Danoklas
asked on
GW Address Book Problems after 5.5 (5.2 clients) to 6.5 Upgrade
I'm relatively new to an IT director role. A consultant has recently migrated our Groupwise 5.5 (Netware 4.2) system onto a new server now running GW 6.5 on Netware 6.5 . I've resisted upgrading all of the groupwise clients because we've had address book problems with everone who's using the 6.5 clients. Here's what I can tell of the problem:
Several things are happening with address books:
1) Some email addresses get transposed: i.e. username@domain.com tries to send as username@COM.DOMAIN
2) Some addresses get truncated: username@domain.com becomes name@domain.com
3) Other addresses (from the autocomplete) are undeliverable for no apparent reason and get crossed out by Groupwise as soon as you try and send the email, however if you manually enter the same address that appears in the contact infor, it sends just fine.
The old GW clients had added "GWIA:" to the beginning of most email addresses due to it's old internal address-handling needs. I've already cleaned up my own address book to get rid of these, but that doesn't seem to have made much difference on the problems noted above. Any insights from those more knowledgeable in Groupwise than myself would be greatly appreciated.
- DK
Several things are happening with address books:
1) Some email addresses get transposed: i.e. username@domain.com tries to send as username@COM.DOMAIN
2) Some addresses get truncated: username@domain.com becomes name@domain.com
3) Other addresses (from the autocomplete) are undeliverable for no apparent reason and get crossed out by Groupwise as soon as you try and send the email, however if you manually enter the same address that appears in the contact infor, it sends just fine.
The old GW clients had added "GWIA:" to the beginning of most email addresses due to it's old internal address-handling needs. I've already cleaned up my own address book to get rid of these, but that doesn't seem to have made much difference on the problems noted above. Any insights from those more knowledgeable in Groupwise than myself would be greatly appreciated.
- DK
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Note those filenames are NOT typos. The .DC files are essentially schema definitions for the GroupWise databases. The .DB files are the GroupWise databases. The .DC files are static and version-specific. The .DB files are dynamic, and usually newer versions of GroupWise can read older versions of the databases.
Remember, the autocomplete uses a predetermined, but changeable, name completion order. The default is to first look in the frequent contacts address book.
If your users have used the frequent contacts address book for storing personal addresses, they should be told to (not asked to) use the personal address book that bears their name, that was created when their account was created, and never to add anything to the frequent contacts addres book if they want to keep it. The frequent contacts address book is dynamically built every time an address is accessed, and the name completion will come from that address book first if the name exists in that address book. It's just to make the name lookup go faster (like a local cache). The name is misleading, and too often folx assume that it's like an Outlook contacts list.
It should be cleared as part of the upgrade, to remove old-formatted internet names for the named persons. The system address book will automatically work properly, based on the internet naming convention defined for the system, and personal address books, including shared address books, might need to be adjusted if the old version of GroupWise plugged in the old internet naming in the email address fields, but those changes won't help any if their frequent contacts address book is not cleared out.
If your users have used the frequent contacts address book for storing personal addresses, they should be told to (not asked to) use the personal address book that bears their name, that was created when their account was created, and never to add anything to the frequent contacts addres book if they want to keep it. The frequent contacts address book is dynamically built every time an address is accessed, and the name completion will come from that address book first if the name exists in that address book. It's just to make the name lookup go faster (like a local cache). The name is misleading, and too often folx assume that it's like an Outlook contacts list.
It should be cleared as part of the upgrade, to remove old-formatted internet names for the named persons. The system address book will automatically work properly, based on the internet naming convention defined for the system, and personal address books, including shared address books, might need to be adjusted if the old version of GroupWise plugged in the old internet naming in the email address fields, but those changes won't help any if their frequent contacts address book is not cleared out.
ASKER
I'll have to check on a few of the suggestions above tomorrow. However, I can say that the Frequent Contacts address book is not the source of this problem - I checked that first. Also, there are no problems with the system address book - I'm only having troubles with the user's personal address books.
- DK
- DK
please tell me you did a maintenance run on your domains and post offices BEFORE you ran the GroupWise update?
does the phrase "top-down rebuild" mean anything to you? ;)
does the phrase "top-down rebuild" mean anything to you? ;)
Remember, the Asker did not do any of this. A "consultant" was brought in. Let's hope he wasn't an MCSE looking to take a break from endlessly patching Windoze.
So, the personal address book contents work ok if the user uses an old install of the GW client, but fail if they are upgraded to the current client?
I don't know why, but I am getting a red flag every time I think of upgrading from GroupWise 5.2 to 6.5 without a 5.5 or 6.0 step in between...
Hmmmm....I thot he said he was on GroupWise v5.5, but had v5.2 CLIENTS.
