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Prepare to crawl Lotus Notes (Search Server 2008)

  • Article

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

 

Topic Last Modified: 2009-10-19

Note

Unless otherwise noted, the information in this article applies to both Microsoft Search Server 2008 and Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express.

Before you perform the procedures in this article, confirm that:

You have read the topic:

This article provides the procedures for preparing Microsoft Search Server 2008 to crawl Lotus Notes content. You must do the procedures in the order listed.

Important

Some procedures in this article require the involvement of a Domino administrator of the Domino server that you want to crawl and other procedures require a server administrator of the index server.

This table shows the supported Lotus Notes client and Domino server versions.

Supported Domino Server Versions Supported Lotus Notes Client Versions

5.5

5.5

6.0 or 5.5

6.0

6.5 or 6.0

6.5

7.0 or 6.5

7.0

7.5 or 7.0

7.5

8.0 or 7.5

8.0

Note

For more information about Lotus Notes and Domino server configurations, see Supported Configurations of Notes and Domino 7.0 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132808).

In this article:

  • Add the Windows account assigned to the OSearch service to the Administrators group

  • Install the Lotus Notes client application

  • Grant permissions to the data folder

  • Configure the Lotus Notes client application

  • Verify access to the Lotus Domino database you want to crawl

  • Configure security mappings

  • Reboot the index server

  • Download the Lotus C++ API Toolkit for Notes

  • Register Lotus Notes with the index server

  • Restart the Office SharePoint Server Search service

  • Create a content source and crawl content

Add the Windows account assigned to the OSearch service to the Administrators group

For more information about adding a Windows domain account to a group, see "Add a member to a local group" in Windows Server 2003 Help.

Install the Lotus Notes client application

Use the following procedure to install the Lotus Notes client application on the index server in your server farm with which you want to crawl a Lotus Domino database. Note that this client application serves as a protocol handler and is used to configure the Notes.ini file, both of which are used by the crawler when crawling Lotus Domino databases.

Because a 64-bit version of the Lotus C++ API is not available from IBM, you must use the 32-bit version of the Lotus Notes client application.

Important

You must be a server administrator of the index server to do the following procedure.

Install Lotus Notes

  1. Copy the Lotus Notes client application to the index server from which you want to crawl Lotus Notes documents.

  2. Start the Lotus Notes Installation Wizard.

  3. In the Welcome to the Installation Wizard for Lotus Notes dialog box, click Next.

  4. On the License Agreement page, select I accept the terms in the license agreement and then click Next to continue.

  5. On the Customer Information page, type a user name in the User Name box and the name of your organization in the Organization box, or accept the default settings, and then click Next.

  6. On the Installation Path Selection page, specify the path you want to use for the program and data files, or accept the default installation paths, and then click Next.

    Note

    By default, program files are stored in the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\lotus\notes\ folder and data files are stored in the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\lotus\notes\data\ folder, where <SystemDrive> is the drive on which Lotus Notes is installed.

  7. On the Custom Setup page, select the program features you want to install on the local hard drive and then click Next.

    The following table shows the features and subfeatures that are required.

    Feature Subfeature

    Notes Client

    Client Help Files

    Domino Enterprise Connection Services (DECS)

    Domino Designer

    Designer Help

  8. On the Ready to Install the Program page, if you do not want Lotus Notes to be your default e-mail program, clear the selection Make Notes my default e-mail program.

  9. Click Install.

    The Installing Lotus Notes page shows the installation status.

  10. On the Install Wizard Completed page, click Finish.

Grant permissions to the data folder

Use the following procedure to grant Full Control permissions for the WSS_WPG group on the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data folder on the index server.

Important

You must be a server administrator of the index server to do the following procedure.

Grant permissions to the data folder

  1. On the index server, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.

  2. In Windows Explorer, go to the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data folder, where <SystemDrive> is the drive on which Lotus Notes is installed.

  3. Right-click the Data folder, and then click Sharing and Security.

  4. In the Properties dialog box, on the Security tab, click Add.

  5. In the Select the object names to select box, do one of the following, and then click OK:

    • If Search Server 2008 is installed on an Active Directory domain controller, type domain\WSS_WPG, where domain is the name of the domain associated with the domain controller.

