Goodbye, Sun Messaging Server!

 Last Saturday, we finally decommissioned the Sun Messaging Server in our data center.

As everyone knows, Sun's software used to be free to use, even in production. Customers only need to pay if they require support. Well, that was yesterday and history. :)

Salute to Sun Messaging Server!

Blackberry Email & Calendar Sync with Sun Communications Suite

I just finished installing Sun Calendar Server to a customer's existing Sun Messaging Server infrastructure over the weekend in the Philippines.

Some of their directors use Blackberry. With the newly installed Calendar Server, they hope to sync their Blackberry devices.

I told them there are 2 approaches.


Approach 1: Blackberry sync with Outlook via USB

a. Install Sun Java System Connector for Microsoft Outlook
b. Sync Mail & Calendar from Sun Comms Suite 6u2 (Mail & Calendar) with Outlook
c. Sync Blackberry with Outlook via USB

Supported OS
Runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP3 or higher), Windows XP (SP1 or higher), Windows 2003 Terminal Server, and Windows Vista

Supported Outlook
Supports Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007

Read here.



Approach 2: Blackberry sync over-the-air

a. Purchase NotifyLink Enterprise Server
b. Install and Configure to connect to Sun Comms Suite 6u2 (Mail & Calendar)
c. Blackberry sync with NotifyLink over-the-air

Read here.


Note: If users only want to "sync" email with Sun Messaging Server with Outlook, no connector is required. It works out-of-the-box via POP or IMAP protocol.

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Sun Software Product Map

The name "Sun Java Systems Communications Suite" is now history. 

Communications Suite is one of the products we are very strong in. 

I just find it weird that Sun Messaging Server has been rebranded as Oracle Communications Messaging Exchange Server.  

Do we really need that word?

PS: The full listing here.

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Sun Messaging Server Monitoring

I have deployed Sun Messaging Server since iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 days. It is one of the most robust and flexible (configuration-wise) email servers around.

Now that Oracle comes along and it already has Oracle Beehive, we still do not know the fate of Sun Messaging Server. More about Oracle Beehive here.

Anyway, over the years, the only complain I received is that monitoring of Sun Messaging Server is not intuitive. Everything is via CLI (command lines).

Ideally, there will graphs and alerts and everything can be monitored via GUI.

Something like what AXIGEN Mail Server provides. The Status & Monitoring and Logging are manageable via GUI.

It'll take time for Sun Messaging Server to provide a web-based monitoring system. Maybe it might never happen at all.

For the time being, the following CLIs are helpful in my day-to-day work:

1) Monitor Messaging Server components using "immonitor-access". Health check using connection time

Monitors: LTMP, IMAP, HTTP, LDAP, SMTP


2) Monitor Statistic using "counterutil".

• Monitors: Connection Statistics
• Diskusage Statistics
• Server Response Statistics

3) Monitor MTA Channel Message Statistics using "imsimta counters -show"

4) Monitor MTA Queue Statistics usign "imsimta qm"

• "imsimta qm counters show": Shows total statistic to date.
• "imsimta qm summarize": Shows current queue statistics

Mail Filtering - Part II

I recently switched from Yahoo Mail to Gmail because of Yahoo's faulty mail filter. (See blog)

Architecturally, have you noticed any difference between Gmail and other mail servers?

Gmail does not have a Folder concept. It uses the Label concept. All emails, when filtered, are applied with a label. After filtering, they are still sent to the same INBOX.

Gmail's filtering is to attach a label to an email. After labeling, this email will "disappear" from the INBOX and "appear" when the label is clicked.

Ok, no big deal, I thought. So I went ahead to create my 1st filter.

I tried "Skip Inbox" so that this email will not appear in my INBOX. Then I applied "ADV" label. Simple!

After the filter was created, I could still receive emails from the above From-address in my BlackBerry. Strange.

I created my 2nd filter.

I tried "Skip Inbox" so that this email will not appear in my INBOX. Then I applied "ADV" label. Same as what I have previously done. But, in addition, I clicked on "Mark as read".

This does the trick! Emails that are read will not be pushed to BlackBerry or any PushMail handsets.

However, is this method good?

