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Kyrtool hangs while generating a keyring file for Domino
Sat 25 Jul 2020, 06:02 PM
Tweetby Ben Langhinrichs
Lions and tigers and admin tips! Those who know me know that I hate system admin. Moreover, I am spectacularly bad at it. And yet.
Here is an admin tip which might help somebody, or might not. I was following the instructions in Generating a keyring file for Domino (KB article #KB0073309), and ran into a problem with the kyrtool hanging in step 5) Create a new keyring file.
Mind you, I don't know what a keyring file is or why you want it, but I've followed recipes before, so I know how to do what I am told. Problem is, what I am told has an assumption built in. There is a note: At this point in the example, the Administrator switched from the Linux box where OpenSSL was run to a Windows box to use kyrtool.exe. There is no explanation why the Administrator didn't just start on the Windows box rather than do half the steps there and switch. I assume Administrators (who must be capitalized) have little enough to do that they have to keep themselves amused by switching between systems.
Anyway, the instruction they gave was: kyrtool =c:\lotus\notes\notes.ini create -k c:\lotus\notes\data\keyring.kyr -p password
Seems simple enough, though I had to check with my PLN (Personal Learning Network, aka Gab, Andrew, Jesse, etc.) to find out whether that password was supposed to match my personal id or the server id or be made up. Tip: Just make one up.
So, I modified that line slightly to match my own Notes directory and my (made up) password, but it hung, as if waiting for input. Back to the PLN, but nobody had an answer until it occurred to me that I was using the kyrtool.exe that came with Domino, so my path pointed at the Domino directory. Back in the instructions, the earlier steps were related to the Domino server (always 64-bit in 11.0.1), but the switch to Windows meant that the Administrator had downloaded the 32-bit kyrtool to the Notes client directory (always 32-bit in 11.0.1). So, my guess is that I was calling a 64-bit kyrtool.exe which was trying to use the DLLs and such from the 32-bit client and getting hung up. Jesse suggested I just remove that =c:\lotus\notes\notes.ini part and see what happened.
So, I modified that line slightly to match my own Notes directory and my (made up) password, but it hung, as if waiting for input. Back to the PLN, but nobody had an answer until it occurred to me that I was using the kyrtool.exe that came with Domino, so my path pointed at the Domino directory. Back in the instructions, the earlier steps were related to the Domino server (always 64-bit in 11.0.1), but the switch to Windows meant that the Administrator had downloaded the 32-bit kyrtool to the Notes client directory (always 32-bit in 11.0.1). So, my guess is that I was calling a 64-bit kyrtool.exe which was trying to use the DLLs and such from the 32-bit client and getting hung up. Jesse suggested I just remove that =c:\lotus\notes\notes.ini part and see what happened.
And guess what, it worked! No hang, and I got to go on to step #6. Lucky me.
tl;dr - Make sure your kyrtool.exe matches the bitness of your Notes/Domino DLLs. Otherwise, it will sit and wait forever, and waiting forever is something only admins should do, never developers.
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What has been said:
1123.1. Howard (07/26/2020 05:13 AM)
I always just do everything on my Windows desktop. OpenSSL works fine on windows too.
1123.2. Ben Langhinrichs (07/26/2020 07:15 AM)
Yes, it seemed an odd choice to switch from Linux to Windows midstream. Perhaps the intention was to show how you could use both, but it hardly seems like best practice to start on one and then copy stuff over and continue somewhere else. Not that the OS change tripped me up so much as the switch from server to client, but since they happened together, I was more likely to miss it.