This release note provides an overview of the new R5 Domino server features.
Internet Messaging
Native Internet addressing -- Domino understands Internet addressing rules and interprets them, along with existing Notes addressing rules.
Native MIME content support -- Message content is now stored as either Notes Rich Text or MIME, and Domino translates between formats as needed. Notes users who choose MIME format require no message translation when sending mail to and from Internet users. In a mixed environment of R5 and pre-R5 Notes users, no translation is required because the R5 Notes client can render MIME or Notes Rich Text.
Native SMTP routing -- The Domino router now implements the SMTP protocol to transport Internet/intranet messages, along with Notes mail routing protocols for compatibility with previous releases. The SMTP MTA, which was included in previous releases, is no longer needed. When deploying R5 Domino with R5 clients, message conversion between MIME and Notes Rich Text is eliminated at the routing layer because the Notes client fully supports MIME.
If configured, both SMTP and Notes mail routing protocols coexist within the same server. The Domino router implements the base SMTP standard plus SMTP service extensions (ESMTP) (such as 8BITMIME and SMTP PIPELINING) to deliver optimal SMTP performance. In addition, other extensions such as the Delivery Status Notifications specifications allow Notes and Domino SMTP to provide message delivery information to the Notes client.
Multiple character set support -- When converting between Notes Rich Text and MIME, the Domino mail router can now support all character sets when sending and receiving messages. Previously, several SMTP MTA's were required to provide support for multiple character sets.
Security
Better support for Internet-standard X.509 v3 certificates -- Domino allows administrators to register new users with traditional Notes certificates and with Internet-compliant X.509 v3 certificates. Notes clients can use these Internet certificates for secure access to Web servers (SSL) and for secure Internet Mail (S/MIME).
Stronger cryptography -- North American editions of Domino create stronger RSA keys (1024 bits) and stronger RC2 keys (128 bits) for users connecting to Domino via SSL. In addition, North American Notes clients use these stronger keys for SSL and S/MIME.
S/MIME -- Notes and Domino support the IETF standard, S/MIME v2, for secure Internet mail encryption and digital signatures.
SSL v3 for all Internet protocols -- Users accessing the Domino server over any supported Internet protocol can now use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) v3 for certificate-based authentication and encryption. Supported protocols include IIOP, LDAP, HTTP, POP3, IMAP and NNTP.
Separate key rings for virtual Web servers -- Separate key rings for SSL v3 are supported for each Domino Virtual Web Server. This means that each virtual server can have its own certified identity, and can authenticate its users with its own set of certificates.
Password recovery for Notes users -- Recovery agents can log password and ID changes. Administrators and users can recover forgotten passwords, corrupted or lost Notes ID files, and encrypted information.
Just-in-time encryption -- Mobile Notes users who don't keep certificates in their Personal Address Book or don't have certificates in their local Directory Catalog can encrypt e-mail when it is replicated to the server.
Authentication via third-party directory -- Administrators can choose to allow authentication through a trusted third-party directory over LDAP. Domino Directory Assistance enables administrators to specify trusted third-party LDAP directories used to look up users and groups for authentication and access control.
Password quality -- To limit password guessing or dictionary attacks, administrators can control the quality of password used to protect the Notes ID. Administrators have a choice of 16 quality levels; the higher the level, the more complex and difficult-to-guess the password must be.
Web server authentication interface (included in Domino Server API) -- Through DSAPI, you may now create external programs to authenticate Web users (for example, single sign-on utilities) instead of using Domino's authentication mechanism. You can create your own authentication schemes for Domino that leverage external systems or special algorithms.
Domino Directory
Domino Directory -- Previously called the Name & Address Book or Public Address Book, the Domino Directory is the directory service within Domino.
Improved performance, scalability and reliability --The Domino Directory uses Domino database technology, and benefits from the Domino R5 improvements in this core technology. These benefits include transaction logging, online and in-place compaction, and faster online view re-indexing. In addition, specific performance enhancements have been made for the Domino Directory in R5.
LDAP v3 support -- Complete support for the IETF-standard Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) version 3, including add, delete, modify, compare and abandon operations. In addition, Domino supports LDAP referrals, the UTF-8 character set (equivalent to Unicode), enhanced search capabilities, language tags, and X.509 v3 certificate-based authentication. Domino supports the IETF-standard LDAP directory schema for compatibility with third-party LDAP directories.
