HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen9 Server Front Panel LED Indicators
1- Power On/Standby button and system power LED Status
Solid green = System on
Flashing green (1 Hz/cycle per sec) = Performing power on sequence
Solid amber = System in standby
Off = No power present 2 - Health LED Indicator Status
Solid green = Normal
Flashing green (1 Hz/cycle per sec) = iLO is rebooting
Flashing amber = System degraded
Flashing red (1 Hz/cycle per sec) = System critical
3 - NIC status LED Status
Solid green = Link to network
Flashing green (1 Hz/cycle per sec) = Network active
Off = No network activity
4 - UID button/LED Status
Solid blue = Activated
Flashing blue
1 Hz/cycle per sec = Remote management or firmware upgrade in progress
4 Hz/cycle per sec = iLO manual reboot sequence initiated
8 Hz/cycle per sec = iLO manual reboot sequence in progress
Off = Deactivated
My McAfee FRMP4.3 Notes - encrypts files on folders on local drives, network shares, removable media drives(eg: portable hard drive) via policies set in EPO - depends on Windows credentials - FRMP client installed on client machine, frmp sync (policies and encryption keys) with EPO server. ======================================================================== Steps to upgrade EEFF: a) uninstall existing version. b) install supported mcafe agent. (mcafee agent 4.8 / 5) c) check mcafee agent communicates to epo server c) use msiexec.exe /q /i eeff32.msi (for 32bit os) or msiexec.exe /q /i eeff64.msi (for 64bit os) d) restart client machine e) don't forget to check and test it works properly ======================================================================== How to move or migrate machines with installed FRMP from existing EPO server to another EPO server? a) backup encryption keys and policy info b) export encryption keys and policy info Note: user domain and username do not change In FRMP, it is like a persistent encryption engine. Eg: Even if move out of encrypted directory, file remains encrypted. ======================================================================== What are the Protection Level options available for Removable Media? The available options are: Removable Media Policy is organized into two tabs: - USB Media - Floppy Disk Media Options available for USB Media: - Allow Unprotected Access - Allow Encryption (with offsite access) - Enforce Encryption (with offsite access) - Enforce Encryption (onsite access only) - BlockWrite Operations NOTE: This option will restrict the USB devices to a read-only mode. (New FRP feature) Options available for Floppy Disk Media: - Allow Unprotected Access - Block Write Operations (From: KB81450) ======================================================================== FRMP Protection Options for usb devices: - Use enforce encryption (onsite access only). Example: Restrict access to encrypted usb devices within company's environment only. -- No automatic decryption of existing files. Example: If removable media device (eg: usb hard drive) has Enforce Encryption (onsite access only), data in usb device remains encrypted even disable it using policy to Allow Unprotected Access. Remember FRMP is a persistent encryption engine. --- To decrypt data in usb device, Key Field option = Decrypt Changing policy to Allow Unprotected Access affects new devices (usb devices that not affected by Enforce Encryption (onsite access only) ) -- New files keep getting encrypted. Problem Example: Disabling the enforce encryption (onsite access only) has no effect. New files still encrypted because encryption policy applied to usb device. Workaround: To remove applied encrytion policy on removeable media, Key Field = Decrypt -- Ignore existing content on media Ignore existing content on media = Disabled, Result - all existing files becomes encrypted (not ignored). This needs machines with FRMP installed. Ignore existing content on media = Enabled, Result - Only new files are encrypted - Use Allow encryption (with offsite access) or enforce enryption (with offsite access). Example: enable users to access encrypted usb devices on system without install mcafee encryption software - Use enforce encryption (with offsite access). Example: Copy a file to usb device only when encrypted, else, device is read only. If user managed option selected, files can copied only to encrypted portion of device. - Block Write Operation option. Example: make usb sticks as read only. ======================================================================== Sharing with cd/dvd/iso Enforce Encryption (onsite access only) - burning applications burning software should be supported else cd/dvd can be plaintext. See KB81450 - cd/dvd format limitation cd/dvd media should be supported. See KB76478 ======================================================================== FRMP Encryption - policy driven Example: Enforce encryption of a folder (or