Connections
Removing security-auditlog indexes from your OpenSearch cluster 
By Martijn de Jong | 7/18/25, 1:21 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
After my previous article on Querying the OpenSearch index, a colleague and I used the script to take a good look at the OpenSearch index in our environment. That environment, is a large Connections installation (45K users) in the Netherlands. We found two disturbing facts:
The cluster status was yellow, due to the QuickResults index not having a replica of all its shards
There was a huge amount of secruity-auditlog indexes, one per day. There were as many as the days passed since our migration to Connections 8
It turns out these two issues were closely related.
Querying your OpenSearch index
By Martijn de Jong | 7/2/25, 4:30 PM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
n the old days of Connections, we would check our ElasticSearch indexes through Kibana, but Kibana is no longer part of an HCL Connections Component pack installation. In HCL Connections 8, OpenSearch is a core component powering features like Orient Me, Type-Ahead Search, and Metrics. As an administrator, it’s critical not just to ensure that OpenSearch is running, but to verify that it’s indexing, storing, and serving content correctly.
WebSphere 8.5.5 FP27 & HCL Connections… beware!
By Martijn de Jong | 5/5/25, 3:49 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
HCL Connections 8.0 CR9 currently lists in its system requirements WebSphere 8.5.5 FP26 as its highest supported WebSphere version. However, I suspect that CR10 will try to support FixPack 27, which became available on April 21st. Brave companies might just update their servers with the latest fixpack, and usually that works just fine. This fixpack, however, has introduced changes in outbound TLS certificate hostname validation. What it does is if WebSphere will make a connection to https://example.acme.org, it will check if the certificate that example.acme.org returns contains my server.acme.org in either the hostname or as a subject alternative name (SAN). If it doesn’t, you’ll be greeted with a message:
Troubleshooting IBM WebSphere LDAP Security
By Christoph Stoettner | 4/14/25, 4:54 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
Most of the LDAP connections from IBM WebSphere Application Server are configured with TLS. So you need to have the root certificate in the WebSphere truststore to connect.
In the past I had several issues where MS Active Directory certificates for LDAPS are only valid for one year. They were automatically recreated on the AD side, and the certificate is not using the domain root certificate but a self-signed one.
Migrate MongoDB 5 to 7 for HCL Connections 8 CR9 update
By Christoph Stoettner | 4/14/25, 4:53 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
For HCL Connections 8 CR9, it is mandatory to update MongoDB to version 7. During my first migrations, I encountered some issues and would like to provide workarounds and additional troubleshooting tips to help others with this process.
Better Navigation in Connections Scripts
By Christoph Stoettner | 4/14/25, 4:47 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
I haven’t touched the Connections scripts
for a long time, but I recently made some minor updates to fix compatibility issues with newer versions and added small scripts to speed up configuration. I also got the documentation script running from the menu.
HCL Connections – Docs (Proxy) not Working After Installing IFPH63778 IBM WebSphere Application Server Fix
By Milan Matejic | 2/7/25, 2:23 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
If you're like me and want to keep your IBM WebSphere Application Servers up to date with the latest patches, you might want to skip the installation of IFPH63778 for 8.5.5.26 version of WebSphere, or at least exercise caution before doing so.
After installing IFPH63778 on my WebSphere servers hosting HCL Connections Docs applications, Docs Proxy application was unable to communicate with the required application servers, effectively breaking my HCL Connections Docs deployment.
HCL Connections – Component Pack Update – MongoDB Security Settings Update Issue
By Milan Matejic | 2/6/25, 3:19 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
During the HCL Connections Component Pack 8.0 CR8 update, some security settings are modified for the MongoDB replica set used by the HCL Connections Component Pack. This is managed by the check-and-update-mongo5-security Kubernetes (K8s) job, which creates the check-and-update-mongo5-security-* pod to change the security settings of the replica set. Once the job completes successfully, the K8s pod and the corresponding job are marked with the status complete(d)
However, in one of the HCL Connections environments I am working on, the job didn’t complete successfully. During my initial analysis, I found the following error in the log of the check-and-update-mongo5-security pod....
Indefinitely growing homepage.sr_index_docs table and forgotten search nodes
By Christoph Stoettner | 1/24/25, 3:17 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
The last weeks I had twice the issue of a huge homepage database with HCL Connections. Both systems weren’t installed by me, but I reviewed them.
So I know this issues quite well since I faced it the first time years ago. This always happens when you migrate Connections environments side-by-side, and you forget to remove the old search nodes.
sr_index_docs is used to make all search nodes indexing newly upload files. When each search node has indexed the file, the entry gets removed from the database. As the old nodes are no longer running, they can’t index, and so these entries never get deleted.
In larger environments the table grows to millions of documents and the database size grows from some GB into the hundreds of GB. You see this growth mainly during database backup, or when you want to move the data to a new machine. So often nobody recognizes the huge waste of space.