Personally, no. When I go back to my Gmail via a browser, I would still want to read those filtered emails. Ideally, their status should be unread so that I know I have not read them yet.

But with Gmail, this is not possible. Luckily, I do not use Gmail for business.

Mail Filtering

If you have a BlackBerry like me or any PushMail enabled phone, it's annoying to receive unimportant or non-targeted emails. It will be ideal to receive only qualified emails.

The way to achieve that is to configure Mail Filter. (See diagram below)

From my experience, I also find that the sequence when Mail Filter kicks in is also important. The most effective method is to filter emails before they reach the INBOX.

This will ensure that only important emails are being push to your BlackBerry or any PushMail enabled handsets.

Mail Journaling Solution - Part V

I think Mail Journaling and Mail Archiving can be used interchangeably.

My colleague lead me to another SAAS Mail Archiving Provider - LiveOffice.

This is a Cloud-based solution. However, it does take data security seriously. See here.

Again, it promises Flat Monthly Rate per user, regardless of storage amount or retention period, like Sonian which I mentioned in my earlier post.

Sun vs Microsoft - Messaging Solution

I do not know why customers always like to compare with Microsoft Exchange when they are evaluating Sun Java Messaging Server. I think it has become a norm these days.

From my experience, those looking for a Microsoft solution will never go for a Sun solution. Their selection criteria are almost different. Their user base is also drastically far-apart.

Maybe they only want to get a "shiok" feeling that what they are buying is value-for-$.

Anyway, I was reading Sun Java Communications Suite Total Cost of Ownership, 2005 from The Radicati Group, Inc.

Source here.

Have you notice the figures for "Average # of Servers" and "Average Maximum Users/Server"?

Amazing! I wonder how do Microsoft Exchange 2007 and 2010 fare? Should be better by now.

Legend: FT = Full-time; PT = Part-time

Mail Journaling Solution - Part IV

There is this hosted email archival solution from Sonian.



Sonian claims it is the first hosted archive solution created with grid computing infrastructure technologies. The backend is supported by Amazon Web Services.

What interests me is the following 2 promises Sonian makes:

• Unlimited Storage
• All Data Searchable at All Times

That's a big promise. :) I'm very curious what's the cost per mailbox.

MailArchiva integration with Sun Java Messaging Server

I mentioned in my 1st post on Mail Journaling that MailArchiva looks interesting and I'm very keen to make it integrate with Sun Java Messaging Server.

So here we go:

Background Information

1. Sun Java Messaging Server 7.0 running on 192.168.0.60

2. MailArchiva Server running on 192.168.0.133

3. Archive all emails for domain abc.com.sg

Step-by-Step

1. Go to Listeners tab.

• a. Change "Exchange/SMTP Port" to 25
• b. Add IP Address 192.168.0.60 to "Restrict Incoming Connections" (more secured)
• c. Click Save

2. Restart MailArchiva server

3. Create a host entry in /etc/hosts on the Sun Messaging Server.

#

# Internet host table

#

127.0.0.1 localhost

# ::1 localhost

192.168.0.60 mail.openmail.sg openmail loghost

192.168.0.133 mailarchiva.sg mailarchiva

4. In the config directory in Sun Messaging Server, create a filter/sieve file "capture.sieve".

require ["envelope"];

if anyof (envelope :matches "from" "*@abc.com.sg",

envelope :matches "to" "*@abc.com.sg")

{

capture :message "archive@mailarchiva.sg";

}

5. In the config directory in Sun Messaging Server, edit the imta.cnf file.

• Append sourcefilter file:IMTA_TABLE:capture.sieve to the appropriate channel. e.g. tcp_local, tcp_auth, tcp_intranet

6. Rebuild the configuration file and restart the dispatcher.

7. In the messaging log mail.log_current, you should see something like the following:

04-Nov-2009 0:33:31.11 tcp_auth tcp_local EEA 51 maggie@abc.com.sg rfc822;esther@google.sg esther@google.sg *Maggie@abc.com.sg

04-Nov-2009 0:33:31.13 tcp_auth reprocess EEA 51 maggie@abc.com.sg rfc822;esther@google.sg archive@mailarchiva.sg *Maggie@abc.com.sg

Done. Simple!