serveral folders) by specifting location and encryption key (or corresponding encryption keys) for that folder. - user driven Example: users can selectively encrypt or decrypt folders. Explicit Encrypt and Explicit Decrypt made enabled. ======================================================================== Removing a folder encryption policy - it does not decrypt content of that folder. Problem Example: Removing a folder encryption policy - it does not decrypt content of that folder. Workaround: Specifiy policy pointing to folder location. Encryption key field = Decrypt ======================================================================== Encrypted parent folder - decrypted subfolder Default setting - all subfolder in a folder that is "encrypt" also encrypted. Follows inheritance. Problem Example: Parent Folder (Properties - encrypted) - Sub Folder (Properties - decrypted) Solution: Use decrypt option ======================================================================== Encryption Keys Regular and user personal keys - Recommend deactivate keys instead of deleting keys. Deleted key cannot be restored. User personal keys - Administrator can create unique keys for users - can referenced in Grant Key policy generically (as single key) and create unique keys for users Use personal keys and multiple EPO db - Not recommended. - Recommended for user register with one 1 EPO and gets policies and key from that EPO ======================================================================== User local keys - local key limited to user and client machine where it was created user local keys vs user personal keys - user manually created (user) local keys on their local machines and share via export and import processes. - user local keys NOT uploaded to EPO db and not transfer to user to other machines via default frmp - Administrator create unique keys for users for user personal keys in EPO References: - KB81450 - FRMP4.3 Best Practice Guide - wong chee tat :)
In this figure, all Agent Handlers: • Are connected to the McAfee ePO SQL database using low-latency high-speed links • Are located close to the clients they support • Have failover configured between Agent Handlers in other cities • Are managed from the McAfee ePO server The Agent Handlers in these cities have specific configurations. • Dallas — The Agent Handler is configured with failover support to the Agent Handler in Los Angeles. • Los Angeles — The two Agent Handlers have load balancing configured. • Washington DC — The Agent Handler uses specific ports to connect to the McAfee ePO server from behind a firewall.
Notes: Agent Handlers distribute agent-server comms by directing managed systems (client machines) to report to agent handler (AH) instead of epo server AH should NOT used as: - distributed repo. repo distribute large files (Think of newer DAT files, product updates, etc). AH use logic to communicate events back to db. These events tell mcafee agent to download new products from distributed repo. AH cache files from distributed repo but should NOT replaced distributed repo. - slow or irregular links. AH Functions: 1) use work queue as primary communication mode 2) check server every 10s & perform requested action eg: agent wakeup calls, product deployment, data channel messages 3) communicate with each other , for load balancing and failover Roaming with AH: - users roam between different sites connect to nearest AH. possible if all locations configured in mcafee agent failover list. Repo caching - AH cache content and product updates if mcafee agent can't access content from master repo on epo server Q: How much bandwidth is used for communication between the database and the Agent Handler? A: Bandwidth between the Agent Handler and the database varies based on the number of agents connecting to that Agent Handler. However, each Agent Handler places a fixed load on the database server for: • Heartbeat (updated every minute) • Work queue (checked every 10 seconds) • Database connections held open to the database (2 connections per CPU for EventParser plus 4 connections per CPU for Apache) Q: How many agents can one Agent Handler support? A: Agent Handlers for scalability are not required until a deployment reaches 100,000 nodes. Agent Handlers for topology or failover might be required at any stage. A good rule is one Agent Handler per 50, 000 nodes.
In this figure, all Agent Handlers:
• Are connected to the McAfee ePO SQL database using low-latency high-speed links
• Are located close to the clients they support
• Have failover configured between Agent Handlers in other cities
• Are managed from the McAfee ePO server
The Agent Handlers in these cities have specific configurations.
• Dallas — The Agent Handler is configured with failover support to the Agent Handler in Los
Angeles.
• Los Angeles — The two Agent Handlers have load balancing configured.
