HCL has just published a whitepaper that explains how to install Sametime 12.0.3 on Windows step-by-step, run it on the same computer as an existing Domino server, and
customize the user interface.
You can find it here https://support.hcl-software.com/csm?id=kb_article&sysparm_article=KB0129431
This post is a shameless plug because the authors of the whitepaper are the Sametime expert, HCL Ambassador, and friend Aleŝ Lichtenberg and me.
As I wrote in a previous post I will speak at Engage 2026.
But I am not the only one from OpenNTF that will have a session there, my colleagues in the Board will have sessions there too.
This pictures shows the content that we are delivering at Engage, as you can see there’s something for both developers and admins.
Hope to see many of you there, and if you have any questions about the OpenNTF activities, or any request, or you want to help, just grab one of us and let’s talk!
I had the honor and the privilege of having a session accepted at Engage 2026.
I will speak, together with my usual partner-in-crime, Marianna Tomasatti, about the difference in configurations of Sametime Chat Server on Docker and on Windows.
Sametime Chat on Windows
Tue, Apr 21- 16:05–16:30 – Room A
Sametime chat on Windows offers the same features as Sametime on Docker/Kubernetes; however, configuration and customization are performed differently, and the files you need to edit are not the same.In this session, we will explain how to configure LTPA, SSO, and other tips and tricks.
While working for a customer, who has Sametime Chat on Windows and uses only web access to mail, I found a bug in Sametime. I opened a case and HCL could reproduce it; they created a Technote, KB0127919, for it. Hopefully will be fixed soon.
Entries in stproxyconfig.xml are deleted after restarting the StProxy service
The time-to-live (TTL) setting defines how long the chat history is stored in the database. The default value is 90 days.
The instructions on how to change it in the official documentation unfortunately refer only to Docker and Kubernetes deployments and do not cover the Windows-based chat-only server.
On a Windows Server, you don’t have to edit the file custom.env, as you would in Docker or Kubernetes; instead, you need to edit the file chatlogging.ini.
Add at the end of the file this value: CL_MONGO_HISTORY_TTL=30 where 30 is the number of days you want to keep the chat history.
Then follow the instructions in the documentation to delete and recreate the Mongodb indexes. Open a mongo shell and type the following commands
use chatlogging
db.EVENTS.getIndexes() [here the default value should be 7776000]
db.EVENTS.dropIndex(“TimeStamp_1”)
db.USERS.dropIndex(“date_1”)
Restart the Sametime server and check again the value of the EVENTS index for TimeStamp_1, should be 2592000 in my case of 30 days.
“Angels never know it’s time
To close the book and gracefully decline”
were singing the Genesis in 1976 (Ripples, one of their best songs ever, IMHO).
I am not at all an angel, so I know when it’s time to take a step back.
Effective January 1st 2026 I will retire, though I will do it “gracefully” and not abruptly.
I will still remain a Partner in ELD Engineering, but all the customers I am working with on Domino will be taken care by my friend and colleague Luca Zucchelli. I will still work with the customers on Sametime and Connections. That will not be a full-time activity, but will keep me busy enough not to get bored.
Also, I will continue to serve as a Director for OpenNTF, there are some things we’re working on and I will continue to help there.
I will not take a trip back on memory lane, so I will not tell all the good, the bad and the ugly of 37 years of career started with Notes 3.0, my readers don’t deserve such a punishment.
You will still see me around, I will be continue to be present in the Discord servers of OpenNTF and HCL Ambassadors (pending a confirmation for the last one), and if you happen to be at the next Engage, I will offer you a beer or two.
Sametime 12.0.3 chat server is available on Windows. You may want to have SSO, for example with Domino to have awareness status in email.
You then need a LTPA key, which is very easy to create if you use Docker as referenced in the documentation here https://help.hcl-software.com/sametime/v1203/admin/ltpa_generate_key.html
But what if you don’t use Docker? You need a way to generate a LTPA key in Windows. I found out that is not hard as it may seem and in this post I will explain how to do this.
LTPA keys are generated by WebSphere Application Server, but installing a full WAS server just to create the LTPA key is definitely an overkill, besides you need to know WAS itself, which is not always the case.
As the above mentioned documentation suggest you can use an instance of WebSphere Liberty to generate LTPA keys.
