Introduction
Anyone who administers an HCL Notes/Domino environment knows the pattern: a user reports a problem with a mail database, the inbox, an out-of-office notification, or a stubbornly “burned-in” design element – and the solution sits in a KB note where HCL Support describes a LotusScript agent for you to build yourself. That works, but it costs time and is error-prone: create the agent, paste in the code, sign it, set the ACLs, run it.
For exactly this class of problems, HCL offers a ready-made toolkit: the All-in-One Admin Tool (currently distributed as AdminTools 2.0), documented in the knowledge-base article KB0032494. Instead of writing your own agent every time, you get a guided interface with more than 20 prebuilt routines.
In this article we look at what the tool is, what it’s designed for, how to set it up, which functions it actually ships with – and where its official limits lie.
Scope and Prerequisites
According to HCL, the tool targets HCL Domino Designer, HCL Notes, and Domino 9.x and later versions. That covers practically every modern release still encountered in production environments today – including the current 12.x and 14.x lines.
The prerequisites are deliberately lean:
- Notes/Domino 9.x or later, operating-system independent
- Local Notes client (the tool runs as a local database; the earlier server requirement has been removed)
- Administrative access on the target databases/servers
Important: the tools reach into production mail files via LotusScript (and in one case via the C API). Administrator access in the Notes sense (ACL Manager, possibly Full Access Administrator on the server) is therefore mandatory – not just in theory, but as a hard technical requirement for several functions.
Setup in Four Steps
Getting up and running is described clearly in the KB article and follows a classic Notes template workflow:
- Download: get
AdminTools_V_2.zipfrom the KB article and extract it into your localNotes\Datadirectory.
- Create the database: via File → Application → New, create a new application from your local templates, template name
AdminTools2.0. The database may be local – the previous server requirement is gone.
- Read “About this Database”: the cover document contains the initial setup guide and usage notes.
- Read the “Help” button per tool: every single tool ships with its own help text – HCL explicitly recommends reading it before first use.
Practical tip: because the database can run locally, it’s a good fit for an admin workstation – no production server resources or additional replicas required. If you’re deploying the tool in a team, still consider keeping a signed, ACL-hardened copy in a central location – more on that in the disclaimer section below.
The Tools at a Glance
The All-in-One Admin Tool bundles a two-part list: a core set and a block of updates and new features. Both are detailed in the KB article.
Core Tools
# | Tool | Purpose (technical) |
1 | Remove Profiles Tool | Lists profile documents in a database and removes selected ones. Important: Do not use this tool for the OOO profile – there is a dedicated tool for that. |
2 | Out of Office Diagnostic Tool | Diagnostic routine for the out-of-office agent/service. |
3 | Prohibit Design Element Tool | Lists design elements with the Prohibit Design Refresh flag set and allows you to clear it. |
4 | Copy Database Tool | Performs a LotusScript-based, document-level copy of a mail database (as opposed to a pure replication). |
5 | Rebuild Mail Database Inbox | Rebuilds the inbox – for example after folder corruption or after documents have been accidentally removed from the inbox folder. |
6 | Edit Database ACL | For a list of mail files, sets the mail-file owner’s ACL entry to Editor, Designer, or Manager. |
7 | Find Duplicate Templates | Finds duplicate templates on a server, lists them, and identifies the original. |
8 | Disable Background Agents | Enables or disables “Disable background agents for this database” for a list of mail files. Uses the C API, because this DB property is not directly accessible via LotusScript. |
9 | Create Mail Database Spreadsheet | Collects definable attributes of all mail files on a server and exports them as CSV. |
10 | Document DXL Export Tool | Exports a single document as DXL/XML for in-depth analysis. |
11 | Fix Duplicate Folders | Cleans up duplicated folders. |
12 | Log Analysis | Searches a list of text files for a particular string and writes matches to an output file. |
13 | Mail Database Search | Searches a directory or a single mail file for a string; matches are written to the log as Document Links. |
14 | Delete Document | Deletes a document by NoteID – useful when a document can only be reached via its ID. |
15 | Edit Mail Rules | Inspects mail-rule documents against orphaned mail rules in the calendar profile document, and can remove orphaned rules from the calendar profile. |
Updates and New Features
# | Tool | What’s new |
1 | Remove Out Of Office Profile And Agent 2.0 | Extended OOO-profile removal, including cleanup of the OOO calendar entry that can block Free/Busy bookings. |
2 | DXL Document Exporter 2.0 | Uses the LotusScript DXLExporter classes directly, without having to import an external DLL into the operating system. |
3 | Find Database by Template – Prohibit | Formerly Prohibit Design Element Tool; additionally lists other databases that use the same master template. |
4 | Remove Hide in Rich Text Field | Removes the Hide-When formula of a rich-text field in a document. Background: when a rich-text field is saved, the hide-when formula is persisted with the document and can no longer be edited through normal means. |
5 | Change DB Replica ID | Sets the replica ID of a target database to that of a source database (typical use: archive/backup → production). |
6 | Copy Calendar Entries | Copies individual or multiple calendar entries from a mail backup copy into a production mail file. |
7 | Delete Users Mail Document | Removes a specific mail document by its UNID across multiple selected users. |
8 | Send Notes.ini Settings Changes to Users | Pushes notes.ini changes directly to client users. The tool reads the calendar profile document of the selected mail file to determine the owner. Intended for situations in which policies either don’t apply or roll out too slowly. |
In terms of content, the tool addresses three major problem classes that recur in everyday Domino administration: mail-database hygiene (inbox, folders, profiles, ACL, mail rules), design-element and template problems (prohibit flags, duplicate templates, hide-when in rich text), and targeted operations at document level (delete by NoteID/UNID, DXL export, copy calendar entries).
