Home
Installing
Use this documentation to install the HCL Domino® server and subsequently deploy the HCL Notes®client.
Upgrading
Use this documentation to upgrade the existing Domino® server and subsequently upgrade the Notes® client to a new release. You can also upgrade additional clients such as Domino Administrator and Domino Designer clients and additional features and plug-ins such as the embedded HCL Sametime® client.
Planning the deployment of a new version of Notes
Understand the things to consider and actions to take before installing a new version of HCL Notes.
Notes client install best practices
Follow these install best practices.
Multi-user installs
Multi-user installs are ideal for most Notes users. The exception is users who use Domino Designer or Domino Administrator, which are available for single-user installs only.

Installing
Use this documentation to install the HCL Domino® server and subsequently deploy the HCL Notes®client.
- Installing and upgrading Domino® servers
  Perform a new or upgrade install of one or many Domino® servers.
- Downloading and distributing software using AutoUpdate
  AutoUpdate notifies you of the latest HCL Domino and Domino product family available on the Domino server, and allows you to download the software. You can also use it to distribute software to groups or selected Domino servers.
- Installing and upgrading Notes® clients
- Upgrading
  Use this documentation to upgrade the existing Domino® server and subsequently upgrade the Notes® client to a new release. You can also upgrade additional clients such as Domino Administrator and Domino Designer clients and additional features and plug-ins such as the embedded HCL Sametime® client.
  - Security considerations prior to upgrading
    It’s important to review your security practices before upgrading, especially if you are upgrading from an old version.
  - Preparing your environment for the upgrade
    Time spent doing a thorough evaluation of your environment prior to upgrading is time well spent. Capturing baselines of your existing server infrastructure allows you to compare how the upgraded environment is performing.
  - Planning the deployment of the new release
    Depending on the size of your organization and the number of Domino servers involved, an organization upgrade schedule may range from a few hours to a few weeks or months.
  - Upgrading a Domino server
    Before upgrading a Domino server, review the upgrade considerations and choose the upgrade option to use.
  - Upgrading post-V11 AD Password Sync to V12.0.2 or later
    Upgrade Domino AD Password Sync installations that use Domino 12.0 or 12.0.1 to Domino 12.0.2 or later in order to use the new "AD Password Sync" server install type available in 12.0.2 and later.
  - Planning the deployment of a new version of Notes
    Understand the things to consider and actions to take before installing a new version of HCL Notes.
    - MarvelClient Essentials
      Domino includes MarvelClient Essentials by Panagenda.
    - Automate and standardize
      Before the upgrade, take the opportunity to automate and standardize.
    - Clean, tighten, and fix
      Before the upgrade, clean, tight and fix the current Notes client environment.
    - Notes client install best practices
      Follow these install best practices.
      - Multi-user installs
        Multi-user installs are ideal for most Notes users. The exception is users who use Domino Designer or Domino Administrator, which are available for single-user installs only.
      - Standard client installation
        Use the standard client rather than the basic client unless hardware is inadequate.
      - Roaming users
        Enable Notes users to roam so that settings and key Notes files (names.nsf, notes.ini, bookmarks, desktop, journal) stay synchronized across multiple clients.
      - ID vault
        If you don’t already, store Notes IDs in an ID vault.
      - Standardized notes.ini Settings
        Standardizing notes.ini settings across clients is recommended when possible by deploying the settings through policies.
      - Replicate notes.ini settings via roaming user functionality
        Enable roaming user functionality to push notes.ini settings replicated after an upgrade. Then, you can delete user notes.ini settings locally and roaming functionality restores them upon next launch.
      - Uninstalling before upgrading
        Uninstalling a prior version of Notes before upgrading is not required.
      - “Low touch” installation and setup
        Customize Notes installation and setup so that users aren’t required to input information into the install and setup panels (other than passwords).
    - Steps to deploy a new version of Notes
      The following steps are typical ones to use to deploy a new version of Notes in your environment.
    - Using Notes® Smart Upgrade and other upgrade tools
      You can push an upgrade to Notes® clients using Notes Smart Upgrade and/or other third party mechanisms, such as Smart Upgrade Run-As wizard (SURUNAS) or Upgrade-by-mail. You can also upgrade Notes clients using the Notes installation executable either silently (command line) or using the installer's graphical user interface. The supplied installation executable is used for an initial install or an upgrade install.
    - Maintaining Notes clients
      Upgrading Notes to the latest maintenance release and Fix Pack is a better choice than applying hotfixes

Multi-user installs

Multi-user installs are ideal for most Notes users. The exception is users who use Domino Designer or Domino Administrator, which are available for single-user installs only.

A multi-user install:

Leverages operating system multi-user profiles.
Leverages user-independent settings.
Allows administrators to lock down control of installed programs by installing in read-only directories.
Allows multiple Notes users to share a computer while keeping their work stored securely in separate personal data directories.

What if the existing installs are single-user?

While it is not possible to upgrade from a Notes® single user installation to a Notes® multi-user installation during an upgrade install, you can use the supplied Notes® single user to multi-user migration assistant tool to migrate an existing single user installation to a multi-user installation within the same release and then run the upgrade install.

For more information on the multi-user migration assistant tool, see these topics: