This section provides the information you need in order to decide when, where, and how to create a new post office. The New Post Office Summary Sheet lists all the information you need as you set up your post office. The items in the summary sheet are listed in the order you enter them when setting up your post office. This planning section does not follow the same order as the summary sheet, but all summary sheet items are covered. You should print the summary sheet and fill it out as you complete the tasks listed below.
Section 11.2.2, Selecting the Domain That the Post Office Belongs To
Section 11.2.3, Determining the Context for the Post Office Object
Section 11.2.5, Deciding Where to Create the Post Office Directory
Section 11.2.6, Deciding Where to Install the Agent Software
Section 11.2.10, Selecting a Software Distribution Directory
Section 11.2.12, Deciding if You Want to Create a Library for the New Post Office
After you have completed the tasks and filled out the New Post Office Summary Sheet, you are ready to continue with Section 11.3, Setting Up the New Post Office.
After you have your basic GroupWise system up and running, you can expand it to accommodate additional users. How do you know when you should add a post office? The answer to this depends on your company organization, the number of users on your network, and the physical limitations of your network servers.
Physical Organization: If your network spans several sites, you might want to create post offices (if not domains) at each physical location. This reduces the demands on long distance network links.
Logical Organization: Processing messages within a post office is faster and typically generates less network traffic than messages traveling between different post offices. As you expand GroupWise, you might find it useful to add post offices in order to group users who frequently send mail to each other.
Grouping users into post offices, based upon company organization or job function, makes administrative tasks, such as creating distribution lists, limiting Address Book visibility, and distributing shared folders, easier. For example, some employees might work in corporate functions like accounting and human resources. Other employees might be involved in sales and marketing and frequently attend meetings together, requiring frequent busy searches. Some areas, for example the production floor, might not need a workstation or user account for each individual.
Number of Users: A GroupWise post office can support more than 10,000 users. However, the number of users that a single post office can support effectively is influenced by many factors, including:
User activity level
A post office where most users send and receive a large number of messages would support fewer users effectively than would a post office where users send messages only occasionally.
User access methods
A post office where most users use the Windows client in Online mode would support fewer users effectively than would a post office where most users use Caching mode.
Users who synchronize their mobile devices with their GroupWise mailboxes also increase the load on the post office.
Server disk speed/throughput
The POA’s activities are very disk intensive. A post office on a very high-speed server or SAN can support more users effectively than a post office on slower hardware.
Number of post offices on a single server
Having only one post office on a server is highly recommended. If hardware constraints require multiple post offices on a single server, each post office would effectively support fewer users than if the post office was located on its own server.
Number of users affected by a down server or POA
If a problem occurs with a server or POA, fewer users are affected when the post office is smaller.
Maintenance time requirements
The time required to perform post office and mailbox maintenance activities including backups can become excessive for a very large post office.
Room for growth
The ideal size for a new post office allows room to grow while maintaining optimal performance.
Demand on the POA: The POA is a very flexible component of your GroupWise system. Many aspects of its functioning are configurable, to meet the particular needs of the post office it services, no matter what the size. See Section 36.0, Configuring the POA and Section 38.0, Optimizing the POA.
In addition, you can choose to run multiple POAs for the same post office, in order to specialize its functioning, as described in:
Section 38.1.3, Configuring a Dedicated Client/Server POA (Windows Only)
Section 38.2.2, Configuring a Dedicated Message File Processing POA (Windows Only)
Section 39.5, Configuring a Dedicated Indexing POA (Windows Only)
Section 38.4.2, Configuring a Dedicated Database Maintenance POA (Windows Only)
As a result, the choice is up to you whether you prefer a single, large post office, perhaps with multiple POAs, or multiple smaller post offices, each with its own POA. For additional guidance with determining post office size, visit the GroupWise Best Practices Wiki.
A post office is associated with a specific domain, even though it might reside in a different organizational unit in the eDirectory tree. If you have just one domain, the new post office will belong to it. If you want to create a new domain as well as a new post office, see Section 8.0, Creating a New Domain.
Domains function as the main administration units for the GroupWise system. Post office information is stored in the domain database, as well as in the post office database. Changes are distributed to each post office database from the domain.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the GroupWise domain that the new post office will belong to. |
The eDirectory context of the Post Office object determines how you administer the post office. The post office can be created in any Organization or Organizational Unit container in any context as long as it is in the same tree as the domain. The same principles apply to placing Post Office objects in the eDirectory tree as apply for Domain objects. Review Section 8.2.4, Determining the Context for the Domain Object to help you plan the context for the Post Office object.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the name of the eDirectory tree of the domain that will own the new post office. Under , specify the name of the eDirectory container where you want to create the new post office. |
The post office must be given a unique name. The name is used for addressing and routing purposes within GroupWise, and might appear in the GroupWise Address Book.
The post office name can reflect a location, organization, department, and so on. For example, you might want the domain name to be the location (for example, Provo) while the post office name is one of the company’s departments (for example, Research). Name the new post office carefully. After it is created, the name cannot be changed.
The post office name should consist of a single string. Use underscores (_) rather than spaces as separators between words to facilitate addressing across the Internet.
Do not use any of the following invalid characters in the post office name:
|
ASCII characters 0-31 |
Comma , |
|
Asterisk * |
Double quote " |
|
At sign @ |
Extended ASCII characters that are graphical or typographical symbols; accented characters in the extended range can be used |
|
Backslash \ |
Parentheses ( ) |
|
Braces { } |
Period . |
|
Colon : |
Slash / |
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the post office name. Under , provide a description for the post office to help you identify its function in the system. |
Logically, the Post Office object resides in eDirectory and is administered through ConsoleOne. Physically, the post office has a directory structure for databases, message queues, and other files. The post office directory structure can be created on any of the supported platforms listed in GroupWise Administration Requirements
in the GroupWise 2012 Installation Guide. The server where you create the post office directory structure can be in the same tree as the Post Office object or in another tree.
When you are planning the post office directory location and which users will belong to the post office, consider the following:
Post Office Directory Space Requirements: The post office directory can be a large consumer of disk space. The amount of disk space required is influenced by many factors, including:
Number of users in the post office
Activity level of users
Number and typical size of attachments
Online mode vs. Caching mode for Windows client users
Archive and deletion policies
Libraries and document storage
For guidance on post office directory space requirements, visit the GroupWise Best Practices Wiki.
For details about managing post office disk space, see Section 12.3, Managing Disk Space Usage in the Post Office.
Access by the POA: For best performance, the POA should be installed on the same server as the post office directory. This is required on Linux. Remote installation is possible on Windows, but not recommended.
Security from User Access: Users typically access their mailboxes through a TCP/IP connection to the POA. Therefore, users do not need access to the post office directory. You should create it in a location you can easily secure; otherwise, you could have files inadvertently moved or deleted.
Choose an empty directory for the new post office. If you want, the directory can reflect the name of the post office, for example research for the Research post office. Use the following platform-specific conventions:
|
Linux: |
Use only lowercase characters. |
|
Windows: |
No limitations. |
Choose the name and path carefully. After the post office directory is created, it is difficult to rename it. If the directory you specify does not exist, it is created when you create the post office. If you create the directory in advance, it is easy to browse to it as you create the post office.
IMPORTANT:Do not create the post office directory under domain directory or another post office directory.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the full path for the post office directory. |
You must run a new instance of the POA for each new post office. To review the functions of the POA for the post office, see Section 35.5, Role of the Post Office Agent. For complete POA installation instructions and system requirements, see Installing GroupWise Agents
in the GroupWise 2012 Installation Guide.
You can install the POA on Linux or Windows. You should install it on the same server where you plan to create the post office directory structure.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the platform where the POA will run (Linux or Windows). |
When you create a new post office, you have the opportunity to choose the type of link to use between the new post office and its domain. For a review of link types, see Section 10.1.2, Domain-to-Post-Office Links.