• Washington DC — The Agent Handler uses specific ports to connect to the McAfee ePO server
from behind a firewall.
repository or repo:
- contain security software packages and updates to distribute to clients (simply think of repo contains latest software updates and provides to client machines)
- types:
master repo (contain latest versions and for distribution = ePO Server)
distributed repo (contain copies from master repo's data. Think of it as local mirrors )
distributed repo mini system config:
- 800MB disk space
- 256MB ram (mini)
types of distributed repo
- superagent repo (system hosting superagents as distributed repo. mcafee agent must be installed)
- ftp repo (ftp server as repo)
- http repo (http server as repo)
- unc share repo (shared folder as repo)
replication
- automatically when global updating enabled
- running schedule replicate task automatically or manually
agent handlers
- reduce load on epo server, saving bandwidth
- move agent request closer to the requester systems
mcafee agent communicate with epo server so that settings are updated, events sending, etc. The communication is known as agent-server communication
superagent - an agent acts as a middle man between epo server and other agents in the same network broadcast segment
function of superagent -
1) caching info received from epo server or distributed repo and then distributes to agents in the network subnet. using lazy caching, superagents get data from master repo only when requested, thus saving bandwidth
- ePO - manage security for systems, networks, data and compliance solutions
- agent gets updates (policy, config, software deployment, etc) from ePO server and push to client machine. Also updates epo server of any issues (reporting)
- agent handler communicates apache service via default port 80 or 443 (changed be changed). connection secured via 168 bit 3DES encryption.
- apache support max 250 concurrent connections and try alternative agent handlers, else, queue max 50
- policies cached in RAM by agent handler
- super agent => agent + ability to contact all agents in same subnet.
- epo server talks to sql db only and not epo console, reducing sql connections, complexity and easier troubleshooting
- The Remote Agent Handler is basically Apache and Event Parser, excluding Tomcat and db
- cannot change client to server authenticated communication port after install
- cannot change sql server tcp port after install
- db size = installed db size + (no of client machines x size of client system properties) + (no. of events generated x event size)
- Let's create vm for Win 2008 and Win 7.
- In Win 2008, created a domain, and dc promo as DC (of course running AD with integrated DNS).
- Check both are able to ping each other
- Check both are able to resolve the hostnames
- Win 7 is made to joined domain. Check both are able to communicate with other
- Install and test with EPO 4.6.x
- Having some fun exploring EPO 4.6.x and populate some data (OU, users, machines) in AD
- ePO - manage security for systems, networks, data and compliance solutions
- agent gets updates (policy, config, software deployment, etc) from ePO server and push to client machine. Also updates epo server of any issues (reporting)
- agent handler communicates apache service via default port 80 or 443 (changed be changed). connection secured via 168 bit 3DES encryption.
- apache support max 250 concurrent connections and try alternative agent handlers, else, queue max 50
- policies cached in RAM by agent handler
- super agent => agent + ability to contact all agents in same subnet.
- epo server talks to sql db only and not epo console, reducing sql connections, complexity and easier troubleshooting
- The Remote Agent Handler is basically Apache and Event Parser, excluding Tomcat and db
- cannot change client to server authenticated communication port after install
- cannot change sql server tcp port after install
- db size = installed db size + (no of client machines x size of client system properties) + (no. of events
generated x event size)
Malware dubbed Mayhem is spreading through Linux and FreeBSD web servers, researchers say. The software nasty uses a grab bag of plugins to cause mischief, and infects systems that are not up to date with security patches.
Andrej Kovalev, Konstantin Ostrashkevich and Evgeny Sidorov, who work at Russian internet portal Yandex, discovered the malware targeting *nix servers. They traced transmissions from compromised computers to two command and control (C&C) servers. So far they have found 1,400 machines that have fallen to the code, with potentially thousands more to come.
"In the *nix world, autoupdate technologies aren't widely used, especially in comparison with desktops and smartphones. The vast majority of web masters and system administrators have to update their software manually and test that their infrastructure works correctly," the trio wrote in a technical report for Virus Bulletin.
"For ordinary websites, serious maintenance is quite expensive and often webmasters don't have an opportunity to do it. This means it is easy for hackers to find vulnerable web servers and to use such servers in their botnets."
Mayhem spreads by finding servers hosting websites with a remote file inclusion (RFI) vulnerability – it even uses Google's /humans.txt to test for this. If the ad giant rewrote this file, specifically changing the words "we can shake", Mayhem infections would be slowed – until its rfiscan.so plugin is updated.
Once the malware exploits an RFI, or some other weakness, to run a PHP script on a victim, it drops a shared object called libworker.so onto the infected system and pings its C&C servers.
It then creates a hidden file system, usually called sd0, and downloads eight plugins, none of which were picked up by the VirusTotal malware scanning tool.