    • If Search Server 2008 is installed on a server that is not an Active Directory domain controller, type server\WSS_WPG, where server is the NetBIOS name of the index server.

  6. In the Properties dialog box, in the Permissions for WSS_WPG section, select the Allow box in the Full control row and then click OK.

Configure the Lotus Notes client application

Use the following procedure to configure the Lotus Notes client application. Note that the configuration settings selected in this procedure are written to the Notes.ini file, which the crawler uses to discover how to connect to the Lotus Domino server.

To perform the following procedure, you must know the user name that is associated with the Domino certificate that you copied to the index server in the "Install Domino certificate" procedure. You also need to know the name of the Lotus Domino server that you want to crawl.

Note

If you have previously performed any of the steps in the following procedure, some steps might appear out of sequence.

Configure Lotus Notes

  1. On the index server, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Lotus Applications, and then click Lotus Notes.

  2. On the Welcome page, click Next.

  3. On the User Information page, enter the user name associated with your Domino certificate in the Your name box.

  4. Enter the hierarchical name of the Domino server you want to crawl in the Domino server box, for example, Contoso/marketing/west.

  5. Ensure that I want to connect to a Domino server is selected, and then click Next.

  6. On the Notes ID File page, click Browse and then go to the location where the certificate is stored. Select your certificate click Open, and then click Next.

  7. Click Yes to copy the certificate to the specified location.

Note

If you are not prompted for a Domino certificate, click Previous and ensure that you have entered the correct info.

  1. If a dialog box appears that informs you that you are not authorized to access the specified directory, click OK to close the dialog box. Note that this error is expected if the account you are logged in with does not have access to the mail folder on the Domino server.

  2. On the Instant Messaging Setup page, cancel the selection Setup instant messaging.

  3. Click Next.

  4. On the Additional Services page, click Next.

  5. In the Lotus Notes message box, click OK.

    The Lotus Notes Welcome screen appears.

  6. Leave the Lotus Notes client application open. You will need it for the next procedure.

Verify access to the Lotus Domino database you want to crawl

Use the following procedure to verify that the certificate you installed has access rights to the database that you want to crawl.

Verify access

  1. In Lotus Notes, click File, point to Database, and then click Open.

  2. In the Open Database dialog box, select the Lotus Domino server you want to connect to from the Server list.

  3. In the Database list, select the database that you want to connect to and then click Open.

  4. The documents that are contained by the database you selected are displayed in the Document Name section. This means that the index server has the necessary permissions to crawl these documents.

  5. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for each additional database you want to verify access permissions to.

  6. On the File menu, click Exit Notes.

Configure security mappings

The following table describes the items you will be asked to name when doing the following two procedures.

Item Comment

Mappings database name

Name of the Lotus Domino database used to map Lotus Notes user IDs to Windows domain accounts

Lotus Notes field name

Name of the field in the Lotus Domino database file used to store Lotus Notes user IDs.

Windows user field name

Name of the field in the Lotus Domino database file that is used to store Windows user names.

Form name

Name of the form that stores the Lotus Notes field name and Windows user field name fields.

View name

Name of the view for the form that stores the Lotus Notes user IDs to Windows user name mappings.

Note

This name is case sensitive.

Create the mappings database

Use this procedure to create a mappings database using Domino Designer. You need only one mappings database for each forest of Domino servers that contain databases that you want to crawl.

The following procedure assumes you have a licensed copy of either version 6.0 or 6.5 of the Lotus Notes client application installed on the index server. The following procedure is based on version 6.5 of the Lotus Notes client application.

Important

To perform this procedure, you must be an administrator on the index server and have at least Manager permissions on the Domino server you want to crawl.

Create mappings database

  1. On the index server, open Domino Designer.

  2. Click File, point to Database, and then click New.

  3. In the New Database dialog box, do the following:

    • Select the Domino server from the Server name list.

    • In the Title box, type a title for your new database.

      This content automatically populates the File Name box, appended with the .nsf file extension.

      Note that if the title you chose is more than eight characters in length, the file name will be truncated.

    • Enter the file name shown in the File Name box into the Mappings database name row.

