IBM Software Brand Catalogs

Are you looking for IBM's Portlet Catalog ? If so, please note that it appears to have moved from it's old URL of http://catalog.lotus.com to a new URL of http://www-01.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/portal - which is nice.

Of course, it may just be that the redirector site is down but .....

Fun when running DB2 CLP scripts

Having spent some time with DB2 and Linux recently, I hit a problem today whereby I was attempting to execute a SQL script from the DB2 command line ( CLP ) using the command: -

db2 -tvf createDb.sql

This worked perfectly for five out of six databases. However, the sixth database did not create, and I noticed that the script ran through rather too quickly ( even for my blindingly fast VMware ESX / Red Hat environment ).

When I looked at the output from the command, I saw: -

SQL0104N  An unexpected token "CONNECT" was found following "<identifier>".  

Expected tokens may include:  "RESTRICTIVE".  SQLSTATE=42601

B21034E  The command was processed as an SQL statement because it was not a 

valid Command Line Processor command.  During SQL processing it returned:

etc.

When I dug into the script ( createDb.sql ), I noticed that the commands were, for some strange reason, separated by the AT (@) character than, as I'd normally expect, the semi-colon (;) character.

Rather than hacking the script, my guru/colleague, RobT, showed me how to override the DB2 -tvf command to force it to use a different separator, as follows: -

db2 -td@ -vf createDb.sql

which did the trick.

Easy when you know, or know someone who knows how :-)

Wierdness when installing Lotus Quickr Services for WebSphere Portal 8.1.0

During this project, I hit a really really strange problem whereby an installation of Quickr Services for WebSphere Portal ( aka QS4WP ) completed successfully BUT did not allow me to log on, or use the site.

When I dug into the logs ( SystemOut.log ), I saw the following exception: -

[30/06/09 15:38:16:859 BST] 0000000a ApplicationMg W WSVR0100W: An error occurred initializing, portletWiring_web_app_12ljiwqp

com.ibm.ws.exception.ConfigurationWarning: Failed to open /opt/IBM/Quickr/PortalServer/installedApps/portletWiring_web_app_12ljiwqp.ear

[30/06/09 15:38:16:865 BST] 0000000a ApplicationMg W WSVR0100W: An error occurred initializing, Portlet_Manager_12ljj1sr

com.ibm.ws.exception.ConfigurationWarning: Failed to open /opt/IBM/Quickr/PortalServer/installedApps/Portlet_Manager_12ljj1sr.ear

etc.

When I checked the disk location ( /opt/IBM/Quickr/PortalServer/installedApps/portletWiring_web_app_12ljiwqp.ear ) of one of the affected applications, the directory structure was intact BUT the sequence of characters that comprise the file name were completely different.

After a number of uninstalls/reinstalls, I decided to take a different approach, and look at the source images that I was using for the installation itself.

I'd started with a complete set of images, which I had downloaded last year. Some of these were failing to unpack, and I was seeing various CRC errors. Therefore, I'd downloaded replacements for SOME of the images.

I think that this was the root cause of the problem - given that IBM packages Quickr ( and its constituent products, WebSphere Portal Server and Lotus Web Content Management ) as archived installations - in essence, IBM installs the products, ZIPs up the file system and then delivers it in the various installation media IL-3, IL-4 etc.

I performed a completely fresh download of Quickr, ran the installation, and all was well.

As a matter of interest, the current working installation DOES have the aforementioned file path ( /opt/IBM/Quickr/PortalServer/installedApps/portletWiring_web_app_12ljiwqp.ear ) which would seem to confirm my opinion, which is nice.

In conclusion, don't mix and match downloaded images, especially where archive installations are concerned.

Error "ERROR: Invalid bundled JVM. Missing 'jvm' file" when attempting to install Domino 8.5 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Haven't yet cracked this, but I will .......

Am getting: -

ERROR: Invalid bundled JVM. Missing 'jvm' file.

when I attempt to install Domino 8.5 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 7).

Initially, this presented at a simple fail when I ran /tmp/linux/domino/install ( having extracted the Domino 8.5 installation package ).

Following: -

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&context=SSKTMJ&dc%C3%9B520&dc%C3%9B560&uid=swg21295755&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8&lang=en&rss=ct463lotus

I added the switch -is:log /tmp/foobar.txt to the command e.g.: -

/tmp/linux/domino/install -is:log /tmp/foobar.txt

which then gave me the "Missing 'jvm' file" error.

As I say, I've not yet cracked it but ......

Error "Failed to create event client" when trying to use Lotus Sametime Server 8.0.2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Having installed Domino 8.0.2 and Sametime 8.0.2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, I was annoyed to find that the Sametime tasks would crash shortly after the server started, with no obvious error apart from: -

Failed to create event client

in the Domino console.

As per usual, I Googled around until I found this: -

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stforum.nsf/DateAllFlatweb/70f9368baf2372a3852575af005ad796?OpenDocument

which suggested that the problem was that the Sametime server was unable to resolve / bind to the localhost address, due to an incorrect entry in /etc/hosts.

I checked my box and, lo and behold, my /etc/hosts file only had the line: -

::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback

This is, afaik, only relevant for IP v6 addresses, whereas I, like most of the rest of the intraweb, are using IP v4.

I added: -

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

to the file, and restarted the Domino server and...... it all worked nicely.

As ever, one lives and, if you will, one learns :-)

Lotus Sametime and /etc/security/limits.conf on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

If you see: -

WINUX: Please see /etc/security/limits.conf RECOMMENDATION: * hard nofile 65535

WINUX: Please see /etc/security/limits.conf RECOMMENDATION: * soft nofile 65535

then you'll probably find a reference to the Lotus Sametime 8.0.2 Information Center at: -

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/sametime/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.help.sametime.advanced.doc/stv_adm_t_set_open_file_linux.html

which directs one to add: -

soft    nofile          65535

hard    nofile          65535

to /etc/security/limits.conf and reboot.

However, on my own Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 server, this did not work until I added leading "*" symbols to both lines: -

*      soft    nofile          65535

*      hard    nofile          65535

and again rebooted.

Copying files on Linux using SSH

Well, I was familiar with using Secure CoPy ( SCP ) and have been using it extensively today to copy gigabytes of software products, including DB2 UDB, WebSphere Portal Express, Lotus Domino, Lotus Sametime and Lotus Connections.

However, I was struggling to know how to upload one file and have it append to another e.g. perform the equivalent of "cat foo >> bar" which appends the contents of foo onto bar.

Thanks to this most useful blog, I now know how - don't use SCP, use SSH instead: -

How to append remote file with local file over ssh connection

cat local-source-file-name | ssh user@some.domain "cat >> remote-target-file-name"

How to append to local file from remote file over ssh connection

ssh user@some.domain "cat remote-source-file-name" >> local-target-file-name