These include a couple of brute-force password crackers targeting FTP, Wordpress and Joomla accounts – presumably to spread the malware further – and information-gathering web crawlers, one of which hunts for other sites with RFI holes.
Some of the vulnerable web applications Mayhem scans for ... click for slightly larger version (Credit: Kovalev, Otrashkevich, Sidorov)
The Yandex trio warn there may be other plugins in circulation, based on data found on the two cracked C&C servers. These include a tool specifically to exploit systems that haven't patched the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL.
The team notes that the Mayhem code does bear several similarities to the Trololo_mod and Effusion families of malware, which target Apache and Nginx servers respectively. They recommend system administrators check their servers to make sure Mayhem's spread is limited. ®
Summary: Facebook on how it has managed to ease the pain of running one of the world's largest fleet of servers.
By Nick Heath | November 25, 2013 -- 12:43 GMT (20:43 SGT)
How many people does it take to run 20,000 servers? In the case of Facebook just the one.
Facebook's low overhead is born of necessity. When you run a computing infrastructure supporting the Likes of more than one billion users worldwide – the less human input needed to keep it ticking over, the better.
The philosophy of the social media giant is if a job doesn't need to be carried out by a person, "let's try and not have a human do it", said Tom Furlong, Facebook's director of site operations.
Facebook cuts manual maintenance of its IT infrastructure wherever possible. Servers and drives can be replaced without tools thanks to their Open Compute Project (OCP) designs, a system called Cyborg fixes tracts of misbehaving servers automatically and tools like Chef help manage thousands of servers at a time.
One of the latest of these manual labour-saving tools is Cluster Planner. Facebook regularly deploys servers in their thousands to meet the constantly changing demands of its business. Cluster Planner helps the company find the best home for these clusters within its global datacentre estate.
"Cluster Planner helps us calculate where we're going to put machines, so we can best utilise the infrastructure that we have," said Furlong.
"It basically replaces an incredibly manual process," he said, adding it had reduced cluster deployment time from days to hours.
Cluster Planner takes a snapshot of what sits where in Facebook's estate. It aggregates data about Facebook's computer systems – such as server components, average CPU utilisation and number of IOPs – and details about the datacentres, including electrical capacity and available floor space.
"It's normally a very cumbersome process for engineers to do the math calculations. With Cluster Planner you can do that very quickly, so what took us days before now takes us hours."
A core challenge for Facebook when cataloguing infrastructure spread across its global datacentres is ensuring consistency in how the data is collected and labelled, so Facebook can properly aggregate data. For example ensuring that data derived from generators at its datacentre in Prineville, Oregon is labelled in the same way as that collected from generators at its Forest City installation, more than 2,500 miles away.
Cluster Planner is in beta, its tools are being worked on and Facebook is in the process of hooking it into all of its datacentres.
Keeping track of Swiss cheese clusters
The make-up of Facebook's datacentres is moulded by the ebb and flow of business demands, with its computing estate changing shape to support alterations to systems and the roll out of new software. Furlong believes Facebook's IT operations could become more efficient by using systems like Cluster Planner to capture information about the composition of server clusters as they change during their lifetime.
"You don't put a server in production and then have [it handling] exactly the same workload during its three year lifespan. It's a moving landscape," said Furlong.
"Over the lifespan of the cluster you start to see things disappearing from it. You get people saying 'Oh there are underutilised resources in that cluster, let's put them in that new cluster that we're bringing up'.
"After a while there's like this 'Swiss cheese' [cluster], which I know by looking at it doesn't have enough machines in it to be used efficiently.
"If we had something that allowed us to better calculate what that 'Swiss cheese' is, we could go back to capacity planning and say 'Hey send us some more stuff' or 'How about we compact this and use some free rows for other things'. Those are the types of things I want us to be able to do over the lifetime of the equipment, so we don't have this static view of the world."
Automating away the pain
Maintaining one of the world's largest fleet of servers could be a massive hassle.
Facebook eases that pain in several ways, such as by using OCP-designed servers, storage and datacentre equipments that have been stripped down to the core components needed to carry out specific computing workloads, an approach that the OCP refers to as 'vanity-free design'.