Mail Journaling Solution - Part III

I re-looked at the architecture of MailStore Proxy again... Hmm... something missing...



I do not think we can capture mails coming in and going out from WebMail. Can we?

Mail Journaling Solution - Part II

After my post on Mail Journaling Solution, I continue to search for more solution.


My objective is simple:

1. It has to be simple architecturally;
2. It has to be value-for-money;
3. Investment should be progressive, rather than huge up-front

It's in my character to think in the shoes of my customers when I introduce a product to them. That explains why I do not like to pay too much up-front, even though the money does not belong to me. Yes, revenue-wise it would be good for the company. However, I think I need to take a higher priority on my customers' interest.

When they grow big or even bigger, they'll always come back for us. So why worry about no recurring business?



Today, I found another interesting product from deepinvent Software GmbH - MailStore Server.





This product works very well with Microsoft Exchange. It is ideal for small companies. Actually it should work well for larger setup if the architecture is deployed correctly, my opinion.


So how about Sun Java Messaging Server?

MailStore Server comes with another component called MailStore Proxy. It can be deployed in front of the Sun Messaging Server.




The only change is to simply point your email client to this Proxy. All in-coming and out-going emails will now flow through the Proxy, thus achieving mail journaling objective.

Customer can choose to deploy this in-house if they like.

The pro-and-cons are discussed here.

Sun Java Indexing and Search Service

The latest release of Sun Java Communications Suite 7 comes with a very exciting component called "Sun Java Indexing and Search Service" (ISS).

However, in reality, it is pretty challenging to sell. Imagine the additional boxes required.

Software Requirement

* Communications Suite: Messaging Server, Indexing and Search Service, and Java Message Queue
* Application server web container for Indexing and Search Service: GlassFish
* LDAP server: Directory Server
* (Optional): Apache HTTP Server version 2, for multi-host deployments (used as web container for ISS back ends)

For High-Availability deployment, it's harder to sell Communications Suite 7 with ISS.

* Java Message Queue in clustered mode via Sun Cluster

* Glassfish in clustered mode via Glassfish Cluster

* Directory Server in Multi-Master Replication mode

* Apache in clustered mode via Heartbeat

* Not forgetting load-balancer with VLAN support to load-balance the various clustered components

Wow!

Edge Deployment

As the workforce becomes more and more mobile these days, an Edge Architecture is highly recommended.

What is an Edge Architecture?

A two-tiered architecture that provides for secure connections over the Internet

I do not know who first came out with this term "Edge", but one will find this term more commonly used in Microsoft Exchange context.

The role of the Exchange Server 2007 Edge Transport Server is to be an SMTP Gateway for incoming and outgoing E-Mail messages

Below is how Sun Microsystems deploy their internal Edge Architecture.

FE-net: Front-End Network (Edge Network)
BE-net: Back-End Network






Basically, there is a firewall in front of FE-net and there is another firewall between FE-net and BE-net. Pretty straight-forward.


PS: I'hv been asked many times what are the recommended hardware.

As a general guideline, for a small setup with less than 5,000 users, T1000 for FE components and T2000 for BE components. (Of course, these 2 models are EOL. Find equivalent will do)

For larger deployment, I do see T2000 for FE components and V490 for BE components.



Sun internally uses the following configuration:

On-Demand Password Syncronization

There is another feature that I like from Sun Java System Identity Synchronization for Windows 6.0.


On-Demand Password Sync

The on-demand password synchronization process is as follows:

1. The user presses Ctrl-Alt-Del on a machine running Windows and changes his or her password. The new passwords are stored in Active Directory.

2. The Active Directory Connector polls the system at scheduled intervals.When the Connector detects the password change, the Connector publishes a message on Message Queue about the password change.

3. The Directory Server Connector receives the password change message from Message Queue (over SSL).

4. The Directory Server Connector sets the user entry’s dspswvalidate attribute to true, which invalidates the old password and alerts the Directory Server Plug-in of the password change.

5. When the user tries to log in, using an LDAP application (such as Portal Server) to authenticate against the Directory Server, the Sun Java System Directory Server Plug-in detects that the password value in the Directory Server entry is invalid.

6. The Directory Server Plug-in searches for the corresponding user in Active Directory. When the Plug-in finds the user, the Plug-in tries to bind to Active Directory using the password provided when the user tried logging in to Directory Server.

