Meetings server - FAQ

Sametime 11.6 Meetings are an all-new meeting experience. Sametime 11.6 meetings have a new deployment model on Docker or with Kubernetes. For more detail, see the topic Docker and Kubernetes FAQ.

About this task

This topic has some frequently asked questions about the all new Sametime 11.6 Meeting server.

Networking Related

How are media streams transferred? Is there any instance where this would occur peer to peer?

All media traffic is routed through the Sametime Meeting server.

If I need external access to meetings, in which firewall zone do I place the Sametime Meeting server?

The meeting server can be placed in the DMZ or your internal firewall zone. See the Topology and Connectivity topic for examples of deployments including external access.

Is there a minimum bandwidth required for audio and video in meetings?

HCL will be publishing more information on this topic soon.

Are there any considerations for the network if I have a firewall?

Yes, see the topic Session Traversal Utilities for NAT (STUN).

Meeting Chat

How long do chats in the meeting remain?

There are two places that chats are displayed. For authenticated users who are logged into the Community server, they will see the chats in the Sametime rich client as a group (n-way) chat that includes the meeting participants. If your Community server is configured for persistent chat, these chats will also be logged based upon your persistent chat configuration. The chat will persist if the user does not close the chat.

For meetings where users are guests, or authenticated users are not logged into the Sametime rich client, the meeting chat is only inside the meeting room. When the meeting concludes, the meeting room chats are deleted from the meeting room.

Can I make the chats persist from one meeting to the next?

When the meeting concludes, the meeting room chats are deleted from the meeting room. Meeting chats do not persist to the next time the same meeting URL is used.

Can I enable logging of the chats inside the meeting?

The user can log the chats only if they log into the Community Server using the rich client. There are three ways the user can log these chats:
  • The Sametime client or embedded client (inside HCL Notes) have a client-side chat logging feature enabled to save a local transcript.
  • If the user enables persistent chats on the server and clients supporting persistent chats are in use, these chats will be stored on the server in MongoDB. They are subject to the persistent chat configuration (how long the data is retained).
  • If server-side chat logging is enabled and chats stored in the configured method.

Authentication

Which authentication methods are supported?

The Sametime Community Server handles all authentication requests. Hence, any supported authentication model (native Domino and LDAP directory) you configure on the Community server, the Meeting server supports.

How can I disable guest (anonymous) access to meetings?

Yes, see the topic Disabling Guest Access.

Which types of SSO are supported with meetings?

LTPA and SAML with LTPA are supported. See the topic Enabling Single Sign-on.

Recordings

Where are recordings stored?

See the topic Managing Recording.

How can you disable meeting recordings?

See the topic Managing Recording.

What type recorded media is available for meetings, is this configurable?

Currently, the user can save all recordings as .MP4 files. It is not configurable.

Which part of a meeting is recorded? Does it include shared screen and audio, and video (presenter and/or participants)?

You can record everything that displays on the screen (this does not include the meeting chat).

Who can access recorded media?

When you post a link to the meeting chat, all meeting attendees will have access to the recording. The link is not recoverable once all attendees leave the meeting.

Meeting attendees who also log into the Community server with a rich client will have a group chat for the meeting. It will have the link to the recording, and the chat will persist if the clients use the supporting persistent chat and keep the chat open.

How long does recorded media remain on servers? Is this configurable?

The default is three days, which is configurable. See the topic Managing Recording.

Meeting Server Configuration Settings

Which settings are configurable server-wide?

Meeting server configuration is all handled on the meeting server; each change is global.

Can the administrator restrict number of participants in a meeting?

Yes, and the default number of participants in a meeting is 100. See the topic Configuring the maximum number of meeting occupants for details.

Which settings are configurable via policy?

Community Policy only allows or disallows meetings. There are no other policy-based settings.

Can I disable the audio and video options?

No

Can I integrate my telephony system with the Sametime 11.6 meeting server?

Yes, See the topic: Enabling Meeting Dial-out.

Personal or Reserved Meetings

Can a user own or reserve the name of a meeting (meeting URL) so that no one can use it?

Yes, the first user who requests the meeting name will own the reserved name.

Can I have a persistent meeting?

You can have a reserved meeting name. There is no data preserved or persisting between members entering/leaving.

Is a moderated meeting room not available until its owner enters the room?

Yes, the moderated meeting room is not available until the owner enters the room.

Can I pass moderator to another user?

Within most meetings, the moderator role is available to any authenticated user who has the meetingsEnabled policy enabled. There is the concept of a personal meeting that is provisioned for each user by the Sametime Proxy as a function of the user logging into Sametime Chat. This personal meeting is owned by only one person and only that person has the moderator role within that meeting. There is currently no way to pass moderator control with that personal meeting. Any other meeting allows moderator control to any authenticated user with the meetingsEnabled policy.

Migrations and Existing Sametime Environments

Can I upgrade from an earlier version of Sametime Meetings?

No, Sametime 11.6 meeting server is installed as a new server. For upgrades from Sametime 11.5 environments, the meeting data stored in MongoDB can be migrated. For earlier versions of Sametime there is no data to migrate.

Can I migrate my Sametime 9.0.1 meeting data to the Sametime 11.6 meeting server?

No. There is no slide share or file share tool in the new meeting server. There is no data that needs to be migrated.

Will my old Sametime meeting URLs work on the new server?

Users can expect the Legacy meeting URLs to work. The DNS change from the old hostname to the new hostname handles the migration to the new server. After the DNS change, users can continue to use the original meeting URLs in calendar entries to join meetings. The new server does not support the legacy meeting client plug-in in the Sametime client, so users must join by URL.

Can I use the Sametime 9 meeting plug-in embedded in the Notes Client to connect to a Sametime 11.6 Meeting Server?

With the introduction of the External Meeting Provider feature in the Sametime embedded and stand-alone clients, deprecate the meeting plugin in the Notes version 11.

Statistics, Reports and Auditing

Are there meeting statistics or reports for Sametime 11.6?

There is no default feature to collect statistics. It may be possible to configure third party monitoring tools (examples: Grafana, Kubernetes stat page). For more information, see the Sametime Meetings on Kubernetes Statistics and Monitoring case study whitepaper.

Does the Meeting server log any data that can be used to identify attendees, time/date, duration, etc?

No, no usage data is logged.

What to do next

Review the Docker and Kubernetes FAQ.