enable silent cluster failover on hcl notes client


HCL Notes and Domino: Tips & Tricks

Enable silent cluster failover on HCL Notes client
October 24, 2019

By Lance Zakin, HCL CASA, CAAD
Notes and Domino
NotesMail - HCL BP
Companies sometimes consolidate and/or migrate Domino servers to new platforms. It's good practice to OS level copy the Domino data folder to the new server and temporarily enable Domino clustering between the servers until the cutover is complete. This articles focuses on how to avoid the message below displayed to end users during the cutover.


"The server with this database is no longer responding. Should Notes switch to a replica on another server?"

You can enable silent cluster failover using any of the 3 options below.

1. Email the "Activate Notes Silent Failover" Notes database to Notes mail and non-Notes mail users. NOTE: Sign the Notes database via the Domino Administrator client using a Notes ID which will be trusted (i.e. Notes ECL access) when the end user opens the database, otherwise, you must provide instructions to click "Start trusting the signer to execute this action" if promtped.

Email Notes mail and non-Notes mail (i.e. Outlook) users a small Notes database which can be launched to automatically add FailoverSilent=1 to their NOTES.INI file and exit the Notes client.

Download: "Activate Notes Silent Failover" Notes database:

2. Create a Notes button and email to Notes mail users

Email a button to Notes mail users which adds FailoverSilent=1 to their NOTES.INI file when clicked. The Notes client must be restarted after clicking the button. NOTE: Create the button using a Notes ID which will be trusted (i.e. Notes ECL access) when the end user clicks the button, otherwise, you must provide instructions to click "Start trusting the signer to execute this action" if promtped.

LotusScript button code:
Dim session As New NotesSession
Call session.SetEnvironmentVar("FailoverSilent", "1", True)

3. Create or Edit Domino Desktop Settings policy

If you're Domino environment does not have a Desktop Settings policy already assigned to all users, then you might want to try step 1 or 2 above, rather than potentially cause other issues for your Notes client users.

Add FailoverSilent=1 to the user's NOTES.INI via the Custom Settings tab in the Desktop Settings policy. See weblink below.

Assigning NOTES.INI or location document settings using a desktop policy
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Reference Sources

Assigning Notes.INI settings through user policies
You can use a desktop policy settings document to add or set NOTES.INI variables for NotesĀ® client users. You can also use desktop policy settings documents to set field values in location documents for individual clients; this assigning is also called "pushing" values down to clients.

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