Home
Administering
This documentation provides information about the administration tools for managing and monitoring servers and databases.
Managing servers
Manage Domino® servers by performing any of these tasks.
Activity Logging
You use activity logging to collect information about the activity in your enterprise. You can use this information to charge users for the amount they use your system, monitor usage, conduct resource planning, and determine if clustering would improve the efficiency of your system.
The information in the log file
Domino® logs activity in the log file (LOG.NSF).

Administering
This documentation provides information about the administration tools for managing and monitoring servers and databases.
- Administration tools
  Topics in this section describe the tools you can use to administer a Domino® server.
- Managing users
  The Administration Process helps you manage users by automating many of the associated administrative tasks. For example, if you rename a user, the Administration Process automates changing the name throughout databases in the Notes® domain by generating and carrying out a series of requests, which are posted in the Administration Requests database.
- Monitoring servers
  This section describes how to use the tools and features that help you monitor a Domino® system.
- Managing servers
  Manage Domino® servers by performing any of these tasks.
  - Changing the server administrator
    If the name of the former administrator is explicitly listed in the access control list (ACL) for the Domino® Directory, delete the name of the former administrator from the ACL. Add the name of the new administrator and assign the administrator Manager access.
  - Setting and managing passwords for the server console
    Set server console passwords to protect against unauthorized use of the server console.
  - Decommissioning a Domain Search server
    If you want the server that creates full-text indexes of the Domino® domain to resume duty as a regular Domino server, remove it from the appropriate group in the Domino Directory, edit its Server document, and then delete some files from its directory structure.
  - Decommissioning a server
    You use the Decommission Server Analysis tool when you are consolidating existing servers and/or permanently removing a server from service. Whether you are combining two servers into one server or renaming a server, the result is the same -- the old server name is replaced with the new server name.
  - Deleting a server name
    You can use the Administration Process to delete references to a server from the Domino® Directory, and from database ACLs and Extended ACLs. The Administration Process automatically deletes mail-in database documents and cross-certificate documents as necessary during the Delete Server process.
  - Dropping user sessions on a server
    Dropping user sessions from a server may be useful when you need to make a database or server temporarily unavailable to correct a problem; users can reconnect after you are ready. You can drop one user session or all user sessions for the current database, or selected user sessions, from the server.
  - Finding a server name in the domain with the Domino® Administrator
    You can search for a server name in the domain and then view a log that includes document links and directory links to each occurrence of the server name.
  - Recertifying a server ID
    Use the original certifier to recertify a server ID that has a certificate that is about to expire.
  - Uninstalling a Domino® partitioned server
    You can remove all server partitions from a computer or you can remove just one server partition.
  - Reinstalling or moving a Domino® server from one computer to another
    Use this procedure to reinstall a server if an error occurs and the installer does not complete during the install of an incremental installer, or if the Domino® server is crashing and troubleshooting does not reveal the root cause.
  - Transaction logging
    Domino® transaction logging captures changes made to a database and writes them to a transaction log. The logged transactions are then written to disk in a batch, either when resources are available or when scheduled.
  - Installing and running NSD as a Microsoft™ Windows™ service
    Installing and running NSD as a Microsoft Windows service is no longer available as of Domino 10.
  - Setting up a Fault Reports database
    The Notes/Domino Fault Reports database stores data that is collected at the time of a server crash. Data is collected from both the client and the server and can then be used to measure client reliability and determine the areas where problems exist.
  - Client and server diagnostics
    Use these tasks to perform client and server diagnostics to collect diagnostic information after a server or client crash.
  - Collecting diagnostic information after a server or client crash
    The automatic diagnostic collection tool collects diagnostic data after server and client crashes and sends the collected data to a mail-in database when the server or client restarts. You can then use the collected data to determine the cause of the crash.
  - Using the TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory
    The IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT database contains data that has been collected using the Domino® Configuration Collector and the Automatic Diagnostic Data Collection tool. It also includes system information files and documents that have been exported from the Domino Directory and saved as .dxl documents using the Save command entered at the Domino server console.
  - The Domino® server log file (LOG.NSF)
    Every Domino® server has a log file (LOG.NSF) that reports all server activity and provides detailed information about databases and users on the server. The log file is created automatically when you start a server for the first time.
  - Controlling the size of the log file
    By default, the log file (LOG.NSF) records information about the Domino® system.
  - The Domino® Web server log (DOMLOG.NSF)
    You can log your server activity and Web server requests to the Domino® Web server log (DOMLOG.NSF) database. This option may be preferable if you want to create views and view data in different ways.
  - Using console log mirroring
    Console log mirroring causes a new server thread to be created which monitors all messages written to the Console Log file and duplicates these messages into another file. When this new file is filled, the thread closes the mirrored file and creates a new file into which subsequent messages are written. You can delete the closed mirrored files at your discretion.
  - Using the Domino® Configuration Tuner to evaluate server settings
    The Domino® Configuration Tuner (DCT) evaluates server settings according to a growing catalog of best practices. All servers in a single domain can be evaluated together. DCT generates reports that explain the issues DCT uncovers, suggests mitigations, and provides references to supporting publications.
  - Activity Logging
    You use activity logging to collect information about the activity in your enterprise. You can use this information to charge users for the amount they use your system, monitor usage, conduct resource planning, and determine if clustering would improve the efficiency of your system.
    - The information in the log file
      Domino® logs activity in the log file (LOG.NSF).
      - Activity logging records
        The records in the log file keep track of all activity generated. Domino® creates different types of records for each type of activity. For some types of activity, Domino creates multiple records during a session; for other types of activity, Domino creates a single record.
      - Agent activity logging
        Agent activity logging generates a record for each Domino® server-based agent that runs successfully. The record shows the name of the agent, the name of the database that contains the agent, the amount of time it took to run the agent, and the name of the person who last saved the agent. The record does not show the types of activities the agent performed.
      - HTTP activity logging
        HTTP activity logging tracks requests from browsers to access Domino® Web servers.
      - IMAP activity logging
        IMAP activity logging tracks IMAP session activity, such as the user name, the server name, the IP address of the client, the number of bytes the client sent to and read from the server, and the duration of the session.
      - LDAP activity logging
        LDAP activity logging tracks information about every LDAP request. Because each type of LDAP request has a different structure, Domino® generates a different activity logging record for each type.
      - Mail activity logging
        Mail activity logging tracks mail that is sent from and received by a server. Activity logging records for mail include such information as the name of the server that created the record, the originator and recipients of the message, the message ID, the preceding and next hops on the delivery route, and the size of the message.
      - Notes® session activity logging
        Notes® session activity logging tracks network traffic that occurs during a server session with a Notes client or with another Domino® server acting as a client. Session records include such information as the name and network address of the session user, the number of documents read and written, the number of bytes read and written, the total number of transactions executed during the session, and the duration of the session. Servers, users, and API programs can all generate session activity.
      - Notes® database activity logging
        Notes® database activity logging tracks Notes database activity that occurs during a server session. Database records include such information as the name of the database, the name and address of the database user, the number of documents read and written, the number of bytes read and written, the total number of transactions executed in the database, and the length of time the database was open. Servers, users, and API programs can all generate database activity.
      - Notes® pass-through activity logging
        Notes® pass-through activity logging tracks activity that is generated by a client or a server through a pass-through connection. This includes such information as the number of bytes sent and received, the number of documents read and written, the number of transactions executed, and the duration of the pass-through session.
      - POP3 activity logging
        POP3 activity logging tracks such POP3 information as the name of the user, the IP address of the client, the number of bytes the client sends to and reads from the server, the number of messages sent to the client, the number of messages deleted from the client, and the duration of the session.
      - Replication activity logging
        When you use activity logging for replication, Domino® generates one activity logging record for each database replication request that a server initiates. Only the initiating server generates activity logging records.
      - SMTP activity logging
        SMTP activity logging tracks SMTP session activity, such as the IP address of the connected client, the number of messages the client sends to the server, the number of bytes the client sends to and receives from the server, the number of recipients to whom messages are sent, and the duration of the session.
      - Example of creating activity logging records
        This example shows the activity logging records that Domino® generates when a user sends mail to another user whose mail database is on a different mail server. In this example, the message goes directly to the recipient's mail server without making any intermediate hops.
    - Configuring activity logging
      You configure activity logging by editing the Configuration Settings document.
    - Viewing activity logging data
      You can view the activity logging information by running Activity Analysis, which copies the information you specify to the Log Analysis database (LOG4A.NSF or whatever name you specify). Domino® creates the Log Analysis database on your local computer.
  - Managing a cluster
    After you have set up a cluster, you can perform tasks to manage it.
- Managing databases
  Topics in this section describe how to set up and manage Domino® databases.