These designs not only remove unnecessary screws from servers and drives so they can be installed without tools, but also reduce the number of components that can go wrong. The company estimates that using OCP hardware has cut the time its staff spend on maintenance jobs by more than 50 percent.
Also cutting the number of manual repairs are automated software tools like the aforementioned Cyborg, which monitor Facebook's infrastructure and try to correct problems without manual intervention.
"We've said that one datacentre technician can basically handle about 20,000 machines," Furlong said.
"One of the reasons why we can operate as efficiently as we do in terms of server repairs is we have huge numbers of automated systems that collect and analyse data.
"Cyborg goes out and tries to do its own server repairs, like a soft reboot or something that is an easy way to fix a system that's hung up. Cyborg keeps literally thousands of potential tickets from ever hitting a human hand.
"The more stuff we can have a system do, the better. I don't want to employ armies of people to do the things I can automate out. I want the people who are there to do high value work, the more complex repairs, the installs and de-installs, and all the kind of things that you need people to do."
Furlong is also examining ways to cut the manual work needed to add new hardware to Facebook's inventory system, and is considering automated alternatives to its current system of adding items by manually scanning barcodes.
"Say we have a setup where you just snap the new thing in and the system recognises it then updates all of your inventory systems," he said.
While the scale of Facebook's IT operations can be difficult to manage, its size can be an asset when it comes to weeding out problems in the infrastructure. Furlong recalls the company spotting a recurring fault with a small number of motherboards in its OCP servers when they were installed in its Prineville datacentre.
"What we realised was we actually had the same failures in all of our legacy equipment, we just couldn't see it before because the sample sizes were small," he said.
"That's the beauty of having a large sample size to look at, you can knock things out that keep you from having to do a whole bunch of work [in the future]."
If Facebook is to continue to grow its 1.1 billion-strong user base it will need to continue work at sweating its datacentres, but Furlong believes there are plenty more efficiencies to wring out.
"To me that is the Holy Grail of this, to look at that server to datacentre ratio and be able to say 'I can get more servers into my datacentre'," he said.
"I think we do a good job of that today but I absolutely believe there is room for improvement."
1) Enter domain\username
2) Enter password. This could be the same as your windows login password
3) Enter mail server (mail.something.com or similar)
4) Check Use secure connection (SSL)
5) Accept all SSL certificates
Select Done
It will take some time to verify with the mail server and you will see emails downloading to your phone.
Susan
Bulloch has been with IBM since 2000. Before that she worked in various
industries as a Lotus Domino Administrator. After spending six years on
the road as a Field Support Engineer, Susan settled into a new role in
2007, working as a Technical Enablement Engineer helping Business
Partners develop and deploy solutions for Lotus Notes and Domino. Susan
maintains a blog at http://notesgoddess.net, and she is a regular
speaker at technical conferences.
Summary: You asked for it, and now with IBM Lotus Notes and
Domino V8 you have the ability to recall mail messages. Learn how the
Message Recall feature works, how to configure and control it, and how
to deploy it.
The ability to recall mail messages is one of the most requested
features for IBM Lotus Notes and Domino V8. Enabled on the server and
client by default, this new feature lets you recall mail messages that
were sent in error. This article explains how Message Recall works,
discusses how it is configured and controlled, and covers the finer
points of planning and deploying the feature.
Message Recall is simple to use from a user's point of
view. You simply open the Sent view of your Lotus Notes V8 mail file,
highlight the mail you want to recall, and click the Recall Message
button in the Action bar (see figure 1).
After you click OK, the recall request is acknowledged
with a dialog box. If everything is set up properly, the messages are
removed from the recipients’ mail. You receive a report telling you
which messages were recalled (and whether they had been read) and
whether any messages could not be recalled and why. Now let's
investigate what’s behind this simple process.
Lotus Notes and Domino V8 ship with Message Recall
enabled. Whether you build a new system from scratch or upgrade servers
and users, this feature is ready to use. If you have a large system that
will be upgraded over a period of time, you may want to disable the
feature at first, to allow time to plan for user support and training.
The Server Configuration document is used to configure
Message Recall. This central location lets you easily allow or disallow
it for all servers. Mail Policy documents can further refine the
settings, as can individual user preferences.