When you create the new post, you link it to its domain. By default, this link is a direct link using TCP/IP as the link protocol, which means the new post office’s POA communicates with the domain’s MTA through TCP/IP. This is the recommended configuration, and is required on Linux.
On Windows, you can configure the direct link to use a UNC path or a mapped drive as the link protocol, which means the new post office’s POA transfers information to and from the existing domain by accessing the existing domain’s directory, rather than by communicating with the other domain’s MTA.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , indicate the type of link you plan to set up between the new post office and its domain. |
The post office language determines the sort order for items in the GroupWise Address Book.
The post office defaults to the same language as its domain unless you specify otherwise. For example, if you set the domain and post office language to English-US, the Address Book items are sorted according to English-US sort order rules. This is true even if some users in the post office are running non-English GroupWise clients such as German or Japanese. Their client interface and Help files are in German or Japanese, but the Address Book sort order is according to English-US standards. Time, date, and number formats for the non-English clients defaults to the workstation language.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the post office language. |
When a message is sent from a user in one time zone to a user in another time zone, GroupWise adjusts the message’s time so that it is correct for the recipient’s time zone. For example, if a user in New York (GMT -05:00, Eastern Time) schedules a user in Los Angeles (GMT -08:00, Pacific Time) for a conference call at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the appointment is scheduled in the Los Angeles user’s calendar at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time.
The post office defaults to the same time zone as its domain unless you specify otherwise.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the time zone for the new post office. |
An initial software distribution directory was created when your GroupWise system was first set up, as described in GroupWise Software Distribution Directory
in Installing a Basic GroupWise System
in the GroupWise 2012 Installation Guide.
The software distribution directory contains files that users need in order to set up the GroupWise Windows client on their workstations. Additional software distribution directories might have been created since that time to accommodate users in various locations, as described in Section 4.9, Software Directory Management.
You can select the most convenient software distribution directory for the new post office.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , specify the name of the software distribution directory from which users in the new post office will install the GroupWise client software on their Windows workstations. |
Post office security settings affect two types of GroupWise users:
Users who do not have personal GroupWise passwords set on their mailboxes
Users who use LDAP passwords (that is, passwords required to log in to the network through an LDAP server) instead of personal GroupWise passwords to access their mailboxes
After a user sets a personal GroupWise password on his or her mailbox, the post office security level no longer applies. The user is always prompted for the GroupWise password unless the administrator has set certain client options in ConsoleOne to prevent the password prompt, as described in Section 82.1.3, Managing GroupWise Passwords.
In the absence of personal GroupWise passwords on user mailboxes, the post office security level takes effect. By default, a new post office is created with High Security, which provides protection to GroupWise mailboxes through types of authentication other than personal GroupWise passwords. In a High Security post office, you can choose between eDirectory authentication and LDAP authentication:
eDirectory Authentication: If you use eDirectory authentication for a post office, users must be logged in to the network through eDirectory in order to access their GroupWise mailboxes.
LDAP Authentication: If you use LDAP authentication for a post office, users must successfully authenticate to an LDAP server, such as for network login, in order to access their GroupWise mailboxes.
For more information, see Section 36.3, Configuring Post Office Security and Section 82.1, Mailbox Passwords.
IMPORTANT:In a Low Security post office, mailboxes are completely unprotected. Without a personal GroupWise password, any user’s mailbox could be accessed by another user who knows how to use the @u-userID startup switch. This security level is not recommended.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , mark the security level for the post office. If you choose High Security, indicate the type of authentication you plan to use. |
If you anticipate that users on this post office will require document management services, you can create a library at the same time you create the post office. The library is created with all of the default library options including Store Documents at Post Office. Using a document storage area is preferable to storing documents at the post office because a document storage area can be moved. You should appropriately configure the library immediately after it is created, before users begin to store documents there.
|
NEW POST OFFICE SUMMARY SHEET |
|---|
|
Under , indicate whether or not you want to immediately create a library for the new post office. You can always add a library to the post office at a later time. |
If you decide to create a library for the post office, see Section VII, Libraries and Documents for instructions on configuring the library.