You probably will need to upgrade your hardware and software before installing Notes in your organization. Determining your hardware and software needs can be a simple process. You need to assess your installed base, determine your requirements, and
compute the difference. From there, you need to test your hardware/software choices (including the operating system and network software) and schedule the installation. This chapter helps you through this process by recommending minimum configurations for
your desktop clients and servers and providing you with some rough formulas for determining the needs of your organization. In putting together your hardware and software configurations, keep in mind the following key ideas:
Hardware and software costs can be daunting. They are easier to identify than the administrative and support costs associated with underpowered systems. You should follow the guidelines outlined here when developing your cost estimates and avoid trying
to cut corners.
Before you can put together a list of hardware upgrade requirements, you need to know what has already been installed. The upgrade list is the difference between what you have and what you need. If you are in the enviable position of already knowing
your current installation's hardware and software, congratulations! You are the exception rather than the rule. If you don't, you aren't alone. You need to develop a detailed list of all of your current hardware. That includes desktop machines, server
machines, and network hardware.
For each desktop machine, you need to determine the
One easy way to collect this information is to develop a checklist that you can fill out for each desktop machine. See Figure 7.1 for a simple information sheet. This information sheet is available on
the CD-ROM in the back of this book as SITEPREP.DOC (Word for Windows 6.0 format). I have found that it is relatively easy to train a temporary worker to go around to the machines and fill out the information sheets. This is a low-cost way of getting the
most accurate data on your current installation.
Figure 7.1.
Fill in an information sheet for each workstation that will get Notes.
You also should fill out an information sheet for each file and print server. You'll need to have your administrators determine the software and hardware configuration of any routers and hubs on your
network. You also should make sure that you have an up-to-date diagram of your network, including all LANS, bridges between these LANS, remote offices, and any leased lines or dial-in servers. For each workgroup to receive Notes, fill out a network
information sheet. An example network information worksheet is available in ADMFORMS.NSF, which is on the CD-ROM included with this book.
Before you can determine the upgrade requirements for your organization, you need to determine the recommended configuration for Notes clients, Notes servers, and the network.
Your server configurations largely determine the stability of your Notes network. Notes servers that are underpowered also seem to be plagued with strange errors. Because Notes networks have the potential to grow quickly, I recommend buying quality
hardware for servers. You won't be wasting money; you're making an investment.
For companies that want the cheapest first step down the Notes path, I recommend the following minimum configuration for a Notes server. Normally, I recommend choosing an operating system and network protocol before sizing the hardware. For those on a
severely limited budget, nothing beats a single OS/2 server. You retain maximum flexibility of third-party products and benefit from the competitive pricing of Intel-based hardware, while retaining an easy growth path for future expansion. If you are only
going to install a single server, don't install anything less than this configuration.
An additional consideration is based on whether you need to support mobile users or remote offices. If so, you should definitely budget at least four 28.8 modems and get the SIO COM port drivers for OS/2. SIO replaces OS/2's standard COM port drivers,
which do not support high speed modems. SIO is a set of specialized OS/2 asynchronous drivers available on CompuServe and the OS/2 support forum. If more than a dozen remote users will be dialing in, get a multi-port modem. For large quantities of dial-in
users, consider installing large multi-port async boards. The multi-port modem most commonly used in an OS/2 environment at this time is the Digiboard 16-port board. For more detail on configuring a dial-up server see Chapter 19, "Supporting Dial-Up
Users."
If you're using OS/2, get Ray Gwinn's SIO COM port drivers. They are available from CompuServe in the OS/2 support forum.
Before determining the hardware and software requirements for your servers, you need to first determine what operating system you will use for your servers. I recommend standardizing on a single Notes server platform for production databases. Use
alternate OS platforms only for special purpose servers. It is perfectly reasonable to set up your production database servers as one operating system, and a gateway server under a different operating system. Large organizations should strive to support
only two Notes server platforms. Support costs escalate as the number of server operating systems increases. The server OS decision is influenced by the following considerations (in order of importance):
Note what is missing from this list: hardware and software costs. The cost of the hardware and software is a very small part of the overall budget. If you are considering the cost of the hardware and software when choosing an OS, you probably haven't
thought enough about the important issues.