    • Click OK to close the New Database dialog box.

  4. Click Create, point to Design, and then click Form.

  5. Click Create, and then click Field.

  6. In the Field dialog box, in the Name box, type a name for this field. Note that this field will be used to store the Lotus Notes user IDs. Enter the name you chose for this field in the Lotus Notes field name row.

  7. Close the dialog box to save the field.

  8. Click Create, and then click Field.

  9. In the Field dialog box, in the Name box, type a name for this field. Note that this field will be used to store the Windows domain user accounts. Enter the name you chose for this field in the Windows user field name row.

  10. Close the dialog box to save the field.

  11. Click File, click Save, and then do the following:

    • Enter a name for this form in the Save Form as box.

    • Enter the name you chose for this form in the Form name row.

    • Click OK to close the dialog box.

  12. On the Create menu, point to Design, and then click View.

  13. In the Create View dialog box, do the following:

    • Enter the name you want for this view in the View name box.

    • Enter the name you chose in the View name row. Note that this name is case sensitive.

    • Select Shared from the View type list.

    • Click OK to save the view.

  14. Open the view that you created in step 13.

  15. Create a column using the name you entered in the Lotus Notes field name row.

  16. On the Objects tab, select the column you created in step 10. In the bottom right pane, select Field and then select the field with the same name.

  17. Create a column using the name you entered in the Windows user field name row.

  18. On the Objects tab, select the column you created in step 12. In the bottom right pane, select Field and then select the field of the same name.

  19. Click File and then click Save to save the view and then close Domino Designer.

Add user accounts to the mappings database

The following procedure assumes you have a licensed copy of either version 6.0 or 6.5 of the Lotus Notes client application installed on the index server. The following procedure is based on version 6.5 of the Lotus Notes client application.

Tip

At a minimum, you must map the Lotus Notes user ID in the Domino certificate to the account you listed in the Search service row

Important

You must be a server administrator of the index server and have at least Manager permissions on the Domino server to perform this procedure.

Add user accounts to the mappings table

  1. On the index server, open the Lotus Notes client application.

  2. Click File, point to Database, and then click Open.

  3. In the Open Database dialog box, do the following:

    • Select the Domino server from the Server name list. This name is listed in the Domino server name row.

    • Select the mappings database that you created earlier. The name of this database is listed in the Mappings database name row.

    • Click Open.

  4. In the left pane, select the view that you created for this database. This view name is listed in the View name row.

  5. Click Create, and then click the name of the form you created earlier. This form name is listed in the Form name row.

  6. In the form, in the field that you created to store the Lotus Notes user IDs, enter a Lotus Notes user ID that you want to map to a Windows domain account. Note that this field is case sensitive, for example, ContosoUser.

  7. In the field that you created to map to the Lotus Notes user IDs, enter the Windows domain account that you want to map to the Lotus Notes user ID that you entered in step 6. Note that this must be in the form of domain\user, for example, Contoso\user1.

  8. Click File and then click Save to save the document.

  9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 if you want to add additional mappings. Otherwise, go to step 10.

  10. When finished, save the form and then close the Lotus Notes client application.

Reboot the index server

You must reboot the index server before continuing to the next procedure.

Important

After the index server reboots, do not open the Lotus Notes client application again. This is because the Lotus Notes client application might lock files that could cause the following procedures and crawling Lotus Domino databases to fail.

Download the Lotus C++ API Toolkit for Notes

Use the following procedure to download the Lotus C++ API Toolkit for Notes. This toolkit contains a .dll file that the crawler uses to access Lotus Notes databases.

Download the toolkit

  1. In your browser, go to the IBM software downloads page.

  2. In the IBM software downloads page, download the Lotus C++ API Toolkit 2.x & 3.x for Multiplatform self-extracting file.

    Note

    We do not support the Lotus C++ API Toolkit for Notes/Domino 7.0 Multiplatform at this time.

  3. After downloading the toolkit, in Windows Explorer, go to the folder to which you downloaded the file and double-click the file. For release 2.x & 3.x of this toolkit, the filename is c55svna.exe.

