IBM Sametime 8.5.2 Administration Guide: A comprehensive, practical guide for the planning, installation, and maintenance of your Sametime 8.5.2 environment

The Sametime Community Server is what existing Sametime customers would think of as the "original" Sametime server. In the new 8.5.2 design, the role of the original Sametime server is only partially implemented in the Community Server. Its new role is to provide instant messaging and awareness services, as well as acting as the central point for integration between the Sametime clients and other services on other servers, such as the Meeting and Media Servers.

The online awareness functionality found in products such as Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook is provided by the Sametime Community Server, as is the service known as Sametime Links (STLinks), which is integrated into the Lotus iNotes web-based e-mail client. The Community Server stores the Sametime client user preference settings, presence settings, and privacy settings.

The Sametime Community Server can only be deployed as an add-in task running under an IBM Lotus Domino server and is the only Sametime...

The Sametime System Console (SSC) is the administration and management tool that brings together all the other Sametime server elements into a single interface. As Sametime 8.5.2 is comprised of a series of related but independent servers, IBM has developed the SSC as the web-based server tool which can be used to manage all the Sametime servers from a single access point.

The SSC is required to be the first server installed in the Sametime 8.5.2 environment if you intend to install any other servers. This is necessary as its menus include several installation and configuration wizards to walk you through the installation of all the other Sametime 8.5.2 server components. These installation wizards also complete the process of connecting all the disparate servers and server elements, such as LDAP and IBM DB2 databases.

The SSC is an application hosted by WAS and requires a DB2 database be used to store its data. Once completed, the SSC installation inserts...

The Sametime Classic Meeting Server is a portion of the previous Sametime server environment, which has been kept in place to provide backwards compatibility and coexistence support during a company's migration to the new Sametime 8.5.2 Meeting Server environment. Customers that have already deployed Sametime prior to version 8.5.2 will recognize this as the Meeting Server running on top of Domino that provided meeting services to Sametime clients in the past. This is now replaced by the WAS-based Meeting Server in Sametime 8.5.2 but the original Domino-based meeting services are still available for install and licensed for use. These have been renamed Sametime Classic Meeting Server to differentiate the services from those of the new Meeting Server.

The Sametime Classic Meeting Server has not changed significantly from its previous version. In fact, it has been modified very little in recent versions of Sametime. It is the original design, still heavily dependent...

The Sametime Meeting Server is the new Sametime server for meeting services that replaces the previous Domino-based Sametime Meeting Server. The Meeting Server itself has been entirely redesigned to be faster as well as easier to use.

Unlike the previous versions of Sametime, Meeting Server meetings are now persistent and no longer have start times or durations. A meeting exists from the moment it is created until you choose to delete it. It also tracks multiple visits and activities over time. This behavior is akin to a meeting space where attendees can visit and revisit over time to discuss and track progress on a project. This is very different than the previous behavior of meetings, which acted as calendar appointments and only existed for a specific moment in time. Once a meeting is created in Meeting Server, you can go into the meeting at any time and continue where you left off.

IBM has focused on removing many of the elements that made the previous Domino...

The Sametime Proxy Server is a new Sametime component that provides a full feature-rich instant messaging client experience through a standard web browser. The Sametime Proxy Server cannot provide instant messaging or awareness services itself. It must be used in conjunction with the Sametime Community Server. Most importantly, it acts as an intermediary between browser requests from a client and the services provided by the Domino-based Sametime Community Server. The Proxy Server hosts the Sametime client for browsers and provides name awareness for Sametime meetings, business cards, and custom applications.

The Sametime Proxy Server can connect to and work with a Sametime 8.5.2 Community Server or any supported Domino-based Sametime server. It does not require the instant messaging or awareness services themselves to be generated from an 8.5.2 server.

The Sametime Proxy Server is designed using Ajax JavaScript calls to handle client requests and style sheets for layout...

The Sametime Media Manager is a new set of server components that are designed to offer high quality web conferencing, video, and audio capabilities when in Sametime 8.5.2 meetings or when using Sametime 8.5.2 clients.

The Media Manager is designed for extensibility and integration with other third-party conferencing systems as it uses the standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for point-to-point and multi-point calls. It also supports a wide range of standard audio and video codec that other providers can utilize. The Media Manager is designed to support up to a maximum of twenty people in a web conference. This setting is in place for bandwidth management reasons and can be adjusted by the Sametime administrator.

In Sametime 8.5.2, the Media Manager works solely with the Sametime 8.5.2 Connect clients and with the Sametime 8.5.2 Meeting Center for WebSphere, but not with the lightweight web browser client. It also does not support earlier clients. For...

The Sametime TURN Server, otherwise known as the NAT Traversal Server, is a new Java-based program that works in conjunction with the Sametime Media Server. The TURN Server addresses the issue the Media Server has in sending audio and video content to clients on a different network than itself. The TURN Server acts as a reflector service for the Sametime Media Server, creating a connection between the client and server SIP Proxy Registrar and directing audio and video traffic from the Media Server to the client. Without the installation of the TURN Server, clients on different networks or outside your firewall will not be able to attend web conferences or hold audio and video calls.

The Sametime Bandwidth Manager was introduced in Sametime 8.5.2 and is designed to help administrators control the network traffic consumed by audio and video services. Working in concert with the Sametime Media Server, the Bandwidth Manager can be configured with call rules that define everything from the codec used for an audio call to the frame rate for video traffic. The server monitors the audio and video being generated on the network and uses rules, defined by the Sametime administrator for bandwidth usage at each site, for links between sites and for users to customize each call as it is initiated. In this way, a call between two users at the same site can have different resource allocation than a call between users across sites. Similarly, the Bandwidth Manager can dynamically adjust the quality of audio or video assigned to a call during peak periods. It can also deny access to services entirely during periods of heavy bandwidth usage, informing...

Now that we have discussed each of the individual Sametime servers and their roles, it is important to remember that you have some flexibility on which operating systems you use to install and deploy Sametime 8.5.2. Some of the individual servers may only run on certain operating systems, while others can take advantage of multiple options. We have provided the following table as a reference:

In this chapter, you learned about each of the Sametime servers that make up a full installation of Sametime 8.5.2. You learned about the installation requirements, as well as the dependencies between each of the various servers. You also learned about the different operating systems you can use for each of the Sametime 8.5.2 servers. In the next chapter, you will be introduced to the telephony features of Sametime 8.5.2.