Creating an IBM HTTP Server key db from a .pfx file
By Martijn de Jong | 1/7/25, 2:41 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
It’s a question that I get quite often. “Can you create a IHS key database for me from this pfx certificate”? Multiple of our customers use IBM HTTP Server. Either for HCL Connections, but also as a reverse proxy for other services. Most of those customers use a wildcard certificate for their IHS server that has to be renewed each year. As I hate this kind of repetitive work, I created a script to do it for me. As it could be of use to others, I decided to create a blog article about it.
Disable PDF Export in HCL Connections 8
By Christoph Stoettner | 12/3/24, 7:47 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
PDF Export sometimes uses a lot of resources and disabling helps to stabilize the environment
I had some issues with PDF export functionality in HCL Connections the last weeks.
The server became unresponsive multiple times due to high load from PDF exports. To quickly address the issue, the simplest solution is to disable the PDF export feature by configuring the icxt.pdfexport.access.requiredrole property in the Resource Environment Entries.
Changing the file size limit for a community
By Martijn de Jong | 11/30/24, 3:27 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
By default, a HCL Connections community can contain 500 MB of files in the Files widget. Depending on what kind of content is posted in the community, that might not be enough. It’s possible to change the file limit, both for communities and for personal files.
Apple push notification certificates expire on 4th of July 2024
By Christoph Stoettner | 6/24/24, 8:23 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
Push notifications certificates in HCL Connections 8 CR5 and CR6 need an update before 4th of July
Last week I checked some HCL Connections 8 CRx downloads in Flexnet and recognized these packages available since 2024-06-13: APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) certificates renewal for 2025.
Sounds normal, these updates need to be installed each year. First, I checked for the knowledge base document mentioned in the file name . It’s not published until now.
So I downloaded the package and extracted the content. The included certificates are valid from 2024-04-25 to 2025-05-25, so they start and end in the middle of the year.
Installing Huddo Boards on WebSphere-only Connections
By Martijn de Jong | 6/24/24, 8:21 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
Let me clarify what this article is about. Huddo (also known as ISW) is selling 2 versions of their Boards product:
Kudos Boards – The Java application that can be installed on WebSphere. Active development has stopped a few years ago
Huddo Boards – The product consisting of several containers, which can be installed on Kubernetes or a container engine like Docker. A version with limited functionality is part of the HCL Connections component pack and known as Activities Plus. This product is actively being developed and also available for other platforms.
Although the Connections Component pack was introduced in version 6 already, many companies refrained from installing it due to the serious amount of extra infrastructure needed to run these components, which includes a Kubernetes cluster. We call these the WebSphere-only Connections installations, as they only include the WebSphere stack part of Connections.
So what if you would like to use the full power of Huddo Boards without having to install a Kubernetes cluster? That’s what this article is about.
Be careful with search-admin role in HCL Connections
By Christoph Stoettner | 5/3/24, 5:37 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
I showed, in several slides and sessions, how you can use the search-admin role in the search application of HCL Connections for troubleshooting and reviewing some key configurations.
In several environments, my user or other administrative users have this role, just to access the link to /search/serverStatus for example.
Be aware, when you assign the search-admin role in the search application to a user, the advanced search will not return any result.
Installing wireguard on CentOS Stream 9
By Martijn de Jong | 1/15/24, 3:37 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
As I do a lot of my research on new Domino versions, Connections versions and HCL DX on my own server at home and as I’m often not at home, I figured I needed a VPN tunnel to my server, so I can work as if I am home. Wireguard has become kind of the de facto standard for these kind of situations, so I looked into installing it on my CentOS Stream 9 host.
Troubleshooting Top Updates in HCL Connections
By Christoph Stoettner | 12/5/23, 2:25 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
Orient Me shows Top Updates on the startpage of Connections, but sometimes this view is empty, how is this generated?
Last week, I had three systems with issues displaying the Top Updates in the Orient Me. So I tried to find out which applications and containers are involved in generating the content for this view.
First, we need to know that Top Updates are part of the Component Pack, and the content of Latest Updates is the Activity stream data, which is read from the homepage database.
If the Top Updates tab is not visible after deploying the Component Pack, check LotusConnections-config.xml; the serviceReference for orientme needs to be enabled. There is only one serviceReference allowed for an application in this file, so check for duplicate definitions when the tab is still missing.
Hide widget from Highlights
By Christoph Stoettner | 11/30/23, 2:53 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
With HCL Connections 6.5 and later, we got the add-on HCL Connections Engagement Center (aka CEC, HCEC, ICEC or XCC) included in a normal HCL Connections deployment.
The HCL Connections license contains the supplement that HCEC can be used within Communities and is the base for the Highlights application. All other options are hidden and could be enabled in LotusConnections-config.xml (set <genericProperty name="icec.light">false</genericProperty>), but then you need to order the HCL Connections Engagement Center license.