Technical Positioning: Where the Tool Fills a Gap
Domino itself provides a number of built-in tools through the Administrator client and the
Help documentation, summarized by HCL in the product documentation under Troubleshooting tools for Domino®. Those mainly cover server-side diagnostics (console commands, NSD, log analysis via log.nsf, statistics, server health monitoring).The All-in-One Admin Tool is explicitly not a replacement, but a complement at the mail-file and design-element level:
- It operates primarily inside NSF files (mail, templates, individual documents).
- It encapsulates operations that would otherwise require a hand-written LotusScript agent – for example setting the Disable background agents for this database property (not directly accessible via LotusScript) through the C API.
- It picks up typical recovery and workaround tasks from the sprawl of single-purpose KB articles and consolidates them under one UI.
This is precisely the gap HCL positions the tool for. The Related Information section in the KB article links to the individual KB articles whose logic is bundled inside the tool – among them:
Anyone who has worked through these topics manually knows how quickly the effort piles up. For day-to-day administration, the bundling is therefore more than cosmetic.
Real-World Scenarios
Out of Office – the Chronic Trouble Spot
The HCL forums regularly feature threads in which users can no longer enable their out-of-office notification. In a typical example, the All-in-One Admin Tool is named explicitly as the way to cleanly remove the OOO profile before resetting service-type settings in the configuration. With Remove Out Of Office Profile And Agent 2.0, the OOO calendar entry that can otherwise block Free/Busy is removed as well – a detail that is easily overlooked in manual workarounds.
Profile Documents and Calendar Profile
In the Additional Information section of the KB article, HCL provides a small but practical Q&A on the Remove Profiles Tool:
Q. When the calendar profile document is deleted, which information needs to be restored?
A. Best practice: take screenshots of every page of the Calendar preferences, Mail rules and Feeds in advance.
Q. How do you recreate the calendar profile document?
A. Manually set the “This mail file belongs to” field value to the mail-file owner.
Q. How do you verify that the calendar profile document was recreated correctly?
A. Use the NotesPeek tool.
An important reminder: the tool automates the intervention, but does not replace before/after documentation. If you delete profiles, ACLs or folder structures, document the prior state.
Design-Element Issues After a Template Refresh
The Find Database by Template – Prohibit tool is particularly useful when, after a failed Design Refresh, individual elements end up with a prohibit flag set across many databases. Instead of opening each affected NSF, the tool lists them via their shared master template.
Mass Operations Across Multiple Mail Files
Several tools are explicitly designed to act on lists of mail files: Edit Database ACL, Disable Background Agents, Delete Users Mail Document, Send Notes.ini Settings Changes to Users. That makes them well suited to maintenance windows and larger migration or cleanup operations, without having to touch each mail file individually.
Disclaimer – and What It Means in Practice
HCL states clearly in KB0032494:
- The All-in-One Admin Tool is a collection provided “as is” and is not officially supported.
- HCL Product Support cannot modify or customize the tools.
- The tools listed in the KB article, however, have been officially tested and may be used to troubleshoot or work around tasks.
For production use, a few pragmatic rules follow:
- Always test on test or backup copies first – especially with Delete Document, Delete Users Mail Document, and Change DB Replica ID. These operations are not trivial to undo.
- Full backup before bulk operations across multiple mail files (Edit Database ACL, Disable Background Agents, Send Notes.ini Settings Changes to Users).
- ID signing and ECL: sign the bundled agents with a dedicated admin ID that has the required rights in both the server’s ECL and the ACLs of the target databases.
- Document the prior state, especially for profile documents and mail rules.
- Watch out for version drift: the tool is approved for 9.x “and later,” but with very old templates (e.g. non-migrated mail designs) it’s worth testing individual functions first, because the data models of mail templates have evolved over the years.
What the Tool Is Not
So nobody develops the wrong expectations:
- It is not server monitoring and not a Domino-console-lite. For server-side analysis you still rely on
show stat, NSD,log.nsf, Server Health Monitoring and the HCL-documented troubleshooting tools.
- It is not a replacement for structured mail-file repair via
compact,fixup,updallwith the appropriate switches.
- It is not a backup tool, even though Copy Database Tool or Change DB Replica ID can help out in specific scenarios.
- It is not a mass rollout tool for policies – Send Notes.ini Settings Changes to Users is explicitly positioned as a workaround for situations in which policies either don’t apply or roll out too slowly.
Conclusion
The All-in-One Admin Tool is exactly what its name promises: a curated, guided workbench for Notes/Domino administration that automates many of the operations HCL Support would otherwise ship as individual KB snippets. For administrators who regularly deal with mail-file hygiene, profile documents, design elements, and controlled bulk operations at the NSF level, it belongs in the toolbox – as a complement to the built-in tools of the Domino Administrator client, not as a replacement.
The “as is” character is not a weakness, but an honest positioning: HCL signals clearly what Support stands behind (officially tested routines, documented in KB0032494) – and leaves the rest to responsible use in each individual environment.
If the tool isn’t in your repertoire yet, download
AdminTools_V_2.zip from the KB article, create a local AdminTools2.0 database, read “About this Database” and each tool’s Help button – and your response time on the next Domino incident will be noticeably shorter.Sources
All sources come directly from HCL:
- Linked HCL KB articles for the individual functions bundled in the tool: KB0037502, KB0033345, KB0036937, KB0035938, KB0029935, KB0032880, KB0084025