The primary consideration when choosing an OS is the availability of administrators, application developers, and support personnel within your organization. The reliability of your Notes network is largely determined by the skill of the people who plan
and design it. For most organizations, this should be the first and last consideration. The benefits of staying with a standard operating system include reduced support costs, reduced training costs, less investment in new software, and easier planning and
installation. If your organization supports every OS ever invented, consider the availability (and cost) of outside help.
OS/2 has been the server of choice for Notes over the last few years. Even if organizations did not have any other OS/2 server, OS/2 was used for Notes. Most consultants in the Notes arena are skilled in OS/2. NT is gaining in popularity as a Notes
server because of the ability to run big Notes servers on DEC Alpha machines.
Sometimes you just have no choice. A software add-on package you want to run comes only in OS/2. This situation is the cause for most multiple-platform Notes server installations. The organization selects NT or UNIX and then installs a single OS/2 box
to run a particular software package. Most firms selling software for Notes release the OS/2 version first and then follow with NT and UNIX. This is the opposite of the normal relationship between Windows and OS/2.
As NT slowly gains in popularity, the NT software toolkit will become available, along with more NT-based third-party products. At that point, the number of Notes installations running on NT should increase as well.
For Notes 4.0, the situation is changing so that OS/2 and NT have virtually identical support, but you need to understand the gateways that you want as well as their capabilities for each of the platforms that you are considering. Historically, the need
to support and run gateways has caused many people to install a single OS/2 server as their gateway Notes server. The Internet gateway, gateways to other mail systems, and the gateway to other corporate information systems are prime culprits.
Now that IBM owns Lotus, the possibility exists that Notes upgrades will be released first on OS/2 and then on other platforms. I would discount stories to this effect. In the last few years, IBM products have been extremely standards-oriented. The
pressure within IBM to use and support products from other divisions is considerably less than a few years back.
If you absolutely must have very large, multiple-processor machines, you are virtually forced at this point in time into using Windows NT or the UNIX version of Notes. In this case, many organizations will end up with a single NT server being their
large production server for Notes.
You choice of server OS influences the network and clients you will support. I would discount any benchmarks between platforms run using Release 3 Notes software. The OS/2 Notes Release 3 server was an old 16-bit implementation. New benchmarks should be
available soon after the release of the production version of Notes 4.0.
There are minor differences between the operating systems. They differ in their capacity to be remotely managed, capability of participating in remote Notes management, networking software, and ease of installation. These considerations pale beside the
availability of trained consultants, the availability of trained support personnel, and the requirement to run certain add-on third-party applications.
Starting from a clean slate, I would recommend choosing OS/2 or Windows NT as your server platform (depending on whether your particular organization leans East or West). I would like to point out that any of the platforms Notes supportswith the
exception of Windowsmake a viable server platform. I have included special notes on OS/2 throughout this book because it is our expectation that many people will be installing OS/2 specifically for Notes, and that this will be a new experience for
them. It is not a default recommendation that everyone use OS/2 for their Notes server. There are organizations today successfully running Notes on NLM, OS/2, NT, and Solaris. Your choice of server platform is not irrevocable and will not doom your Notes
installation. One of the great features of Notes is its capacity to provide a consistent interface across so many platforms.
No one should even consider rolling out a Notes server on a box smaller than that described earlier, in the section "The Cheapest Notes Server." Configurations for other platforms (NLM, NT, UNIX) are even larger. Table 7.1 summarizes the
recommended hardware configurations for all server platforms. I don't list the Windows server because you shouldn't use the Windows server for production applications. Too many limitations are associated with the Windows server.
Table 7.1 Recommended Hardware Configurations by Platform.
OS/2 | Windows NT | UNIX | |
CPU | Pentium | Pentium | Platform-Dependent |
Memory (megabytes) | 32 | 48 | 48 |
Disk | 1GB | 1GB | 1 GB |
OS/2, Windows NT, and UNIX all are available in Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) versions. One of the major reasons for choosing the NT platform is the availability of a well designed SMP configuration that runs on Intel processors (Compaq builds a
popular one). The DEC Alpha is currently the SMP of choice for Windows NT. OS/2's SMP versions have been less than impressive. Some installations even experienced slower Notes performance with the multi-processor version of OS/2. If you want to minimize
the number of servers, the best choice today is Windows NT running on a DEC Alpha SMP machine. A new version of SMP OS/2 is due out in 1996, and this will certainly be cause for reconsidering this recommendation.
