3.2 Creating the Driver in Designer

You create the Lotus Notes driver by importing the driver’s basic configuration file and then modifying the configuration to suit your environment. After you’ve created and configured the driver, you need to deploy it to the Identity Vault and start it.

3.2.1 Importing the Driver Configuration File

  1. In Designer, open your project.

  2. In the Modeler, right-click the driver set where you want to create the driver, then select New > Driver to display the Driver Configuration Wizard.

  3. In the Driver Configuration list, select Notes, then click Run.

  4. On the Import Information Requested page, fill in the following fields:

    Driver Name: Specify a name that is unique within the driver set.

    Driver is Local/Remote: Select Local if this driver will run on the Metadirectory server without using the Remote Loader service. Select Remote if you want the driver to use the Remote Loader service, either locally on the Metadirectory server or remotely on another server.

  5. (Conditional) If you chose to run the driver remotely, click Next, then fill in the fields listed below. Otherwise, skip to Step 6.

    Remote Host Name and Port: Specify the host name or IP address of the server where the driver’s Remote Loader service is running.

    Driver Password: Specify the driver object password that is defined in the Remote Loader service. The Remote Loader requires this password to authenticate to the Metadirectory server.

    Remote Password: Specify the Remote Loader’s password (as defined on the Remote Loader service). The Metadirectory engine (or Remote Loader shim) requires this password to authenticate to the Remote Loader

  6. Click Next to import the driver configuration.

    At this point, the driver is created from the basic configuration file. To ensure that the driver works the way you want it to for your environment, you must review and modify (if necessary) the driver’s default configuration settings.

  7. To review or modify the default configuration settings, click Configure, then continue with the next section, Configuring the Driver.

    or

    To skip the configuration settings at this time, click Close. When you are ready to configure the settings, continue with Configuring the Driver.

3.2.2 Configuring the Driver

After importing the driver configuration file, you need to configure the driver before it can run. You should complete the following tasks to configure the driver:

  • Ensure that the driver can authenticate to Lotus Notes: Make sure that you’ve established a Lotus Notes user account for the driver (see Section 3.1, Creating Lotus Notes Accounts and Groups) and the correct authentication information is defined for the driver parameters (see Section A.1.3, Authentication).

  • Configure the driver parameters: There are many settings that can help you customize and optimize the driver. The settings are divided into categories such as Driver Configuration, Engine Control Values, and Global Configuration Values (GCVs). Although it is important for you to understand all of the settings, your first priority should be to configure the driver parameters located on the Driver Configuration page. The driver parameters control general settings such as the certifier file and Lotus Notes database accessed by the driver, Subscriber channel settings, and Publisher channel settings. For information about the driver parameters, see Section A.1.5, Driver Parameters. For additional information, see Section 5.4, Using Driver Parameters.

  • Configure the driver filter: Modify the driver filter to include the object classes and attributes you want synchronized between the Identity Vault and Lotus Notes.

  • Configure policies: Modify the policies as needed. For information about the default configuration policies, see Policies.

  • Configure password synchronization: The basic driver configuration is set up to support password synchronization through Universal Password. If you don’t want this setup, see Configuring Password Flow in the Identity Manager 3.6.1 Password Management Guide.

After completing the configuration tasks, continue with the next section, Deploying the Driver.

3.2.3 Deploying the Driver

After a driver is created in Designer, it must be deployed into the Identity Vault.

  1. In Designer, open your project.

  2. In the Modeler, right-click the driver icon Driver icon or the driver line, then select Live > Deploy.

  3. If you are authenticated to the Identity Vault, skip to Step 5; otherwise, specify the following information:

    • Host: Specify the IP address or DNS name of the server hosting the Identity Vault.

    • Username: Specify the DN of the user object used to authenticate to the Identity Vault.

    • Password: Specify the user’s password.

  4. Click OK.

  5. Read the deployment summary, then click Deploy.

  6. Read the message, then click OK.

  7. Click Define Security Equivalence to assign rights to the driver.

    The driver requires rights to objects within the Identity Vault. The Admin user object is most often used to supply these rights. However, you might want to create a DriversUser (for example) and assign security equivalence to that user. Whatever rights that the driver needs to have on the server, the DriversUser object must have the same security rights.