Extensible Schema -- Using Domino Designer, administrators can create custom document extensions and new document types in the Domino Directory. These customizations are preserved across updates to the Domino Directory design template, and can be searched and updated with LDAP v3 and Domino Administrator.
Directory Catalog -- The Directory Catalog aggregates user information from one or more Domino Directories. It is optimized for fast searches, compact storage of user information (approximately 100 bytes per entry with default attributes), and scalability to millions of entries. It is small enough to be replicated to users' desktop or laptop computers so that users can take the entire company directory with them when they are away from the office. Administrators can choose the attributes included in Directory Catalog entries, and can create multiple Directory Catalogs with different content or sort orders. The Directory Catalog is fully LDAP-enabled, and can be searched using standard LDAP clients.
Directory Assistance -- Directory Assistance, known in previous releases as the Master Address Book, allows directory search requests to a Domino server to be redirected to other Domino directories or to a third-party LDAP directory, based on naming rules defined in the Directory Assistance database. In R5, the Domino server can reference group definitions stored in third-party LDAP directories, and use those groups for determining Web user access to Domino applications.
LDIF import and export -- Domino supports import and export of directory entries using the IETF-standard LDIF file format.
Alternate name support for international names -- Domino and Notes now support an alternate name as the secondary name for a Notes user. For example, the alternate name could be in the user's native language and character set, while the primary Notes user name could use the English alphabet. The alternate name is secure and authenticated, and users can send mail to and search on the alternate name.
Message Management
Message tracking -- Domino R5 now allows for detailed message tracking and monitoring. The Simple Message Tracker Collector Protocol (SMTCP) provides a method to record message tracking information and the information is logged into the MailTracker Store Database that is resident on each mail server. The MailTracker Collector formats the data so it can be queried. Query options include: Sender (wildcarding permitted); Recipient (wildcarding permitted); Date Range; Subject Text (wildcarding permitted); Range of Message Sizes
Message reporting -- Domino R5 provides automated mail server reporting. Eleven different reports cover topics such as: Message count by author and size; Most common message routings; and Volume summaries. Data is stored in Notes format so custom views and reports can be generated.
Single Copy Message Store management -- Message Store management (previously know as SCOS) has been improved and now delivers management tools to help administer the message store on a per user basis and archive old messages. In addition to having unlimited message store databases, Domino R5 provides for auto creation of message store databases when the database has surpassed operating system size restrictions on a single database.
Routing control management improvements -- Administrators now have more control over routing options. Some options include: Allow mail only from specific domains; Allow mail from designated organizations; Deny mail from designated organizations; Maximum message size quota; Send messages as low priority if meet specific criteria such as size. Additional Routing controls include:
Push Request Routing - The new router also supports "push request" routing such that the source server sends a "push request" to the destination server. The destination server then sends a request for the source to send the message. This facility enables Domino to provide Remote Message Queuing for one or more domains. This feature supports four configurable modes of operation which deliver the same functionality for both NRPC and SMTP connections.
Routing topology - Administrators have more control to optimize routing for their organization.
Message quotas -- Administrators can easily set individual mail file quotas.
Built-inmigration tools -- Domino Upgrade Services provide easy-to-use migration wizards for cc:Mail, MS Mail, Windows NT, MS Exchange, LDAP (LDIF), Novell Groupwise 4.x, Novell Groupwise 5.x, and Netscape Mail Server. In addition, there are now open APIs for Lotus Business Partners and third-party developers to create custom Domino Upgrade Services.
Database and architectural improvements
Expanded database storage -- In R5, Domino databases are design for a limited size and certified up to 64GB. Your applications are limited by the system platform on which the Domino Server is deployed.
Memory and I/O optimization -- Low-level resource managers include enhancements that dramatically increase performance. Enhancements are in these areas: compression, sequential I/O, paginated large structures, slotted pages, adaptive handling of non-summary data, a single buffer manager, background I/O threads with read-ahead.
