OpenMic CalendarTips 05152013

Tips and Tricks - Troubleshooting Repeating
Meetings, Busytime, and Resource Reservations
Open Mic
May 15, 2013
IBM Support
Speaker 1 | Todd Bailey, Level 2 Support Engineer
Speaker 2 | Andrea Mitchell, Level 2 Support Engineer
2 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

Calendaring & Scheduling
Tips and Tricks for Repeat Meetings, Busytime and
Resource Reservations
This presentation is intended for administrators who have a basic

understanding of the IBM Notes calendar and scheduling features, the free-
time system and the reservation system.
For more advanced troubleshooting of the free-time system or reservation

database, refer to these previously-recorded Open Mics:
Troubleshooting freetime (busytime) issues in Lotus Notes

Configuring & Troubleshooting the Resource Reservation database in Notes
Troubleshooting & resolving common Notes/Domino Calendaring & Scheduling
issues

Agenda
■ Repeating Meetings
─ Isolate the meeting
─ Collect APPTUNID
─ Search calendar views
■ Review relevant fields
─ Compare and analyze
■ Understand the child/parent relationship
■ Repeating meetings
─ What to look for
─ Resolving issues

Agenda
■ Busytime
─ Do's and don'ts of the free-time database
─ Narrowing down common issues
– Replication/Save conflicts
– Free-time issues for one user
─ Use a handful of helpful commands
■ Resource & Reservations (R&R) database

─ Do's and don'ts
─ Things to check
■ Resource links
■ Q&A

Repeating Meetings
Tips and Tricks

Relevant views
■ Calendar views are specialized views
─ Day, Two Day, One Week, Work Week, Weekly Planner (Notes 9), One Month views
─ In the mail file, they have a selection formula based on one field
– CalendarDateTime
─ Items that do not meet this criteria do not show, notably:
– Responses
• They use the form Notice
– Parent documents of a repeat meeting
• Each instance shows, but not the parent
– All have the same ApptUNID
– All should have matching $REF field also

Relevant views
■ Calendar List views
─ Entries and Notices view
– Displays all calendar-related documents
• Meetings, updates, accept/decline notices, confirmations, etc.

– Rarely used for troubleshooting
─ Calendar Entries view
– Displays all meetings which should be displayed on the calendar
– May be used to troubleshoot single instance meetings

─ Grouped Entries view
– Displays all meeting documents in a hierarchical view
• Allows you to see an entire meeting thread

– Best view for troubleshooting
─ $APPTUNID view
– Hidden view that displays all meetings
• Not hierarchical
– Also a good view for troubleshooting
• May show corrupt documents not displayed in the grouped entries view
Views used for deep digging
■ The (ApptUNID) view
─ Notice the ApptUNID column and the $Ref column

Views used for deep digging
■ Grouped Entries view
─ Better graphical depiction
─ Hierarchical view

Identify the parent document
■ Other settings on Parent/Child documents

─ Notice the APPTUNID and DocUNID match for parent
– No $REF value for parent
─ Parent documents have the $CSFlags field set to “c”
─ Child documents contain $CSFlags = “i”
■ Views
─ $APPTUNID
─ Grouped Entries

Tip
■ If you search for the APPTUNID in the grouped entries view and no
documents are found, this more than likely means:
─ the parent document no longer exists
– Use NotesPeek to search for the deletion stub using the APPTUNID
• Identify time of deletion

• Compare time to deletions stamps in the User Details log
─ the APPTUNID of the parent document has been modified or stripped out
– Review modified by field, $UpdatedBy, $Revisions, and $CSTrack fields for
possible clues

Important fields
■ Common to Notes
─ ApptUNID
– Identifies each Calendar document
• It is a text copy of the UNID
• All instances of repeating meetings have the same ApptUNID
– In everybody’s Calendar
• Use this field to isolate problematic meetings

─ CalendarDateTime
– This is added programmatically to each Calendar document
– If customers write their own programs, they may miss this
– It's the selection formula for calendar views!
– TIP: if meetings appear in the list views but not the calendar views, verify that
the CalendarDateTime field is present in the meeting. If not an agent can be
used as a quick fix.
• @SetField("CalendarDateTime";@GetField("STARTDATETIME"));
CalendarDateTime
■ In Lotus Notes 8 and later, other items appear on the
Calendar
─ Unaccepted Invitations (Ghost entries)
─ Cancelled Meetings
– Their visibility is set in user preferences
– The Router adds the necessary field to make this happen
• Specifically CalendarDateTime is added

