MailEnable System Overview

MailEnable
System Overview

MailEnable Messaging Services

for Microsoft Windows NT/2000/2003

MailEnable Pty. Ltd.

59 Murrumbeena Road
Murrumbeena
VIC 3163
Australia
t: +61 3 9569 0772
f: +61 3 9530 4066
www.mailenable.com

Date last modified 9/02/2007 11:34 AM

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 MailEnable System Overview

Table of Contents

1 Introduction................................................................................................... 3
2 System overview............................................................................................ 4
3 Connectors ..................................................................................................... 6
3.1 SMTP connector......................................................................................................... 7
3.1.1 Inbound agent.................................................................................................................................. 8
3.1.2 Outbound agent ............................................................................................................................... 8
3.2 Post office (SF) Connector......................................................................................... 8
3.2.1 Groups............................................................................................................................................. 9
3.3 List Server Connector................................................................................................. 9
4 Agents........................................................................................................... 11
4.1 Mail Transfer Agent ................................................................................................. 11
4.1.1 Address Resolution ....................................................................................................................... 11
4.1.2 Transfer Events ............................................................................................................................. 12
5 Services......................................................................................................... 13
5.1 POP3 service ............................................................................................................ 13
5.2 HTTPMail ................................................................................................................ 13
5.3 IMAP4...................................................................................................................... 13
5.4 Web mail service...................................................................................................... 13
6 Providers...................................................................................................... 14
6.1 Tab delimited configuration provider ...................................................................... 14
6.2 SMTP connector configuration files ........................................................................ 15
6.3 Post office connector configuration files ................................................................. 15
6.4 Authentication provider configuration files ............................................................. 16
6.5 Address map provider configuration files................................................................ 16
7 More information........................................................................................ 17

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 MailEnable System Overview

1 Introduction
MailEnable's mail server software provides a powerful, scalable hosted messaging platform for Microsoft
Windows. MailEnable offers stability, unsurpassed flexibility and an extensive feature set which allows you to
provide cost-effective mail services.
MailEnable also provides an environment that is extensible and promotes development through COM libraries,
DLLs and configuration files. The componentized architecture promotes customization and development,
making it a perfect solution for integration with existing systems.
MailEnable provides hosting providers or ISPs with a solid email platform that provides all of the required
features at a reasonable price. MailEnable can generate cost savings by reducing both hardware expenditure and
downtime, and most significantly, by providing a flexible licensing model.
With no client access licenses, free core components, and quick implementation, this is the ideal message
solution, whether you are catering for 5 users or 50 thousand.
The purpose of this document is to outline the core components of MailEnable and to provide an overview of the
architecture.

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 MailEnable System Overview

2 System overview
The following diagram outlines the core services and connectors that form the basis of MailEnable. This diagram
illustrates how the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) moves messages between different connectors. The MTA
monitors connector inbound and outbound messages queues, reading in messages and mapping them to other
connectors using an address map.

Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

Postoffice POP Retrieval

SMTP Connector List Connector
Connector Connector

Mailboxes

Mail services: IMAP, POP, Web mail, HTTPMail etc.

Mail clients

Figure 2-1 Relationship between agents, connectors and mail services in MailEnable
The web mail service and POP3 service access the post office repository (which is usually a shared or replicated
file service) and allow users to access and interface with their mailboxes.
The above diagram shows that MailEnable is comprised of Connectors, Agents, Services and Providers.

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 MailEnable System Overview

These are defined in the following table:

Component Definition

Connectors Connectors move mail between systems or subsystems (local or remote)

Agents Agents run perform specific management or operating functions for MailEnable
itself. An example of an Agent is the Mail Transfer Agent. Its function is to move
messages between connectors.

Services Services expose MailEnable functionality to external agents or programs. An

example of a service is the POP3 service. This service allows mail clients to
access mail from their post office.

Providers Providers are used by Connectors, Agents and Services to allow them to read
their configurations. An example of a provider is the Address Map provider. This
provider reads the address map that is used to determine mail routing between
connectors.

Note: MailEnable Standard does not include web mail or enterprise provisioning.
Each of these system components is described in this document.

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 MailEnable System Overview

3 Connectors
Mail connectors allow MailEnable to send a receive mail messages to external systems. MailEnable includes
SMTP, Post office, POP Retrieval and List connectors.
In some cases mail connectors can relay mail by immediately queuing it for relay. MailEnable’s SMTP
Connector is an example of such a connector.
An internal MailEnable address is made of two core parts. Firstly, there is the Connector Descriptor and
secondly there is the addressing detail. The exact syntax is shown below:
Syntax:
[Connector Acronym: Connector Address Details]
Examples:

MailEnable Internal Address Explanation

[SF:POSTOFFICE/MAILBOX] The location of mailbox (MAILBOX) on postoffice

(POSTOFFICE) using the SF Connector (Postoffice
Connector)

[SMTP:User@domain] The SMTP address of a user at the prescribed

domain using the SMTP Connector

[LS:POSTOFFICE/LISTNAME] The location of list mailbox (LISTNAME) on

postoffice (POSTOFFICE) using the LS Connector
(List Connector).