    1. Click Add, then browse to and select the object with the correct rights.

    2. Click OK twice.

  8. Click Exclude Administrative Roles to exclude users that should not be synchronized.

    You should exclude any administrative User objects (for example, Admin and DriversUser) from synchronization.

    1. Click Add, then browse to and select the user object you want to exclude.

    2. Click OK.

    3. Repeat Step 8.a and Step 8.b for each object you want to exclude.

    4. Click OK.

  9. Click OK.

3.2.4 Starting the Driver

When a driver is created, it is stopped by default. To make the driver work, you must start the driver and cause events to occur. Identity Manager is an event-driven system, so after the driver is started, it won’t do anything until an event occurs.

To start the driver:

  1. If you are using the Remote Loader with the driver, make sure the Remote Loader driver instance is running:

    • Windows: Open the Remote Loader console on the driver’s server, select the driver in the list, then click Start.

    • Linux, AIX, or Solaris: At the server command line, add the driver object password and remote loader password to the Notes driver startup script. For example:

      cd driver_script_directory
  ./rdxml.startnotes -sp driver_password remote_loader_password

      These passwords must be the same as the Driver Object Password and Remote Loader Password or Set Password you specified when configuring the driver. The driver_script_directory should be the directory where you placed the files (see Section 2.3.3, Linux, AIX, or Solaris).

      Use rdxml.startnotes to start the Remote Loader for the driver.

      For example, 

      cd driver_script_directory
  ./rdxml.startnotes

  2. In Designer, open your project.

  3. In the Modeler, right-click the driver icon Driver icon or the driver line, then select Live > Start Driver.

    When the driver starts for the first time, it does the following:

    • Searches for the Domino Server (specified in the driver parameters).

    • Opens dsrepcfg.nsf. If that file does not exist, the driver automatically creates dsrepcfg.nsf, using the dsrepcfg.ntf database template that is provided with the driver.

    • Writes the Publisher parameters and data to dsrepcfg.nsf, specifying an appropriate update database file (usually named ndsrep.nsf), so that ndsrep can read them.

    If multiple notes.ini files exist on the machine running the driver, ensure that the NotesDriverShim uses the correct .ini by placing its directory in the OS search path. If the driver shim initializes with the wrong notes.ini file, the driver shim cannot open dsrepcfg.ntf.

    If dsrepcfg.ntf is not found, or the initial dsrepcfg.nsf creation process fails, then the Publisher channel shuts down.

    Ensure that the driver shim initializes properly by modifying the Windows system path to find the appropriate notes.ini file.

  4. Continue with the next section, Starting Ndsrep.

3.2.5 Starting Ndsrep

The ndsrep program is used to publish information from the Notes database to the Identity Vault (Publisher channel). It is not required if you are only sending information from the Identity Vault to the Notes database (Subscriber channel).

Ndsrep is a Lotus Domino server add-in process to enable data synchronization. It keeps track of the time of the last successful synchronization with a Notes database, and checks the Lotus Domino Server for changes based on that time stamp. It then reads the changes from the Notes database, determines the event types they represent, and filters the updates based on objects and attributes specified in the Publisher filter in the driver configuration in the Identity Vault.

You should have already copied ndsrep to the Lotus Domino server (see Section 2.3, Copying Ndsrep and Notes.jar to the Required Locations).

  1. At the Domino Console, start the ndsrep task: 

    load ndsrep instance

    The instance must be the driver name, or a unique instance name set up for this driver. If the name of your driver includes spaces, then you must put quotes around the name. After ndsrep is loaded, all TELL commands are issued to this instance of ndsrep using the instance name.

    A task named NDSREP-instance is now displayed in the Notes Task Viewer.

  2. After the initial configuration and startup has been validated, update the Domino server's notes.ini file so that ndsrep is loaded automatically.

    For example:

    ServerTasks=Update,Replica,Router,AMgr,AdminP,ndsrep notesdrv1,
CalConn,Sched,HTTP,IMAP,POP3

    If the name of your driver includes spaces, then you must put quotes around the name.

    After the first successful startup, the Notes driver and ndsrep can be launched in any order that is convenient for your particular configuration.

For additional information about using ndsrep, see Section C.0, Ndsrep.