- 2009-11-29: mongodb_watchdog module created by dereine, ported to D7 by me in about half an hour, and migrated in a larger MongoDB project by damz before the hour ended. Wow...
- 2009-07-13: 100% unit test coverage on Taxonews for both D6 and D7 versions
- 2009-02-03: the new Drupal-based site for the golden jubilee of the french "Ministère de la Culture", which OSInet helped build, is now online
- 2009-01-22: new API site for CCK à la api.drupal.org
GroupWise blog
The University Hospital of Würzburg Simplifies Novell Identity Management with eControl's Centralised User Administration
Solution featured in this story: eControl from Omni
OverviewThe University Hospital of Würzburg consists of four integrated clinical institutes that comprise 19 hospitals with 87 units and 8 intensive care units. In addition, the University Hospital is affiliated with six vocational healthcare schools (nursing, pediatric nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, dieticians and massage). Each year, approximately 50,000 patients receive medical treatment in the facility and 180,000 receive out-patient care.
To deliver this level of healthcare, the University Hospital of Würzburg uses multiple IT applications across distributed Microsoft and Novell networks. The Hospital's Medical Informatics Service Centre includes 50 staff members who are resonsible for management and supervision, network equipment, systems, SAP administration processes, SAP clinical processes, and other service and support activities. All of these employees are part of the helpdesk team. Two employees take care of user administration for approximately 5,000 IT workplaces that are used by 6,000 staff.
The University Hospital of Würzburg implemented eControl from Omni to centrally manage a large number of user identities and accounts. eControl has replaced Microsoft Management Console, iManager and ConsoleOne for managing user accounts across mixed and multiple Microsoft and Novell networks from a single web-based interface, accessible from any browser. Account updates can be carried out quickly and easily by front-line staff who have very little technical knowledge of Microsoft or Novell systems. The network also includes managed systems such as Siemens DirX (telephony system) and several SAP systems (SAP-HR, SAP-KIS, SAP-BW).
The ChallengeUsing Microsoft Management Console, iManager and ConsoleOne to manage more than 6,000 user accounts across diverse systems and with a large number of possible attributes and properties was a time-consuming task. The University Hospital of Würzburg needed a unified interface that delivered centralised role-based administration across all systems.
"With eControl, we finally have a unified, cross-platform management tool that allows us to make individual or bulk changes in our systems without losing any of the functionality of the native administration applications," said Andreas Thiele, Assistant Director of Systems, Identity Management and Infrastructure at the University Hospital of Würzburg. "eControl provides role-based access to all our Microsoft and Novell accounts and attributes without having to give users any administrator rights or access to complex tools."
"Naturally, security plays an important role at any University Hospital. eControl satisfies all our security rules and requirements," continued Mr. Thiele. "eControl's Audit and Reporting, in fact, provides a full audit log of all changes made in our systems for administrator oversight."
The SolutionThe University Hospital of Würzburg uses the following eControl modules for centralised, role-based Identity Management for its Microsoft and Novell systems:
eControl Manage: eControl Manage simplifies and centralises administration of user accounts, security and distribution groups, and other directory-based objects without having to assign any administrator or special access rights. eControl's Web 2.0 interface is very intuitive and does not require any user training.
eControl Create: Non-IT employees from departments like HR or the front office can use eControl Create to create user accounts based on pre-configured profiles across Microsoft and Novell platforms – with no administrator rights or special permissions required.
eControl Self-Service: In short, eControl Self-Service allows end-users to reset their own password in Active Directory / Exchange and eDirectory / GroupWise and to carry out other routine self-service tasks.
The Results"After we began searching for a unified identity management solution, our IT partner, Maintainet AG, made us aware of eControl," said Mr. Thiele.
"We implemented eControl on our own without any problems," continued Mr. Thiele. "We leveraged existing hardware and no programming was required to complete the implementation. User adoption and satisfaction have been very good because minimal to no training is required for front-line staff. Although we have not directly measured the savings of eControl, it is evident that even after a short time, the time savings are significant through eControl's centralised identity management and its Web 2.0 interface and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) access.
"We are happy that we no longer need to switch back and forth between Microsoft Management Console, iManager and ConsoleOne to manage user identities in our Novell and Microsoft systems. eControl provides a unified identity management solution that saves valuable administrator time, reduces administration complexity and keeps all our systems and modifications under control."
"With the implementation of eControl, it is now possible to delegate administration tasks, which was very complex using the old tools," stated Mr. Thiele.
More Information
GWAVA Announces Its Sessions for BrainShare
Here’s a list of the sessions GWAVA is offering during BrainShare.
• GWAVA 5 Appliance with an SMTP Scanner – Hands-on Lab
• Policy Enforcement with GWAVA 5 Hands-on Lab
• Reload Disaster Recovery - Hands-on Lab
• Reload Single Message Restore - Hands-on Lab
• Retain Archiving Initial Configuration Hands-on Lab
• Retain - Reload Integration Hands-on Lab
• Introduction to GWAVA Reload
• Introduction to GWAVA Retain 1.8 for GroupWise
• Introduction to GWAVA 5
• Introduction to GWAVA Retain 2 for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)
• Community Announcement Forum
For detailed descriptions of the GWAVA BrainShare sessions, click HERE. Sign up for GWAVA sessions using your BrainShare registration.
Don’t miss out on other GWAVA events during BrainShare either! There is a free movie on Sunday night, games and fun on Monday and Wednesday nights. On Tuesday night, get your picture taken with Elmo at Party with the Partners.
Click HERE for complete information and to register. Remember, it’s all free to you and there will be lots of chances to win fantastic prizes.
Follow GWAVA on Twitter at BrainShareSLC.
GroupLink’s Car Giveaway at BrainShare 2010!
GroupLink Corporation is excited to once again sponsor BrainShare. This event has always been a great opportunity to learn more about Novell and Novell Partner products. We can’t wait to see everyone there! As always at BrainShare, GroupLink will be playing an exciting game at our booth #101. This year we will be playing Super Deal or Not Deal, which you could play to win a new car! (Or other consolation prize, based on the results of the game). The grand prize game will be played on Thursday, March 25 at 12:30 pm at booth 101. To be entered to play you must:
1. See a product demo of everything HelpDesk, the Novell Integrated HelpDesk (see booth 101).
2. Complete the designated survey card.
We will also be playing Deal or Not Deal every ½ hour during the exhibit hall hours, where you could win prizes worth up to $200.