When a mail connector receives mail, it resolves the addressed recipients to an internal address format. Some of
these recipients will be local, and others will be relayed to non-local users. The connector will produce a
command file containing all resolved recipients and a message file containing the actual data. This information is
stored in the Connectors Spooling directory.
The MTA is used to take information from the spooling directory and either delivers it to local post office
mailboxes or queues it for relay to a remote host. Configuration of the Mail Transfer Agent will be explained
later in this document.

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 MailEnable System Overview

3.1 SMTP connector

The SMTP connector is responsible for both receiving and delivering mail via the SMTP protocol. This
connector is made up of two agents, the inbound agent and the outbound agent. The inbound agent is responsible
for accepting messages from mail clients and remote SMTP hosts. The outbound agent is responsible for
dispatching any queued mail messages to remote SMTP hosts.
An overview of the SMTP Connector is provided in the sequence diagram below:

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 MailEnable System Overview

3.1.1 Inbound agent

The SMTP Inbound Agent listens on a nominated port (usually port 25) for inbound SMTP mail requests. Once
a connection attempt is detected it spawns a new conversation to carry out the mail delivery transaction.
The end result of a successful inbound transaction is a message placed in the SMTP Inbound directory. This
message has two parts. Firstly it has the actual message contents, and secondly it has a matching configuration
file containing the internally resolved and externally relayed recipients.
This message then waits for the MTA to deliver the spooling message to the local and relayed users specified in
the configuration file.

3.1.2 Outbound agent

The outbound agent polls an outbound message queue for unsent messages. When it finds an unsent message it
spawns a delivery conversation thread. This conversation thread interprets the message command file and
attempts to deliver the message to the specified recipients. The outbound agent expects that a message command
file relates to a single delivery domain. It is the responsibility of the MTA to ensure this.
If a message cannot be delivered to a recipient, it is re-queued up to 10 times. The message will be resent every 3
hours and the mail agent will continue to attempt message delivery for up to 3 days. If the message is older than
3 days, the message is returned to the sender. For each unsuccessful batch of delivery attempts (usually 10) the
originator of the message is notified that the message delivery has been delayed.

3.2 Post office (SF) connector

The post office connector is responsible for receiving and delivering mail to post offices. When a message
arrives to the post office connector, it needs to be determined whether it is targeted to a group or a mailbox.

If the message is addressed

to a group, the group
members addresses are
retrieved and the message is
fed back into the post office
connectors outbound
message queue for further
processing.
(The MTA will pick the
message up and route it back
to the post office connector
as necessary).
If the message is destined for
a mailbox, the post office
connector needs to determine
if there are any rules that
need to be applied to the
message. For example, the
mailbox owner may have
nominated that messages be
forwarded to another
address.
The MTA is responsible for
the internal of routing of
messages between
connectors.

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 MailEnable System Overview

3.2.1 Groups
Groups are implemented by having a file that lists the names of any groups that are registered on the system.
Mail items within groups are defined using internal address formats.
Internal Address formats are defined as follows:
[Address Type Qualifier:Address Specifiers]
As a result, a group file could contain internal users as well as external users. So the contents of a group
configuration file could look something like this:

Internal Address Format Description

[SF:POSTOFFICENAME/MAILBOX] Local Postoffice Mailbox User

[SMTP:Alias@domainname] External SMTP User

[SF:POSTOFFICENAME/GROUPID] Local Postoffice Group

Once a group e-mail address is detected in an incoming message, the recipients need to be determined. The steps
for working this out are as follows:
We open the DomainMap file under the postoffices directory and determine if we are hosting the domain. If we
are then we need to determine if the address is for a user or a group. We do this by opening the group map file
under the post office.
If the SMTPAddress of the group is located in this file then we need to get the name of the groupfile that
contains the addresses.
We open this file and read each line in the file determining whether the address is a local or external address. We
will the buffer of recipients with this information.

3.3 List server connector

MailEnable contains a list server that enables

people to subscribe and unsubscribe to
mailing lists. A list is an online discussion
group or information mailout, where emails
are sent out to all the members. People are
able to post to the list, and the server will
duplicate their email and send it out to all the
members.
Unmoderated lists allow messages to be
posted straight away instead of going via the
moderator, who can stop the message from
being posted.
The diagram outlines the implementation of
MailEnable’s List Server Connector.
When a message arrives in the List Server
Connector’s Outbound Queue (typically via
the MTA), its message command file is
opened.

