Specifying custom data directories for multi-user install or upgrade

You can configure Notes® custom data directories during Notes® multi-user install or upgrade on Windows™ or Citrix XenApp.

About this task

The Notes® installer and the Notes® program itself determine the data directories in a multi-user install; there are two data directories -- one for shared files and one for user files.

This command line feature allows the administrator installing a multi-user Notes® client to specify where the common data (templates, and so on) and where each subsequent user's personal data (contacts, bookmarks, notes.ini, and so on) will reside. In a normal multi-user install, these paths are under C:\Documents and Settings.

Using these command line options, you can uniquely specify the shared and user-specific data directories on the Notes® install command line using MSI properties or in an MSI transform.

Note: Issues exist when using customized data directories in conjunction with Windows™ Roaming User. See the related topics.

The command line options for specifying a custom data directory for multi-user install or upgrade are as follows:

  • MULTIUSERBASEDIR

    This specifies the root location of user data files and corresponds to DataPath in the registry.

    This supports environment variable expansion. For example, use the !USERNAME! variable to designate a user-specific location.

    The ! character is used instead of the more commonly used & character.

  • MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR

    This specifies the root location of the shared data files (for example, templates) and corresponds to CommonDataPath in the registry.

    This also supports environment variable expansion.

    Note: CommonDataPath is a new registry key created for this feature and will not exist if the feature is not in use.
  • CITRIX=1

    This specifies installation in for Citrix for a 32 bit or 64 bit Windows™ 2003 or Windows™ 2008 server.

To configure a Notes® custom data directory during multi-user install or upgrade, use the following command line in conjunction with your Notes® install kit.

setup.exe /v"SETMULTIUSER=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\LocalAppDataUsers\!USERNAME! MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\LocalAppDataCommon"

The shared notes.ini file is created in the directory specified by MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR and a user-specific copy of the notes.ini file is created in the directory specified by MULTIUSERBASEDIR. The expanded notes.ini path is written to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry.

Note: To enable verbose logging in conjunction with the command line install, use the following example as reference:
setup /v"/l*v %TEMP%\verbose.log SETMULTIUSER=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=Z:\ MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=\"C:\Documents and Settings\all users\""

The client automatically appends IBM\Notes\Data\ to the end of the value specified for MULTIUSERBASEDIR; in this example Z:\IBM\Notes\data is the actual MULTIUSERBASEDIR path. (If the version of Notes is earlier than 9.0, the client automatically appends IBM\Notes\Data\ to the end of the value specified for MULTIUSERBASEDIR.)

If installing on a Citrix system, the additional CITRIX=1 property must also be used.

setup.exe /v "SETMULTIUSER=1 CITRIX=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=C:\LocalAppDataUsers\!USERNAME! MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=C:\LocalAppDataCommon"

Upgrading to a new release or moving data directory content within a release

About this task

If your existing Notes® install was deployed as described in the IBM® Notes® Support document Steps for installing Notes® on a Citrix Presentation server you can move existing user data directories within a Notes® 8.5.1 release or later, or upgrade to Notes® 8.5.1 or later, specifying custom data directories.

This procedure creates a Lotus\Notes\Data subdirectory in the Documents and Settings directory and copies all data files from Documents and Settings\!USERNAME!\notes\data to the new folders. A path of Lotus\Notes\Data is appended to the MULTIUSERBASEDIR path and used as the user's private data directory. To reuse a data directory from a previous installation, that data path must end in Lotus\Notes\Data.

Note: You must remove the existing multi-user NOTES.INI location from the registry if new custom data directories are to be used (for example HKCU\Software\Lotus\Notes\NotesIniPath\notes.ini). You must also move the data directory content from the original data directories to the new custom data directories.

Procedure

  1. Uninstall Notes® but do not delete user data, data directories, and so on.
  2. Remove the existing multi-user NOTES.INI location from the registry.
  3. Run the following command:
    setup.exe /v"SETMULTIUSER=1 MULTIUSERBASEDIR=\"c:\Documents and Settings\!USERNAME!\" MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR=c:\temp\common"
  4. Modify Registry settings as follows:
    • MultiUser=1
    • DataPath=c:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME %
    • CommonDataPath=c:\temp\common
    • Make sure the values of DataPath and CommonDataPath in the registry match MULTIUSERBASEDIR and MULTIUSERCOMMONDIR respectively from the command line.
  5. Move the contents of your previous Notes® data directories into those of the new install.
  6. Start Notes® and log in as prompted. All Notes® user data is available.