September 2009
Wednesday 30th, September 2009
Starting up Lotus Connections automatically30/09/2009 01:32 PMLocation : Home Office
Having installed Lotus Connections using WAS Network Deployment to start the Lotus Connections servers up I do the following:
restart the server (This also starts the Deployment Manager as a Windows Service)
Start the Node Agent - D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\bin\startNode.bat
Once the Node Agent has started I can start the Connections servers (I have server1, server2, and server3) from the Deployment Manager Integrated Solutions Console.
I want to change this process so that the Node Agent and the Connections server's all start automatically when the server is restarted.
So here's how:
Setting up the WebSphere Node Manager as a Windows service
First, you need to set up the Node Manager on each physical server to run as a service and restart after a reboot:
1. Open a Command Window and go to the ..\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\bin directory
2. Type in the following command (adjusted for your install paths):
WASService -add "IBM WebSphere Node Agent" -servername nodeagent -profilePath D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01 -wasHome D:\IBM\Websphere\Appserver -logFile D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\logs\nodeagent\startNode.log -logRoot D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\logs\nodeagent -restart true -startType automatic
Setting up the member servers to automatically restart
Once the Node Manager is running as a service, you need to set the individual WebSphere servers to automatically restart using the following steps:
1. Log in to the Integrated Solutions Console
2. Navigate to Servers > Application servers > servername
3. Expand Java and Process Management and click on Monitoring Policy
4. Change the Node restart state to RUNNING
5. Click Apply
6. Click Save to save the master configuration
7. Repeat for each server in the cluster
And that should do it. So when you restart your server the nodeagent should firstly start as a service and then it should monitor the servers and start them automatically.
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restart the server (This also starts the Deployment Manager as a Windows Service)
Start the Node Agent - D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\bin\startNode.bat
Once the Node Agent has started I can start the Connections servers (I have server1, server2, and server3) from the Deployment Manager Integrated Solutions Console.
I want to change this process so that the Node Agent and the Connections server's all start automatically when the server is restarted.
So here's how:
Setting up the WebSphere Node Manager as a Windows service
First, you need to set up the Node Manager on each physical server to run as a service and restart after a reboot:
1. Open a Command Window and go to the ..\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\bin directory
2. Type in the following command (adjusted for your install paths):
WASService -add "IBM WebSphere Node Agent" -servername nodeagent -profilePath D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01 -wasHome D:\IBM\Websphere\Appserver -logFile D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\logs\nodeagent\startNode.log -logRoot D:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\logs\nodeagent -restart true -startType automatic
Setting up the member servers to automatically restart
Once the Node Manager is running as a service, you need to set the individual WebSphere servers to automatically restart using the following steps:
1. Log in to the Integrated Solutions Console
2. Navigate to Servers > Application servers > servername
3. Expand Java and Process Management and click on Monitoring Policy
4. Change the Node restart state to RUNNING
5. Click Apply
6. Click Save to save the master configuration
7. Repeat for each server in the cluster
And that should do it. So when you restart your server the nodeagent should firstly start as a service and then it should monitor the servers and start them automatically.
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Monday 28th, September 2009
Connections 2.5 - Step 1 - What you need for install.28/09/2009Location : Home Office
Ok so I am installing Lotus Connections 2.5 to add to one of our Portal sites.
Here is the list of everything you need to install Lotus Connections 2.5
Required parts To install Lotus Connections 2.5 on Windows, you need to download the following parts:
Optional parts You can also download the following optional parts:
Here is the list of everything you need to install Lotus Connections 2.5
Required parts To install Lotus Connections 2.5 on Windows, you need to download the following parts:
|
Download Number
|
Part Number
|
Description
|
| Download 1 of 12 | CZ4SHML | Lotus Connections 2.5 for Windows |
| Download 2 of 12 | CZ4SKML | Lotus Connections 2.5 wizards for Windows |
| Download 3 of 12 | C88SPML | IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1 for Windows 32-bit |
| Download 4 of 12 | C88SWML | WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Supplements for Windows 32-bit |
| Download 5 of 12 | C92MEML | WebSphere Application Server V6.1 for Windows 64-bit |
| Download 6 of 12 | C88TPML | WebSphere Application Server V6.1 Supplements for Windows 64-bit |
| Download 7 of 12 | C14SLML | IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition V9.5 for Windows |
| Download 8 of 12 | C9666ML | IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator V6.1.1 for Windows |
Optional parts You can also download the following optional parts:
|
Download Number
|
Part Number
|
Description
|
| Download 9 of 12 | CZ0LCML | Lotus Connections 2.5 Quick Start Guide for AIX, Linux, and Windows |
| Download 10 of 12 | CT1HZML | Lotus Connections 2.5 License information booklet |
| Download 11 of 12 | CZ4SGML | Lotus Connections 2.5 Pilot installation |
| Download 12 of 12 | CZ0LGML | Lotus Connections 2.5 Pilot License information booklet |
You will also need a variety of fix packs and update installers. I will list this at the appropriate steps as I progress.
