Novell GROUPWISE 8 - POST OFFICES User manual

Post Offices
III
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III
Post Offices
Chapter 11, “Creating a New Post Office,” on page 163
Chapter 12, “Managing Post Offices,” on page 183

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Creating a New Post Office
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11
Creating a New Post Office
As your GroupWise®system grows, you typically need to add new post offices.
Section 11.1, “Understanding the Purpose of Post Offices,” on page 163
Section 11.2, “Planning a New Post Office,” on page 164
Section 11.3, “Setting Up the New Post Office,” on page 175
Section 11.4, “What’s Next,” on page 179
Section 11.5, “Post Office Worksheet,” on page 179
IMPORTANT: If you are creating a new post office in a clustered GroupWise system, see the
GroupWise 8 Interoperability Guide before you create the post office:
11.1 Understanding the Purpose of Post Offices
The post office serves as an administrative unit for a group of users and is used for addressing
messages. Each GroupWise user has an address that consists of a user ID, the user’s post office
name, the GroupWise domain name, and, optionally, an Internet domain name.
The following diagram illustrates the logical organization of a GroupWise domain with multiple
post offices. The two post offices belong to the domain. All of the objects under each post office
belong to that post office.
Figure 11-1 GroupWise Domain with Multiple Post Offices
As illustrated above, each post office must have at least one Post Office Agent (POA) running for it.
The POA delivers messages to users’ mailboxes and performs a variety of post office and mailbox
maintenance activities.
When you add a new post office, you must link it to a domain. The link defines how messages travel
between the post office and its domain. Links are discussed in detail in Chapter 10, “Managing the
Links between Domains and Post Offices,” on page 145.
GroupWise
Distribution
Lists
Domain Message
Transfer
Agent
Post Office
GroupWise
Users
Post Office
Post
Office
Agent
Post
Office
Agent
GroupWise
Resources
GroupWise
Distribution
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GroupWise
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GroupWise
Resources
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Physically, a post office consists of a set of directories that house all the information stored in the
post office. To view the structure of the post office directory, see “Post Office Directory” in
GroupWise 8 Troubleshooting 3: Message Flow and Directory Structure. The post office directory
contains user mailboxes and messages, as well as other vital information. For an overview, see
Section 35.3, “Information Stored in the Post Office,” on page 476.
11.2 Planning a New Post Office
This section provides the information you need in order to decide when, where, and how to create a
new post office. The “Post Office Worksheet” on page 179 lists all the information you need as you
set up your post office. You should print the worksheet and fill it out as you complete the tasks listed
below.
Section 11.2.1, “Determining When to Add a Post Office,” on page 164
Section 11.2.2, “Selecting the Domain That the Post Office Will Belong To,” on page 165
Section 11.2.3, “Determining the Context for the Post Office Object,” on page 166
Section 11.2.4, “Choosing the Post Office Name,” on page 168
Section 11.2.5, “Deciding Where to Create the Post Office Directory,” on page 168
Section 11.2.6, “Deciding Where to Install the Agent Software,” on page 170
Section 11.2.7, “Deciding How to Link the New Post Office,” on page 172
Section 11.2.8, “Selecting the Post Office Language,” on page 173
Section 11.2.9, “Selecting the Post Office Time Zone,” on page 173
Section 11.2.10, “Selecting a Software Distribution Directory,” on page 173
Section 11.2.11, “Selecting a Post Office Security Level,” on page 174
Section 11.2.12, “Deciding if You Want to Create a Library for the New Post Office,” on
page 174
After you have completed the tasks and filled out the “Post Office Worksheet” on page 179, you are
ready to continue with Section 11.3, “Setting Up the New Post Office,” on page 175.
11.2.1 Determining When to Add a Post Office
After you have your basic GroupWise system up and running, you might need to expand it. 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” on page 164
“Logical Organization” on page 165
“Number of Users” on page 165
“Demand on the POA” on page 165
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.

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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
Although a GroupWise post office can support more than 10,000 users, you should consider adding
a post office when an existing post office has more than about 1000 to 2500 users and you expect it
to keep growing. There are several reasons for this:
It minimizes the impact if you have a problem with a server.
It keeps the time required to perform post office and mailbox maintenance activities including
backups from becoming excessive.
It allows room to grow while maintaining best performance.
Therefore, a good post office size is about 1000 to 2500 users and include all of the resources (such
as equipment, company cars, and conference rooms) and distribution lists they might need.
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.
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,” on page 564
Section 38.2.2, “Configuring a Dedicated Message File Processing POA,” on page 567
Section 38.3.3, “Configuring a Dedicated Indexing POA,” on page 571
Section 38.4.2, “Configuring a Dedicated Database Maintenance POA,” on page 576
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.
11.2.2 Selecting the Domain That the Post Office Will Belong To
A post office is associated with a specific domain, even though it might reside in a different
organizational unit in the Novell®eDirectoryTM 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
Chapter 8, “Creating a New Domain,” on page 119.

