The first time I migrated MS Outlook to Lotus Notes, most users complain about the speed, and they said that MS Outlook is faster in any operations when compare to Lotus Notes.
I had to agreed with them.
I had to live with it, and thought that because it just they way it is, because Lotus Notes is not only an email client, but also a collaborations tool, that why it is slower compare to MS Outlook.
But I was wrong.
When I brought this up to IBM support, they came with a suggestion that I modified a file to increase the performance of Lotus Notes. And they were correct, with it Lotus Notes performance is a faster than before.
These are the steps:
- Close lotus notes.
- Open the folder/directory where you install lotus notes client, in my case c:\lotus\notes
- Find the file “\Lotus\Notes\framework\rcp\deploy\jvm.properties” and edit.
- Within the file, find the line “vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx256m” and change it into “vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx512m”
- Within the file, find the line “vmarg.Xms=-Xms48m” and change it into “vmarg.Xms=-Xms96m”
- Save the file.
Now, try to run Lotus Notes and see the differences. You can also play the setting, depend on your work load and your RAM. If you have more than 2 GB ram, you can try to increase the settings to:
vmarg.Xmx=-Xmx1024m
vmarg.Xms=-Xms256m
This improvement not only affects windows client, but also Linux or maybe Macs.
Please note that, if you apply the fix pack, the setting will be restores, so you need to re-edit it again.
Added: 2011-09-26
This also come from IBM support
If you feel that you have a network problem while using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can follow this suggestion.
Run this command (without the quotes) from command prompt from Windows vista or Windows 7, make sure you run it as administrator.
“netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled ”
This command will disable the windows network auto tunning, see here
And better to apply the latest fix pacth, the latest fix pacth as I’m writing this post for Lotus notes 8.5.2 is FP3.
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Things that makes Lotus Notes crash
Lotus notes is a very good software, but still a very good software can
have bugs that may cause the software to run unstabale, or incompatibility issues with other softwares or even with hardwares.
After searched the web, contacted with ibm engineers, I have note down
several things that can makes lotus notes to crash.
FYI, I’m using lotus notes, 8.5, 8.5.1 and 8.5.1 FP4.
If you have found that your lotus notes crash many times in a day, you can check the list.
Anti Virus
Try to disable your anti virus, if necessary remove it. I know its
extreme, but the are some reports that certain anti virus not very
compatible with lotus notes. If you found disabling anti virus solved the problem, maybe you need to check other anti virus that much more friendly with lotus notes.
Embedded Mime Email
Enable the disable embedded mime email. Its reported that embedded
mime email can crash lotus notes. Thanks to Ying Le Jia for the hint.
Basic Version
Switch to basic version instead of standard version. The Standard version have many features with eclipse, but with more features, it have more possibilities to crash.
Bottom Preview
Use bottom preview rather then right preview. Its also reported that
right preview pane may cause lotus notes to crash. (anybody can confirm this?)
Adobe Reader 9
If you using adobe reader 9, try to download it to adobe reader 8. Its
reported that after user upgraded their adobe reader to version 9,
their lotus notes start to behave unstable. Thanks to Gunawan TW for the hint.
This list is not completed, will never be completed, because there are still many things that can cause lotus notes (or many other softwares) to crash.
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Why we need to upgrade to Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5?
IBM already released the new Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5. Now we have the question, should we or should we not upgrade our lotus notes and domino (specially domino) to version8.5?
What are the benefits if we upgrade our lotus notes and domino?
Are there any new feature(s) that we can use?
You can learn all the features in Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5 in here, and these are the features that I really like.
Lotus Domino Attachment and Object Services (DAOS)
For me, as lotus domino administrator, where I have many GB’s mailboxes tha full of attachments, are really a life saving. If only lotus domino 8.5 only have DAOS as the only new feature, I still like to upgrade.
“In databases that use DAOS, Lotus Domino no longer stores an attachment within the document itself. Instead, the DAOS-enabled server saves a single copy of the attachment in the DAOS repository and replaces the attachment with a reference to that DAOS object. If an attachment exists in multiple databases, the attachment is stored only once per server partition, and the reference counts are increased. Therefore, when an attached file is sent to multiple users on the same server, disk space usage is substantially reduced. As impressive as the reduction in disk space can be, there is an even greater potential cost savings associated with DAOS. DAOS can store attachments on a different device than the Lotus Notes databases themselves. In our internal email performance benchmark, DAOS accounts for less than 2 percent of the overall I/O (see the real-world examples that follow). Because of this separation, DAOS can use lower-cost disks without affecting overall response times.”
so, if someone send an email with 2 MB of attachment to 10 people, without DAOS it will cost you 20 MB space in the server. With DAOS, it will only cost you 2 MB space in the server.
For short, DAOS will reduce the need of bigger disks and less time to backup. 
You can learn more about DAOS in here.
Notes ID Vault
I’m using Escrow Agent to mail all notes id to an mail-in database. So I always have the backup of notes id file for my users. Also I also save a physical file of notes id in safe places. Therefore if users forget their notes id password, or simply loose it, I always have the copy available.
With Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5, they have the new feature called Notes ID Vault. Where not only administrator able to recover lost notes id file, but the users also able to reset their own passwords.
The benefits of using an ID vault include:
- The ability for authorized personnel to change (reset) passwords on IDs stored in a vault when users forget them, without access to the ID files or the vault
- Support for the use of a custom application to reset passwords
- Easy recovery of lost or damaged user IDs
- Automatic synchronization of multiple ID copies
- No user involvement during ID renames
- No user involvement during ID key rollover
Notes Shared Login
Before Lotus Notes 8.5, we have what we called Notes Single Login, but this new feature should be more secure than Notes Single Login.
But, I still like the simple enter your password dialog box, rather than trusting my password for automatic login.
There are many interesting new features in lotus notes and domino 8.5 like lotus domino designer now run on top of eclipse, XPages etc. But what I like the most is the DAOS, it really a break through on how lotus domino stores they attachments.
And I think, upgrade to Lotus notes and Domino 8.5 is worthed.
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