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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.
Installing
To install IBM® Connections, you need to follow a detailed series of procedures.
Post-installation tasks
After installation, you need to perform further tasks to ensure an efficient deployment.
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.
Prerequisites for Component Pack
Component Pack for IBM Connections uses different technologies from Connections and requires additional software.
Kubernetes reference implementation
Create a Kubernetes cluster to support the Component Pack for IBM Connections. You can refer to the reference implementation for guidelines on validated settings.
Setting up Kubernetes for the first time
Set up Kubernetes for a new deployment of Component Pack Services for IBM Connections™.

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.
        Kubernetes reference implementation
        Create a Kubernetes cluster to support the Component Pack for IBM Connections. You can refer to the reference implementation for guidelines on validated settings.
        Setting up Kubernetes for the first time
        Set up Kubernetes for a new deployment of Component Pack Services for IBM Connections™.
        Deploying a non-HA Kubernetes platform
        This guide describes how to use the kubeadm tool for setting up a pilot, non-HA Kubernetes infrastructure to host all of IBM Connections™ Component Pack services (Orient Me, Customizer, and Elasticsearch).
        Deploying an HA Kubernetes platform
        This guide describes how to use the kubeadm tool to set up a full highly available Kubernetes infrastructure for hosting all HCL Connections™ Component Pack services (Orient Me, Customizer and Elasticsearch).
        Upgrading Kubernetes
        Upgrading Kubernetes for an existing deployment of Component Pack Services for IBM Connections™.
        Verifying that DNS is working correctly within your Kubernetes platform
        Verify that DNS is working correctly within the Kubernetes cluster used by Component Pack for IBM Connections™.
        Persistent volumes
        The Orient Me, Elasticsearch, and Customizer components for IBM Connections require you to create persistent volumes.
        Labeling and tainting worker nodes for Elasticsearch
        Use Kubernetes to label and taint worker nodes so that they are reserved for use by the Elasticsearch offering of Component Pack for IBM Connections™. Skip this topic if you are using an "All-on-one" box deployment for a proof of concept.
        Configuring the mail service (SPNEGO only)
        If your environment uses a Microsoft Exchange Server and is configured for SPNEGO, you can optionally choose to configure the Component Pack mail service to enable additional features on the Orient Me homepage (Orient Mail calendar bar and Action Center calendar integration). Complete this task to generate required Kerberos keytab and conf files that will be used during the Component Pack installation.
        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™.
        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™.

Setting up Kubernetes for the first time

Set up Kubernetes for a new deployment of Component Pack Services for IBM Connections™.

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