On, Wednesday, March 24, we will be hosting an intro to everything HelpDesk dinner. This dinner will be a great chance to hear from your colleagues about how they benefit from the Novell integration of everything HelpDesk. Details:
Location: Radisson Hotel Downtown SLC
Date: March 24
Time: 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Link to register: http://www.grouplink.net/events/prospectdinner.glml
All attendees will be entered to win one of our prize giveaways, including:
$25 Gift Cards
iPod Touch
HP Mini Netbook.
Also, don't forget to attend our session at BrainShare, it will be held Tuesday at 2:30 pm!
GroupLink’s everything HelpDesk features key integration with your current Novell infrastructure. By implementing this solution you can increase your ROI and reduce your total overall costs by:
- Keeping communication lines open with automated GroupWise (and Outlook/Exchange) email notifications when a ticket is submitted, updated or closed.
- Producing powerful reports that give you the ability to customize and save reports to find key performance indicators (KPIs) for use with trend analysis and troubleshooting.
- Using LDAP integration with eDirectory (and Active Directory) to eliminate the need to maintain a separate database for your help desk.
- Managing your essential assets with ZENworks 10 Integration.
One-Click ConsoleOne via SSH
Running ConsoleOne directly from the server is helpful and often necessary, especially if you are using SLES as the server OS. With OES, you have the NSS file system that lets you easily connect a Windows workstation to your domain (assuming that workstation has a Novell Client). If you're using a Linux desktop that is capable of running the Novell Client for Linux, ConsoleOne can still be run locally while connecting to the domain database on the OES server. Using a SLES server further limits your options.
Instead of installing and configuring Samba or NFS (which I'm not sure is recommended anyway), using SSH to run ConsoleOne allows you to use a common protocol.
I most often use the Linux desktop and have been able to make one-click ConsoleOne access via SSH work. While Putty, a Windows SSH client, can provide similar functionality, I do not know of a way to generate the necessary SSH key with Putty in order to make this work in a one-click way.
For the remainder of this article, I'll call the server running the domain and from where we want to run ConsoleOne 'gwdom1'. I will assume that ConsoleOne with the current snapins is installed, executable, and fully functional from the domain server console for the purposes of administering GroupWise. I will also assume that we want to connect to this server as 'root'.
Running ConsoleOne via SSHThis is the easy part. First, SSH to the server where the domain is running as the root user using the following command. The '-X' is crucial as it enables X11 forwarding:
ssh -X root@gwdom1After entering the root password, execute this command:
/usr/ConsoleOne/bin/ConsoleOneAt this point, ConsoleOne should appear on your Linux desktop (running from gwdom1) and you can login and connect to gwdom1's domain database. This will verify that ConsoleOne can be run in the way it needs for this process to ultimately work.
This part should be possible using Putty for Windows. However, providing the specific steps of doing so is not the intent of this article.
Your Very Own ScriptYou can easily combine the above two commands into one script file. First, go to your home folder using the console and switch to a folder called /bin. For non-root users, it will be /home/username/. For root, it's /root.
Once in the /bin folder of your home folder, create a file called 'c1_gwdom1' (or whatever you want to use as the command that calls this) using your favorite text editor. The file should contain the following:
#/bin/bash ssh -X root@gwdom1 "/usr/ConsoleOne/bin/ConsoleOne &"The '#/bin/bash' part is probably unnecessary, but I've gotten in the habit of putting this in my scripts. Nevertheless, save the file and exit your editor. Now, from the console, make your script executable. Use the command:
chmod 755 c1_gwdom1Because your /bin folder in your home folder is, by default, in the path, you should be able to type 'c1_gwdom1' from any folder and it will start. Try it out. You will have to enter the root password for gwdom1 to have it connect (more on removing this later). ConsoleOne should start on your local workstation. If you want to have it start in the background, use 'c1_gwdom1 &' and you won't have to keep your console window open.
No Password RequiredHere it gets more complicated. However, this is also the key to one-click access. This is also the part that I am unsure how to duplicate in Windows. It may be there, but my limited use of Windows for administration of GroupWise has kept me from researching this further.
What we have to do is to first generate an SSH key, then enter the key info into gwdom1's authorized list. This tells gwdom1 to trust connections from this machine. So keep in mind that if you have multiple machines from which you want to use one-click ConsoleOne, you will have to repeat this step for each.
From a console on your Linux desktop, enter 'ssh-keygen -t rsa' and you should get a prompt for a path. Use the default path and leave the passphrase blank. Once you've finished that command, you should have a file in your Linux desktop's /home/username/.ssh/ folder called 'id_rsa.pub'. View the contents of this file by typing:
cat /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pubHighlight and copy the contents of that file to the clipboard using the GUI. Now open another console and SSH over to gwdom1 as root.
In the /root/.ssh/ folder of gwdom1 you should find a file called authorized_keys2. Make a quick backup copy of this file before you start editing it. Edit the file and go the bottom. Add another line, then Paste the contents of your local id_rsa.pub file into it. Save the file and exit out of the SSH session.
Test this by re-SSHing to gwdom1. If it worked, then you should be able to SSH without getting a password prompt.
Click Me!To make it all nice, neat, and easily accessible you can now create yourself a shortcut. The steps for doing this will depend on whether you use GNOME or KDE (or another Desktop Environment). Chances are that you know how to do this so I will not go into specific steps to create a shortcut.
The application/command that you want the shortcut to run is:
/home/username/bin/c1_gwdom1Create it and click to test.
What should happen is that ConsoleOne should now appear, having been run over SSH from the server running/hosting your domain.
GroupWise Instant Messenger
By SVV Satyanarayana
GroupWise is a product from Novell that provides for team collaboration like email, sharing documents in a team, instant messaging, scheduling meetings, reminders, etc. It comes under category of "Collaboration Software".
