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  2. 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.

  3. Installing

    To install IBM® Connections, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.

  4. Post-installation tasks

    After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.

  5. Configuring additional IBM Connections applications

    You must perform additional tasks to enable IBM Connections for the Orient Me home page, the Touchpoint interactive user experience, Community Libraries, Community Surveys, Metrics applications, and more.

  6. Optional: Installing the Component Pack for Connections™

    The Component Pack for HCL Connections™ introduces new connectivity capabilities that enhance collaboration and boost productivity.

  7. Configuring the Component Pack

    Configure the offerings and related components in the Component Pack for HCL Connections™.

  8. Configuring the Elasticsearch Metrics component

    Configure the Elasticsearch offering of the Component Pack for HCL Connections™ to provide Metrics data.

  • 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.

      • The installation process

        Review the steps that are required to install IBM® Connections.

      • Pre-installation tasks

        Complete the following tasks before installing IBM® Connections. If you are migrating from a prior release of IBM Connections, do not complete the tasks for creating databases or populating the Profiles database. The migration process handles those tasks automatically.

      • Installing IBM® Connections

        Select the IBM® Connections applications that you plan to use and install them in a clustered deployment.

      • Post-installation tasks

        After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.

        • Registering custom widgets

          Register all custom and third-party widgets with Conenctions 6 to ensure they meet security requirements and can display in communities.

        • Reviewing the JVM heap size

          Review the size of the Java™ Virtual Machine heap and adjust it, if necessary, to avoid out-of-memory errors or to suit your hardware capabilities.

        • Configuring IBM® HTTP Server

          When you have successfully installed IBM® Connections to run on WebSphere® Application Server, you can configure IBM HTTP Server to handle web traffic.

        • Configuring the Home page administrator

          Create an administrator for Home page so that you can make changes to the application such as adding and removing widgets.

        • Configuring additional IBM Connections applications

          You must perform additional tasks to enable IBM Connections for the Orient Me home page, the Touchpoint interactive user experience, Community Libraries, Community Surveys, Metrics applications, and more.

          • Optional: Installing the Component Pack for Connections™

            The Component Pack for HCL Connections™ introduces new connectivity capabilities that enhance collaboration and boost productivity.

            • Component Pack overview

              Review the underlying architecture and technologies used by the Component Pack for HCL Connections™.

            • Prerequisites for Component Pack

              Component Pack for IBM Connections uses different technologies from Connections and requires additional software.

            • Installing and upgrading Component Pack

              Perform a fresh installation, upgrade an existing deployment of Component Pack for HCL Connections™, troubleshoot the installation or upgrade process, or uninstall the Component Pack.

            • Configuring the Component Pack

              Configure the offerings and related components in the Component Pack for HCL Connections™.

              • Configuring the Orient Me component

                Additional configuration is required for the Orient Me component to populate it with Connections data and to enable the notification center and a menu option for managing home pages.

              • Configuring the Customizer component

                Configure the Customizer offering of the Component Pack for HCL Connections™ by setting up a reverse proxy server.

              • Configuring the Elasticsearch Metrics component

                Configure the Elasticsearch offering of the Component Pack for HCL Connections™ to provide Metrics data.

                • Removing SSL settings that were configured for type-ahead search

                  Temporarily remove SSL settings that were configured for type-ahead search in an HCL Connections™ deployment, so that you can successfully enable Metrics.

                • Granting access to global Elasticsearch Metrics

                  Configure the metrics-report-run security role to grant users the authority to view and interact with global metrics.

                • Granting access to Elasticsearch Metrics for communities

                  Configure the community-metrics-run security role to grant users the authority to view community metrics using static reports.

                • Changing the number of shards for the Elasticsearch Metrics index

                  If your environment requires, you can change the default number of shards that will be assigned to the Elasticsearch Metrics index when it is created.

                • Enabling Elasticsearch Metrics to connect to a Component Pack server

                  For the Elasticsearch Metrics component to work with HCL Connections™ Component Pack, you must run a script on the Component Pack system to set the Elasticsearch server base URL in Highway. Also, WebSphere Application Server, which hosts the Metrics component, must run Java 8 and use an SSL client certificate when sending HTTPS requests to Elasticsearch on the Component Pack system.

                • Deploying Elasticsearch Metrics as your first use of metrics

                  Deploying Elasticsearch-based metrics for HCL Connections™ involves testing the environment and then switching users to the Elasticsearch Metrics component.

