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Administering Connections V5.5
Welcome to the IBM Connections V5.5 documentation. IBM Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Administering
Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
Administering common areas
Administer the common areas of IBM® Connections.
System maintenance
Make sure IBM® Connections works properly in your particular environment.
Administering Connections V5.5
Welcome to the IBM Connections V5.5 documentation. IBM Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Product overview
Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the IBM® Connections social networking product.
Planning
Before installing IBM® Connections, study the system requirements, deployment options, and documentation conventions.
Installing
To install IBM® Connections, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
Migrating and updating
Migrate IBM® Connections and its supporting software to the latest release and then update the installation with the latest interim fixes or Cumulative Refresh (CR).
Administering
Run administration and maintenance tasks to keep your environment up-to-date. For example, learn how to customize your deployment or how to use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration files. You can also schedule tasks, maintain application databases, moderate content, or manage users and their roles.
Administering common areas
Administer the common areas of IBM® Connections.
Administrator checklist
Consider tasks that you might want to complete after you install IBM® Connections and before users start using it.
Administration tools
Use the wsadmin utility to edit configuration properties or run administrative commands.
System maintenance
Make sure IBM® Connections works properly in your particular environment.
Changing WebSphere® Application Server environment variables
The directory paths to IBM® Connections application data and other resources are given associated WebSphere® Application Server environment variables. If you change default paths in your environment, you must update the variables.
Changing the name of the session cookie ID
The session cookie ID for IBM® Connections is named JSESSIONID by default. Other products hosted by the WebSphere® Application Server often use the same name for their session cookie. If IBM® HTTP Server is hosting multiple web servers, you might want to change the cookie name of one of them to prevent the cookie from being lost when the user is redirected from one product to another.
Scheduling tasks
The Activities, Communities, Files, Forums, News, Search, and Wikis applications use the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server scheduling service for performing regular tasks. You can use
wsadmin
commands to change the schedule by which a task runs or to disable a scheduled task altogether.
Maintaining application databases
Each IBM® Connections application stores data in a database, and some also store data on a file system. You must back up these databases and file systems on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system that you are using.
Removing nodes from a cluster
You can remove IBM® WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.
Backing up and restoring data
You must back up both the application databases and content stores on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system you are using.
Managing content
Use superusers, moderation, and other methods to manage IBM® Connections content.
Administering the Widget container
The Widget Container is the IBM® Connections-specific integration of the Common Rendering Engine, also known as the CRE.
Managing access
Manage roles, credentials, users, and directories, and allow third-party access to IBM® Connections data.
Managing external user access
Manage the access that people from outside your organization (external users) have to your IBM® Connections implementation.
Customizing the deployment
Perform optional tasks to customize your IBM® Connections deployment.
URL Preview
URL preview allows users decide quickly whether to follow a link by displaying a thumbnail preview for URLs.
Administering Activities
Configure Activities to best meet the needs of your environment.
Administering Blogs
Administer site-wide settings for Blogs from either the Blogs user interface or via the wsadmin client.
Administering Bookmarks
You configure and administer Bookmarks using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to Bookmarks configuration settings require a restart of the Bookmarks server before they take effect. Changes made using administrative commands take effect immediately.
Administering Communities
Configure and administer Communities using scripts accessed using the IBM® WebSphere® Application Server wsadmin client.
Administering Files
You administer Files using the wsadmin client to specify properties in a configuration file, or run administrative commands.
Administering Forums
Administer Forums by specifying properties in a configuration file or running administrative commands.
Administering the Home page
You can administer site-wide settings for the Home page from the Home page administration user interface or using the wsadmin client.
Administering the Home page from the user interface
You can make site-wide changes to the Home page application directly from the Home page user interface.
Administering gadgets for IBM® Connections and widgets for Home page
You can extend the functionality of the Home page application by adding custom widgets and extend IBM® Connections by adding OpenSocial gadgets. To make the widgets and gadgets available for use, you can add them from the
Administration
view and then enable them for use.
Configuring widgets
Add and configure widgets on the Home page.
Enabling widgets
You need to enable widgets before they can display on the Home page or elsewhere in IBM® Connections.
Disabling widgets
You can disable widgets from displaying on the Home page or elsewhere in IBM® Connections when you no longer want them to be available to your users.
Customizing
Customize IBM® Connections to fit your environment.
Security
IBM® Connections provides a flexible security infrastructure that supports an open, easily shareable data model.
Mobile
See the
IBM Connections™
Mobile
documentation for
Connections
Cloud and
Connections
on-premises.
Performance
Get recommendations from the IBM Collaboration Solutions Performance team on how to configure IBM® Connections for optimal performance.
Developing
Get information about how to use the APIs provided with Connections.
Troubleshooting and support
To isolate and resolve problems with your HCL products, you can use the troubleshooting and support information. This information contains instructions for using the problem-determination resources that are provided with your IBM® products, including
IBM Connections™
.
System maintenance
Make sure IBM® Connections works properly in your particular environment.
Changing WebSphere Application Server environment variables
The directory paths to IBM Connections application data and other resources are given associated WebSphere® Application Server environment variables. If you change default paths in your environment, you must update the variables.
Changing the name of the session cookie ID
The session cookie ID for IBM Connections is named JSESSIONID by default. Other products hosted by the WebSphere® Application Server often use the same name for their session cookie. If IBM HTTP Server is hosting multiple web servers, you might want to change the cookie name of one of them to prevent the cookie from being lost when the user is redirected from one product to another.
Scheduling tasks
The Activities, Communities, Files, Forums, News, Search, and Wikis applications use the IBM WebSphere® Application Server scheduling service for performing regular tasks. You can use
wsadmin
commands to change the schedule by which a task runs or to disable a scheduled task altogether.
Maintaining application databases
Each IBM Connections application stores data in a database, and some also store data on a file system. You must back up these databases and file systems on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system that you are using.
Removing nodes from a cluster
You can remove IBM WebSphere® Administration Server nodes from a cluster using the Integrated Solutions Console or using a command.
Backing up and restoring data
You must back up both the application databases and content stores on a regular schedule using the methods documented by the vendor from whom you purchased the database and file system you are using.
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