Reporting Notes 8 issues and problems

Notes/Domino 8 Forum

Subject:

If you experience any problems installing or using Lotus Notes 8, we want to hear from you in the form of a software problem report. Information about what to include in the problem report and the process by which you can submit a problem report to IBM Lotus are provided below. If you are reporting an install issue, please use a verbose log file as described at the end of this document.

Information to include in the problem report
The problem report should provide as much information as possible to recreate the problem. This includes the following:

1. As much build and platform related information as is relevant

2. Detailed steps to reproduce the problem

3. Actual test case contents, or links to the test cases

4. Screen shots if applicable showing relevant messages

5. All of the supporting logs

6. All environment variables in printed list form (for example, type "set" into a DOS command window on the test machine and provide the resulting printed list of ENV variables).

What logs and files do I need to attach?
The answer is all of them. The best way to do this is to use IBM Support Assistant (ISA).

Preferred Option - Running the Integrated IBM Support Assistant (ISA) from within Notes 8 to create problem reports
Use the integrated collector to gather the information. From Notes 8 , start the IBM Support Assistant (click Help > Support > IBM Support Assistant to start the Support Assistant). Once you have started the Support Assistant, click Service along the top menu, then click Collect Data. Make sure that all collectors are marked to generate data. Once collected, attach the results to the problem report. By using this collector, all logs are terminated properly allowing for easier handling by the recipient.
Also be sure to attach a list of all environment variables in printed list form (for example, type "set" in a DOS command window on the test machine and also send the resulting printed list of ENV variables).
The integrated IBM Support Assistant is described in Notes 8 online Help by clicking Help > Help Contents > IBM Support Assistant User's Guide.

Secondary Option - Running a Standalone IBM Support Assistant (ISA) to create problem reports
If the integrated collector is not available, then second option is to use the standalone collector.
From the <installdir>\rcp directory, run the startcollector.bat (Windows), or startcollector.sh (Linux) to gather the information.
Once collected, attach the results to the problem report along with a list of all environment variables in printed list form (for example, type "set" into a DOS command window on the test machine and also send the resulting printed list of ENV variables).

Third Option - Manual Collection
Collect the following files: (see "Where is the Workspace?" section below for locating the <workspace>)

<workspace>\.config directory contents
<workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update contents including subdirectories
<workspace>\logs directory contents

On Windows

%TEMP%\rcpInstallerTemp.properties
%TEMP%\rcp_install.log

On Linux

<installdir>\rcp_install.log
Environment variables list

Note: The files referencing <installdir>\rcp are located in <installdir>\framework\rcp.

<installdir>\rcp\plugin_customization.ini
<installdir>\rcp\rcplauncher.properties
<installdir>\rcp\deploy directory contents

Then zip them up and attach to the problem report. Please note in the problem report that these were manually collected.

The following is representative of the files that would be collected based upon above (and what is collected by ISA):

<workspace>\.config\args.properties <workspace>\.config\config.ini <workspacw>\.config\org.eclipse.update <workspace>\.config\rcpinstall.properties <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\error_recovery.log <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\history <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\install.log <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\platform.xml <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\history\1170947398000.xml <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\history\1170947431000.xml <workspace>\.config\org.eclipse.update\history\1170947596000.xml <workspace>\logs\error-log-0.xml <workspace>\logs\error-log-1.xml <workspace>\logs\Log_Viewer.xml <workspace>\logs\trace-log-0.xml <workspace>\logs\trace-log-1.xml <workspace>\logs\Trace_Viewer.xml <workspace>\logs\Viewer_Translations.js %TEMP%\rcpInstallerTemp.properties %TEMP%\rcp_install.log <installdir>\rcp\plugin_customization.ini <installdir>\rcp\rcplauncher.properties <installdir>\rcp\deploy\install.xml <installdir>\rcp\deploy\platform_plugin_customization.ini <installdir>\rcp\deploy\provisioning.log

Where is the workspace?
On Windows, the workspace directory is a subdirectory of the Notes data directory -- <install_dir>\data \workspace

For example, in a new single user install in which the default installation directory is used, the workspace would be in the following location:

Single user Notes install -- C:\Program Files\IBM\Lotus\Notes\data\workspace
Multi-user Notes install -- C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\data\workspace

On Linux, the workspace directory is a subdirectory of the Notes data directory -- <install_dir>\data \workspace

For example, in an install in which the default installation directory is used, the workspace would be in the following location:

/{$HOME}/lotus/notes/data/workspace

On both platforms, the workspace may have been specified on the command line, such as rcplauncher -data c:\temp.

The value of rcp.install.id is specified as a property in the <installdir>\rcp\rcplauncher.properties file (<installdir>\framework\rcp\rcplauncher.properties file

Creating a verbose log file during Notes 8 install
If reporting Notes 8 Beta issues against the Windows version Notes 8 installation program, you should include a verbose log file with your problem report. To create a verbose log file, do either of the following:

Run the setup executable from the command line in the verbose mode and specify a log file name. For example, start the installer using the following command line:

setup /v"/lv* c:\temp\install.log"

Set a registry value to always generate an MSI log file for each Notes 8 install and uninstall. To do so, create a registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer with String Value Logging=voicewarmup. This will create an MSI log file in your <temp> directory with the file extension ".log" for all MSI installations.