If you do not have any Server Configuration documents,
Message Recall is still turned on by default, and the default settings,
listed here, apply:
Message Recall: Enabled
Allow recall of messages with unread status: Unread Only
Do not allow recall of messages older than: 14 days
If your deployment plan calls for the feature to be
rolled out later, you must create a Server Configuration document to
turn it off for now.
To disable Message Recall, simply open the Lotus Domino
V8 Server Configuration document and change the Message Recall setting
from Enabled, as seen in Figure 3, to Disabled.
A Lotus Domino V8 or later server containing the mail to be recalled.
A mail file based on a Lotus Notes V8 or later mail template with which to recall the message.
A copy of the mail message in the sender’s mail
file. (This is usually found in the Sent view, but the Message Recall
button is also found in the All Documents view.)
Permission given at the server to perform Message
Recall (and optionally at the policy and the recipient’s mail-file
level, where the feature can be turned off).
Message Recall not only works with these minimal
requirements but also works even if the recalling user is on a server
that is not Lotus Domino V8. All that is required is a Lotus Notes V8
mail template containing the button to recall the message and that the
message being called resides on a Domino V8 server. Moreover, interim
servers between the recaller and the recipient can be any version
because the request at that point is simply an email message.
Message Recall works only on mail that is routed over
NRPC. This means that neither mail routed to the Internet nor internal
mail routed over SMTP can be successfully recalled.
If a Mail Policy exists that limits the use of this
feature for a user, this policy applies and can limit the feature’s
functionality. If there is no policy, or if the policy allows a user to
change the recall setting, each user can choose to disable the feature
in his or her Mail Preferences.
Only mail that resides on a Lotus Domino V8 or later
server can be successfully recalled. The Lotus Domino V8 router does the
work, so a recall request sent to a Lotus Domino V7 server does not
succeed, and the recalling user receives a report stating that the
server does not support Message Recall.
A copy of the message must be saved in the sender’s mail
file to recall it successfully. If the sender did not save the message
when it was sent, Message Recall cannot be used. Because signatures are
checked (for security purposes), mail must be recalled from the mail
file from which it was sent, by the original sender. A delegatee can
recall a message from another user’s mail file, but only if the
delegatee sent it. This means that a Lotus Notes Administrator or an
administrative assistant is not able to recall a message sent by another
user, unless that person has access to the user’s ID and password.
If a message has been forwarded by a recipient, the
forwarded message is not recalled by the original sender’s recall
request because the UNID differs from that of the original. In other
words, Message Recall does not chase down forwarded copies of an email.
Any forwarded copies must be recalled by the person who forwarded them.
Message Recall is not available with IBM Lotus Domino Web
Access. Mail sent to a Lotus Domino Web Access user can be recalled if
it is on a Lotus Domino V8 server and the recalling user has a Lotus
Notes V8 mail template to use to initiate the recall.
Message Recall works only for email, not for Calendar and
To Do items. Users see a pop-up box stating "This message type cannot
be recalled" if they attempt to recall a Calendar or To Do item. These
items can be cancelled or changed using the Reschedule or Cancel options
that exist in all versions of Lotus Notes calendars.
When the original sender clicks the Recall Message button
from the Sent (or All Documents) view, the Lotus Notes client creates a
recall request for the highlighted message. This request is mailed to
each recipient or group that the user chooses. (Note in figure 2 that
the addresses of Internet users are displayed, and a recall request can
be mailed, but Message Recall does not succeed for these users.)
Tip
If you plan to run a mixed-version system for a while, consider putting a
mail rule on your pre-Lotus Domino V8 SMTP servers to reject these
messages. Otherwise, recall reports are sent to the Internet, where they
may cause confusion for the recipient. Such a mail rule can be set to
not accept messages with a form containing "recall." You can then
disable this rule when the SMTP server is upgraded to Lotus Domino V8.
The document UNID is used to identify the message in the
recipient’s mail file. If the server is capable of performing a recall,
the message is located and deleted. The router removes the message
completely and leaves only a deletion stub, allowing the message to be
removed from replica copies as well. Even if the recipient has soft
deletions enabled, the message is never left in the Trash folder.
Because the UNID of the document is used to locate the message, any
copies that have been moved to folders are also removed.
The recalling user receives a report with the results of
the recall attempt. If the message was successfully deleted, the report
contains this information, noting whether or not the message was read.