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Connections 2.5 - Step 2 - WASND28/09/2009Location : Home Office
Installing WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
Ok. So the first major step to setup Connections 2.5 is to install WebSphere Application Server. In this case I have a relatively small number of users so I plan to install on a single Windows 2003 Standard server. Now IU could just use WAS in a stand-alone deployment however this would make it difficult to later move to a more clustered approach or to have the different Connections services running on different profiles/nodes if needed. So I will go with WAS Network Deployment.
So when you install WAS choose the Network Deployment option. Note that you will need at least Windows Server 2003 SP1. On the server we have SP2 so it gave us a warning that we needed SP1 so I just ignored it and kept going. Also note that at this stage do not Enable Administrative Security. We will be enabling security later.
When you first install WASND from the download it only installs 6.1.0.0. According to the Software Requirements tell us we need 6.1.0.23. The latest fixpack is 6.1.0.27 so I am going to give that a go instead. Go to Fix Central for the fixpack. You will also need to install the Update Installer for WebSphere Software. This is a fairly straight forward process if you follow the instructions.
So now you should be able to start the server and log onto the Integrated Solution Console and see:
Setting up the Application Server for the first node
So now that we have WASND running we need to create a profile for the first node.
From the First Steps screen select Profile Management Tool:
We then choose to create an Application Server. I have chosen the Typical profile creation option. I am not enabling Administrative Security as again we will enable security later. The tool will create new application server called "server1". It is important to note that this server should not be federated with the Deployment Manager as a managed node. You can not install Lotus Connections onto a managed node.
Ok. So we now have WAS Network Deployment Installed, a Deployment Manager, and an Application Server Node (server1). Step 2 is almost complete!
Setting Up Security
For security we are going to use a Federated repository. The Info Centre is pretty good on this topic.
I have setup a Domino LDAP Server as a Federated Repository in our environment.
Now as server1 is not a managed node we need to repeat the security setup for both DMgr and server1. Just make them exactly the same.
Java Heap Size
Lastly we need to expand the Java Heap Side. This is done on the Deployment Manager in order to prevent an out of memory error while installing Lotus Connections. Instructions here.
So that is the WAS server prepared and ready for install of the databases which I will cover next.
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Ok. So the first major step to setup Connections 2.5 is to install WebSphere Application Server. In this case I have a relatively small number of users so I plan to install on a single Windows 2003 Standard server. Now IU could just use WAS in a stand-alone deployment however this would make it difficult to later move to a more clustered approach or to have the different Connections services running on different profiles/nodes if needed. So I will go with WAS Network Deployment.
So when you install WAS choose the Network Deployment option. Note that you will need at least Windows Server 2003 SP1. On the server we have SP2 so it gave us a warning that we needed SP1 so I just ignored it and kept going. Also note that at this stage do not Enable Administrative Security. We will be enabling security later.
When you first install WASND from the download it only installs 6.1.0.0. According to the Software Requirements tell us we need 6.1.0.23. The latest fixpack is 6.1.0.27 so I am going to give that a go instead. Go to Fix Central for the fixpack. You will also need to install the Update Installer for WebSphere Software. This is a fairly straight forward process if you follow the instructions.
So now you should be able to start the server and log onto the Integrated Solution Console and see:
Setting up the Application Server for the first node
So now that we have WASND running we need to create a profile for the first node.
From the First Steps screen select Profile Management Tool:
We then choose to create an Application Server. I have chosen the Typical profile creation option. I am not enabling Administrative Security as again we will enable security later. The tool will create new application server called "server1". It is important to note that this server should not be federated with the Deployment Manager as a managed node. You can not install Lotus Connections onto a managed node.
Ok. So we now have WAS Network Deployment Installed, a Deployment Manager, and an Application Server Node (server1). Step 2 is almost complete!
Setting Up Security
For security we are going to use a Federated repository. The Info Centre is pretty good on this topic.
I have setup a Domino LDAP Server as a Federated Repository in our environment.
Now as server1 is not a managed node we need to repeat the security setup for both DMgr and server1. Just make them exactly the same.