Anyway, I can't see why it wouldn't work, even v5.2 to v6.5. As long as it was done right.
Anyway, I can't see why it wouldn't work, even v5.2 to v6.5. As long as it was done right.
still needs to run maintenance on the users and post office.
Well, yes, that's part of doing it "right".
No, he said he had 5.5 on NetWare 4.2. I mentioned the internet naming method changing between 5.2 and 5.5.
I remember having had address book issues going from 5.5ep to 6.0 client, but we also were using the Nexcard address book (which wasn't supported with GW6.)
Isn't there something that can be run, GWCHECK-wise, or otherwise centrally, to force client-side changes? It's one of those vague recollections... trying to jog your memory, whatever hasn't gone yet...
Isn't there something that can be run, GWCHECK-wise, or otherwise centrally, to force client-side changes? It's one of those vague recollections... trying to jog your memory, whatever hasn't gone yet...
yes - from ConsoleOne - locate the PostOffice and right-click on it, select GroupWise Utilities > Mailbox/Library Maintenance
select Analyze/Fix Databases with all the options checked - then press the Run button.
Do this after you have configured that PostOffice's Domain so that you are the Domain Administrator so you will get the GWCHECK files after the maintenance has been ran.
select Analyze/Fix Databases with all the options checked - then press the Run button.
Do this after you have configured that PostOffice's Domain so that you are the Domain Administrator so you will get the GWCHECK files after the maintenance has been ran.
That could be the answer, DSPoole. Worth a shot, Danoklas - just make sure you do the configuration steps first.
if anything, it'll update any pre-6.5 databases to 6.5 that remain.
ASKER
Okay, guys. Thanks again for all your input. I've checked the .DC files and they do match the files on the GW6.5 install CD, so that did get done right. With regards to some of the recent questions about version numbers, I do know that we're running th 5.2 clients. Unfortunately the old server is disconnected, so I can't check the actual version number of GW we were running, but I'm ready to guess that is was 5.2 if that was a proprietary addressing scheme - that seems to fit what I'm seeing in various address book entries.
I have run a the maintenance on the PO as well as individually on a few of the users using 6.5 clients (including myself) - I couldn't tell you whether the maintenance was run before the migration. I have also exported my address book and used a text editor to clean out all the "GWIA:" that were added to the beginning of any internet addresses in the entries. However, neither seem to have cleared out the problems - I still get errors on various addresses (once again, Frequent Contacts are not the problem there).
Could the problem be with addressing rules? I have been told that our previous admin (a volunteer - we're a non-prof by the way) really had to tweak the addressing rules in the past to get the clients to display email addresses in standart internet-style formatting. When I look through the DOM/GWIA/MTA in ConsoleONE I see all the addressing rules as well as the "Ignore Groupwise Internet Addressing" (which is checked). Could the interaction between these settings from the old system and the 6.5 clients be the source of the problem? If so, will changing the settings interfere with the operation of the 5.2 cleints so I'd need to get rid of them all at once.
-DK
I have run a the maintenance on the PO as well as individually on a few of the users using 6.5 clients (including myself) - I couldn't tell you whether the maintenance was run before the migration. I have also exported my address book and used a text editor to clean out all the "GWIA:" that were added to the beginning of any internet addresses in the entries. However, neither seem to have cleared out the problems - I still get errors on various addresses (once again, Frequent Contacts are not the problem there).
Could the problem be with addressing rules? I have been told that our previous admin (a volunteer - we're a non-prof by the way) really had to tweak the addressing rules in the past to get the clients to display email addresses in standart internet-style formatting. When I look through the DOM/GWIA/MTA in ConsoleONE I see all the addressing rules as well as the "Ignore Groupwise Internet Addressing" (which is checked). Could the interaction between these settings from the old system and the 6.5 clients be the source of the problem? If so, will changing the settings interfere with the operation of the 5.2 cleints so I'd need to get rid of them all at once.
-DK
Yes, the addressing rules for 5.2 were a workaround to get better compliance with Internet email addressing. As I recall, it was one of the more annoying upgrade issues going from 5.2 to 5.5.
Interoperability between versions can be a nasty issue jumping so far - from 5.2 to 6.5 - instead of being more incremental. You may have things set up the way you do in order to make the 6.5 back-end work with the 5.2 client. I don't know if there's an easy way around it. You may just have to manually update all of the personal address books to standard internet addressing.
Interoperability between versions can be a nasty issue jumping so far - from 5.2 to 6.5 - instead of being more incremental. You may have things set up the way you do in order to make the 6.5 back-end work with the 5.2 client. I don't know if there's an easy way around it. You may just have to manually update all of the personal address books to standard internet addressing.