The beauty of GroupWise is that its client as well as server is supported on different OS platforms. A GroupWise client is available on Mac, Windows and Linux, as well as the web. The GroupWise Server is supported on Windows Server, Linux and NetWare. So users have many options.
This article is about the instant messaging feature of GroupWise. Novell GroupWise Messenger is a corporate instant messaging application that ships with every GroupWise client, including the WebAccess client.
GroupWise Instant Messenger:In any corporation, there must be a lot of communication options. They can be anything from oral communication, sending emails, talking over the phone and sharing data.
Above all, corporate communication must be done in most secured fashion such that it can’t be hacked by anyone. GroupWise Messenger provides this for us.
The next thing is "Authentication". It only connects to a user database available on Novell eDirectory. Novell eDirectory provides an efficient and secure way of authentication of GroupWise Messenger users.
The following are a few features that I like most:
- Support for multiple languages: Supports more than 20 international languages. If your company is spread across different parts of the globe, especially in countries like Japan where English usage is minimal, users feel comfortable to use applications in their native languages.
- Changing passwords is made easy: There are many companies that implement security policies and force employees to change their passwords regularly. So, in a company that uses eDirectory as their authentication server, there is a simple way for employees to change their GroupWise Messenger password. If the same password is applicable to access other applications in their company, it is reflected in them as well, immediately.
Just click Tools -> Change password in menu (Preferences -> Change Password on Mac) to change the password of eDirectory. GroupWise Messenger client implements LDAP SDK to access eDirectory. - Archiving and retrieving chat messages: (This option has to be set on the server.) Users don't have to mention explicitly that they want to store their chats. Just enable the option on server and it works on your client. You can even search the archived content also.
This image shows chat history in a conversation window
This image shows how to search archived logs:
Click File > Search Archive.
This image shows how to disable history:
Click Tools > Options, then click History. For Macintosh, click Preferences > Options, then click History and deselect display history in conversation windows.
- Using command line/terminal and browser to set options: Obviously all the applications that let users set preferences/options related to that application are available to the end-user only when the application is started. But what if a user wants to set options to the application before it starts? (Something like running the application in the background.) GroupWise Messenger offers options like running the application in background, setting GW server details before starting the application itself, etc. All these options can be set from command line/terminal or from the browser.
It's simple to do.
The following are the command line options that we can set when starting GroupWise Messenger:
Startup Option What It Does /l-xx Sets the user interface language. XX is the two-letter ANSI language abbreviation. /background Starts GroupWise Messenger without showing the mainwindow. /u-xxx or /@u-xxx Specifies what user ID to log in with. XXX is the user ID. /ipa-xxx Specifies the IP address to log in with. XXX is the IP address. /ipp-xxx Specifies the IP port to log in with. XXX is the IP port. /import-filename Imports a specific contacts list. filename is the .nmx file. /multi Starts multiple instances of the GroupWise Messenger client. - Integrating GroupWise Messenger with GroupWise Client: (This functionality is available only for Windows environments.)
As discussed in introduction, GroupWise has a full-featured mail client too. In a corporate office, GroupWise is connected to Novell eDirectory server, and you can take some actions from within both email and Messenger programs.
GW mail client offers:
- GW mail client application has the option to send instant messages to other users
- GW mail client allows you to see the status of other users
- GW mail client allows you to see the contact list
- You can start GroupWise Messenger along with GW mail client
- You can change preferences of GroupWise Messenger from GW mail client
GW Instant Messenger offers
- Sending GroupWise email from GroupWise Messenger
- Support with other protocols: Other applications and protocols like iChat, Adium, Pidgin (Gaim previously), mobile clients like Blackberry, etc., are configurable to use the GroupWise Messenger client without hacking anything.
I actually use Adium to connect to GW server instead of using Novell's Java-based Messenger client. The fact that Adium integrates with Growl for notifications, appling themes, colors, etc., made me to use it. Still I get all the functionality of GW instant messenger. Configuring Adium with GW server is also easy.
More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
- Benefits of GroupWise Instant Messenger
- Enhancing Productivity with GroupWise Instant Messenger
- GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger - who's in the office right now?
- Using GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger to improve Collaboration and Productivity
- GroupWise Messenger: Communication with the Front Line
GroupWise Messenger: Communication with the Front Line
By Aaron Madeley
In our environment, user calls go to the front line Help Desk. Backend engineers, such as myself, will get assigned those incoming calls as necessary. Conversely, some things we have to do to the servers in order to preserve overall system well-being will generate calls to the Help Desk. This creates a strong need to communicate between us.
That's So 1998The "old" system of notification went like this. When we would have to do work on the backend that would impact users, we had a designated "tech line" to call. We would call the number and tell the answering tech what we were up to and who would be impacted by it. On many occasions, the answering tech would not communicate this to the others on the Help Desk. As a result, unnecessary ticket generation and frantic calls to the backend engineers would follow. We might get four or five calls about the issue we had called the "tech line" about while we were actually working on the problem.
For the Help Desk, when a server issue was impacting users, they would call the designated "on call" engineer to report critical issues.
It was a flawed system but, at the time, it was the best that could be mustered.
Along Came MessengerAfter putting GroupWise Messenger in our environment, things have changed for the better. The Help Desk can send instant messages to the engineer, who may or may not be on site, to report critical issues to us.
For the backend engineers, reporting issues to the Help Desk has become much more efficient. Rather than relying on voice reporting and hoping that the information would make its way to all front line techs, we are able to send broadcasts directly to them all.
We considered email for this solution but it was a bad fit. Certainly, email outages could not be reported in this way. Some techs did not run Notify and/or their email client all the time. As a result, not all techs would not see new emails immediately which made this an ineffective solution.
With Messenger, we have a contact folder that contains all Help Desk personnel. When a critical issue comes up and they all need to be notified, we simply highlight all online techs, right-click them, and select Send Broadcast. Broadcasts in Messenger are preferable because they do not send conversation invitations to the recipients, unlike standard messages. They are one-way and will pop immediately on their desktop without necessary interaction and with all of the pertinent information.