Break Notes servers out by the functions that they will perform. Reducing the number of separate tasks that a server must perform can increase performance. You should not run a Notes server on a file server. This can cause performance and security
problems.
Having specialized servers doesn't mean there is any difference in the hardware operating system used for the server, only that there is a difference between the type of functions for which the server is used. For example, a server could be set up as a
hub server, a mail server, a database server, a dial-up server, or a gateway server. Setting up servers dedicated to a particular function eases administration and can improve the overall performance of the Notes system. Mail servers, for example, store
all users' mailboxes, and all mail routed across the network goes through the mail server.
You definitely will want to set up a dedicated mail server when you need to reduce network traffic, as mail routed between users on a machine encourages no network traffic. Also, mail is one of the highest-priority applications in any organization. The
mail system is also used in Notes applications as an alert system. Therefore, you want to be able to reliably predict the performance that your Notes mail users are going to get, and the only way to do that is to dedicate a server to mail. Because mail
databases often contain particularly sensitive information, including personal information, security is also increased when you set up a dedicated mail server and keep access to that server to only those administrators who require access to that particular
server. When you set up a mail server, by default the other servers will be dedicated to non-mail applications. Non-mail Notes applications include discussion databases, workflow applications, documentation databases, and so on.
Under the category of database server, you also can subdivide server types by the amount of data that they need to replicate, the amount of security needed for the data on that server, and the usage patterns that that server will experience. You should
install more than one non-mail production database server only when you find that your users are not obtaining adequate performance on a single server.
Overall, in determining the server hardware requirements, bigger is better, everything matters, and memory is king.
Hub servers replicate all day. Hub servers must have enough disk space to hold all databases on all spoke servers, and so should have at least 9 gigabytes of hard drive. If you need less than that, you probably don't need a hub server.
Because users are not accessing the hub server directly, performance is less critical. Replication under Notes Release 4.0 uses fewer resources than under previous releases, so an old CPU hooked to a large disk drive is an ideal hub server.
Users access database servers directly. You need to evaluate the load that each server is likely to experience. Plan enough capacity to handle peak usage gracefully; when Notes servers exceed their capacity, performance can degrade quickly.
Use backup servers to avoid the need to shut down other servers. Backup servers have the same requirements as hub servers. In addition, backup servers need tape drives.
Dial-up servers need to have a copy of each database used by mobile users. Passthru servers avoid this problem by allowing users to connect directly to other servers. Connection speed is the most important aspect of a passthru server. It is unlikely
that the CPU will be heavily burdened or that disk space will be much of a concern.
Mail servers are the most important part of your Notes network. E-mail delivery is the foundation of communications within many organizations. Users count on reliable delivery of mail.
Mail servers are ideal candidates for mirrored disk drives. Mirrored drives make it unlikely that you will ever lose mail due to hardware failure. This is especially important for mail servers because the transient nature of mail makes it difficult to
backup mailboxes often enough to satisfy your users.
One thing that can cause more headaches than it is worth is running out of disk space on a mail server. Make sure that you have enough disk space to hold each user's personal mailbox. (Enforce limits on mailbox sizes to further guarantee that you will
not run out of disk space.)
The mail server generally will have the highest number of simultaneous users. Each user requires some system memory. Configure your mail servers to accept a high number of connections and install extra memory.
See Chapter 16, "Administering Notes Servers," for details on configuring a server.
In addition to the various components that should be included, I also recommend that your servers be one of the name brands such as IBM, Compaq, or DELL (or a DEC Alpha if you're going to run NT). This may be difficult in some companies that have
already standardized on another hardware server platform. I expect that most people in this situation will choose to roll out Notes on their standard hardware platforms. However, don't call me when you get unusual errors in the middle of the night.
