Table of Contents

3. Mail Server Architecture

3.1. Generic Server Configuration

3.1.1. Running Services

3.1.2. Other Generic Server Parameters

3.1.3. DNR Settings

3.2. Services and Modules

3.2.1. SMTP Receiving

3.2.2. Processing

3.2.3. SMTP Sending

3.2.4. POP3

3.2.5. IMAP

3.2.6. Logging

3.2.7. Reporting

3.2.7.1. Reporting Parameters

3.2.8. WebMail

3.2.9. Storage

3.2.10. FTP Backup Service

3.2.11. RPOP Service

3.3. Connectivity and Threading

3.3.1. Listeners

3.3.2. Rules

3.3.3. Threads

3.4. Clustering Support

3.4.1. Cluster Overview

3.4.1.1. LDAP Introduction

3.4.1.1.1. Basic Directory Setup

3.4.1.1.2. LDAP Entry Structure

3.4.1.1.3. LDAP Authentication

3.4.1.2. AXIGEN Mapping System

3.4.1.3. AXIGEN Authentication System

3.4.1.4. AXIGEN Front-End Services Setup

3.4.1.4.1. The SMTP Proxy

3.4.1.4.2. The IMAP and POP3 Proxies

3.4.1.4.3. The WebMail Proxy

3.4.1.4.4. Mapping Setup

3.4.1.5. AXIGEN Back-End Services Setup

3.4.2. LDAP Routing

3.4.2.1. Configuring Mapping Parameters

3.4.2.2. POP3 Proxy Service

3.4.2.3. IMAP Proxy Service

3.4.2.4. Webmail Proxy Service

3.4.3. AXIGEN LDAP Authentication

3.4.4. Integrating Active Directory into a cluster environment

3.4.5. Exotic Cluster Setups

3.5. Groupware and collaboration

3.5.1. Personal Organizer & AXIGEN Outlook Connector

3.5.2. Folders and permissions

3.4.1.4.2. The IMAP and POP3 Proxies

Both of these services provide similar functions within the cluster and from a configuration standpoint, they are identical. They both use the same authentication method, internal or LDAP, and in the second situation, they use the same connector. In a similar way, the same user map is used for the routing section of these services.

The only notable difference between configurations of these services is the failover address and port used. The failover address is used in case a match is not found in the user map. As these services use different ports and different protocols, an IP-port pair can be specified as failover for each individual service.

NOTE: For the SMTP service the failover address is not required because the message will get relayed or discarded if no routing information can be found.

Both IMAP and POP3 proxy services can run on the same system as the IMAP and POP3 services, forwarding requests to the same system or another system when required. This helps with the design of single tier clusters that have neither stand-alone front-end nodes, nor load balancers.

For more details on this topic please see IMAP Proxy Service and POP3 Proxy Service.