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Email Server Upgrade

Email Server Upgrade. From UW to Cyrus. What is an IMAP Server?. Provides access to your mail messages stored on the mail server Requires authentication (login/password) Allow you to store and manage multiple mail folders on the mail server

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Email Server Upgrade

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  1. Email Server Upgrade From UW to Cyrus

  2. What is an IMAP Server? • Provides access to your mail messages stored on the mail server • Requires authentication (login/password) • Allow you to store and manage multiple mail folders on the mail server • Can provide additional features (such as sharing mail folders) depending on the particular implementation • Provides emulation of the POP3 protocol for backwards compatibility with older mail clients

  3. What an IMAP Server Isn’t • The IMAP server does not do the actual deliver of email messages to users • Sendmail/Postfix/Qmail handles the delivery of email messages

  4. Message Stores • A message store is the organization of how email messages are saved on the email server • The mail deliver agent (sendmail/postfix) and the mail access agent (cyrus/uwimap) must agree on the same message store organization • Also called mailstores

  5. UW IMAP Message Store • University of Washington IMAP uses the Unix email message format, also known as mbox or Berkeley mail format • Each mail folder is a file on the server and messages are stored in that file with a known message separator

  6. Cyrus IMAP Message Store • Cyrus uses the maildir or a enhanced version of the maildir message store • Each folder is a directory and each message is a separate file in the directory • A lightweight database is used to speed access to the messages • Cyrus was developed at Carnegie Mellon University

  7. UW IMAP Pros • Simple to implement. No changes need to be made to message store format • Can understand other message store formats other than Berkeley (Unix) mailbox format • Can run on a machine that also allows users to login for interactive use (e.g. to use pine) • Users or mail programs (mailx) can still access their mail files directly

  8. UW IMAP Cons • Resource intensive. Entire mail folder must be read into memory and rewritten when changes are made. Doesn’t scale well. • Does not support IMAP Quotas. Must use Unix filesystem quotas. • Does not support IMAP access control lists to allow others to share mail folders

  9. Cyrus Pros • Uses an efficient, scalable message store • Supports IMAP Quotas • Supports IMAP Access Control Lists (ACL) to allow sharing of mail folders • Has built-in server-side mail filtering language (Sieve) • User accounts do not need to be tied to existing Unix accounts (you could use LDAP, or a separate account database).

  10. Cyrus Cons • Requires the use of the maildir message store • Designed to be run on standalone server that doesn’t allow regular users to login to it • Users no longer have direct access to their mail folders and messages. They must use the IMAP or POP3 protocol. • Can’t use familiar tools or config files (procmail, vacation and .forward files). The must use Sieve filtering language and other web developed interfaces.

  11. What are the Benefits to The College? • Better Mail Quota Support • Mailboxes don’t get corrupt when user goes over quota which requires admin intervention on the current system. • All mail folders including the INBOX are governed by the same disk quota (indirectly frees up space in their Unix account for more web pages/files).

  12. Benefits (continued) • Collaboration Abilities • Users can share mail folders with others on the system • Users can setup “dropbox” mail folders that can be directly mailed into • Bulletin Board (public access) folders can be created for announcements

  13. Upgrade Responsibilities for Current Mail Users • Move current mail folders to new server (IT will convert their INBOX for them) • Modify Netscape Preferences • Learn/convert to new “vacation” feature • Convert .forward contents to new system • Redo server-side procmail filters to sieve filters if they current use it • Optionally configure ACLs on mail folders

  14. Summary Cyrus is a modern IMAP server implementation that is feature rich, scales well and provides some collaboration capabilities

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