A harder number to estimate is the number of servers needed. Strive to minimize the number of servers and the number of geographic locations that have servers. This strategy will lower your support costs and keep your administrators much happier.
Therefore they'll likely stay longer.
Everyone wants a rough guess, some guidelines to follow, but experience at your site is the only true indicator. Use the pilot installation to measure performance, and revise your estimate on the number of servers needed (just one more reason your pilot
application needs to be a serious application, not just a discussion database). There are simply too many variables to arrive at a completely accurate estimate before you have started to roll out applications. For example, if you are going to have a mail
server, which I definitely recommend, how many users can use that mail server? It will vary dramatically between companies and even within business units. Think about a group of application developers who are exchanging mostly textual e-mail. Compare that
with publishers who may be mailing around whole chapters with graphics. Of course, the number of users that a mail server can support will differ dramatically in these two cases.
The ideal Notes domain is a one-server domain that handles all the users in that domain. A single-server domain is not a realistic alternative at this time for all but the smallest installations. Depending on your usage patterns, a single server will
suffice for 50 users. If your eventual installation is more than 50 users, plan from the start to have at least a mail server and a database server. For database servers, typical capacity ranges from 50 to 500 users per server. The lower part of this range
is for complex applications that have lookups into other databases, that process large numbers of documents in a day (more than 1,000), or that contain large numbers of documents (more than 30,000). You can expect to get upwards of 500 users or more on
mail servers.
Plan for peak usage when determining the capacity of your servers. Notes server performance falls quickly when the number of concurrent users exceeds server capacity. The Notes server begins to thrash, constantly forcing users off the system to make way
for new users (who were just forced off the system themselves). Notes forces inactive users off the server when the number of concurrent users reaches a threshold. For example, if the maximum number of concurrent sessions for a server is 70, when the 71st
user attempts to access the server the least active person is forced off the system. Notes users are unaware of the fact that they have been forced off the system. The only indication is that, when they next access the server, the client and server
re-authenticate each other and the user's access rights are checked again. In effect, the user is being re-logged onto the Notes server. Attaching to a Notes server is a CPU-intensive operation, an activity to be avoided as much as possible. When there are
90 people trying to access a server with a threshold of 70, very little productive work gets done before a user is forced off the system. More time is spent reattaching users than fulfilling user requests. Although Notes gives the impression that it is
serving 90 people simultaneously, the amount of actual work being accomplished falls. To avoid thrashing, monitor the peak number of users and plan to add servers when the peak usage exceeds the configured threshold on a regular basis. Please keep in mind
that these numbers are based on experience with Notes 3.x and that experience with Notes 4.x may change these numbers.
When determining the number of servers needed, don't forget to count specialized servers (mail servers, backup servers, and hub servers). I always recommend separating mailboxes onto their own server and dedicating one server as the mail server for any
installation over 50 users.
If you are going to have applications that exist on more than one server, you'll have to set up replication between the multiple servers. If you have more than three production database servers, I recommend moving to a hub-and-spoke arrangement for
replication, with one server dedicated to replicating data among the other servers. Many organizations claim high availability is an absolutely critical factor; however, high availability with Notes means that you have to find some tricky way to back up
the server. Installing a separate server that replicates all databases is one method of keeping your other production servers up 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
Once you've determined the number of servers that you will need for the first year, you are ready to lay actual configurations for each of these servers. To estimate the number of servers, first calculate the number of production database servers, mail
servers, hub servers, backup servers, dial-up servers, and external servers for each site to receive a server. If there are less than 50 users at a site, a single server suffices. The number of production databases at a site is the total number of users to
receive Notes divided by the number of users per server. The total number of mail servers is the number of users divided by the number of mail users per server (estimate 250). If there are more than four production and mail servers, add a hub server and a
backup server. If this site will connect to the Internet or other companies, add an external server. If more than a dozen mobile or remote users will be dialing in, add a dial-up server. The dial-up server isn't needed strictly on performance/capacity
grounds. I recommend a dial-up server to help isolate problems.
