Collaboration in the Enterprise from the perspective of Anthony Holmes, an IBM Premium Support Manager

Working Collaboration Blog

Don’t install Domino from a USB Key

Anthony Holmes  11 August 2008 11:25:48 AM
At midnight on Sunday I decided to upgrade my Domino server to 8.5, and I made the mistake of running the install code off a USB key. I was surprised at what happened next.

Instead of the upgrade being completed in 20-30 minutes, the installation crawled along slowly. 9 hours later it had only reached 70% completion. Since the business day was starting, I decided not to wait another four hours for it to finish. I cancelled the installation and did what I should have done initially: copied the install code onto a local drive. I then re-ran it from the local drive. Less than 30 minutes later my server was up and running again.

So why is it 26 (!!) times faster to install Domino from a local drive rather than a USB key? I'm not sure, but here are some hints:
  • I run my Domino server on an old laptop. Its USB port is only USB 1, so it isn't especially fast
  • My USB key was a fairly well performing Sandisk Ultra II Plus USB (a neat and fairly speedy device), so it probably wasn't to blame
  • There's a technote with advice for installing Notes on a Stick (Nomad Notes) that warns that installation can be very slow with some USB devices

My conclusion is that a combination of my USB 1 interface and something about the way that Notes and Domino install themselves via InstallShield leads to slow performance. If I had plugged by fast USB device into a USB 2 plug, performance might have been faster than the glacial speed I found. But I suspect that it's always going to be worth taking a minute to copy the installation code to a hard drive rather than running it off USB.

Image:Don’t install Domino from a USB Key
A young magpie lark (I think) that I photographed in Birrarung Marr, an inner urban park in Melbourne.