As simple as it sounds, Messenger has been a wonderful utility in maintaining communication with our Help Desk. Some departments in our organization have made use of GroupWise Messenger. Others have not. For us in IT, it has become an invaluable communication tool and helps everyone stay updated on changes in the status of our systems.
Note: GroupWise Instant Messenger is a feature of GroupWise, and is not sold separately. GroupWise Instant Messenger comes with the WebAccess version of GroupWise – which is a less-expensive alternative to the full GroupWise Client for Linux, Mac, and Windows. You can buy the WebAccess version from here.More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
Visit GWAVA at BrainShare for Free Stuff and Fun
At GWAVA, we’re getting excited about BrainShare and are preparing for all of you to come and visit us at our booth or one of the events we have planned. Join GWAVA at one or more of these events and you’ll have a good chance to win some fabulous prizes. Follow us at BrainShare with our Twitter feed BrainShareSLC to get up-to-date information on GWAVA activities and other exciting events. You can also follow us anytime on our GWAVA Twitter account.
BrainShare Movie - Sunday March 21, 5:00PMLooking for something to do on Sunday evening before BrainShare begins? Come join GWAVA and our partners for a free movie at the downtown MegaPlex at the Gateway Mall, a walkable distance from the Salt Palace Convention Center. GWAVA is offering free tickets to any BrainShare attendees who wish to join us to watch the "The Bounty Hunter," starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Seating is limited, so make sure you register to reserve your spot as soon as possible.
VIP Welcome Reception - Sunday March 21, 6:00PMGWAVA will be hosting an invitation-only dinner at the Marriott Downtown. This reception will feature food, drinks and access to other VIPs.
Community Forum Keynote - Tuesday March 23, 1:00 – 2:15 PMJoin GWAVA at our open Community Forum Keynote to hear the latest announcements from GWAVA and our partners. At this session, not only will you get the scoop, but you will also have a good chance to win a prize. Lots of prizes will be given away, including 2 iPod Nanos, a GPS navigation system, and the grand prize of a $300 BestBuy gift certificate.
Party with the Partners - Tuesday March 23, 6:30 – 7:45 PMAt 6:30 on Tuesday night, the show floor opens for "Party with the Partners." This is your time to check out partner booths and get chances to win one of a bundle of great prizes. At the keynote earlier on Tuesday, you will have received your "party with the partners card" which you can take to any participating partner booth. At each booth, you will hear some brief information about each company’s products. A partner representative will then stamp your card. You must visit the booth of each partner on the card to qualify for prizes. If you want, you can even get a jump-start and visit the partner booths during lunch.
Once you’ve visited all of the partner booths on the card, drop it off at the GWAVA booth and hang around to see if you’ve won a prize. GWAVA and participating partners will be drawing from the party with the partner cards and giving way fabulous prizes such as a BluRay player, Flip video camera, iPod Touch and more.
While you’re at the GWAVA booth, be sure to get photos with our two exciting guests – GWAVAMan and Elmo!
For more information, go to http://www.gwava.com/brainshare
Using GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger to improve Collaboration and Productivity
By Rajesh Battala
GroupWise Messenger has a lot of features which help increase productivity and collaboration in the workplace. This article explains how to get maximum work productivity from GroupWise Messenger. I have shared some tips which show how to quickly send messages or join chat rooms where you can discuss the most sensitive corporate topics without fear of hackers listening in.
Adding usersTo start a conversation with a user, you need to add them to your buddy list. GroupWise Messenger provides different ways of adding an user to the list.
- Actions -> Add Contact
If the user id is known, then directly provide it. Otherwise, use "Search for a user" and add. - You can also add a user via commands. This method will help developers and web pages to add the user to the list.
Examples
NOTE: Execute all the "nim" commands from start > run dialog.
- nim:addContact?username=brajesh@novell.com
When this command is executed, if the user is valid GroupWise will add the user to the main list. - nim:addContact?username=brajesh@novell.com&foldername=myteam
This command will add the user to the "myteam" list in the client. ( The myteam list should be created before trying this command.) - A user can specify in his web-profile or any webpage to add his contact to the list with the following snippet ( will work in IE):
<html><body> <a href="nim:addContact?username=support@novell.com&foldername=helpdesk"> Contact Support </a> </body></html>If the user clicks on "Contact Support" then the user support@novell.com will get added to the client and the user can start a conversation.
The above feature helps a lot in adding the users easily.
If a group of users want to share their GroupWise Messenger lists, the Import and Export feature will let users import a person's contact list.
GroupWise provides a "folder" feature where users can manage their lists in a neat way, like adding all the team members to a list called "My Team."
Use Actions -> Add Folder to create new List or Folder.
To add users to the list you can either Drag and Drop existing users to the list, or right-click and select "Add Contact".
Advantages with Folder/lists:
- Send E-mail to all the users in a list. Just right-click and click e-mail, then GroupWise Client will start and opens a new mail-compose window with "To" field filled with all the visible-users in that list.
- Send a BroadCast message to all the users in that particular list at one time.
- GroupWise Conference can be easily managed with these lists. Right-click and click "send message" -- a Conference request will be sent automatically to all the visible users in the list and collaboration will be achieved perfectly.
- Viewing the History chat with the users in the particular list.
All these folder/list features help to manage the conversations and work together well.
Chat Room
GroupWise Instant Messenger provides a "Chat Room" feature which helps groups hold a quick meeting. To find and join the available chat rooms, go to Tools > Chat Rooms.
The Chat Rooms dialog will appear, populating the available chat room and the number of people in the chat room. Select a relevant chat room and click Join. Then you will be joined in the chat room and can participate in the discussion.
Adding, deleting, and managing the access rights of the Chat Rooms is done by the GroupWise administrator.
Working with Status MessagesThe Status Message of a user helps others who want to have a conversation with them. GroupWise provides three kinds of Status : Online (Available), Busy, and Away. Users can add special custom messages as well -- like Busy (In Conference Meeting).
Integration of GWIM status with GroupWise Mail ClientWhen a user is logged into GWIM, if someone opens the GW Client, then the person's status will be shown next to his name, showing whether he is idle, online, or busy. This is one of the good integrations that help people know who is available for instant collaboration.