  4. In the Lotus C++ API Release 3.0 for Domino and Notes 6.0 dialog box, click Finish and then click Yes.

  5. Copy the lcppn30.dll file from the c:\notescpp\lib\mswin32 folder to the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Bin folder on the index server, where <SystemDrive> is the drive on which Search Server 2008 is installed.

Register Lotus Notes with the index server

Use the following procedure to register Lotus Notes with the operating system of the index server. This procedure must be done on the index server by a server administrator.

Register Lotus Notes

  1. On the index server, in Windows Explorer, go to the <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Bin folder, where <SystemDrive> is the drive on which Search Server 2008 is installed.

  2. Double-click NotesSetup.ex1e.

  3. On the Welcome to the Lotus Notes Index Setup Wizard page, click Next.

  4. In the Register Lotus Notes for use with Microsoft Office Server dialog box, do the following:

    • In the Location of the notes.ini file box, ensure that the correct path to your Notes.ini file is specified. The default path to this file is <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\lotus\notes\notes.ini, where <SystemDrive> is the drive on which Lotus Notes is installed.

    • In the Location of the Lotus Notes install directory box, ensure that the correct path to the Lotus Notes install directory is specified. The default path to this directory is <SystemDrive>:\Program Files\lotus\notes.

    • In the Password box, type the password for the user name that is associated with the Domino certificate. This password is listed in the Password row.

    • In the Confirm Password box, retype the password for the user name that is associated with the Domino certificate.

  5. We recommend that you leave the Ignore Lotus Notes security while building the index box unselected. If you choose to ignore Lotus Notes security, all Lotus Notes documents are crawled and indexed without security information. This means that these documents will appear on search results pages to all users of SharePoint sites.

    Note

    Search Server 2008 does not use the Lotus Notes security information directly. To ensure that users of Search Server 2008 see only the Lotus Notes documents in search results that they are intended to see, the Domino administrator must use the mapping file to map Lotus Notes users to Windows domain users before the search services administrator crawls the Lotus Notes documents.

  6. Click Next.

  7. On the Specify Lotus Notes Owner Field to Windows User Name Mapping page, do the following:

    • In the Lotus Notes server name box, type the NetBIOS name or IP address of your Domino server. This is listed in the Lotus Domino server's NetBIOS name or IP address row.

    • In the Lotus Notes database file name box, type the file name of the Lotus Domino database that maps the Lotus Notes user IDs to Windows domain accounts. Be sure to include the .nsf file extension with this name, for example, Mappings.nsf.

    Important

    This name is case sensitive.

    • In the View name box, type the view name of the Lotus Domino database that stores the Lotus Notes user IDs to Windows user name mappings.

    Important

    This name is case sensitive.

    • In the Lotus Notes field name column title box, type the name of the column in the Lotus Notes database file used to store Lotus Notes user IDs.

    Important

    This name is case sensitive.

    • In the Windows user name column title box, type the name of the column in the Lotus Notes database file used to store the Windows user accounts.

    Important

    This name is case sensitive.

  8. Click Next.

  9. On the Completing the Lotus Notes Index Setup Wizard page, click Finish.

Restart the Office SharePoint Server Search service

The server administrator of the index server must restart the Office SharePoint Server Search (OSearch) service before a content source can be created to crawl Lotus Domino databases.

Important

Do not use the Services on Server page on the SharePoint Central Administration Web site to restart this service. Doing so resets the content index, which requires the search services administrator to do a full crawl of all content to rebuild the index.

Restart the OSearch service

  1. On the index server, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services.

  2. In the Name column, double-click Office SharePoint Server Search.

  3. In the Office SharePoint Server Search Properties box, click Stop.

  4. After the service stops, click Start.

After the service starts, click OK, and then close the Services page.

Create a content source and crawl content

A search services administrator can now create one or more content sources to crawl Lotus Domino databases. The search services administrator must know the names of the Lotus Domino servers and databases you want to crawl to create the content sources.

Note

You must create one content source for each Domino database that you want to crawl.

For more information about creating content sources, see About content sources (Search Server 2008) and Add a content source to crawl Lotus Notes (Search Server 2008).

You can download a third-party tool from CodePlex to help automatically manage content sources for crawling Lotus Notes databases.