Welcome to

As both an admin and developer, I do not work much with Sametime other than as an end user. Occasionally I do get pulled into a Sametime project and have always wanted a solid, reliable source of information on Sametime from an administrator’s point-of-view. Finally, this resource exists in the form of the IBM Sametime 8.5.2 Administration Guide written by the extremely knowledgeable nerd girls Gabriella Davis and Marie L. Scott, and the incomparable Thomas “Duffbert” Duff.

The book opens with a useful introduction to Sametime 8.5.2. The chapter gives overviews of the different aspects of the Sametime architecture (system console, community server, meeting server, proxy server, etc.), along with helpful information on licensing, and helps admins with an existing Sametime environment answer the install or upgrade question.

Chapters 2 – 5 take a deeper dive into the architecture and pre-installation planning needed for Sametime 8.5.2. Chapter 2 is all about installation requirements, customization (when applicable) and deployment scenarios of the different aspects of Sametime that were touched on in Chapter 1. Chapter 3 is all about telephony. Chapter 4: The Infrastructure: Understanding Sametime and WebSphere Application Server Architecture is a must read chapter for all Sametime admins who have not had prior WebSphere experience! It explains the different concepts and terms that admins will come across in WebSphere, the location of files (profiles, logs, etc.), and the different deployment scenarios. Finally, Chapter 5 hits on those key decisions points such as infrastructure design, piloting Sametime, integration, software and hardware requirements, planning for DB2 and LDAP, migration, etc.

Chapter 6 is the requisite “installing [software name goes here]” chapter. I usually skip these chapters as they are nothing more than cheap filler. But not with this book! With Sametime now running on WebSphere, unless you are already a WebSphere admin, this chapter is a life saver! Detailing every step of the process across 90 pages, this chapter will be your guide to a clean install.

Chapter 7 – 11 cover the post-installation items such as setting up authentication (Chapter 7), the Sametime business cards (Chapter 8), connecting to Sametime Advanced and Sametime Gateway (Chapter 9), Sametime client deployment (Chapter 10), and finally mobile (Chapter 11).

The book wraps up with Chapter 12 and the all important topic of monitoring and basic WebSphere troubleshooting, as well as some useful worksheets, widget information, and SDK information in the four appendices.

This book is available now from Packt Publishing.