Java Heap Size
Lastly we need to expand the Java Heap Side. This is done on the Deployment Manager in order to prevent an out of memory error while installing Lotus Connections. Instructions here.
So that is the WAS server prepared and ready for install of the databases which I will cover next.
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Connections 2.5 - Step 3 - Databases28/09/2009Location : Home Office
So I am going to use DB2 Enterprise Server that is provided as part of the Connections license. You can install this on the same server as your WAS for a small site however I am going to install onto a separate server.
Now note that the Software Requirements tell us we need either DB2 9.1 FP6 or 9.5 FP3. So once again we go to Fix Central and download the fix pack. Interestingly (as CuriousMitch points out) it seems the FP3 appears to be a full install rather than a fix so I have downloaded this and will start with this.
IBM Db2 Enterprise Server Edn V9.5 for Windows Fix Pack 3 - Download here
Installing DB2 Enterprise Server & Registering the license
The actual install is pretty straight forward so just follow the prompts and choose the options you want for your environment.
Once installed you can either follow the instructions here to install the DB2 restricted license key or you can use the License Centre.
Using the Database Wizard to create the Lotus Connections Database
Next we create a dedicated user for Lotus Connection, lcuser - Doco Here . This user us used by the Lotus Connections database wizard to create all of the databases required.
Once that is all ready make sure the DB2 instance is running (should be set to run as a service already) and run the db wizard - dbWizard.bat (extracted from the 2 of 12 file in downloads). This wizard will run for a while as it creates all of the databases needed for the Connections services. We are only having one DB2 server instance at this point but you can choose to install the databases on separate servers for scaling reasons if needed.
So that is the Database ready to go. Next we will install Tivoli Directory Integrator and populate the Profiles database.
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Now note that the Software Requirements tell us we need either DB2 9.1 FP6 or 9.5 FP3. So once again we go to Fix Central and download the fix pack. Interestingly (as CuriousMitch points out) it seems the FP3 appears to be a full install rather than a fix so I have downloaded this and will start with this.
IBM Db2 Enterprise Server Edn V9.5 for Windows Fix Pack 3 - Download here
Installing DB2 Enterprise Server & Registering the license
The actual install is pretty straight forward so just follow the prompts and choose the options you want for your environment.
Once installed you can either follow the instructions here to install the DB2 restricted license key or you can use the License Centre.
Using the Database Wizard to create the Lotus Connections Database
Next we create a dedicated user for Lotus Connection, lcuser - Doco Here . This user us used by the Lotus Connections database wizard to create all of the databases required.
Once that is all ready make sure the DB2 instance is running (should be set to run as a service already) and run the db wizard - dbWizard.bat (extracted from the 2 of 12 file in downloads). This wizard will run for a while as it creates all of the databases needed for the Connections services. We are only having one DB2 server instance at this point but you can choose to install the databases on separate servers for scaling reasons if needed.
So that is the Database ready to go. Next we will install Tivoli Directory Integrator and populate the Profiles database.
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Connections 2.5 - Step 4 - Install TDI28/09/2009Location : Home Office
So once the Database server is ready and the Lotus Connections databases created the next step is to populate the Profiles database with your user information. To do this we use Tivoli Directory Integrator and run a the provided TDI script that will pull the data from your ldap directory and populate the Profiles database.
Now the Lotus Connections Info Center tells us that we need at least TDI 6.1.1 with Fix Pack 6. This can again be downloaded from Fix Central. Do a search for the Fix ID "*0006" and download the fix pack.
Once you have installed TDI and the fix pack that is really all you have to do for now specifically on TDI. You can later set TDI up to run the Profiles population script periodically but for now you just need it installed.
So now you need to copy the Lotus Connections Wizards directory (extracted from file download 2 of 12) onto the TDI server and run the populationWizard.bat file. Just follow the prompts and provide the data required about your LDAP server and the location of your database server.
And that is it for this step. We now have a server with WASND (DMgr and unmanaged node server1), Security enabled, DB2 server with databases created and Profiles database populated from the LDAP database.
Finally we are ready for the actual Lotus Connections install! Coming up next....
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Now the Lotus Connections Info Center tells us that we need at least TDI 6.1.1 with Fix Pack 6. This can again be downloaded from Fix Central. Do a search for the Fix ID "*0006" and download the fix pack.
Once you have installed TDI and the fix pack that is really all you have to do for now specifically on TDI. You can later set TDI up to run the Profiles population script periodically but for now you just need it installed.