Transaction logging -- Transaction logging is an industry-standard technique for reliable data storage. A transaction log is a sequential file to which everybody writes -- sequential writing on disk is much faster than writing in various places on disk. Transaction logging records the operation you performed once it is written to disk (not just memory). Transaction logging replaces Database Fixup, which results in a much faster system restart and recovery.
Improved scalability -- Scalability improvements are twofold: size of databases and number of users supported per server. With the database enhancement mentioned above, databases now scale to the limits of your system platform. Notably, work has been done to the Domino R5 directory to ensure that it scales to support at least one million registered users. The number of Notes, IMAP, POP and browser users supported by a single Domino server is two to four times greater than R4.6.x.
Availability and Reliability
Internet Cluster Manager -- Extends failover and load balancing to Web browser clients (HTTP and HTTPS) using native Domino clustering and the Internet Cluster Manager (ICM).
Domino integration with OS clusters -- Domino can run under Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) configuration in either Active/Passive or Active/Active modes. In an Active/Passive configuration MSCS fails over the Domino server to a secondary MSCS cluster server where the Domino server is then started. In an Active/Active configuration, two Domino servers are running on two MSCS cluster servers and if one Domino server goes down it fails over to a second partition running a separate instance of Domino on the other MSCS cluster server.
Clustering enhancements -- In order to provide users with a single system image of a Domino cluster, several enhancements are provided in R5 such as collaborative calendar and scheduling support of fail over, synchronous mail agent support of failover, improved unread mark support of replicas, and better fail back functions in the Notes client.
Partitioning enhancements -- Unlimited partitions per server (previously six) so you can maximize your system investment in larger platforms. In addition, each partitioned server runs as its own, distinguishable service in an NT environment, allowing for the startup and shutdown of each partitioned server through the NT service manager.
Online indexing -- Allows access to database views that are currently being updated and allows users to continue accessing a server when the $Users view is being updated.
Auto restart enhancements -- Administrators can optionally keep the Domino server down -- after cleaning up all the files -- which is extremely useful in conjunction with hardware clustering/failover. Allows for tighter integration with UNIX hardware clustering such as Sun FullMoon. Administration scripts are configurable to help gather diagnostic information on Domino failures.
Online, in-place compaction -- Allows for database compaction while database is in use. The Administration Process systematically compacts database in intervals, allowing for user traffic to take turns with compaction process.
Full and incremental, online backup support -- Set of published APIs to allow tight integration with third-party incremental backup solutions.
Web Server
Enhanced HTTP stack -- The Domino native HTTP engine has numerous enhancements including enhanced performance and servlet support.
Domino for Microsoft IIS -- You may now choose to use Microsoft IIS as the HTTP engine for Domino. For NT customers that use Microsoft IIS, Domino adds a secure, distributed, and cross-platform Web application server to IIS Web servers.
CORBA/IIOP protocol support -- Support for Common Object Request Broker Architecture & Internet InterORB Protocol (CORBA/IIOP). Permits extension of client/server computing to non-Notes clients. CORBA/IIOP enables applets that communicate with the server more efficiently than HTTP.
Access control for HTML and other files -- When using the Domino native HTTP stack, you are now able to configure access control lists for files (HTML, GIFs, etc.) in the file system.
Domino Web server API (DSAPI) -- Domino now supports a server API that allows you to create your own Web server extensions. A DSAPI extension, or "filter", is a program you create that is notified when certain events occur in the Web server, such as when a URL request is received or when a HTTP client is about to be authenticated.
Internet Cluster Manager -- Domino's clustering, load balancing and failover capabilities have been extended to support Web browsers accessing the Domino Web server. When a Domino Web server is overloaded or unavailable, the Web browser request is rerouted to another server in the cluster.
HTTP session authentication -- Domino R5 allows you to choose authentication using HTTP sessions and encrypted cookies, which provides the ability to "log in" and "log out" of a Web site served by Domino.
Determine browser capabilities -- You can now determine the capabilities of a Web user's browser from the formula language, using @BrowserInfo.
Upgraded servlet support -- The Domino Web server now supports the JSDK 2.0.
Last-modified HTTP header -- Domino R5 now sends a last-modified header with most Domino responses. This often results in a performance enhancement, since it enables many Web browsers or proxy servers to cache Domino pages.
Virtual server logging -- Virtual server information is now included in the common extended log format.
