I’ve just finished configuring an environment using the new certificate-based ssl mode included in documentum 7.1 and the full xCP 2.1 stack of products (well, truth is I couldn’t install everything using ssl: xms agent with https?)

After spending (a lot) time configuring this I can say:

1. SSL mode works fine. Not (noticeable) performance impact.
2. Almost every component can be configured to use this connection mode except CIS (check esg120422) and the xms agent
3. Configuration is quite straightforward (Once you’ve done it for the first time)

Now, this was the first time I’ve installed the whole xCP stack and instead of using internal documentation of previous installations, I decided to follow EMC’s instructions:

1. Surprisingly, most of the installation instructions were accurate!! Most of the components were installed just by following the instructions. Note that this was a development environment, quite simple, without “weird” stuff. Still, my impression about this is that the quality has improved from previous documentation.
2. The new SSL mode. Nothing here that hasn’t been said before (Ask the Expert: What’s New in EMC Documentum 7.1?). Documentation about this is lacking, confusing and wrong. Either (fix and) include the ssl white paper in the content server installation guide or release a new white paper with accurate instructions to configure this. You can’t get to imagine the amount of time and frustation wasted in the process. Very bad move by EMC.
3. The “new” (I think this started with 7.0) documentation distribution. Please EMC, either put ALL documentation in the zip file, or make another zip file for the xCP docs. It doesn’t make sense that the xCP deployment guide covers the installation of some components, while others are completely omitted and the documentation is left to be found somewhere else.
4. Test the installation for every supported environment. It looks really bad when you unzip (-a) a zip file (or a tar one…) in linux and when you try to run a script you get the “error ^M blablabla”. And this has happened to me in every single compressed file. Having to dos2unix every file is not fun.