Advance Startup OptionsGroupWise Messenger can be started on Windows start-up by checking the option:
"Run GroupWise Messenger When Windows Starts"
This feature helps a user in many ways.
When a conversation is going on, if a user suddenly goes offline, then the Messenger will send the message as a mail to the user which will keep the user aware of the conversation. This will help the users to keep track of the entire conversation.
To enable this feature:
- Go to Tools -> options -> Messages
- Select the option "Send e-mail when I start a message to an offline contact"
If a user wants to hide the status messages or if you don't want to hear from some people when you are busy, there are some privacy settings that are very helpful. You can block the users you are not interested in communicating with.
To enable this privacy feature:
Go to Tools -> Options -> privacy.
In this dialog, contacts added in the "BLOCK" side won't be able to see your status and they won't be able to send you an instant message.
Storing the Logs/History LocallyGroupWise supports saving conversations automatically on the client machine by enabling the option:
Tools -> Options -> History. (Store Conversations locally).
The messages are stored in well-formatted manner. You can decide where the logs will be stored. This will help you save the logs in remote network drives by mounting them as network drives.
The Messenger will get auto-connect from the network disconnect.
- To launch the Messenger with a username(battala) and with ip(164.102.10.1)
nim:launchNM /u-battala /ipa-164.102.10.1 - To launch the Messenger
nim:launchNM - To send instant message to a particular user
nim:startim?username=brajesh&message=hi Good Morning.How are you - To set any preferences of the Messenger
nim:preferences - To join the chat room (meeting1) directly.
nim:joinChat?roomname=meeting1 - GroupWise Messenger supports multi-session clients.
To start another GroupWise Client session the command is
nim:launchNM /multi - Command to exit from the session
nim:exit
These features and tips reveal the richness and friendliness of GroupWise Messenger, which will helps the corporate user to collaborate well with their colleagues, and stay connected.
Note: GroupWise Instant Messenger is a feature of GroupWise, and is not sold separately. If the full GroupWise client for Window, Mac, and Linux isn’t in your budget, there’s another option. GroupWise Instant Messenger comes with the WebAccess version of GroupWise – which is a less-expensive alternative to the full GroupWise Client. You can buy the WebAccess version from here.More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
GWAVA and Novell at TAGITM
Please stop by the GWAVA booth at this year's TAGITM Conference for a first-hand look at the latest GWAVA messaging security solutions. TAGITM, the Texas Association of Governmental Information Technology Managers Annual Education Conference, will be held April 11-14, 2010 at The Sheraton Austin Hotel.
At this year's conference, we will demonstrate how public service organizations can leverage and interact with new Web 2.0 applications and social media websites while retaining communications for public record with ease and transparency.
GWAVA technology solutions let you to retain and monitor all email messages, mobile messages, and instant messages for public record and review.
Novell will be joining GWAVA in its booth so you can get all of your GroupWise and other Novell and GWAVA information in one place. For more information on this conference and to register, click HERE.
BrainShare Brewfest Registration is now Open!
Brewfest Registration is now Open!
Don't miss out on your chance to join BrainShare enthusiasts and experts, your peers, as well as the friendly folks at Messaging Architects, Consensus, Trivir, Novacoast, Novell and the TTP for an evening of Beer, Food and FUN!
Date: Monday March 22nd, 2010
Time: 5:00 PM- 7:00 PM
Cost: Nada; it won't cost you a thing!
Where: Squatters Pub Brewery, 147 West Broadway, Salt Lake City
Riva Integration Server for GroupWise Makes the Grade at Landmark College
Riva Integration Server is brilliant! It has allowed our students' calendars to be synchronized from SCT PowerCAMPUS to their GroupWise accounts. The information is now available in a single location. Riva is considered an essential service by staff, faculty and students.
Highlighted in this success story:
Riva Integration Server SDK
Student management systems are the lifeblood of education systems. Similar to ERPs and CRMs in the corporate world, they are used by faculty and staff to manage and track course and exam schedules, admissions, academic plans, student records, grades and other information. And just like ERPs and CRMs, integrating information and workflow processes between systems is critical. For today's "connected" student, having access to their GroupWise calendar information on their mobile devices is quickly becoming an expectation.
Landmark College is a fully accredited liberal arts college in Putney, Vermont, designed exclusively for students with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and other learning disabilities. To help enhance student success, advisors needed a simple way to confirm students' availability for appointments. Students wanted their course and exam schedule in GroupWise and they wanted their calendars synchronized to their mobile devices.
The Challenge"Our advising department needed a simpler way to confirm students' availability for meetings," said Kirt Sorensen, Manager of Network Services at Landmark College. "Prior to implementing Riva Integration Server from Omni last semester, advising needed to conduct manual busy searches by checking three different calendars. When advisors needed to add more than one student to a meeting, scheduling appointments became very difficult. Scheduling required that calendars always reflect any class changes and be up-to-date in terms of scheduling information, without assuming that all students immediately make changes to their GroupWise calendars.
"There was no native calendar synchronization available between GroupWise and SCT PowerCAMPUS," continued Sorensen. "We considered the costs and benefits of developing our own custom-built integration solution or seeking a quicker and more cost-effective integration solution from the GroupWise partner community."
"As a long-time Omni customer, we inquired about whether Riva Integration Server could be used to integrate the two systems," continued Sorensen. "We have been very pleased with the results."
The SolutionRiva Integration Server is a server-side collaboration integration platform that enables organizations to automatically push information from one system to another based on pre-defined policies; for example, in this case, to automatically synchronize students' and staff's class schedules and appointments to GroupWise. Riva's integration framework for GroupWise and Exchange supports SAP, CRM, HR and student information systems. Administrators can leverage the Riva SDK to build custom connectors for SQL-based applications.
"While we had the technical expertise in-house to develop the SIS integration," said Sorensen, "we considered it more advantageous to implement Riva Integration Server to save on time and reduce the initial and long-term costs of developing and maintaining such a solution."