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In a multiple post office system, the domain organizes post offices into a logical grouping for
addressing and routing purposes. Each user in the domain has a GroupWise address that consists of
the user’s GroupWise ID, the post office name, the GroupWise domain name, and optionally, an
Internet domain name.
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.
The items in the worksheet 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 worksheet, but all worksheet items are
covered.
11.2.3 Determining the Context for the Post Office Object
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 following diagrams provide some examples of how
post offices can be placed in the eDirectory tree:
“GroupWise Objects Reflect Physical Locations” on page 166
“GroupWise Objects Reflect Company Organization” on page 167
“GroupWise Objects Are Grouped with Servers” on page 167
“GroupWise Objects Are Located in a Separate GroupWise Container” on page 167
GroupWise Objects Reflect Physical Locations
The GroupWise system below focuses on the physical layout of the company. Because most mail
traffic is generated by users in the same location, the mail traffic across the WAN is minimized. An
organizational unit was created for each site. A domain and post office were created under each
organizational unit, corresponding to the city. The sites can be administered centrally or at each site.
Administrator rights can be assigned at the domain level.
Figure 11-2 A GroupWise System Following the Physical Layout of the Company
WORKSHEET
Under Item 3: GroupWise Domain, specify the GroupWise domain that the new post office will belong to.
WORKSHEET
Under Item 1: eDirectory Container, specify the name of the eDirectory container where you want to
create the new post office.

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GroupWise Objects Reflect Company Organization
The following GroupWise system focuses on departmental organization, as does the eDirectory tree.
GroupWise domains and post offices parallel eDirectory organizational units, placing the domains
and post offices within the organizational units containing the users that belong to them.
Figure 11-3 A GroupWise System Following the Departmental Organization of the Company
GroupWise Objects Are Grouped with Servers
Because domains and post offices have directory structures on network servers, you can also choose
to place the Domain and Post Office objects in the same context as the servers where the directories
reside, as shown in the following example.
Figure 11-4 A GroupWise System with the Domains and Post Offices Grouped with the Servers
GroupWise Objects Are Located in a Separate GroupWise Container
Domains and post offices can also be created in their own organizational unit. Administratively, this
approach makes it easier to restrict a GroupWise administrator’s object and property rights to
GroupWise objects only.

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Figure 11-5 GroupWise Objects Located in Their Own Organizational Unit
11.2.4 Choosing the Post Office Name
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:
11.2.5 Deciding Where to Create the Post Office Directory
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 8 Installation Guide. It can also be
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 :
WORKSHEET
Under Item 2: Post Office Name, specify the post office name.
Under Item 9: Post Office Description, provide a description for the post office to help you identify its
function in the system.

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located on any platform that a POA running on a supported platform could access successfully. 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.
Databases and directories in the post office are updated as messages are sent. Because the POA
typically makes these updates, we recommend that you place the post office directory on a server
that can be easily accessed by the POA and, depending on configuration, the MTA. Users typically
need a TCP/IP connection to the POA in order to access their mailboxes.
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: You need a minimum of 50 MB for each user.
Because the message store can require considerable disk space, we recommend you allow each
user at least 200 MB of storage space. You should also take into consideration the size of
attachments, and your archive and delete policies. If message attachments are large and you are
not planning to require users to archive or delete old messages, allow more storage. If you are
creating libraries you need even more storage, depending on the size and number of documents.
For details about managing post office disk space, see Section 12.3, “Managing Disk Space
Usage in the Post Office,” on page 190.
Network Access by the POA: The POA must have direct network access (mapped drive or
file system mount) to the post office directory so that it can write to user databases
(
userxxx.db ) and message databases ( msgnnn.db ). This issue is discussed in detail in
Section 11.2.6, “Deciding Where to Install the Agent Software,” on page 170.
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:
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. Do not
create the post office directory under another domain or post office directory.
NetWare: Use a maximum of 8 characters
Linux: Use only lowercase characters
Windows: No limitations.
WORKSHEET
Under Item 4: Post Office Database Location, specify the full path for the post office directory.

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11.2.6 Deciding Where to Install the Agent Software
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,” on page 481. For
complete POA installation instructions and system requirements, see “Installing GroupWise
Agents” in the GroupWise 8 Installation Guide.
When planning the installation of the POA, you need to consider how the new post office links to its
domain. For an overview of link configuration, see Chapter 10, “Managing the Links between
Domains and Post Offices,” on page 145.
The POA requires direct network access (mapped drive or file system mount) to the post office
directory so that it can write to user databases (userxxx.db) and message databases (msgnnn.db).
Consider the following alternatives when selecting a location for the POA:
“POA Access to the New Post Office: Local vs. Remote” on page 170
“MTA Access to the New Post Office: Mapped and UNC Links vs. TCP/IP Links” on page 171
“Cross-Platform Issues” on page 172
POA Access to the New Post Office: Local vs. Remote
Running the POA locally on the same server where the post office resides simplifies network
connections (no login is required), reduces network traffic, and protects database integrity. In the
following diagram, the agent software is installed on the same server where the domain and post
office reside.
Figure 11-6 Agent Software on the Same Server with the Domain and Post Office
Running the POA on a remote server allows you to place the heaviest processing load on your
highest performing server. In the following diagram, the agent software is installed on a different
server from where the domains and post offices reside.
Figure 11-7 Agent Software on a Different Server than the Domain and Post Office
WORKSHEET
Under Item 11: Agent Location, indicate whether you plan to run the POA on the same server where the
post office directory is located (recommended), or on a different server.
Under Item 12: Agent Platform, specify the platform where the POA will run (NetWare, Linux, or
Windows).
Acct-Dom
Acct-PO1
POA MTA
Dev-Dom
Dev-PO1
POA MTA
Dev-Dom
Dev-PO1
POA
MTA
Windows NetWare