Virtual servers SSL and key ring support -- System administrators can specify a unique key ring for each virtual server. This enables each virtual server to use SSL. Also, port security settings can be specified for each virtual server.
Control server log life -- Administrators can now specify the length of time for which a log file is used: daily, weekly, or monthly.
Byte range serving -- Domino R5 allows a Web client to download a file in sections (a range of bytes) rather than all at once. This can make file downloads more efficient and fault-tolerant. For example, if a Web client is in the middle of downloading a file and the connection is suddenly lost, Domino, with byte range serving support, starts the download again from the point where it was interrupted, rather than from the beginning of the file.
Simple URLs -- Domino R5 supports the ability to give a page in Domino database a name, which results in simple URLs where no unique ID is required. For example: www.acme.com/News.nsf/Today?OpenPage where "Today" is the name of the page. If the name is unambiguous, you can further simply the URL further to:www.acme.com/News.nsf/Today
Automatic configuration of maximum performance settings -- In R5, you can have Domino automatically configure various server options to optimize your HTTP performance based on the type of applications you are running, such as Web mail, Web applications, or both mail and applications.
Enterprise Integration -- Domino Enterprise Connection Services (DECS) -- Domino Enterprise Connection Services (DECS) is a visual tool and high performance server environment you can use to create Web applications that provide live, native access to enterprise data and applications. The visual tool includes an application wizard and online Help to assist you to define external data source connections -- for example, DB2, Oracle, Sybase, File directory, EDA/SQL, or ODBC -- and fields within your application that automatically update with external connector data. For more information on connecting to legacy databases, see the Domino Enterprise Connection Services User's Guide. (DECSDOC.NSF) in your Notes or Domino data directory.
Install and Setup
InstallShield -- The Domino R5 and Notes R5 Install programs for Windows platforms are based upon the InstallShield Wizard. The new procedure is significantly simpler than previous versions.
Server setup without a client -- For non-Windows platforms, Domino R5 launches a Web browser after install so administrators can easily set up and configure the server.
Automated client setup -- Using the centralized client configuration tool, administrators can centrally setup clients, choose what server the client connects to during setup and configure the user's desktop.
Enhanced server setup profiles -- Allows administrators to create server setup profiles. Administrators can distribute these to remote sites for controlled server setup and deployment.
Administration Process
Programmability -- The administration process is programmable via published APIs. Administrators and third-party vendors can take advantage of core Administration Process functions in order to integrate Domino administration with other administration products and to develop customized administration functions.
Cross-domain functionality -- Administration Process is extended so administration process services such as change name, add person, delete person, upgrade server, and delete server are available across domains.
Desktop Management
Centralized client configuration -- Domino R5 allows administrators to centrally configure and control desktop setting such as home server, proxy server, UI preferences, and bookmarks. In addition, administrators can "lock down" the desktops so that the settings can't be altered.
Centralized upgrades -- Allows administrators to distribute client software upgrades. This feature supports UNC (Universal Naming Convention) so there is no need for consistent drive mappings across all clients.
Monitoring
Enterprise-wide monitoring -- New features in the Domino Administrator make it easy to find and monitor large number of servers. Monitoring follows a distributed model, showing only those servers that an administrator can and should manage.
Expert analysis tools -- These tools allow administrators to analyze server performance, over time, to help you predict and prevent future issues. These tools include:
Core services analysis -- For what is the server being used?
Service level agreements -- Set and Track SLAs, including server response time and replication schedules.
Correlated services analysis -- If an SLFA is not met, this tools helps administrators determine the reason by correlating statistics such as server response time with associated statistics like concurrent users and indexer, replicator and agent activity.
Database usage analysis -- Helps administrators optimize server tuning by knowing which databases are being used and how often. Also helps load balance applications and recoup disk space by archiving unused databases
Application monitoring and analysis -- Tells administrators how well an application is working. Calculates the time it takes to open the default view and create a document using the default form. Helpful in telling when views may be growing too large.
ISpy -- Gives administrators the ability to get service-level statistics on any TCP/IP service supported by a Domino server, including which services are available and the response time for a particular service. ISpy also includes the ability to ping servers to determine mail routing and response time, alerting administrators to potential mail delivery problems. ISpy is fully integrated with the Domino events and statistics collection, allowing the administrator to set their own response time goals and providing a range of automated actions to occur when a service is not performing to the administrator's expectations.
