Specifying settings for managed replicas

You can specify settings for managed mail replicas on the Mail tab of the Desktop Settings Policy document, generating a policy for all users of managed mail replicas.

About this task

For users affected by a policy, you can use the policy to enable managed replicas.

Users unaffected by a policy may also use managed mail replicas, but configuration must take place on their local machines through specification of values in the NOTES.INI file. This method is not recommended.

In either method, the information is sampled by the Notes® Dynamic Client configuration tool (DynConfig), and the local replica is created and added to the user's desktop and to the replicator. An initial replication (build) of the file is then triggered.

Procedure

  1. In the Desktop Settings policy document, select one of the following options for Local mail file:
    Table 1. Local mail file settings
    Option Result on user's desktop
    Create local replica Creates a local (nonmanaged) replica of the user's mail file. This setting was the default before the existence of managed replicas. If a managed replica already exists, this setting converts it to a nonmanaged local replica.
    Tip: You can return to this default setting if you need to troubleshoot problems with managed replicas in your organization.
    Create managed replica Creates a new managed replica of the user's mail file. If a local replica already exists, this setting leaves it unconverted as a nonmanaged replica.
    Create managed replica or convert local replica to managed replica Converts the user's existing local mail replica to a managed mail replica, or if no local replica exists, creates a new managed mail replica.
    Delete local replica or managed replica Deletes any local mail replica, either nonmanaged or managed.
    Note: Deletion occurs only after a final replication takes place and the mail file is no longer open in either the Notes or Domino® Administrator client.
  2. For each option, specify the following settings. The last five settings are in the Managed Mail Replicas section that appears on the Mail tab if you select either Create managed replica or Create managed replica or convert local replica to managed replica.
    Table 2. Managed mail replicas settings
    Setting Action
    Mail file location To use managed replicas, choose Server.
    Use local mail.box to send messages (faster)

    Enter the number of mail messages that triggers outgoing mail when the mail file location is set to on Server.

    If this setting has a value greater than 0, the client uses a local outgoing mail box for sending mail, and the client replicator routinely transfers messages from the local mail box to the server's mailbox.

    It is recommended that you enter 1, especially when using managed replicas, in order to transfer messages to the server as soon as they are deposited in the local mailbox.
    Keep full document for most recent n (days)

    Enter a number of days. The default is 30.

    Non-modified documents older than the number of days will be truncated.

    The setting applies only when a new managed replica is created; it affects neither existing managed replicas nor existing nonmanaged (local) replicas.
    Selective replica Enable this check box to allow users to make the managed replica a partial replica.
    Remove documents not modified in last n (days)

    This option appears only when the setting Selective replica is enabled.

    Enter a number of days, for example 180, to control how long documents remain in the managed replica. The default keeps all documents indefinitely. 180 days should allow users to keep roughly six month's worth of messages.

    Note: This setting applies only to managed replicas. Local nonmanaged replicas continue to use whatever settings the user chooses for a selective replica in the Notes Client preferences.
    Amount of free space required before cache is created

    Enter a number of megabytes. This setting does not allow the creation of a managed replica if the required space is not found.

    The default is 0 Mb and the client replicator attempts to create a managed replica no matter how much space a user has. If there is not enough space to create the replica, an error is added to log.nsf to alert the administrator to the problem, and no managed replica is created.

    Tip: Specify a space number only if you expect users may have managed replicas too large for their local available storage, perhaps as a result of settings for the next two fields.
    Amount of rich text to retrieve on truncated documents

    This setting specifies how much rich text (body) data is initially added to the managed replica for any document truncated after exceeding the age specified in the setting Keep full document for most recent n(days). If the document's body is smaller than the value for this setting, the full document is added.

    Enter a value in kilobytes

    The default is 0 Kb.

    Note: Entering a higher number can cause a longer creation time for the managed replica, but allows users to see more of their mail messages immediately.
    Tip: This setting allows managed mail replicas to take up more space, so with this setting, it is recommended that you set a value for Amount of free space required before cache is created.
    Amount of attachment data to retrieve on truncated documents

    This setting specifies the amount of attachment data that is initially added to a managed replica for any document truncated after exceeding the age specified in the setting Keep full document for most recent n (days). If an attachment is smaller than the value for this setting, the attachment is added.

    Enter a value in kilobytes.

    The default is 0 Kb.

    Note: Entering a higher number can cause a longer creation time for the managed replica, but allows users to see more attachments in mail messages.
    Tip: This setting allows managed mail replicas to take up more space, so with this setting, it is recommended that you set a value for Amount of free space required before cache is created.
  3. Specify options for the following settings that also interact with the user's local non-mail replicas.
    Table 3. Client settings relevant to managed mail replicas
    Setting Action
    Auto-retrieve document setting

    This setting applies only to documents that are truncated (partial or summary documents) in any local replica.

    For fastest performance of managed mail replicas, select Enable document without attachment. This setting retrieves rich text (body) data of a message when a user opens it in the managed replica, but does not retrieve attachment data without user action.

    Selecting Enable document without attachment for this setting retrieves all body and attachment data when a user opens the message.
    Enable server to poll for new mail and trigger replication on notification of new mail

    Select Enable to give users of managed replicas fastest performance.

    When this setting is enabled and a local mail replica (either managed or nonmanaged) exists, the client replicator pulls down new mail to the local replica any time the replicator detects a new message delivered to the user's server-based mail file.
    Enable silent failover when a server goes down Select Enable to prevent users from seeing an unnecessary message box when a server fails over to another in a cluster.

Results

After you save the preceding policy settings, the process of creating managed replicas for users affected by the policy begins.

A newly created managed replica is initially marked out of service, using the database option (DBOption) bit, until the initial replication pass is complete. In addition, a new database option bit (DBOPTBIT_LOCAL_CACHE) that identifies the local replica as a managed replica is set in the database. This is essentially the only on-disk difference between a standard local replica and a managed local replica.

A managed replica is initially set to retrieve summary data only from the server. As the replicator makes its first pass, it checks to see, for each note to be replicated, whether the last modified time is more recent than (CacheDBInitialFullDoc) days. If so, the replica is signaled, on the fly, to retrieve the entire note from the server. Once the first replication pass is complete, the replica is updated always to retrieve entire documents from then on. In addition, the replicator will build the most accessed views (Inbox, Sent, Calendar...) before marking the replica back in service. After the replica is marked in service, it will be used as the user's mail file.