                • Deploying Elasticsearch Metrics with the data migrated from the metrics relational database

                  If you previously used Cognos® to provide Metrics data for your HCL Connections™ deployment, Metrics events data is stored in your RDBMS, while older data is stored in the Cognos Power Cube. You can deploy Elasticsearch Metrics with the existing Metrics events data in your RDBMS. The procedure involves migrating the events data, testing the environment, and then switching users to the Elasticsearch Metrics component.

            • Customizing email notifications using the app registry

              If Component Pack for HCL Connections™ is installed in your deployment, you can use the app registry to change the look and content email notifications and newsletters, making them particular to your organization.

          • Setting up stand-alone Elasticsearch

            Deploy Elasticsearch as a stand-alone server for use with HCL Connections™, instead of deploying it as part of the Component Pack for Connections.

          • Setting up type-ahead search

            Enable type-ahead search in HCL Connections™ to suggest items in the search box based on content that is relevant to each user.

          • Installing Customizer Lite

            This topic describes how to install Customizer Lite. There are two deployment options, hereby referred to as Customizer Lite and Customizer Lite HA. Customizer Lite – the most basic deployment using a single Docker node running a single instance of each required service and Customizer Lite HA – a more resilient deployment using a pair (or more) of Docker nodes all running instances of each required service with requests load balanced across available nodes.

          • Optional: Installing Connections Touchpoint

            HCL Connections Touchpoint provides an interactive user experience that can be used for a wide variety of user scenarios, such as profile creation, community and network contact recommendations, organization polling and more.

          • Configuring IBM® Connections Content Manager for Libraries

            If you installed the IBM® Connections Content Manager add-on, you must configure FileNet® to work with IBM Connections Content Manager. Choose the instructions that match your deployment: either an existing FileNet deployment, which you installed independently before you installed IBM Connections or a new, integrated FileNet deployment that is part of a new IBM Connections installation.

          • Optional: Configuring IBM® Docs with CCM

            You can enable community members to edit files in Community libraries online if you have already installed IBM® Connections Docs.

          • Installing Community Surveys

            If you want to be able to conduct surveys within Communities to capture data and share it easily with your community in an activity stream, enable Community Surveys.

          • Setting up Cognos® Metrics to work with HCL Connections

            Install and configure your IBM Cognos® Metrics environment to work with HCL Connections.

        • Optional: Installing and configuring the Ephox Editors for IBM Connections

          IBM® Connections 6.0 CR5 can use the optional Ephox Editors: TinyMCE or Textbox.io, to replace the IBM Connections default rich text editor.

        • Optional post-installation tasks

          Complete the post-installation tasks that are relevant to your deployment.

      • Uninstalling IBM® Connections

        Uninstall IBM® Connections.

    • 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.

    • 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™.

Configuring the Elasticsearch Metrics component

Configure the Elasticsearch offering of the Component Pack for HCL Connections™ to provide Metrics data.

After you have configured Elasticsearch, review the topic on Backing up and restoring data for Elasticsearch-based components

  • Removing SSL settings that were configured for type-ahead search
    Temporarily remove SSL settings that were configured for type-ahead search in an HCL Connections™ deployment, so that you can successfully enable Metrics.
  • Granting access to global Elasticsearch Metrics
    Configure the metrics-report-run security role to grant users the authority to view and interact with global metrics.
  • Granting access to Elasticsearch Metrics for communities
    Configure the community-metrics-run security role to grant users the authority to view community metrics using static reports.
  • Changing the number of shards for the Elasticsearch Metrics index
    If your environment requires, you can change the default number of shards that will be assigned to the Elasticsearch Metrics index when it is created.
  • Enabling Elasticsearch Metrics to connect to a Component Pack server
    For the Elasticsearch Metrics component to work with HCL Connections™ Component Pack, you must run a script on the Component Pack system to set the Elasticsearch server base URL in Highway. Also, WebSphere Application Server, which hosts the Metrics component, must run Java 8 and use an SSL client certificate when sending HTTPS requests to Elasticsearch on the Component Pack system.
  • Deploying Elasticsearch Metrics as your first use of metrics
    Deploying Elasticsearch-based metrics for HCL Connections™ involves testing the environment and then switching users to the Elasticsearch Metrics component.
  • Deploying Elasticsearch Metrics with the data migrated from the metrics relational database
    If you previously used Cognos® to provide Metrics data for your HCL Connections™ deployment, Metrics events data is stored in your RDBMS, while older data is stored in the Cognos Power Cube. You can deploy Elasticsearch Metrics with the existing Metrics events data in your RDBMS. The procedure involves migrating the events data, testing the environment, and then switching users to the Elasticsearch Metrics component.
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