If the recall attempt fails, the report states the reason it failed. The
recalling user has two very similar notices in his or her mail file,
one in the Sent folder and one in the Inbox, after the message is
recalled. Both are needed to properly inform the user which messages
were recalled, so users need to be told to retain both notices until
they are satisfied with the results of the recall. Both notices can then
be deleted.
The recipient of the original message is not notified
that a recall has occurred. The message is simply no longer in the
recipient's mail file.
If you attempt to recall a message that was sent using
SMTP, the Lotus Domino V8 router sends you a Non-Delivery Report stating
“Message Recall Requests cannot be routed via SMTP.”
Although the Message Recall feature is enabled, disabled,
and configured at the server level, it can be refined and controlled at
other points, providing companies the flexibility to use the feature
the way they want.
Controls start at the Server Configuration document, in
which the feature is enabled or disabled; selections are available to
allow the recall of read, unread, or both; and time limits are available
ranging from weeks down to minutes.
Mail Policy control is available for Lotus Notes
Administrators. The Message Recall options are as follows and are shown
in figure 4:
User is allowed to recall sent messages: yes or no.
Other users are allowed to recall messages they sent to this user: yes or no.
Allow recall of messages with unread status: Unread only or Both read and unread.
Do not allow recall of messages older than: specify number of weeks, days, hours, or minutes.
The Mail Policy can be applied to a subset of users who
may be under legal obligation to keep all messages, or perhaps applied
to limit who is allowed to recall messages at all. The Mail Policy
overrides the settings in the Server Configuration document. For
instance, if the server allows unread mail to be recalled, but the Mail
Policy applied to a user allows unread and read mail to be recalled, the
Mail Policy applies, and both unread mail and read mail can be
recalled. This provides very specific control for individual users.
Unless Mail Recall is disabled at the server or via a
policy, users can also control Message Recall. Under User Preferences -
Basics, they can select or deselect “Allow others to recall mail sent to
me.” If the user deselects this option, the setting causes a notice to
be sent back to the recalling user stating that the message cannot be
recalled.
Message Recall is a new concept to many organizations
that use Lotus Notes and Domino. Questions have arisen over whether this
new feature conflicts with legal requirements, specifically many of the
newer laws concerning the retention of email.
Solutions that are designed for compliance purposes
usually require that all mail be journaled as it is sent, before it
arrives at the recipient’s file. Message Recall does not affect this
type of solution. In fact, not only is the original message journaled,
the recall request is journaled also.
If the original message is ever needed for compliance
purposes, it is in the mail journal and in the off-site storage that is
part of your compliance solution. As added assurance, Message Recall
requests themselves cannot be recalled. Thus, a robust mail compliance
solution should have no problem dealing with Message Recall, and many
companies already have custom-built or other mail recall solutions that
are fully compliant.
Because Lotus Notes mail can be read offline, with the
user disconnected from a network, the read and unread status of a local
replica of a mail file can be different from that of a server-based copy
until replication takes place. Thus, a recall request sent to the
server may report that a message was unread when, in fact, the user read
it offline.
Mobile devices can present a challenge to users wishing
to recall all copies of a message. Unless a handheld device is
configured to process deletions from the server-based mail, messages are
not removed from the handheld device. The owner of the handheld device
controls this setting. Also, depending on the vendor, Message Recall may
not be possible from the device itself.
Mail sent to users with ambiguous names is not recalled;
the recall message cannot determine which recipient was the one selected
by the sender originally.
Mail can be recalled from groups successfully, but if the
group membership changes between the time the mail was sent and
recalled, recall notices may not be sent to original recipients who have
since been removed from the group, and recall notices may be sent to
users who never got the original message. Also, you may recall messages
from groups that include Internet addresses, but only those users in the
group with valid Lotus Notes addresses receive a recall notice. The
other requests result in failure notices.
Finally, messages can always be printed and forwarded or
even have screenshots made of them. Message Recall is not effective in
these cases. Message Recall is not guaranteed to get rid of any and all
traces of a message; rather, it is intended to give users the ability to
recover from errors made in sending messages.
Lotus Notes and Domino V8 Message Recall is yet another
tool for users, and one that may become quite popular. When or if you
choose to deploy the feature, consider offering training to your users
so they are able to use it effectively.