Administration enhancements
Telnet into server console for Domino UNIX servers -- Domino R5 provides the ability to use any UNIX or NT workstation to Telnet (or remotely log in) to the server console of a Domino UNIX server. This allows you to see the history of what is happening on the server console, and you can type server commands at the console from the remote workstation.
Batch console commands -- This is the ability to give the server many commands from a batch file.
Decommission server analysis tool -- Domino R5 provides analysis tool to help administrators decommission servers. You get detailed information comparing source server and target server. Any inconsistencies between them are flagged.
Passthru logging -- When configured as a passthru server, the Domino server can log sessions established through that server.
Ability to stop/start ports -- The administrator can stop and start individual Domino Server ports with the Start Port and Stop Port console commands.
Enhanced trace connection facility -- Additional controls are available on the amount of information logged for trace connection operations.
Search tools
Domain Search -- In R5, you can search all databases in the domain with multi-database indexing selected, and any file systems referenced. By incorporating ACLs into the search, users only get results from Notes documents to which they have access. Provides dynamic indexing of new databases that are flagged to be included, and a centrally located index of all databases.
Content categorization -- Provides the ability to categorize all documents in the domain regardless of the database where they are located, according to a single hierarchical scheme or taxonomy. Web pages can be categorized as well. The domain catalog contains a view that can be used to browse through this content map.
Filters -- Domino R5 indexes attached documents by using Verity's KeyView filters to translate the attachments into format that can be indexed. Supported formats include Acrobat PDF, Word, WordPerfect, Word Pro, 1-2-3, Excel, Freelance, PowerPoint, HTML, and many others.
Double-byte full-text indexing and searching -- All indexing and searching operations are fully enabled for double-byte character sets.
Paged result set -- Search results are formatted on a page in a format similar to major Internet search engines. A page comes back with 20 hits by default (this is user-configurable) and then you hit the next page button to get the next set of hits. The result form is customizable. You can specify logos, a summary of the document, author, relevance rank type, modified date, etc.
Full-text SPI -- Service Provider Interface provides APIs for other search engines to hook into core Domino databases.
Full-text indexing of file system -- Any file system referenced by the file system configuration form and stored in the domain catalog can be added to the index.
Domain Catalog -- Centrally maintains list of all database attributes such as Location, Indexing configuration, and ACL properties. Also contains Search and Result forms and File system configuration forms.
Clustered searching -- Supports search of clustered Domain Catalog Servers and automatically load-balances requests by redirecting users to the least-loaded server in the cluster. Fault Tolerant Domain Searching can be implementing with clusters. If one of the Domain Catalog Servers crashes, requests are automatically redirected to the remaining Domain Catalog servers in the cluster.
Fuzzy search -- Gives users the ability to locate words even if the document query terms used for the search are misspelled within the documents or vice-versa.
Network Protocol Support
HTTP Tunnel Proxy -- The Domino server and the Notes client can use the industry-standard HTTP Tunnel Proxy to connect through a firewall, to each other and to other Internet standard clients and servers. The POP3, IMAP, SMTP, LDAP, and NNTP protocols are supported via the HTTP Tunnel Proxy, both with and without SSL (Secure Socket Layer). The internal Notes protocol (Notes RPC or NRPC) is also supported via the HTTP Tunnel Proxy, as in previous releases.
Flexible Notes TCP/IP connections/server names -- When connecting to a TCP/IP-based Domino server, users can enter the server's name as a simple host name, even if the server's name is a fully-qualified TCP/IP name. For example, the user can enter "fred" to access a Domino server named Fred/Sales/Acme, or fred.acme.com/Acme.
External Domain Network Information document -- The administrator can import address information into this document from another Domino domain.
Improved NetWare Directory Services (NDS) support -- Domino provides a snap-in DLL for the NetWare NDS administration tool (NWADMIN), which allows an administrator to browse and update Domino server objects in NDS. Domino R5 uses the new 32-bit snap-in interface, allowing use of the 32-bit NWADMIN tool. Domino automatically finds its server object within NDS using the naming context of the current logged-in user.
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