Couple of things to watch out for when applying CR’s to HCL Connections
By Wannes Rams | 11/7/23, 10:14 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
I was updating a couple of Connections environments to CR4 and some of them are using SSO using OIDC and a custom database name for ICEC ( so not ESSAPPS)
Security Directory Integrator connecting to Active Directory LDAPS
By Unknown Author | 11/3/23, 2:28 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
I had one Connections’ environment that I wanted to switch from OpenLDAP to Active Directory LDAP. The old OpenLDAP environment used LDAPS to connect, and so I assumed that the change was done quickly.
Migrate MongoDB in HCL Connections Component Pack 8
By Christoph Stoettner | 9/22/23, 3:31 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
The official documentation, “Migrating data from MongoDB 3 to 5”,
wants to dump the MongoDB databases in 3.6 and then restore this data into the newly deployed MongoDB 5.
One issue with this process is that we can’t run the two MongoDB versions in parallel on Kubernetes because the provided helm charts and container for MongoDB 3.6 stop running after Kubernetes 1.21. On the other side, the helm chart providing MongoDB 5 can’t be installed on those old Kubernetes versions. So the process to update is:
Migration process
Dump databases in MongoDB 3.6 (version delivered with Connections 7)
Update Kubernetes to 1.25 or 1.27
Restore MongoDB databases to version 5.0
So, you have to plan the process in advance because it is difficult to get the data when you forget something.
width=device-width,initial-scale=1,user-scalable=no Migrate MongoDB in HCL Connections Component Pack 8 · stoeps 49.642538;8.638950 DE Heppenheim, Germany 49.642538, 8.638950 Heppenheim The official documentation, “Migrating data from MongoDB 3 to 5”, wants to dump the MongoDB databases in 3.6 and then restore this data in
HCL Connections Mail Plug-in Deployment – Missing Information in the Documentation
By Milan Matejic | 5/23/23, 12:18 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
If you are planning to deploy the HCL Connections Mail Plug-in, take note of the KB0092821 knowledge base article. This is a mandatory step that must be done in HCL Connections 8 CR1 and newer environments. If the steps described in KB0092821 article are not followed, you will get the following error message in the browser console: Error: Unable to load https://<mailserver_hostname> status: 403
Build mongodb5 image for Component Pack with Buildah
By Christoph Stoettner | 5/17/23, 7:14 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
Build Mongodb5 Image For Component Pack With Buildah
Issues configuring the Sharepoint widget for Communities
By Wannes Rams | 4/6/23, 11:49 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
On a recent deployment of HCL Connections I struggled getting the SharePoint widget to work.
Quick Tip: Stashing Log Files From Domino Testcontainers
By Jesse Gallagher | 3/29/23, 3:55 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
I've been doing a little future-proofing in the XPages Jakarta EE project lately and bumped against a common pitfall in my test setup: since I create a fresh Domino Testcontainer with each run, diagnostic information like the XPages log files are destroyed at the end of each test-suite execution.
HCL Connections 8 – PDF Export Issues After Installing CNX in a Clustered WAS Environment
By Milan Matejic | 3/24/23, 5:12 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
Recently I encountered an issue with PDF Export, right after the installation of HCL Connections applications in a multi-node, clustered, IBM WebSphere Application Server environment. This problem only occurs in a multi-node WAS environment.
In the HCL Connections GUI, in the “PDF Export Access” settings of the”Edit Community” menu (Community –> Community Actions –> Edit Community –> PDF Export Access), the following error was displayed:
Error 500: org.springframework.web.util.NestedServletException: Handler dispatch failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/ibm/ess/ic/ic360/security/tai/Ic360ImpersonateUserTAI
HCL Connections – Journey to Connections 8
By Urs Meli | 2/27/23, 10:10 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
After the Connections 8 CR1 had been released, we upgraded our production environment. This is our journey
Always get the latest Huddo version in HCL Connections
By Wannes Rams | 1/26/23, 3:09 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
We have documented how to connect to our version, but that documentation is focused on a manual install of Component pack and connecting to our systems from the start. I want to show how to do it if Boards is already installed and running using the automation scripts. You can obviously follow this guide if you did a manual install and connected to the HCL resources, I am just mentioning some specifics about the HCL automation you can ignore.
The state of Social Business continued – Meetup
By Femke Goedhart | 1/25/23, 4:14 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Wannes Rams
The last HCL Ambassadors meetup we did last December had a bit of an open end and therefor we would like to continue where we left off: With the state of social business and the position of HCL Connection in it.
Join us and let us know!
Certificate Information tool
By Fredrik Norling | 1/17/23, 2:40 AM | Infrastructure - Connections | Added by Roberto Boccadoro
SSL certificates, SAML certificates, Signing certificates the number is long of different kinds of certificates and you might need to check the name of a certificate, the start or end date or perhaps the thumbprint.
I use the tool mainly to get end dates of certificates sent to me from customers because I hate when they expire and need to be changed without any preparation. And the worst kind that most administrators often miss is the certificates that is auto created i.e. in ADFS servers, Azure Enterprise apps, Okta