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 MailEnable System Overview

The system uses the address of the list to determine whether the list is moderated. If the list is moderated and the
message is coming from the moderator, it is pre-processed (headers and footers added) and sent to all the
recipients in the corresponding list-member file.
Otherwise, the list is routed to the moderators address. It is up to the moderator as to whether they
edit/consolidate the messages forwarded to them by the list or if they simply forward the message onto the list.
3.3.1.1 Moderated list example
[email protected] sends a message to the list [email protected] . This list is moderated by
[email protected].
The message from [email protected] will be intercepted by the list server and re-rerouted to
[email protected].
The headers of the message are not significantly modified when the message is routed to the moderator - so it
appears that the message was in fact sent to the moderator by [email protected].
[email protected] will review the message and can forward the message onto the list.
When the list receives the message, the message from the moderator will distributed to the other members of the
list (including [email protected]).

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 MailEnable System Overview

4 Agents
4.1 Mail Transfer Agent
The Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) is a
Windows Service responsible for:
Receiving inbound
messages from mail
connectors
Delivering mail to local
mailboxes
Queuing mail for relay
to other mail connectors
(including themselves,
as in SMTP Relay)

The example below outlines the typical contents of a queued command message:

DomainName=MailEnable.com
Recipients=@C:[email protected]
[email protected]:[email protected]
Retries=2
MessageID=F6BFAD9F27248428AD32C87D65E8.MAI
Priority=Normal
Status=Unsent

4.1.1 Address resolution

Each message for the MTA contains the sender and the recipients of the message. The MTA looks at the
recipients of each message and resolves them to messages to translated addresses. It then prepares a message for
each connector containing only the recipients that have been mapped to the connector.
When a message is picked up by the MTA and it cannot be resolved to a connector it is placed in the Bad Mail
directory and a Non Delivery Report (NDR) is sent to the sender.

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 MailEnable System Overview

The following sequence is applied by the MTA:

1. MTA needs to check for all the exact matches first, a message is prepared for each recipient and each
connector.
2. If an exact match cannot be found, a check for a generic handler is performed, i.e. relay to connector. We
need to be able to allow a message to be relayed to the connector itself.
3. For example, an entry in the address map as [SMTP:*@domainname.com.au] [SMTP:*] will relay a
message through the MTA from SMTP gateway to SMTP gateway for the domain name
“domainname.com.au”. Likewise, [SMTP:*@domainname.com.au] [SF:ACTIVEMEDIA/ADMIN] will
send all mail from one domain to a nominated mailbox.
4. This means that every item in the list is checked until a mask that matches the address is found.
5. If the message could not be resolved and the message there is no default mail handler, the message is placed
in the bad-mail directory. The MTA will send a return path message to the originator as it is bad-mailed.

4.1.2 Transfer events

When mail is picked up or dispatched by the mail transfer agent, specific events can fire to facilitate the
processing of messages as they are moved between connectors. For example, the MTA may wish to check a
message for viruses as it is moved between connectors.
Assume that a message is arriving through the SMTP connector for delivery to the local post office. In this
scenario, the MTA attempts to pick up the mail message and deliver it to the appropriate connector. The MTA
can optionally execute a program either when it attempts to pick up the message from a connector, or when it
attempts to deliver the message to a new connector. It should also be noted that specific connectors may also be
configured to perform the same function. Although in most cases, it is best if it is handled by the MTA (because
it is simpler to configure an instance of the MTA rather than a potential array of MailEnable connectors).

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 MailEnable System Overview

5 Services
MailEnable includes the following mail services.

5.1 POP3 service

This is a mail protocol that enables emails to be retrieved from a remote mailbox. That is, it allows you to collect
emails from a hosted account that you have hosted on a server to your own email software, such as Outlook,
Eudora etc.

5.2 HTTPMail
HTTPMail is a mail access protocol that allows you to access your mail from the server and leaves the email on
the server. HTTPMail provides similar functionality to IMAP, where by an Outlook Express or Outlook client
can access and manage messages and folders on the server. Unlike IMAP, it does not require SMTP to send
messages.
Another advantage that HTTPMail has over using POP and SMTP is that it can be configured to operate over
Port 80, meaning that you can access your mail through corporate firewalls.

