Comments on: Sametime 8.5 rant

By: Sabu

Sabu — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 05:28:00 +0000

I was trying to upgrade from ST 8.0.2 standard server to 8.5 standard server in our test server and failed. Binary for the upgrade went fine and the ST was up and running. To have the audio and video i had to install DB2, System console, media manager and meeting server where after installing System console the ST services failed to start. I had gone through the steps exactly as per the IBM documents. Am I doing anything wrong here. Will I benefiting much by upgrading this? I read there are some enhancements for Audio/Video.

I am running ST 8.0.2 on Domino 8.5.1FP2. Operating system is RHEL 5.1. I need to keep everything in one single server. Will you be able to advise how to plan for this upgrade?

By: Rob Ingram

Rob Ingram — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:40:39 +0000

To show of what’s new in 8.5 without installing any new servers go to Greenhouse.lotus.com and you can get the client and connect to 8.5 meetings. Or just use a web browser and use that for meetings; or use web browser based IM (available later this week on Greenhouse).

For SMB in particular, I’d also claim that this is one reason why we introduced Lotuslive (and also why you still pay Webex your hard earned money). In general the SMB market is potentially better off letting the IT cost be shared with other companies, at least from a purely economic point of view.

As Carl noted, there are many many large companies that have large and growing meetings and A/V workloads where they need a distributed topology. Sametime 8.0.2 and EMS simply stated do not do that is a very manageable way. That’s one of the many business drivers for Sametime 8.5 in the enterprise.

That’s what we were thinking!

Rob Ingram, Sametime Senior Product Manager, IBM

By: Vladimir Kocjancic

Vladimir Kocjancic — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:40:47 +0000

Sametime Classic is what i am going to install, but what if I wanted to show off cool & new features to my superiors? I mean Sametime 8.5 was promoted as a product that will beat WebEx, or at least seriously compete with that. But how it will do that, when it requires more servers for same amount of load?

Also, that Classic add-on to the name reminds me of my younger years, when I was developing software that used NI digital IO card. They had C++ libraries that were called Traditional. And with each version and sub version, no-one knew if they were are going to be supported or not. On top of that, new libraries had a major bug that is yet to be fixed (for three years now), but that is a totally different story.
What I was trying to say is that now, IBM supports Sametime Classic, as it would obviously be too much to force customers to more expensive solution. But what about in version 9 or 10? Will Sametime Classic still be supported?

By: Carl Tyler

Carl Tyler — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:56:26 +0000

I think IBM was thinking of super large businesses, if they were thinking of small companies, then they need some medication.

By: Chris Miller

Chris Miller — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:23:32 +0000

Glad you found Carl’s article. I had posted the part numbers also to make it easier. For smaller companies wanting to run exactly what you have now, then Sametime Classic (which is the Domino install portion you are familiar with) is exactly what you want. The rest revolves around the new meeting services, web chat client and enhanced media services (A/V). So just that one install is all you need!

By: Craig Wiseman

Craig Wiseman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:36:09 +0000

There’s an idea for that:
http://ideajam.net/IdeaJam/P/ij.nsf/0/921C72B4A378D435862576A3005E6C1A?OpenDocument

By: Mark Hughes

Mark Hughes — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:31:49 +0000

I completely agree, i work for a 120 user organization, moving to that would be a nightmare

By: MAX

MAX — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:20:52 +0000

Kaj sam jamras

By: Dennis van Remortel

Dennis van Remortel — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:13:42 +0000

Hate to burst the bubble, but 8.5.1 isn’t supported…..