So now you need to copy the Lotus Connections Wizards directory (extracted from file download 2 of 12) onto the TDI server and run the populationWizard.bat file. Just follow the prompts and provide the data required about your LDAP server and the location of your database server.
And that is it for this step. We now have a server with WASND (DMgr and unmanaged node server1), Security enabled, DB2 server with databases created and Profiles database populated from the LDAP database.
Finally we are ready for the actual Lotus Connections install! Coming up next....
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Connections 2.5 - Step 5 - INSTALL CONNECTIONS!28/09/2009Location : Home Office
Right so we should have all the pre-install steps completed. WASND installed, Dmgr running, server1 profile created (unmanaged node, not running), security setup (using LDAP federated repository in this case), DB2 installed, databases created, TDI installed, Profiles database populated.
So now we can install Lotus Connections 2.5
But before we do...one more thing. Sometimes when you install Connections we can get a SOAP time out error. In order to avoid this error we need to increate the time that the server allows for a SOAP request. We need to modify the com.ibm.SOAP.requestTimeout property in the install_root/properties/soap.client.props file. Just open this file in Wordpad, search for "soap.request", and change the value to 300 or 600 (I did 600 just to be sure). Detailed instructions are here.
So now that we are really ready we need to make sure the Deployment Manager is running and the Application Server instance we will use to install Connections (server1) is not running.
Then we run the install.bat file from the extract of file 1 of 12 from the downloads. The Info Center is pretty good for these steps so just follow the prompts as per this document. You can choose to install all the Features onto the one server however I decided to split the features across 3 servers just to spread the load. The Lotus Connections install will automatically create the additional server profiles for you if you decide to do this as well. I guess it would be wise to try and spread the estimated load across all 3 of the servers however it is really dependent on your usage plans as to how you do this.
The install takes a good while but you should be able to just let it run. Once the install is complete it will provide you with a list of the URL's to each feature. You just need to start each of the servers (as long as the nodeagent is running you can start the servers from the Dmgr Integrated Solutions Console) and off you go! Be Social, Explore, Collaborate!
There are some post install tasks (such as testing the database connections, more security, configuring IBM HTTP server etc) that are listed in the Info Center but you should have a Connections system up and running.
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So now we can install Lotus Connections 2.5
But before we do...one more thing. Sometimes when you install Connections we can get a SOAP time out error. In order to avoid this error we need to increate the time that the server allows for a SOAP request. We need to modify the com.ibm.SOAP.requestTimeout property in the install_root/properties/soap.client.props file. Just open this file in Wordpad, search for "soap.request", and change the value to 300 or 600 (I did 600 just to be sure). Detailed instructions are here.
So now that we are really ready we need to make sure the Deployment Manager is running and the Application Server instance we will use to install Connections (server1) is not running.
Then we run the install.bat file from the extract of file 1 of 12 from the downloads. The Info Center is pretty good for these steps so just follow the prompts as per this document. You can choose to install all the Features onto the one server however I decided to split the features across 3 servers just to spread the load. The Lotus Connections install will automatically create the additional server profiles for you if you decide to do this as well. I guess it would be wise to try and spread the estimated load across all 3 of the servers however it is really dependent on your usage plans as to how you do this.
The install takes a good while but you should be able to just let it run. Once the install is complete it will provide you with a list of the URL's to each feature. You just need to start each of the servers (as long as the nodeagent is running you can start the servers from the Dmgr Integrated Solutions Console) and off you go! Be Social, Explore, Collaborate!
There are some post install tasks (such as testing the database connections, more security, configuring IBM HTTP server etc) that are listed in the Info Center but you should have a Connections system up and running.
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Friday 25th, September 2009
Recent Contacts View25/09/2009 12:55 PMLocation : Home Office
I have had a few customers that have migrated to 8.5 about the fact that contacts seem to be automatically added to their Contacts database. Some people love this feature but others seem to not like it so much.
There is a new view called "Recent Contacts" as per the following screen shot. There is also a view "My Contacts".
Basically the My Contacts view should contain just those people you have actually added yourself to your contacts. The Recent Contacts View will show everyone that you have corresponded with via email/calendar invites etc. The new feature basically automatically adds every person that you email to the Recent Contacts view so that they then appear in your type ahead when sending new emails/calendar invites etc.
I personally quite like this as it means I don't have to add everyone to "My Contacts" in order to then use type ahead for their email. This saves me time in that I don't have to find their email in order to send another email back to them.