Tip
■ Autoprocessing processing handles the ghosting feature
─ If the feature is not working, verify that it is enabled and send a test meeting. Look at
the invitation, does the CalendarDateTime field exist?
– CSLogAutoprocess=1 (server debug)
• Verifies if the autoprocessing bit is enabled or not
– FixAuto
– Create Agent to enable bit
09/02/2010 16:11:49 Autoprocess: Message <msgid> for '<user>': Entering

MailAutoProcessRequest.
09/02/2010 16:11:49 Autoprocess: Message <msgid>for '<user>': Autoprocessing not
enabled.
09/02/2010 16:11:49 Autoprocess: Message <msgid>for '<user>': Skip because
disabled by db

Important fields
■ Common to Notes
─ $CSTrack
– Diagnostic / tracking info showing who did what and when
─ RepeatInstanceDates
– Always a list of the original dates and times of the meetings
─ RepeatDates
– Listed in the Parent document only
– A corresponding list of the current dates and times of the meetings
─ StartTimeZone
– Used to specify the chair's time zone
• "Z=5$DO=1$DL=3 2 1 11 1 1$ZX=30$ZN=Eastern"
– Troubleshoot DST and calendar view issues
– http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21163045
– TIP: “Use Operating System's Time Zone” listed on the advanced tab of
the location document should always be set to YES
Important fields
■ Common to Notes
─ SequenceNum
– Incremented when changes that affect the workflow are done such as a change in
start or end date/time. Cosmetic and other minor changes (ex: changing text in
Subject) are not grounds for increasing SequenceNum as that invalidates all the
replies we get back to the old SequenceNum without any need.
– Useful for issues where accepting a reschedule does not update the calendar
─ $UpdatedBy
– List of user names who modified the document.
– Helpful in determining what processed a bad action
─ $Revisions
– List of date/time stamps on which the document was revised.
– Item does not exist if document has not been revised.

─ $ICAL_ORIG_Stream
– Only appears on meetings sent via SMTP (icalendar)
– Contains the icalendar information which may be helpful to determine problems if

an icalendar meeting cannot be processed
• TIP: Use an ical validation program to validate the icalendar
Where to find a list of the fields
■ Lotus Notes Calendar & Scheduling Schema
─ http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/ddwiki.nsf/dx/cs_schema_toc
– This is the only document currently kept updated regarding fields
─ Suggested to anyone who plans to develop or customize calendar items

Repeating Workflow Basics
■ Repeating entries are a minimum of two documents
─ Both use the Appointment form

─ One is a child of the other
– The children are tied to the parent by the $Ref item
─ When the parent document is created
– The UNID of that note is converted to text
– It is saved as the ApptUNID

– The ApptUNID item is copied to each of the children
– This helps tie all the repeating documents together
─ If the UNID and APPTUNID of the parent document do not match, users will
experience calendar workflow problems.
– This is why you shouldn't copy/paste meetings from one mail file to
another
• Copy to database simple actions agent may be used

Repeating Meetings: What to look for
■ It is important to analyze both the Chair’s and Invitee’s calendar

─ The ApptUNID (or $REF) can get out of sync
– It has been traced to sync software, virus scanning software, mail
management software, and no cause found
• But it does happen
– It’s almost impossible to tie it to a cause after the fact
• Unless it happens a lot
─ Your clues
– The UpdatedBy, ModifiedBy and $Revision fields can show this
─ The best solution is often to recreate the meeting
– This makes nobody happy
– If it is an Invitee, they may be removed and re-added to the meeting
• Prevents impact to other invitees
– Report the issue to IBM if the issue is reproduced on-demand

Repeating Meetings: What to look for
■ The parent document contains two important fields that are unique to
repeating
─ RepeatInstanceDates
– Always a list of the original dates and times of the meetings
– Unique identifier for child documents

─ RepeatDates
– A corresponding list of the current dates and times of the meetings
– This value is not found in the child document

■ RepeatInstanceDates & RepeatDates
─ The position of the dates/times of these two lists cannot change
– Even if one of the meeting’s dates is cancelled, the item is not removed
─ The number of items in both fields must match at all times

– This is where repeating meetings usually break down
– It is almost never plain vanilla usage that causes it

– Often caused by third-party applications (usually calendar synch software)
Any time a repeating meeting goes outside Notes and comes back into
Notes, this field is at risk 21 | © 2013 IBM Corporation
Repeating Meetings: Under the hood
■ An example
─ A repeating meeting parent, one child (5 day repeater)
– Repeating meeting is originally scheduled from May 7-May 11

Repeating Meetings: Under the hood
■ Reschedule the third instance
─ A repeating meeting parent, three children
– Rescheduled 5/09 instance to 5/13
– The RepeatInstanceDates are unchanged in the parent, but