Pay particular attention to your disk drives in setting up a Notes server. You will definitely (okay, almost definitely) see a performance improvement if you buy faster hard drives. I recommend buying SCSI-2 disks. Installations concerned with providing
maximum reliability should buy a RAID disk array or a mirrored disk array. Having a faster hard drive is lower priority than having sufficient memory, but given that you've already installed sufficient memory for the platform that you're installing,
consider installing SCSI-2 disks.
Another common disk system consideration is whether to install arrayed disks or mirroring disks. Arrayed disks are a way of maintaining the operation of the server even in the face of a hard disk errorthe setup duplicates data across
multiple disks. Figure 7.2 illustrates the arrayed disk concept.
Figure 7.2.
A disk array writes data to multiple disks simultaneously. If one disk is lost, its contents can be reconstructed from the contents of the other disks.
For example, if you have a disk array with three disks, and a disk is destroyed or goes bad, it can be recreated from data stored on the other two disks. In the process, though, arrayed disks cause you to lose some disk space because part of each disk
is used to hold information needed to reconstruct data on other disk drives. There are many kinds of arrayed disks, with each type specified as a level. Here I have discussed array level 5 or arrayed level 5+, the only type of disk arrays that you should
consider for Notes servers.
Mirroring is duplicating your entire disk setup so that you have two identical disks or disk arrays set up. With mirroring, you can have complete duplication of your disk subsystemincluding the disk controller and the disk. If a disk should
go bad, it can be reconstructed from its partner disk. The advantage of mirroring is that reads can be extremely fast, because you can read the data from either one of the mirrored disks. Writes, while being slower than a write to a single disk, are not as
bad as writing to an arrayed array. Mirroring is the most expensive disk system because you end up buying duplicate hardware. Most mirroring and arrayed products allow hot swapping of disks so that you can remove and install hard disks without turning off
the machine.
You should also consider bus mastering your network cards and disks. Bus mastering is a technology that allows data to be transferred from a network card or your network to the disk system (or vice versa) or into the system memory, without
requiring the intervention of the CPU. This leaves the CPU free to continue doing other chores. Bus mastering is available on EISA systems and Microchannel systems.
Most organizations are very interested in being able to calculate the disk and memory requirement beforehand. But there really is no way to calculate the disk requirements for Notes databases ahead of time. You would need an accurate estimate of the
amount of information to be automated, the type of information, and the application designs you will use. A minimum configuration is 1 gigabyte, but most people should consider starting with a 2 gigabyte drive for a small server. I recommend considering a
9 gigabyte drive if the money permits.
When you are determining your memory requirements for OS/2, you should start with a minimum of 32M. See Table 7.1, earlier in this chapter, for the minimum recommended amount of memory per platform. These standards apply to both mail servers and
production servers. One way to determine whether you have enough memory is to see whether the swap file is larger than its default size. If the swap file is larger than 2M (the default size), your server is swapping. To check the swap file size under OS/2,
go to the partition where your operating system is installed. Check in \os2\system for the swapper.dat file. The size of that file, if you haven't changed the default setting, should be 2M. If your
swapper.dat has increased in size from its default, you need to install more memory. This is counter to the recommendation that you'll find in most OS/2 books, which point out that it's generally okay to have some swapping
going on during the initial startup of your OS/2 machine. However, I'm talking about using OS/2 as an application server, not as a desktop workstation. There is a difference. While a user may not notice some minor swapping, an application server that is
swapping is overloaded.
You definitely need to have adequate memory in all of your servers, and not just for performance. This is a key point. Having adequate memory seems to be extremely important in having stable servers. If you cut back on money for memory, you'll end up
spending that money on support costs. You might as well spend money up front on memory and save yourself the support headaches, and get the performance benefits of having adequate memory.
The choice of client platform should be guided by your current installation and the direction your organization has chosen. If you have an installed base, your client hardware platform is chosen. Don't change your client platform just for Notes. If you
already have another reason to change your client platform, the Notes deployment is a good time to perform the change.
I recommend the use of Windows 3.1 or Windows 95 for most users. This platform offers the tightest integration with other applications and the easiest availability of support tools and personnel. If DOS is installed on your client machines, either OS/2
or Windows is suitable, depending on other goals your organization may have.
The following sections detail the recommended minimal configurations for the Windows, OS/2, and Mac clients. The Windows client runs fine under OS/2, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, or NT.