7. If the bind against Active Directory succeeds, the Directory Server Plug-in sets the password and removes the invalid password flag from the user entry on Directory Server allowing the user to log in.

Note – If user authentication fails, the user entry password remains in Directory Server and the passwords on Directory Server and Active Directory are not the same until the user logs in with a valid password, one that authenticates to Active Directory.


This is really cool!

How to Determine Last Access Time

I have been asked a number of times - "How do we monitor usage pattern and especially determine the last time a user has logged into Sun Messaging Server?"

"imsconnutil" is your friend!

See here for detailed usage.

Mail Journaling Solution

There have been requests recently for Mail Journaling Solution to integrate with Sun Java Messaging Server.

Sun used to work closely with AXS-One for a very short period of time. I attended the workshop when it was offered for Partners and Sun Professional Service.

However, honestly speaking, the price for AXS-One is far too expensive. Mid-size companies might also find the price too high for their likings, unless there is a very strong compliance reason for them to adopt. Otherwise, most will give it a miss.

What are the options left?

If you do not mind your archived data be hosted in the Cloud, you can easily subscribe to Google Postini Email Archiving Service.

I found another Email Archiving & Compliance product (MailArchiva) yesterday when I was scoping for a tender in Bangladesh.

This is a open-source product. The good thing about it is the data is always with you.

From a technical point of view, I like it for its support for many variance of Messaging Products. Notice that Sun Java Messaging Server is not mentioned. But I'll be giving it a test with our own production Sun Java Messaging Server.

Synchronica vs NotifyLink

Sun Mobile Communications Server is an OEM from Synchronica.

Sun Java Mobile Communications enables over-the-air (OTA) synchronization support for multiple mobile devices with calendar and contact data stored on Sun Java Communications Suite servers.

There is another similar product that works seamlessly with Sun Java Communications Suite.

Which is better? I was asked twice yesterday.

My comment is:

1. NotifyLink is more expensive, but it can support more mobile devices.

2. Synchronica can only support SyncML clients, Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices. If you are using Blackberry, I'm sorry.

Migrating from Microsoft Exchange to Sun Communications Suite

It has been a challenging week for me so far. There are requests to migrate users from Microsoft Exchange platform to Sun Communications Suite. One from Vietnam for a 10,000 user base; another in Philippines for a 3,000 user base.

The main talking points are always:

1. How compatible is Sun Communications Suite?

2. How to migrate Exchange information to Sun Communications Suite?

Sun Enterprise Messaging Reference Architecture

To promote understanding of the Sun Java System Communications Services architecture, Sun created the Sun Enterprise Messaging Reference Architecture (SEMRA), which simulates a corporate Microsoft Exchange site consisting of 5,000 users. This reference architecture proved the concept that migration from Microsoft Exchange to a new Java Enterprise System target deployment works from a functional point of view.

In this architecture:

Tier 0 contains the load balancer (software or switch).
Tier 1 acts as the front end that provides access to the messaging applications.
Tier 2 forms the layer where the messaging data is handled by the applications.

Compatibility is easy to comply; Migration is more challenging. Luckily, Sun has a tool called SGMT (Sun Groupware Migration Toolkit).

I'll cover more on SGMT later. For now, you can read from here.

UWC missing in Sun Java Communications Suite 7

Sun Java Communications Suite 7 has been released since Sep 29th, 2009. Since I'm free today, I decided to read the Release Notes.





What caught my attention is UWC (Communications Express 6.3) has been deprecated!

Going forward, no new features will be added to the Communications Express user interface. It has been deprecated in favor of Sun Convergence. Communications Express will be removed from the product in a future release.

No patches will be issued for Communications Express versions prior to 6.3.

If you need to install Communications Express 6.3, use the Communications Suite 6 Update 2 media to get the software.

Read here.


This is mad. There is definitely a larger deployment of UWC than Sun Convergence. At least from my own experience on the ground.

Many corporate customers are comfortable enough with UWC. ISPs, of course, want Sun Convergence (OK, it's slicker) to gain market shares.



PS: Btw, there is still a customer of mine sticking with Messaging Express (ME). Ha!


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