5.3 IMAP4
IMAP4 is a mail protocol that allows users to be disconnected from the main messaging system and still be able
to process mail. Users can store messages on a local machine or on a server.
IMAP has distinct advantages over POP because it allows you manage multiple folders on the server. Mail can
be accessed from different machines, as the mail is hosted on the server (unlike POP which deletes mail from the
server after being accessed) and allows the user to just download message headers and envelope information,
until the user selects the email to download. This is useful when operating over slow speed dial-up connections.
IMAP4 can break up and download specific parts of a multi-part email message (MIME). This means that
instead of having to wait for an email with attachments to download, you can select only the text portion to
download, and leave the attachments on the server.
IMAP4 allows you to have server hosted folders and subfolders.

5.4 Web mail service

Web mail is an email service that uses a web browser to allow viewing, sending, receiving, editing & deleting of
email, just as you would with standard email clients such as Outlook or Eudora.
Web mail is ideal for mobile users because it allows you to access your email from anywhere, anytime with any
computer connected to the Internet.

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 MailEnable System Overview

6 Providers
Providers are used to control MailEnable configuration settings. Providers are used to configure MailEnable to
store details in tab delimited files, databases, etc. The default provider for MailEnable is the tab delimited
provider. This section outlines the configuration settings for MailEnable tab delimited configuration providers,
beyond those made available in the supplied administration application.
The primary configuration providers are outlined in the following table:

Provider Name Function

Postoffice configuration provider Storage of post office and mailbox configuration

data

SMTP configuration provider Domain and connector configuration data

Address Map configuration provider Storage of addresses mapping data

Authentication configuration provider Authentication of user credentials and permissions

List Server configuration provider List names, addresses, members, etc.

Directory provider Allows a list of addresses to be defined for use by

MailEnable applications.

6.1 Tab delimited configuration provider

This table lists the tab delimited provider configuration files and their function.

Purpose Location Description

IPAddress Access %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\SMTP-ACCESS.TAB This file contains a list of masks

Authorization File that define who can use the
SMTP gateway for the
nominated right defined in this
file.

IPAddress Deny %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\SMTP-DENY.TAB This file contains a list of masks

Authorization File that define who cannot use the
SMTP gateway for the
nominated right defined in this
file

Postoffice Groups %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\POSTOFFICES\%PO This file is used to define the

File STOFFICE%\GROUP-MAP.TAB SMTP addresses of any groups
and point to a file for each that
lists the members.

Group Membership %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\POSTOFFICES\%PO This file keeps a list of all the

File STOFFICE%\GROUPS\FILENAME.TAB members in a group.

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 MailEnable System Overview

Domain File %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\DOMAINS.TAB This file is used to map an

SMTP Domain to a local post
office and to store all details for
a nominated SMTP Domain. It
also allows mail to be redirected
or forwarded to an array of
hosts. This is used in preference
to DNS Resolution.

Address Mapping %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\ADDRESS- This file is used to map an

File MAP.TAB" SMTP Address to a local
Account on the specified post
office.

Authorization File %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\AUTH.TAB This file is used to store the user

ID and passwords for accessing
the system and mailboxes

Mailbox File %CONFIGDIRECTORY%\POSTOFFICES\%PO This file is used to store the

STOFFICE%\MAILBOX.TAB" details for a post office mailbox.
It also allows mail to be
redirected from an internally
formatted address e.g.
[SMTP:[email protected]] or
[SF:POSTOFFICE/MAILBOX]

6.2 SMTP connector configuration files

File Name Format Fields

SMTP- %s\t%s\t%d\t%s TargetDomainName, BannedDomainName, Status,

BLACKLIST.TAB Account

SMTP- %s\t%d\t%s\t%s AddressMask,Status,SMTPAccess, Right, Account

ACCESS.TAB

SMTP-DENY.TAB %s\t%d\t%s\t%s AddressMask,Status,SMTPAccess, Right, Account

DOMAIN.TAB %s\t%d\t%d\t%s\t%s DomainName, Status, RedirectionStatus,

RedirectionHosts, Account

6.3 Post office connector configuration files

File Name Format Fields

POSTOFFICE.TAB %s\t%d\t%s Name,Status, Account

MAILBOX.TAB %s\t%d\t%d\t%d\t%s Mailbox, Status, Size, RedirectStatus,

RedirectAddress

GROUP-MAP.TAB %s\t%s RecipientAddress, GroupName

[GROUPID].TAB %s Address

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 MailEnable System Overview

6.4 Authentication provider configuration files

File Name Format Fields

AUTH.TAB %s\t%d\t%s\t%s\t%s\t%s UserName, Status, Password, Account, Rights,

Description

6.5 Address map provider configuration files

File Name Format Fields

ADDRESS- s\t%s\t%s\t%s SourceAddress, DestinationAddress, Scope, Account

MAP.TAB

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 MailEnable System Overview

7 More information
For more general information about MailEnable please visit the web site: http://www.mailenable.com
For product support issues, please refer to our Support page: http://www.mailenable.com/support.asp

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