ASKER
Assuming that is the case (manually updating the address books), how would the addressing rules affect mail coming from the 6.5 clients? Are the rules going to mess with the formating of the 6.5 corrected email addresses? I have manually updated the 6.5 address books and they still have problems. As you might imagine, I'm hesistant to upgrade everyone from the 5.5 clients if all I'm going to end up with is 40 users with messed up address books.
Check the properties on the Domains and Post Offices in ConsoleOne to ensure that they report version 6.5.
ASKER
Yes, they do report 6.5.
ASKER
Okay, I've got a pretty good handle (I think) on what's going on. The addressing rules are only part of the problem. It seems the real problem lies in the address book itself - the rules are actually keeping those skeletons in the closet for now. Here's what I think is the problem that I need to deal with....
1) The old client has left a lot of corruption in the address book. Primarily the userid, Post office and domain fields are not always correct (truncated, or wrong order). Sometimes the email field itself is some crazy old GW format.
2) Exporting and reimporting contacts (Using Toffa's utility which doesn't export the other problem id, domain and po fields) after cleaning out all the "GWIA:", ".DOM.PO" junk fixes the addresses but leaves the groups a problem because all the pointers are now invalid.
Does anyone know of a utility that can clean up a GW 5.2 address book in place so the groups will remain intact? We have several users with as many as 30 defined groups, some with up to 50 contacts. I'd hate to ask them to recreate all those groups. Or, is there a way to have GW rebuild the groups pointers?
DK
1) The old client has left a lot of corruption in the address book. Primarily the userid, Post office and domain fields are not always correct (truncated, or wrong order). Sometimes the email field itself is some crazy old GW format.
2) Exporting and reimporting contacts (Using Toffa's utility which doesn't export the other problem id, domain and po fields) after cleaning out all the "GWIA:", ".DOM.PO" junk fixes the addresses but leaves the groups a problem because all the pointers are now invalid.
Does anyone know of a utility that can clean up a GW 5.2 address book in place so the groups will remain intact? We have several users with as many as 30 defined groups, some with up to 50 contacts. I'd hate to ask them to recreate all those groups. Or, is there a way to have GW rebuild the groups pointers?
DK
ASKER
It turns out my last post pretty on the money. I finally got to the point where I simply upgraded all the clients over a two-day period and used the GWABFIX utility ( http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools/1658.html ) to clean all the "GWIA", "DOM", "PO", etc. garbage from the address books - worked like a charm. There were still a few addresses that were truncated or otherwise messed-up that the users had to deal with as they came across them - but they were the exception, not the rule. After the upgrade and cleaning, I simply disabled all of the "addressing rules" and the "Ignore Groupwise Internet Addressing" field and things have been wonderful ever since.
Thanks again, guys, for all your input. It's been a big help to have some knowledgeable insight as I'm learning the ropes of Netware/Groupwise.
-DK
Thanks again, guys, for all your input. It's been a big help to have some knowledgeable insight as I'm learning the ropes of Netware/Groupwise.
-DK
Great - glad to hear its working.
ShineOn is probably on to something with the v5 database issue. I'd be concerned that this "consultant" may not have been skilled in such migrations. I would verify that the WPHOST.DC and WPDOMAIN.DC files in, respectively, the Post Office and Domain subdirectories are the v6.5 versions (compare them to the v6.5 media) and not the v5.5 versions. If the upgrade failed to replace those files with new versions, then that could be the source of the problems you describe (all sorts of wierd effects come out of that mistake). The solution in that case is to update the DC files and perform a top-down rebuild of the GroupWise databases.
Also, understand that in the GroupWise Client package, the Address Book functions almost as a separate application. It is possible for the Address Book functionality to be messed up, yet the main GroupWise application (aside from the Address-related functions) works fine. This is typically solved by the reinstallation of the client.
Also, the machines having the problems. Were they clean installs, or an upgrade of the GroupWise client? The GroupWise v5.5 client was not known for being able to be cleanly uninstalled with the stock tools. Nexic and one other company made uninstallers for the older GroupWise clients (they are also effective on the newer ones, but generally v6.0 and later do a better job of cleaning up after themselves when uninstalled). Try uninstalling the v6.5 client (using Add/Remove Programs) and then running one of the 3rd party uninstall utilities to remove any traces of the v5 client, then reinstalling the v6 client. The goal here is to get rid of any garbage (especially in the Registry) still hanging around from the v5 client.
You can test my theory by performing an install on a "clean" machine - one that has never had the v5 client on it - just install the v6.5 client. If the problems persist, then you've isolated the issue as server-based. If you don't see them, then its more likely that the problem is workstation-based.