Although Notes will run on a smaller platform than the one recommended here, your users will not enjoy the experience:
The minimum OS/2 client configuration is as follows:
The minimum Mac client configuration is described in the following list:
These are the minimum configurations. If your users run multiple applications in addition to Notes, add 4M to 8M of RAM to each recommendation.
To determine the number of new client machines to buy, you need to know the number of people getting Notes. Any person getting Notes should have at least a 486DX2 machine (or equivalent Mac or UNIX workstation). I recommend one desktop machine per user.
It is possible to share a Notes desktop between users, but this is an atypical installation.
The server and client must share a common network protocol in order to communicate. The most common protocols used with Notes are TCP/IP and Novell NetWare SPX. Your choice of protocol should be guided by the availability of skill within your
organization. Most Notes problems are really network problems in disguise. Having a trained support staff for the protocol you choose is vital.
The following network operating systems are compatible with Notes:
Protocols are not all alike. Ease of management, speed, ease of use, and reliability differ between protocols. Considerations when selecting protocol for a Notes network include the following issues:
You can use different protocols for different situations. For example, you may use NetBIOS for your LAN, NetWare SPX for inter-LAN replication and mail routing, and TCP/IP for Internet access.
Use NetWare SPX if your organization already has installed a Novell network. For anyone with a choice, I recommend TCP/IP for use with Notes.
Tables 7.2 and 7.3 show which networks you can use with each platform.
Notes Server Operating System | LAN Protocols Supported |
OS/2 Release 3.0 and 2.11 | AppleTalk Banyan VINES NetBIOS, NetBEUI Novell NetWare SPX TCP/IP |
Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 | NetBIOS, NetBEUI TCP/IP Novell NetWare SPX Banyan VINES |
Windows NT v3.5 and higher | AppleTalk Banyan VINES NetBIOS, NetBEUI Novell NetWare and Microsoft SPX Microsoft SPX II TCP/IP |
UNIX Solaris 2.X | SPX TCP/IP |
UNIX HP-UX | SPX TCP/IP |
Table 7.3 Network Protocols Supported by the Client Operating System.
Notes Workstation Operating System | LAN Protocols Supported |
OS/2 Release 3.0 and 2.11 | Banyan VINES NetBIOS, NetBEUI Novell NetWare SPX TCP/IP Lotus Notes Connect for SNA v3.0a |
Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 | Banyan VINES NetBIOS, NetBEUI Novell NetWare SPX TCP/IP |
Windows 95, Windows NT | AppleTalk Banyan Vines NetBIOS, NetBEUI Novell NetWare SPX Microsoft SPX Microsoft SPX II TCP/IP |
AppleTalk TCP/IP (MacTCP) | |
UNIX HP-UX | SPX TCP/IP |
UNIX Solaris 2.X | SPX TCP/IP |
You can configure your Notes servers and workstations to use more than one network protocol. Installing an additional protocol can involve installing additional software, editing system files, and possibly adding NICs to your Notes server.
Using multiple network protocols increases the complexity of your network. This causes your administrative costs to increase. Multiple protocols also hurt the performance of your network. Each protocol puts an additional overhead load in the network,
hurting overall performance. Installing multiple protocols on a single server or workstation is the largest hurdle to using multiple network protocols. Each combination of protocols has its own unique set of problems (which change with each revision
level). Installing a single network protocol is difficult the first time you try it. Installing two network protocols is always difficult, with the exception of highly common combinations such as Netware SPX and TCP/IP. Installing three of more
network protocols on a single server (you wouldn't do this to a workstation, would you?) is a jungle adventure. You're on your own. The exact sequence of steps during machine startup can be critical. Timing problems can cause connections to drop. I would
avoid environments with more than two network protocols.
I hope it comes as no surprise that network protocols have their own set of standards. NDIS (network driver interface specification) and ODI (open data link interface ) enable network drivers to communicate with NICs. Notes supports both NDIS and ODI.
You can use Notes with any Ethernet and token ring NIC that uses network drivers compliant with NDIS. NDIS is designed to allow up to four NDIS-compliant network protocols on one NIC. Figure 7.3 shows the basic NDIS architecture.