WebSphere Liberty is downloadable for free from IBM (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/websphere-liberty-developers), there are several formats available, I used the zip file. Is named wlp-webProfile8-java8-win-x86_64-25.0.0.11.zip
To install it simply unzip the file in a directory on your machine, you can do it on your PC, there is no need to do it on the server; I unpacked the file in C:\wlp
Now open a command prompt and go in the bin directory. Run the file securityUtility.bat with those options: securityUtility createLTPAKeys --password=yourpassword
This will create the ltpa.keys file in the bin directory
If you want to have the file in a different directory use the option --file= in the command.
Copy the file from the PC where you created it to the Sametime server machine.
When installing Sametime, if you select to configure LTPA here
You are presented with this screen
Just type in the dialog the location of the file you have created.
Starting from V14.5 Verse is not installed anymore in the Data directory, but the new default is the Program directory (https://help.hcl-software.com/domino/14.5.0/admin/wn_145_install_features.html#wn_145_install_features__section_fzf_bvf_pdc) .
If you look in the Domino installation location, you will see that the Verse zip file is in the <ProgramDir>\addons\Verse
And the Verse files are installed in <ProgramDir>\osgi\shared\eclipse\plugins
Domino 14,5 ships with Verse 3.2.4, how do you upgrade to Verse 3.2.5 now that it has shipped ?
The answer is as obvious as it seems, just extract the 4 files from the new Verse.zip and put them in the directory above mentioned.
As usual I attended Engage, and as usual it was a very good event.
It was the first one not organized by Theo Heselmans, but Kris and Tom did a great job. I believe Engage is in good hands for the future.
The location was nice, though not very eccentric like the ones Theo has used in the past, the New Babylon conference center; it had the advantage of being right in front of the Central Station, so getting there was a no-brainer, and the hotel I choose, like many others, was just around the corner, literally.
I went with my friend, co-speaker, and partner in crime Marianna Tomasatti, and also this year the start of the adventure was a bit uphill (though not serious like last year).
As I said the conference center is named New Babylon, and the hotel is named Babylon; this has created a bit of confusion for me and Marianna. As soon as we stepped out of the train station, we saw the sign of the New Babylon and went straight there, convinced it was the hotel.
We entered, it was 8.45 p.m., and it was deserted. The stairs for the reception were closed with a rope, no one was around…. While Marianna was deciding which couch she would sleep on, I called the hotel and told the receptionist that I had a reservation, but there was no one and the reception was closed.
After listening patiently to me, he said “Sir, I believe you are at the New Babylon, but that is not us, we’re the Babylon. Exit, turn right at the corner and you will find us”.
I have been told by a couple of other attendees (no names) that they made the same mistake, so I am glad I am not the most stupid attendee 🙂
The sessions were good, as you can easily imagine the big focus was on DominoIQ, it seemed to me that every third word in the HCL sessions was DominoIQ, but I guess that’s normal, this is the big thing coming with Domino 14.5.
A big new that made all, and I mean all, the attendees happy was that HCL is going to make a completely new Notes client, they briefly showed a slide of the possible UI, a teaser to keep us waiting for it. If you see him at an event, ask Tim Clark when it will ship, I already did 😀
Another interesting topic has been the concept of Sovereign Cloud, i.e. have your servers in cloud, but located in a provider in Europe rather than leaving up to Google or Microsoft where to store your data and decide who can access.
A better description of what HCL is doing can be found here
I had two sessions, the first one was the OpenNTF roundtable, where we officially announced the new community server domino.openntf.net, you can find the details on the openNTF website in this post
The second one, which I presented with Marianna, was on the customization of the Verse UI and extending Verse features using extensions. The slides are posted on the Engage web site, look for my session and you can download it from there. In the session I told that I would made available the applications.json file I used to make the customizations. I have uploaded it as a snippet in the OpenNTF web site here
I don’t want to make this post too long, so I will not go into the details of the file. Maybe I will do a blog post specifically for that, if someone is interested.
Kris and Tom have announced that Engage 2026 will take place in Belgium, but the location is undisclosed for now. I look forward to next year, Engage is not only good for learning new things, but mostly for meeting old friends from other countries, and make new ones.