How to get started Domino on Linux

1. Pick a distribution

  • If there is already a corporate distribution, pick it if this is an LTS distribution with Domino support
  • Otherwise, the recommendation is Ubuntu LTS

2. Decide if Native Linux or containerized

If there are no special requirements, containers are a good choice Containers are also a good choice for all Domino add-on products such as:

  • Verse
  • Traveler
  • REST API
  • Leap

Containers are also a good choice for adding custom add-ons for a standardized deployment Even if you pick a native installation, the container install tooling is also available for native Linux installs.

The container project supports both installation modes even though it was initially only intended for container based installs.

3. Downloading Domino WebKits

In all type of deployments the installation sources are always HCL Domino WebKits downloaded from My HCLSoftware Portal. There is an automated Domino Download script which can be leveraged by the Domino container build script and also native installers.

4.1 Install Domino using the native installer

The fastest path to install the Domino is to leverage the Domino One-Touch Installer script. But you can also download the software and install it manually. Example installation steps are provided here.

The all in one convenience script can be executed directly from the GitHub project:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nashcom/domino-startscript/main/install_domino.sh | bash -

4.2 Run the Domino Server via Domino systemd service

The Domino Start Script provides a systemd script to start Domino.

To invoke the start script just run the domino command. The domino command also provides a OTS configuration option for Domino first and additional server setups.

domino setup
domino start

4.3 Build and run the Domino container image

Building and running container images involves multiple steps. But there is tooling available to simplify to setup a container build and run-time environment, build the image, configure and run a container.

4.3.1 Install a container build environment

The Domino Start Script provides a convenience script to setup a container build and run-time environment.

Check the steps provided in Container Environment Convenience Script documentation.

The convenience script performs three main tasks

  • Installs Docker as a run-time/build environment
  • Clones Domino Container GitHub repository
  • Clones Domino Start Script container GitHub repository

The install script can be directly executed from GitHub repository

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nashcom/domino-startscript/main/install_container_env.sh | bash -

4.3.2 Build the container image

Once the Domino Container Image GitHub repository is cloned the build script can be used to build a Domino container image.

cd /local/github/domino-container
./build.sh

The build script tries to automatically download Domino WebKits from My HCLSoftware portal as part of the build process.

4.3.3 Run the container image

Once the image is created, the container can be started levering the Domino Container Control script.

First check and update the container configuration

dominoctl cfg

Domino Once Touch Setup is integrated into the container control script. For a first server setup the setup is simple because no server.id needs to be passed to the setup process. When setting up an additional server a server.id needs to be passed either via the volume.

dominoctl setup
dominoctl start