However for those that don't like this feature you can stop people being automatically added to your Recent Contacts view thru a user preference. From the Contacts database go to the More-Preferences Action Item (as per following screen shot)
Then untick the following check box:
This will prevent contacts automatically being added to the Recent Contacts view.
Hope that helps.
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There is a new view called "Recent Contacts" as per the following screen shot. There is also a view "My Contacts".
Basically the My Contacts view should contain just those people you have actually added yourself to your contacts. The Recent Contacts View will show everyone that you have corresponded with via email/calendar invites etc. The new feature basically automatically adds every person that you email to the Recent Contacts view so that they then appear in your type ahead when sending new emails/calendar invites etc.
I personally quite like this as it means I don't have to add everyone to "My Contacts" in order to then use type ahead for their email. This saves me time in that I don't have to find their email in order to send another email back to them.
However for those that don't like this feature you can stop people being automatically added to your Recent Contacts view thru a user preference. From the Contacts database go to the More-Preferences Action Item (as per following screen shot)
Then untick the following check box:
This will prevent contacts automatically being added to the Recent Contacts view.
Hope that helps.
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Friday 11th, September 2009
Customising a WebSphere Portal Theme - Remove Signup and Edit My Profile Link11/09/2009 01:35 PMLocation : Home Office
I have recently had the requirement to customise a Portal Theme a couple of times and every time I do it I fall for the same gotcha's so I thought I would document the process so I can remember next time. I recently modified a Theme to remove the Signup and Edit My Profile Links. Dave Hay shows us one way of doing this using XMLAccess however sometimes modifying the theme is required for other reasons as well.
The main reference on how to do this is the Info Center (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html) however there are a couple of steps that arn't terribly clear so I have recorded what I did below here.
The easiest way to build a theme is to take an exiting one and modify it.
First copy an existing Theme
Copy the following directories and files contained within -
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\dojo
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\html\Portal
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\html\psw
Then copy all of the tld files from the WEB-INF/tld directory in wps.war into the theme WAR's WEB-INF/tld directory in order to get support for all the custom tags used for themes and skins.
I found the description of the above a little confusing so maybe this screen shot helps to explain what the directory structure of your new theme should be.
Now to modify the Theme (to remove the Self Care links)
Now you can modify the theme quite dramatically but here I just want to remove the selfcare and signup links.
Find banner_toolbar.jspf in the html/MyThemeName directory and edit it. Now basically what we need to do is comment out the appropriate bits. Don't be mislead by the comments in the document as they arn't exactly worded well. Basically you just need to comment out the sections that refer to the selfcare and signup
Now a key step/gotcha in the process is to Edit and Save Default.jsp as well. This updates the timestamp so that Default.jsp will be recompiled with the updated jspf elements. It seems that if you don't do this then it just doesn't work.
Package & Deploy the Theme
This part wasn't so bad. Just follow the doco - http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html
Importing a Theme
and again this part isn't too bad. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html
So once all that is done all you do is apply the Theme to your Portal pages. You might need to flush your cache and if you use a Proxy that cache's as well you might need to refresh that.
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The main reference on how to do this is the Info Center (http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html) however there are a couple of steps that arn't terribly clear so I have recorded what I did below here.
The easiest way to build a theme is to take an exiting one and modify it.
First copy an existing Theme
Copy the following directories and files contained within -
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\dojo
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\html\Portal
...\wp_profile\installedApps\portal1\wps.ear\wps.war\themes\html\psw
Then copy all of the tld files from the WEB-INF/tld directory in wps.war into the theme WAR's WEB-INF/tld directory in order to get support for all the custom tags used for themes and skins.
I found the description of the above a little confusing so maybe this screen shot helps to explain what the directory structure of your new theme should be.
Now to modify the Theme (to remove the Self Care links)
Now you can modify the theme quite dramatically but here I just want to remove the selfcare and signup links.
Find banner_toolbar.jspf in the html/MyThemeName directory and edit it. Now basically what we need to do is comment out the appropriate bits. Don't be mislead by the comments in the document as they arn't exactly worded well. Basically you just need to comment out the sections that refer to the selfcare and signup
Now a key step/gotcha in the process is to Edit and Save Default.jsp as well. This updates the timestamp so that Default.jsp will be recompiled with the updated jspf elements. It seems that if you don't do this then it just doesn't work.
Package & Deploy the Theme
This part wasn't so bad. Just follow the doco - http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html
Importing a Theme
and again this part isn't too bad. http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/dev/dgn_crthm.html
So once all that is done all you do is apply the Theme to your Portal pages. You might need to flush your cache and if you use a Proxy that cache's as well you might need to refresh that.
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