NOTES CLIENT INSTALLATION AND UPGRADE

Reducing the Notes install kit size
IBM® Lotus®Notes® contains features which increase the size of the install kits when compared to the Notes basic configuration install kits. Some customer's infrastructures are not capable of efficiently handling distribution of the larger install kits and require a method by which they can reduce the size of the kit and still leverage the increased capabilities of the Notes standard configuration client. You can optionally reduce the size of the install kit by removing certain features.

Only features containing the <installfeature> property required="false" in the Notes install kit's install manifest (install.xml) are available for removal or other install options. These include the Composite Applications Editor, Lotus Symphony, Connections (Activities), embedded Sametime®, and (for single user install) Domino Designer and Domino Administrator clients. All other supplied features must remain as supplied in the install kit.

Note Domino Designer and Domino Administrator, and as of Notes 8.5.1 Lotus Symphony require the additional step of using the tuner to create a transform that disables their install completely. This transform file must be included in the Notes install kit during install.

Reductions to the size of the Notes install kit are listed in the table below.
Feature NameSize reduction (approximate)
Lotus Symphony78MB
Sametime4MB
Composite Application Editor4MB
You can remove the following supplied features from the Notes install kit:


Note Installfeatures are optional features of a Notes install kit that may be selected by the user for installation. These features are defined in the install manifest file (deploy\install.xml). The implementation of these features is done in Java; the code resides in the zipped Eclipse update site directory updateSite.zip in the main install kit directory. It is possible to remove user selectable features from the updateSize.zip file and from the install manifest (deploy\install.xml) to reduce the size of the updateSite.zip file.

To remove available features from the Notes install kit, do the following:

1. Copy the Notes install kit to a local drive to a new directory. Include all subdirectories, (for example."C:\NotesInstallKit\".

2. In the locally copied kit, rename updateSize.zip to a backup name such as UpdateSiteSave.zip.

3. Uncompress the backup file to a new directory, preserving the directory structure.

4. Using wildcard syntax remove the files from the expanded update site directory.

5. Create a new "updateSite.zip" file by zipping the expanded update site directory making sure to include all subdirectories. You must preserve the existing directory structures.


6. Copy the deploy\install.xml file to a backup file such as installsave.xml.

7. Open the deploy\install.xml file with a text or XML editor.

8. From the point in the file where the featureID was found, look backward in the file for the start of the feature definition which starts with "<installfeature ...".

9. Insert a blank line on the line BEFORE the line that starts with "<installfeature ...".

10. Type "<!-- <enter>" on the blank line (omit the quotes -- <enter> means press the “Enter” key to end the line).

11. Insert a blank line at the end of the feature definition -- on the line AFTER "</installfeature>".

12. Type "--> <enter>" on the blank line (omit the quotes -- <enter> means press the "enter" key to end the line).

13. Save the file.

14. As of Notes 8.5.1, validate the customized install kit. For information, see "Validating your customized Notes install kit".

15. As of Notes 8.5.1, if you are customizing the kit to remove Lotus Symphony, create a transform that turns off the Editors feature and include that in the Notes install kit. For information see "Customizing Notes install using the tuner" and "Calling a transform file during Notes silent install."

16. Perform a test installation to be sure that the kit functions correctly.

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