"Riva satisfied our immediate calendaring and scheduling integration needs for GroupWise," said Jarrett Hood, Database Applications Specialist at Landmark College, "and it also provides great flexibility for integration requirements we may have in future such as pushing out holiday schedules, populating GroupWise calendars based on custom databases, integrating with ERP and financial systems, and scheduling actions such as mail send-outs in SCT PowerCAMPUS."
"At Landmark College, we use NotifyLink to synchronize GroupWise information to mobile devices. A nice value-add of having Riva and NotifyLink is the ability for student information system information to be synchronized down to GroupWise and to users' mobile devices."
The Results"The calendar and appointment integration Riva delivers between our student information system and GroupWise is now considered a must-have service," said Sorensen. "Riva Integration Server is brilliant! It has allowed our students' calendars to be synchronized from SCT PowerCAMPUS to their GroupWise accounts. The information is now available in a single location."
"The advisor who initially requested the integration is absolutely thrilled. Once the advising department started to reap the benefits of the integration, Student Affairs also got excited about the opportunity to quickly and easily schedule meetings with staff, faculty and students using the integrated solution."
"Omni's technical and support team have been great to work with," said Sorensen. "We highly recommend Riva Integration Server to other universities and colleges that need to integrate GroupWise or Exchange calendar information with their student management system."
More InformationWebinar: Manage user rights with GWAVA Reveal 2
GWAVA is pleased to invite you to a special 1 hour webinar on March 11, 2010 at 3pm EST. For the first time, Reveal 2 brings "right's management" into the user interface. With Reveal, you can grant auditors a limited time access to assigned mailboxes in your GroupWise system. Learn how to manage this process.
The webinar will also highlight all of the new features available in Reveal 2.
Date: March 11, 2010
Time: 3pm EST
Presenter: Stephen Cohen
To sign up: Click HERE.
the GroupWise Exchange - brand new questions and answers community
Are you a fan of the NGW List, the GroupWise support forums?
Check out "the GroupWise Exchange", a brand new GroupWise-answers-community-site, set up just last week!
(I saw a hit of it on Twitter)
This is a short email'd interview I had with Chris Abbey, one of its founders:
GWCheck: Can you introduce the people behind "the GroupWise Exchange"?
Chris: I'm Chris Abbey one of the TGX moderators and one of the "Old Guard" for want of a better description.
For better or for worse I've been tussling with NetWare since 1985c and GroupWise since the turn of the century, so I do have some first hand knowledge of the difficulties experienced with the installation and support of Novell products.
Unfortunately that doesn't mean I have all the answers :)
GWCheck: What is "the GroupWise Exchange"?
Chris: You will of course be well aware of the phenomenal success of the "micro-community" sites like StackOverflow.com and Superuser.com using the StackExchange software, which has encouraged us to announce a GroupWise version called "The GroupWise Exchange".
GWCheck: How is "the GroupWise Exchange" interactive?
Chris: The new site allows users to ask and answer questions, and through membership and active participation, to vote questions and answers up or down and edit questions and answers in a wiki fashion.
Users of TGX can also earn reputation points and "badges"; for example, a person is awarded 10 reputation points for receiving an "up" vote on an answer given to a question, and can receive badges for their valued contributions. RSS feeds are available for the latest questions and answers on particular topics or tags.
GWCheck: What is your goal with "the GroupWise Exchange"?
Chris: We are hoping that with wide community support "The GroupWise Exchange" can become every bit as vibrant and useful a resource as sites like StackOverflow and Superuser, providing a comprehensive, community based and free support infrastructure for the GroupWise community at large.
GWCheck: Where can we find "the GroupWise Exchange"?
Chris: As you have already discovered the site is located at www.groupwise.co.uk where we hope users will sign up and start participating.
Both www.GroupWiseExchange.com and www.NetWareSupport.co.uk also point to specific areas of this site.
Tnx Chris!
GWCheck.com offers a direct search form to "the GroupWise Exchange" (right on top on the GWCheck.com main page.
_
GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger - who's in the office right now?
Paul Caron explains how he uses GroupWise Instant Messenger to track down his co-workers when he needs them. (Some might call it stalking. But since it is done with a secure corporate instant messenger rather than a hidden camera, it is bound to be valid work-related stalking )
Say you've left the office and you get paged or phoned about a particular issue at the office. You know there are a few people still at the office. Do you start calling around the various offices, hoping to see if they're still there? NO! Use GroupWise Instant Messenger.
I've installed a copy of GroupWise Instant Messenger on my BlackBerry (it's free to download from RIM). The contacts and folders come across to my phone just fine and stay synchronized with my eDirectory version.
I'm usually logged into the office version on my PC at the office. But when I launch IM from my phone, it logs me off the active copy on my PC and fires up the copy on my phone. Then by looking at the status updates, I can tell if folks have used their PC within the last few minutes or if they are inactive or have a fixed status. Then I can choose to IM them and maybe have them call me.
It sure beats playing telephone tag, trying to find someone physically in the office.
Note: GroupWise Instant Messenger is a feature of GroupWise, and is not sold separately. If the full GroupWise client for Window, Mac, and Linux isn't in your budget, there's another option. GroupWise Instant Messenger comes with the WebAccess version of GroupWise - which is a less-expensive alternative to the full GroupWise Client. You can buy the WebAccess version from here.More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
Enhancing Productivity with GroupWise Instant Messenger
Mike Brady explains how GroupWise Instant Messenger has enhanced productivity in his organization. GroupWise Instant Messenger is a secure corporate instant messenger that lets you chat about work without fear of the content being hijacked. Mike shares some nifty tricks that will boost your team’s mad collaboration skills.
When we first adopted GroupWise Instant Messenger, many people in our company thought it had minimal uses. After all, why would I need to use IM when I can use an email? Here are some ways we have found GWIM has enhanced productivity for us.
Seeing who's in and who's not. By checking the status of our contacts in GWIM, we can easily see who is available and who isn't. This normally translates not just into IM, but into calling that person or visiting their desk. Chances are pretty good that people who aren't on-line in GWIM might not be available for a visit or a phone call. It also gives an idea of where to start looking for them - if someone is not logged into Messenger, chances are we should start by calling their cell phone.
