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Administering Connections 6 CR6
Welcome to the HCL Connections 6 CR6 documentation. HCL 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.
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.

Administering Connections 6 CR6
Welcome to the HCL Connections 6 CR6 documentation. HCL 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.
- What's new in HCL Connections 6
  Find out about features that are new or updated in this release of HCL Connections.
- Product overview
  Learn how to deploy, customize, and administer the IBM Connections social networking product.
- Planning
  Before installing HCL 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 Libraries
    A Library provides the services of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to Communities. To enable the use of Libraries, you must make some configuration changes to Connections and to each ECM system that you plan to use.
  - Administering Metrics for Cognos
    Administer metrics in IBM® Connections by modifying configuration settings, backing up data, and running commands to perform maintenance tasks.
  - Administering the News repository
    You administer the News repository using scripts accessed using the wsadmin client. Changes to News configuration settings require node synchronization and a restart of the Home page server before they take effect.
  - Administering Profiles
    Profiles provides two types of administrative capabilities: configuration settings and administrative commands. You change configuration settings and execute administrative commands by running scripts from the wsadmin command line.
  - Administering Search
    The Search service provides a point for performing full text and tag searches across all the deployed IBM® Connections applications. Search is a required application for all IBM Connections applications, and it must be running to prevent unexpected behaviors in the other applications.
  - Administering Wikis
    Configure and administer Wikis by using the wsadmin client to run administrative commands or by editing the configuration file directly.
  - Administering Component Pack for Connections
    Monitor the services for Component Pack for IBM Connections™ and troubleshoot issues.
- 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.
- Developing
  Get information about how to use the APIs provided with IBM® Connections and how to use Connections Customizer to modify the Connections pages that are returned to users.
- Troubleshooting and support
  To isolate and resolve problems with your IBM® 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 HCL Connections™.

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.

Note: When you restore data for an application that is also available from the Communities application, you must also restore the data in the Communities application to keep the two in sync. See Recovering from a database failure for more details.

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