The best way to replace a Lotus Domino server with a new machine is to bring up the new server alongside the old one. You give the new server a new name within your Lotus Domino domain and replicate the existing databases to the new server.
Users can then gradually begin to use the new Lotus Domino server instead of the old one. In addition to moving users, you also modify nightly agents to run on the new server, change users' home server locations to the new server, change the admin server for databases, etc. You do all of these operations over a period of time, so you can easily roll back if something goes wrong.
When everything is running correctly on the new Lotus Domino server, you simply stop the Domino process on the old server. You keep the old Lotus Domino server's operating system up for a few weeks, just in case you forgot something. After that, you back up the old server's data and shut it down fully. I have performed this kind of Lotus Domino server upgrade many times, with zero disruption to normal user workflow.
Sometimes, however, this gradual process is not viable. Some Lotus Notes and Domino shops are dependent on the exact name of the existing Lotus Domino server and cannot replace that server with one having a new name.
This occurs if the current server name is deeply embedded in many Lotus Notes agents or programs, and it is not realistic to find and change all these lines
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of code. (Of course, it is poor programming technique to use hard-coded server names, but I will leave that lecture for another time.)
In these situations, the administrator needs to bring up a new Lotus Domino server that has the exact same name (server ID) as the old Lotus Domino server. This tip explains how to do that.
I assume that you have an internal DNS server, so that each computer has a machine name and a network IP address. I also assume that your DNS server allows you to assign aliases for machine names.
If you do not run a full DNS server with these capabilities, you can still perform an in-place Lotus Domino server upgrade, but it is slightly less convenient. I address this issue where relevant in the instructions below.
In this example, let's say that your existing server has a Notes name Server1/Acme, a local IP address of 192.168.1.3, a physical name Cheerios that points to this IP address, and an alias Server1 that points to Cheerios.
About the author: Chuck Connell is president of CHC-3 Consulting, which helps organizations with all aspects of Domino and Notes.
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