Figure 7.3.
The NDIS Architecture.
The NDIS standard details three software layers. Each layer translates between the two adjoining layers. The goal is take requests from Notes and translate them into the language of the actual networking hardware. The protocol driver is shipped with
your networking software (SPX, TCP/IP, etc. ) and communicates directly with Notes. The protocol manager, also shipped with your networking software, enables the protocol driver and MAC (media access control) driver to communicate with each other. The MAC
driver directly controls the actual hardware NIC. MAC drivers are unique to each NIC and are shipped with the NIC.
ODI allows multiple ODI-compliant protocols to coexist simultaneously on a single card. Novell ships a set of drivers called ODI NDIS Support (ODINSUP) that enable multiple protocol drivers that comply with NDIS or ODI to share a single card. ODI saves
money by eliminating the need to install multiple NIC cards in multiple protocol environments. I recommend using ODI-compliant network software even if you are not planning a multi-protocol environment. Future expansion is not limited by your networking
software when you choose ODI-compliant protocols.
A Notes server or workstation can use only one NetBIOS-based protocol at a time. The only exception is networks based on Microsoft LAN Manager. LAN Manager is a NetBIOS-based network operating system that can run multiple NetBIOS protocols concurrently.
You can configure one Notes port for each LAN Manager protocol. For example, if you are running NetBIOS and NetBEUI concurrently on a LAN Manager network, you can configure two Notes portsone for NetBIOS and one for NetBEUI.
The following sections detail which protocol drivers are NetBIOS-based. All NetBIOS-based protocols have the word NetBIOS in parentheses. You must install one NIC card in each server or workstation for each NetBIOS-based protocol supported by that
server or workstation.
The following protocols comply with the NDIS protocol:
The following network protocols comply with the ODI standard:
You need a network interface card (NIC) to connect your Notes server or workstation to a LAN or WAN network. NICs, unlike modems, are installed inside the computer case. NICs usually support one of two basic data transfer schemes: Ethernet or token
ring. The NIC you buy determines whether your network will be Ethernet or token ring. Buy only one type of card for any single LAN. All servers and workstations on a LAN must agree on Ethernet or token ring. In a large organization, the choice of Ethernet
or token ring involves more variables than I can discuss here. For small or medium organizations, consider the following issues when choosing a NIC type:
SPX, TCP/IP, AppleTalk, NetBIOS and all the other protocols mentioned earlier in this chapter will work with either Ethernet or token ring.
The most popular network cards in use with Notes today are the 3Com 3C509 network card series. I recommend this card for client workstations. Stick with brand name network cards when configuring your Notes network. Notes can be finicky when it comes to
network cards.
Throughout this chapter, I have recommended fast disks and plenty of memory. You should use your actual experience with the pilot application to refine these recommendations. You should determine the subsystem (CPU, disk, network) causing performance
problems and upgrade that subsystem first. Here are some other tips that should help you increase performance.
For more information on performance tuning, see Chapter 16, "Administering Notes Servers."
I know that no one considering Notes would still be running any of these platforms (sarcasm), but forewarned is forearmed. The following operating systems are not supported by Notes.
In addition, Notes no longer supports EGA screens.
Pay attention to detail when designing the hardware and software configurations for your Notes network. Notes is particularly sensitive to revision levels. Don't assume that Notes has been tested with the latest revision of any particular piece of
software. Check your documentation or call Lotus for the revision levels of your OS and network that Notes supports. You should plan to keep your software updated. Many organizations let their software get years out of date before upgrading. This is not a
good strategy with Notes.
For offices requiring more than a single server, I recommend configuring specialized servers for backup, passthru, hub/spokes, and mail. If you are going to run exactly two servers, they should be a mail server and other.
Be sure to test each client and server configuration before installing them in a production environment. After installing, track problems by configuration. Testing and tracking are eased when you use a standard configuration for all servers.
The hardware to run a Notes network can be expensive. I encourage you to learn from others' misery. Don't skimp on memory. Notes caches a great deal of information in memory. Lack of memory can lead to some troubling problems. Try to think of your
hardware purchases as an investmentan investment in stability and sanity.