GroupWise Best Practices

1
GroupWise Best Practices
Dave Muldoon Dave_at_howdavedoesit.com
2
GroupWise Best Practices
About your presenter

• Dave Muldoon
• Independent Consultant (I dont work for
  Novell).
• Author of GroupWise Administration Made Easy
  series. (available at www.caledonia.net)
• Novell Cool Solutions Author since 2002.
• Tech Editor of Novell GroupWise 7.0 User Guides
• Contributor to the GroupWise Advisor Magazine.
• GroupWise Advisor Summit Presentor (2004
  2005).
• Have been working with GroupWise for over 7
  years. Supporting multiple GroupWise
  environments small implementations to single
  systems totaling over 19,000 users.

3
GroupWise Best Practices
What Every GroupWise Admin should know about
their system.

• Arrive at work and be able to identify
• What agents system contains (Domains, Gateways
  and Post Offices)
• How the system is currently performing
• There should be no surprises
• Standards use em, know em - How they effect
  your system.
• Mailbox retention, message size restrictions,
  times of events, scheduled events.
• GWCheck Health

4
GroupWise Best Practices

• Trending your system
• Alerts, uptime, downtime
• Monitoring
• http and other utilities
• http//www.novell.com/coolsolutions/gwmag/features
  /trenches/tr_http_monitoring_gw.html

5
GroupWise Best Practices
Tuning your GroupWise system for maximum output.

• Trending what can you identify to increase
  reliability and output.
• Over-utilization and under-utilization
• Version control issues
• Oops in key files
• GWIA inbound AND outbound fault tolerance
• Multiple Web Access Agents Tay Kratzer
• http//www.novell.com/coolsolutions/gwmag/assets/g
  w6_webaccess_high_availability.pdf
• Server Tuning - Novell
• http//www.novell.com/coolsolutions/gwmag/html/gw_
  system_sizing.html

6
GroupWise Best Practices
Tuning your GroupWise system for maximum output.

• Scheduled Events
• Nightly Structure, Fix problems
• Weekly Contents, Fix problems
• Scheduled Event Timings
• Dont overlap processes if possible
• 7 day outline
• Size Limitations
• Configurable via link configuration and client
  options

7
GroupWise Best Practices
Know when POA scheduled events are running,
document it.
8
GroupWise Best Practices
Know your backup/restore process what can be
restored.
9
GroupWise Best Practices
Getting the most from Console One Administration.

• Added column functionality
• Path to Domain (.consoleone folder)
• Administering Domains on NT/2000/03
• Connecting/mapping a drive first
• Diagnostics
• Record Enumerations
• Display object

10
GroupWise Best Practices
Getting the most from Console One Administration.

• Enabling/Disabling snap-ins
• Import/Export and AD
• System Preferences
• Internet Addressing
• Default Passwords
• Restrict system operations to primary domain

11
GroupWise Best Practices
Knowing the realtime pulse of your GroupWise
system. (RedLine)

• By using all of the items discussed, you should
  be able to periodically know the realtime pulse
  of the system.
• Set aside time to review your system for the
  following
• Performance Tuning and Optimization
• High availability and fault tolerance
• Health Checks
• Monitoring review and updates

12
GroupWise Best Practices
Knowing the realtime pulse of your GroupWise
system. (RedLine)

• By using all of the items discussed, you should
  be able to periodically know the realtime pulse
  of the system.
• Set aside time to review your system for the
  following
• Performance Tuning and Optimization
• High availability and fault tolerance
• Health Checks
• Monitoring review and updates

13
GroupWise Best Practices
Tools, Tips and Tricks

• Beyond Compare2 Compare files or directories
  (www.scootersoftware.com)
• CleanIT GroupWise client remover 5.5.- 6.5
  (www.emailessentials.ca)
• FileMon Monitor file activity on Windows box
  (www.sysinternals.com)
• RegMon Monitor registry hits on Windows box
  (www.sysinternals.com)
• TDIMon Monitor L4 data (TCP, UDP)
  (www.sysinternals.com)
• TextPad Simple but powerful text editor
  (www.textpad.com)
• TEL Simple telnet program For Netware
  (www.xtras.com)
• ToolBox NW NLM that lets you use DOS cmds at
  server prompt (www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools)

14
GroupWise Best Practices
Tools, Tips and Tricks

• Console One - 6.5.2 snapins Arrange Columns
  (www.novell.com)
• GW 5.2 32bit Client GroupWise 5.2.5 client
  (www.novell.com)
• AD GroupWise 4.1 Administration program
  (support.novell.com/filefinder)
• Archive FID Editor Edit FID in archive user.db
  (www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools)
• HashIT Identify ofwork\ofdirect\ directories
  (www.novell.com)
• Password Changer Mass GW Password changer
  (www.jrbsoftware.com)
• PostMaster Crack GW Headers of mail msg. (use
  MTA Message Tracking instead) (www.novell.com)
• Spammer Simple GW Mass mailer test tool
  (www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools)
• GW Coolsolutions - novell.com/coolsolutions/gwmag

15
GroupWise Best Practices
Tools, Tips and Tricks

• Nexic AcctManager Run GW on different users
  (www.nexic.com)
• GWIP Check IP address and port connection
  (www.novell.com)
• GWMBSize Pull reports from GWCHECK logs
  (www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools)
• GroupWise Monitor Agent (GWMON.EXE) (comes with
  GroupWise 6.5 and above)
• GWAVA Freeware Foundation Utilities
  (www.gwava.com)
• AbControl Import/Export/Search/Replace NAB
  (www.fronteri.com/gwfreeutils.htm)
• AbShare Import/Export Shared Address Bk.
  (www.fronteri.com/gwfreeutils.htm) CalCreate
  Import/Export Calendar -gt XML (www.fronteri.com/gw
  freeutils.htm) GWAVAsig Add signature to SMTP
  outbound (www.gwava.com)
• ProxySguff Import Proxy rights
  (www.fronteri.com/gwfreeutils.htm)
• RuleCreate Import Rules (www.fronteri.com/gwfree
  utils.htm)

16
GroupWise Best Practices
Tools, Tips and Tricks

• Macro Recorder Powerful Win macro recorder
  (www.kratronics.com)
• Quick TID FAST Novell TID lookup tool
  (www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools)
• SuperScan Nifty port scanner (www.foundstone.com
  )
• XP Power Toys Usefull tools for Windows XP
  (www.microsoft.com)
• dnsreport.com Is your DNS setup properly?

17
GroupWise Best Practices
Great Web Sites for GroupWise

• www.gwcheck.com
• www.gwmag.com
• www.caledonia.net
• www.ngwlist.com
• www.taykratzer.com
• www.samspade.org
• www.novellshareware.com
• http//gwadvisor.com/
• http//anderbr.duc.auburn.edu/gwtoys.html
• www.groupwise.org/gw-utils.htm
• www.slewis.org

18
GroupWise Best Practices
Vendors
There are tons of tools and products for
GroupWise GroupWise is not a dead product. You
just need to know where to look. http//www.howd
avedoesit.com/vendors.htm
19
GroupWise Best Practices
Final Note

• GroupWise is a very mature, stable product
• Take a little time to tune and maintain your
  GroupWise system, and it will basically run
  itself.
• Use the right tools to know the pulse of your
  system.
• Be creative on how to use the previous tips and
  tools in your environment.
• Look for 3rd party solution to business needs
  that may not be out of the box solutions.

20
GroupWise Best Practices
Thank You!
Dave Muldoon Dave_at_howdavedoesit.com