Communicating with people in less-than-ideal conditions. We have quite a few people who work on construction sites, mostly in partially finished, or finished buildings. These folks do a lot of their work in the mechanical areas of these buildings, where cell phone service just doesn't work well. Many of these locations do have wi-fi, so our folks are able to get real time communication using GWIM, rather than wait for e-mails to go back and forth. This same principle applies to folks who do a lot of work from public places, like airports and coffee shops. These places are often too loud to carry on a conversation, or you might be discussing something that you don't want to have other people hear. IM is perfect for these scenarios.
Sending broadcast messages. Remember the old days of sending broadcasts from the server to let users know a server was going to be shut down? Now we use our handy corporate instant messenger for that. With GWIM I am able to Ctrl-click a group of people, and send them a message. The nice part is they can reply back. So if I say to them "Hey folks, the GroupWise server is going to be off-line at lunch time for maintenance," they can reply back with questions, and the whole group sees those messages. So the old style broadcasts are now many-to-many conversations, instead of being a one-way message.
Getting information while in phone calls. It used to be a pain when we were having a phone conversation with someone and realized we needed a piece of information from someone else, or just needed to ask someone else a question. The old method meant putting the phone on hold, or having to call the person back, while we tracked down the info. Now we just say "Oh,, let me ask our marketing person," and are able to continue our conversation while at the same time asking the marketing person the question over IM. This same idea applies to incoming phone calls. We will often be on a long call with someone, when a new call comes in for us. The receptionist is able to IM us, and let us know we have a call. We can give instructions back to the receptionist immediately, and the person on our current call never gets interrupted.
GroupWise IM from the Blackberry. If I am going to be away at a conference (such as BrainShare in a few weeks!), or some other work-related trip, I run Blackberry Corporate IM for GroupWise on my Blackberry. This gives me GroupWise Instant Messenger in the palm of my hand. This allows me both email and the quick IM-type messages when I am out of the office. Sometimes people don't even realize I'm not at my desk! http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/downloads/im.jsp#tab_groupwise
Note: GroupWise Instant Messenger is a feature of GroupWise, and is not sold separately. If the full GroupWise client for Window, Mac, and Linux isn’t in your budget, there’s another option. GroupWise Instant Messenger comes with the WebAccess version of GroupWise – which is a less-expensive alternative to the full GroupWise Client. You can buy the WebAccess version from here.More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
Benefits of GroupWise Instant Messenger
Wallace Frist explains how they use GroupWise Instant Messenger to work in real time with co-workers, and see productivity increases associated with a secure corporate IM. Unlike most Instant Messengers, which broadcast messages in plain text across the Internet, GroupWise Instant Messenger is designed for secure corporate collaboration. You can chat freely about company business, financials, secret projects, etc., without worrying about the information being hijacked. With a corporate instant messenger you can trust, you’ll be amazed how much work you can get done in a little bitty window. Here’s a great example of how you can use it to collaborate in real time.
Get stuff done quickerIn our environment we are split up over multiple geographic locations and even within our building, our IT department is split up into multiple locations. In order for us to be productive we rely on GroupWise Instant Messenger, a corporate IM that we can trust.
With GroupWise Instant Messenger we are able to get stuff done quicker. We can see all of our online contacts and ask questions of each other and receive nearly instant responses. We can broadcast a message or just select a single person or even multiple people to open up a conversation with. We can also save our conversations to refer back to if needed.
Not only does this corporate-friendly Instant Messenger save time from walking over to another area to talk to a peer, or sending an urgent email and waiting for a response in hope that they are checking their email, but also is a more viable option than a phone call. Sure one can argue it can be quicker to talk than to type but we spend many hours on the phone helping end users so leaving a voice mail is an option, but not a good one. Who knows how long it may take to get off a call and how many voice mails you may have waiting? GroupWise Instant Messenger brings multi-tasking to its pinnacle. We can be on the phone while simultaneously having multiple, separate IM conversations. This is why GroupWise Instant Messenger is our preferred method of communication.
With or without GroupWise ClientGroupWise Instant Messenger works without the GroupWise client so you can take advantage of the limited license mailbox option and just use WebAccess [See Note at end of article]. We have a lot of remote users that just use WebAccess, but they still chat with us.
If you are using the GroupWise client, GroupWise Instant Messenger integrates well with it. You can configure preferences and manually launch it from the GroupWise client under Tools>Messenger, and you can even take advantage of having the GroupWise Instant Messenger client launch when GroupWise starts up by selecting the appropriate check box under Tools>Options>Environment>General tab.
Customizing THE environmentWe have been rolling out GroupWise Instant Messenger one department at a time as each department gets wind of it and requests it. We started with just our IT department, and no plans to setup any others. But after other department heads noticed how well it was working for us they wanted it. Since GroupWise Instant Messenger is fully customizable it made it easy for us to employ this departmental approach with policies.
Default policy: Installed by default during the initial setup of GroupWise Instant Messenger. If a user gets the client installed, he/she will be put into this policy if nothing has been configured for them in ConsoleOne.
Custom policy: We prefer to break our policy up by departments for better organization and give the users the ability to search for and add more contacts as needed.
Within the properties of each policy you can customize what the group can do including archiving all message sessions, searching for other users to add to their contact list, and even creating and using chat rooms.
Within each policy you can setup the users who belong to it and under Policy tab>Contact List you can define what contacts they have on the initial opening of the client. You can create folders and add users to the appropriate ones. And yes, you can add users from other policies.
You can let the users add more contacts or lock it so they cannot. If you lock it, they will always see what is in the contact list even when it is updated. Updates will not show until you restart the agent. If you let them manipulate their own contact list, once they make a change they will not see any more updates unless they delete all of their contacts and login again.
ConclusionSpeaking of our IT department alone, even though we may sit miles apart, we are now closer than ever before. GroupWise Instant Messenger is great for team building and has made order from chaos by bringing a borderline dysfunctional group together as one unified team.
