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Question: What is the purpose of the Notes Driver start-up scripts? And where should the Notes Driver start-up scripts be located?

Answer: The rdxml.startnotes script can be used to launch the remote loader with the remote loader configuration file (rdxml.confignotes....which tells the remote loader which driver to load and other details such as ports, trace file, & trace level). For the Notes driver to run, a series of .jar files must be found and loaded via the remote loader's JVM. The remote loader loads NotesDriverShim.jar, which is dependent on Notes.jar. For Notes.jar to work, it must be able to load the Lotus Notes API (native code) libraries (lsxbe and others). If the Notes libraries cannot be found, then the driver will not run. The Notes libraries can reside in different locations depending on Notes version, platform, installation, etc. On AIX/Linux/Solaris platforms, Notes.jar can be directed where to find the Notes libraries via an OS environment variable (Notes_ExecDirectory).

This is where the driver start-up scripts prove to be handy. The driver start-up scripts can specify (or make a good guess at) the location of the Notes libraries, set the OS environment variable, and thereby allow the driver to start-up. rdxml.startnotes executes the 'findDomino' script and 'findDomino' does the work of setting the OS Notes_ExecDirectory environment variable.

The Notes driver start-up scripts can actually be located anywhere you want for ease of use and proper access. Edit the scripts as you like, and store them in a location where the IDM admin can run them. But it really isn't that easy for every Notes driver installation. Most IDM admins don't want to edit the scripts, nor worry about OS variables, Domino installation locations, etc. They simply want the scripts to run. The driver documentation recommends copying these start-up scripts to the /local/notesdata directory, because this location has the highest possibility of success for the start-up scripts to succeed (without the need of editing the scripts, changing file permissions, or verifying java classpaths). Why would driver start-up fail if the scripts are in the wrong location? There are several reasons, but an inappropriately set Notes_ExecDirectory, inadequate rights to files or the Notes library location, or incorrect Java class paths are a few.

One recommendation is to first place the start-up scripts in the /local/notesdata directory and get the driver running. Once you have validated that the Notes driver will start, run and stop as desired, move the scripts to a location of your preference. If they do not operate as expected in their new location, edit them and make adjustments where necessary. This two step process improves your ability to troubleshoot initial startup and configuration problems.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.