─ The Repeat Date reflects a new time for instance # 3
– And the children have the RepeatInstanceDates changed

Resolving the problem
■ It is usually possible to pinpoint what is not right
─ Certain items should match
─ workflow is straightforward
■ It is very rare to pinpoint what caused the problem
─ Sync software gets updated
─ Mobile devices get software updates
─ Some, but not all, meetings were rescheduled
– Then cancelled
– Then someone was added to the invitation list
– Then the room changed
– Then the user got a new handheld
• Meetings are updated from the handheld (what actions were taken;
what software is being used?)
─ Very difficult to reproduce issues
─ Users accidentally delete meeting documents without knowing
– Mail file cleanup
─ Users try to fix meetings by removing/adding invitees - this loses all
troubleshooting data 24 | © 2013 IBM Corporation
Resolving the problem
■ Once a set of repeating meetings is broken, it can rarely be
repaired
─ The dates and ApptUNIDs get out of sync, and Lotus Notes cannot reset them
─ Writing a script to fix them is rarely effective and can be risky
– Sometimes it may be as simple as updating a single field value
─ CNSDiag tool can fix many of these
─ Issues may arise from replication/save conflicts
– May be resolved by running the built-in repair tool
■ “Root Cause” is very difficult to find
─ Unless it happens every time for a certain action
– It is rare to get the information as it happens
• Meetings may break well before the user notices a problem and reports
the issue
• Memories fade
─ Gather as much information as possible
Common errors
■ "Error trying to open document: The repeating instance document
corresponding to this notice cannot be located"
─ Child document has either been deleted or the APPTUNID/$REF values are mismatch
■ Meeting is not in your mailfile
─ When opening the document, the user will see the following:
– Parent document has either been deleted or the APPTUNID/$REF values are
mismatch

TIP
■ Reducing accidental deletions
─ Users often delete meetings from mail
views
– All Docs and Inbox
─ Set preferences to “Remove without
Asking”
– Prevents users from deleting docs in
mail views

Tip
■ Reducing accidental deletions
─ Calendar & To Do → Display → Notices tab
– Set the following to prevent calendar entries from showing in the All Docs and
Sent views.
– Remove processed meetings from Inbox
– Don't display accept/decline notices in Inbox
• Use Invitee Status to monitor user responses.
Wiki document: Best Practices to prevent the accidental deletion of meetings and other
calendar related documents
Common question
■ Is there a limit to the number of meetings I can schedule?
─ Answer: Technically no, but …
─ There are limits to the amount of data that can be stored in a date field - 64 K
– This happens at 1,200 dates (or before)
– You receive a warning at 1,200
─ Outlook does not force users to set an EndDate - causes several problems for
Notes
─ End result is that we truncate the repeatdates causing the meeting to fail
• Relates to Technote 1584685:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21584685

Busytime
Tips and Tricks

Busytime Do's and Don'ts
Do:
■ Look for replication/save conflicts in your freetime database
─ Very often are traced to rep/save conflicts or duplicate entries in busytime or clubusy
─ Consider searching for rep/save conflicts in R&R if found in freetime
■ Recreate your freetime database according to our recommendations

─ These are real-time databases and can be recreated
─ They contain NO historical information
─ How to recreate the busytime.nsf and clubusy.nsf databases on a Domino server
─ Watch A Video On “How to Recreate the Busytime Database”

Busytime Do's and Don'ts
Don't:
■ Hand-select busytime documents and delete them
─ Deleting and re-validating only puts the most recent info into busytime.
─ Double booking of rooms can occur
─ Don't Replicate busytime or clubusy
■ Copy busytime.nsf or clubusy.nsf
─ “Backup” copies of clubusy.nsf are responsible for a large percentage of reported
issues

Narrowing down common busytime issues
Replication/Save conflicts
─ The result of the same document being edited on different
servers.
─ Notes will replicate both versions of an edited document.
─ One version becomes the "winner"
─ The "loser" becomes a response document and is identified by a
black diamond and the words "Replication or Save Conflict".
─ Replication/Save conflicts can result in various calendar-related
problems
– Missing calendar entries / View corruption
– Multiple instances of the same meeting in the graphic
calendar

When one user reports a freetime issue
■ First check the color
─ Grey
─ Red?
─ Pink?
─ Other?
■ Then, investigate further

─ Check the status bar
─ Try and open calendar documents
─ Check the user's preferences
Let's look at some examples....

Troubleshooting Incorrect Freetime
Example: Freetime is GREY
Tip: What error appears in the Notes status bar?