Note: GroupWise Instant Messenger is a feature of GroupWise, and is not sold separately. As Wallace mentioned, GroupWise Instant Messenger comes with the WebAccess version of GroupWise – which is a less-expensive alternative to the full GroupWise Client for Linux, Mac, and Windows. You can buy the WebAccess version from here.More Articles about GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
From GWAVA - Free Movie for BrainShare Attendees
Looking for something to do on Sunday evening before BrainShare begins? Come join GWAVA and our partners for a free movie at the downtown MegaPlex at the Gateway Mall, a walkable distance from the Salt Palace Convention Center.
GWAVA is offering free tickets to any BrainShare attendees who wish to join us to watch the “Bounty Hunter,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Seating is limited, so make sure you register to reserve your spot as soon as possible.
To register for the movie and see more information, click HERE.
To see what else GWAVA is doing during BrainShare, click HERE.
GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger
With GroupWise corporate instant messenger you can stay in touch with co-workers and see the productivity increases associated with IM. Here are some ways GroupWise customers are using GroupWise Messenger to collaborate without fear of secure business-related conversations getting intercepted by competitors.
Benefits of GroupWise Instant Messenger<
Wallace Frist explains how they use GroupWise Instant Messenger to stay in touch with co-workers and see productivity increases associated with a secure corporate IM.<
Enhancing Productivity with GroupWise Instant Messenger<
Mike Brady explains how GroupWise Instant Messenger has enhanced productivity in his organization. GroupWise Instant Messenger is a secure corporate instant messenger that lets you chat about work without fear of the content being hijacked. Mike shares some nifty tricks that will boost your team’s mad collaboration skills.
GroupWise Corporate Instant Messenger - who's in the office right now?
Paul Caron explains how he uses GroupWise Instant Messenger to track down his co-workers when he needs them. (Some might call it stalking. But since it is done with a secure corporate instant messenger rather than a hidden camera, it is bound to be valid work-related stalking…)<
Novell Teaming 2.1 is now Available!
Announcing general availability of Novell Teaming 2.1. You can now download, upgrade and roll out the very latest version of Novell Teaming. Since Teaming 2.0 released last July, the engineering team has put together an exciting update to this piece of our collaboration portfolio.
The engineering team worked closely with several beta sites over six authorized beta releases to make sure that quality, functionality and performance metrics were all considered and achieved. I join with all of our BETA sites, internal IT department, engineers and quality control team in announcing that Teaming 2.1 is READY for your production deployments.
The product and a 60-day eval license are available on:
Select "Teaming + Conferencing" as the product and select "Search." You'll see the "Teaming 2.1 60 Day Evaluation" download.
As with any rapid release development cycle, the feature set and scope is tightly controlled in order to maintain reliability and quality. Tracy Smith, the Novell Teaming Product Manager and Kevin Crutchfield, the Teaming Engineering Manager have done an excellent job in planning, designing, implementing, deploying and shipping a practical, yet innovative set of new features, usability and functionality.
Novell Teaming 2.1 has been deployed internally since December. Dean Ricker, from our IT team has been very helpful in making sure that updates were applied as soon as Thayne and our QA team gave it the thumbs up!.
We are finding new applications for this product everyday! Our marketing team has been using Teaming 2.1 to plan BrainShare. The development project managers rely on Teaming to communicate core team notes, product requirement documents, product schedules and to share information across geographies and organizational boundaries. Novell has over 267 GB of data in our corporate Teaming implementation with over 2000 users last month. We also have over 160,000 entries with about 10,000 new entries last month.
Our BETA customers come from many different segments of the market. Education, government, retail and several partners. Many of them have already put Teaming 2.1 into production.
Novell Teaming is a workflow-enabled team collaboration software. Teaming offers a variety of functionality, including secure robust team workspaces, advanced workflows, social tools and multiple, customizable information types that allow companies to more effectively manage and find their information assets. Out-of-the-box Teaming includes support for file sharing (hundreds of formats supported), versioning, secure search, wikis, blogs, discussion forums, team calendars, tasks, milestones, photo albums and surveys. Also available out of the box is the ability to completely customize the information types to the unique needs of an organization.
How customers use Teaming varies greatly but the top uses can be summarized into 4 areas:
1. Knowledge Repository
2. Document Management
3. Project Collaboration
4. Process Automation
For Users
1. New Mobile UI: Access teaming conveniently through your web-enabled phone.
2. Graphical Landing Page Editor: Creating a powerful and user-friendly landing page has become even easier.
3. Teaming Feeds: Provides you with a constantly updating view of what is happening in your Teaming system
4. Calendar and Tasks: Differentiating between which calendar events or tasks belong to you has become much more simple.
5. Undelete and Purge: Quickly purge or recover deleted information with your dynamic trash bin.
For Administrators and Partners
1. Workspace Import and Export: Easily move workspaces and information between Teaming systems.
2. User Data Quota: Limit the amount of file storage assigned to each user.
3. Extension Administration: For those who are extending the capabilities of Teaming.
Check out this blog for details on the features<
In addition, we have a new Teaming partner, SEP, that will announce a new online back up solution and its availability early next week. Watch for that announcement and you can find more about SEP from their web site at http://sepusa.com< and for Europe http://www.sep.de<.
The announcement can be found here: http://sepusa.com/en/node/1207<
Thanks,
Dean
How to manage and synchronize GroupWise and eDirectory accounts with Active Directory
Migrating from NetWare to Windows Server but still want to keep GroupWise?
Running Windows for authentication, file and print services and GroupWise for collaboration?
Riva Identity Integration from Omni enables administrators to use Microsoft Management Console and Active Directory to manage eDirectory and GroupWise. When a new account is created in Active Directory, Riva automatically creates the associated eDirectory and GroupWise account. Changes to account passwords in Active Directory automatically get updated in GroupWise and eDirectory.
Riva Identity Integration takes 15 minutes to install and configure. There are no Active Directory or eDirectory schema extensions required, no complex designer tools, connectors or scripting languages to learn and no knowledge of internal LDAP or directory attributes is required.
Sign up for the upcoming GroupWise for Active Directory presentation on Wednesday, February 24th at 3:00 p.m. Eastern:
www.omni-ts.com/omni-web-seminars.html
More information:
Go to www.omni-ts.com/newsroom/groupwise-for-active-directory.html or contact Omni at 780-423-4200 or sales@omni-ts.com.





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