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You might be a Domino geek ...
My favorite database, where it lives and now for the fun part, shifting tons of data via email. Shifting email about in domino is a pretty simple operation. Which means it's mostly easy to trouble shoot. Whether I'm in the classroom with a group of admins, running a seminar or just on-site doing some consulting, I always try and "imprint" a few little gems to help make my client's life easier. One of those things I try to get people to remember is the mail routing rule.
You might be a Domino geek if ... Mat asks you what the mail routing rule is, and you remember!
Most of the time I just get a wry grin, a nod of the head and a nervous "ahhhh...."
But every now and then, I come across a Geek in the making. "oh! something about connections and DNN's and Domains right?"
Confession time, there are actually two rules, although one applies to any inter-notes communication.
The comms rule.
Remember yesterday's blog:
..."to Domino, the OS is simply a platform. Something to request memory, disk space, network transactions and processing power from"...
And the comms rule is ... If the OS can't see it, then neither can Domino.
That's pretty simple huh!
You would be surprised how many calls I've handled that come down to this basic premise. Admins and Help desk staff tearing their hair out for hours tweaking server, connection, location and configuration documents, trying to track down that illusive connection "glitch".
"Can you ping your destination?"
"Huh? I called you with a notes problem."
"Can your OS 'See' the target you're trying to connect to?"
"Oh ... didn't try that!"
In a majority of cases where a connection to or from Domino fails, the first place to look is not always the Domino system itself. Hardware, and that other black art - "networking" - are most often at fault when it comes to connection problems. Thankfully I have a colleague, Scott, who is a Dark Lord when it comes to networking. He was telling me the other day how he was reconfiguring our network so that it will make us our lunchtime toasties all by itself and deliver a mocca late with cream - or something like that.
"Will it affect how I connect to anything?"
"Well, No, but it will be better!"
"Cool!"
Always give credit where credit is due. I can type PING and TRACERT and even VFYTCPCNN all by myself. But if I really have a networking issue, I go straight to the Master.
So you've verified that the OS can "see" the destination you are trying to get to, now for the real fun stuff. The Mail Routing Rule.
Ready
The Mail Routing Rule
Mail routing within a Domain is automatic between servers located within the same Domino Named Network, and according to the schedule set in connection documents for servers in different DNN's, or Domains. In addition, routing to servers in other Domains requires a Domain Document.
Commit that to memory, and troubleshoot your way through any mail transfer problem. Honestly.
With the introduciton of ND6, there are, of course, some new documents to consider (internet site documents), but even taking these into account, the mail routing rule still applies.
Want to control when mail routing occurs between two servers? Then we want a connection schedule. So we must have to put them in different DNN's.
Want to get mail to the Internet. Well that's another Domain, isn't it! So I need a Domain document. And because the internet is another domain I need a connection document too.
So the next time you're thinking "how do I get notes mail from us to gee-wizz corp" consider the Mail Routing Rule. It works.
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