The information in the log file

Domino® logs activity in the log file (LOG.NSF).

The information is not visible in the log file, but you can access the information in the file by writing an API program. For information about writing an API program to access this information, see the Lotus® C API Toolkit for Notes/Domino. The toolkit is available for download; for information about the download, see Additional documentation resources in the related topics.

Note: Activity logging records in the log file are hidden. The records you can see in the log file do not contain as much detail as activity logging records and are not updated as often as activity logging records. You can view activity logging information by running Activity Analysis.

You use the Domino® Administrator to specify which types of activity to log.

Table 1. Types of activities you can log
Activity type	What this logs
Agent	When a Domino® server runs scheduled agents, as well as the running time of the agents
HTTP	Web server requests
IMAP	Activity generated during an IMAP session
LDAP	Activity generated by all LDAP activity. Each type of LDAP activity generates a separate record. The types of LDAP activity include abandon, add, bind, compare, delete, extended, modify, modify distinguished name, search, and unbind.
Mail	Activity generated by mail and mail-related messages being routed to and from the server. The messages can come from a Domino® server or an SMTP server.
Notes® Database	When an Notes® clients and Domino® servers open, use, and close Notes® databases and the duration of use.
Notes® Passthru	When users or servers connect through a Domino® pass-through connection, as well as the activity that is generated through that connection
Notes® Session	When Notes® clients and Domino® servers acting as clients start and end sessions with a Domino® server
POP3	Activity generated during a POP3 session
Replica	Activity generated by replication with another server or with a client
SMTP	Activity generated during an SMTP session