Example: Freetime Is Red
Tip: Right-click the schedule and notice the “open entry” option

Example: Freetime is Pink
TIP: Check User Preferences

Example: Freetime is Pink
TIP: Check User Preferences

Helpful Freetime Server Commands
■ There are server commands that will show you what you need
to know
■ Tell Sched Show User Name/OU/O

■ Tell Sched List User Name/OU/O
■ Tell Sched Check User Name/OU/O
■ Tell Sched Validate User Name/OU/O
■ Explanation of the commands and what they do

Resource Reservation
Tips and Tricks

Resource & Reservations (R&R) database
Do's and Don'ts
Do:
■ Cluster your database
─ Improves performance
■ Make sure your agents are enabled!
─ These are critical to the database function.
─ You can modify the purge agent
■ Check for Replication/Save Conflicts
─ Create a permanent view in your R&R database and monitor it regularly

Resource & Reservations (R&R) database
Do's and Don'ts
Don't:
■ Disable the purge agent because you want to keep reservations
─ Your database will grow in size and performance will be impacted

─ There are other options available.
■ Replicate the R&R database
─ Only cluster replication with two servers is supported

Resource Reservations Agents
■ There are 4 scheduled agents that need to be enabled

 Autoreminder
 Purge Documents (auto)
 RenameReservations and SendNotice
 Update Blocker Documents
Watch this video on how to enable the agents

Symptoms of the agents becoming disabled
■ Update Blocker Documents agent not enabled:

– Rooms become blocked forever
■ Purge Documents agent not enabled:

– Views become cluttered with old reservations
– The database grown in size over time

Symptoms of the agents becoming disabled
■ RenameReservation and SendNotice agent not enabled:

– Meeting chairs are not notified when rooms are renamed
– Chairs are not notified that they reserved a room a long
time ago and forgot
■ (Optional) Autoreminder agent not enabled:

─Only problematic if you intend to use the feature.
─Not commonly used

Tip:
Check For Conflict documents
■ Replication/Save conflicts are difficult to see in the database
─ They seem to happen in clustered systems

─ Create a view that shows only conflicts
─ Selection formula
─ SELECT @IsAvailable($Conflict)
─ Remove the conflicts
─ Create an agent with the simple action Remove from Database
Is it possible to select only the Replication/Save Conflict documents in a view?

Consequences of Rep/Save Conflicts in the R&R
database
■ Lookup failures when searching for free time
■ Multiple listings for rooms cause lookups to fail
■ Busytime conflicts
■ Multiple documents with $busyname field
■ Creates multiple listings in busytime
■ Certain rooms appear unavailable forever
■ Conflict documents in blocker view stop the room from working

Resource Reservation Room Limitations
■ Illegal characters in a room name.
■ You can have no more than 71 characters (including spaces) in a
room name.
■ Cannot use special characters in a site name
■ Cannot use double spaces in a room/resource name
List of Illegal Characters

Room and Resource character limitation
Unable to book a room if the site name contains special characters
Double spaces in a room/resource name cause freetime and rename
issues

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Tips and Tricks - Troubleshooting Repeating

Meetings, Busytime, and Resource Reservations

Speaker 2 | Andrea Mitchell, Level 2 Support Engineer

2 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

This presentation is intended for administrators who have a basic

For more advanced troubleshooting of the free-time system or reservation

Troubleshooting freetime (busytime) issues in Lotus Notes

3 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

4 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

─ Use a handful of helpful commands

■ Resource & Reservations (R&R) database

5 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

6 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

7 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

• Meetings, updates, accept/decline notices, confirmations, etc.

– May be used to troubleshoot single instance meetings

• Allows you to see an entire meeting thread

9 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

10 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

■ Other settings on Parent/Child documents

11 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

• Identify time of deletion

12 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

• Use this field to isolate problematic meetings

14 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

09/02/2010 16:11:49 Autoprocess: Message <msgid> for '<user>': Entering

15 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

– Item does not exist if document has not been revised.

– Contains the icalendar information which may be helpful to determine problems if

18 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

─ Both use the Appointment form

– It is saved as the ApptUNID

19 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

■ It is important to analyze both the Chair’s and Invitee’s calendar

20 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

– Unique identifier for child documents

– This value is not found in the child document

─ The number of items in both fields must match at all times

– It is almost never plain vanilla usage that causes it

22 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

– The RepeatInstanceDates are unchanged in the parent, but

23 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

26 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

27 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

29 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

30 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

■ Recreate your freetime database according to our recommendations

31 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

32 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

33 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

■ Then, investigate further

Let's look at some examples....

34 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

35 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

36 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

37 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

38 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

■ Tell Sched Show User Name/OU/O

■ Explanation of the commands and what they do

39 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

40 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

41 | © 2013 IBM Corporation

─ Your database will grow in size and performance will be impacted