the same user identification and user group from the previous installation. Alternately, if you do change this information, you must manually update the ownership of the server.log and mux.log files.
On Solaris only, when you uninstall iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack, it does not stop the currently running multiplexor; it only stops iIM server. The workaround is to stop the multiplexor manually.
On Windows 2000 only, when you click the Help button in the installer, the installer might display Help screens that are improperly sized. The workaround is to click Dismiss and then click Help.
On Windows NT only, during an installation, do not increase the size of the install panel. Doing so can distort the text.
If you have problems with iPlanet Portal Server: Instant Collaboration Pack, contact iPlanet customer support using one of the following mechanisms:
iPlanet online support web site at http://www.iplanet.com/support/online/.
From this location, the CaseTracker and CaseView tools are available for logging problems.
The telephone dispatch number associated with your maintenance contract.
So that we can best assist you in resolving problems, please have the following information available when you contact support:
Useful iPlanet information can be found at the following Internet locations:
Copyright © 2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, iPlanet, and all Sun, Java, and iPlanet based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Last Updated December 21, 2001