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updated: 6/17/98

 

 

 

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AppleShare IP Mail Tool

 

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Tool Purpose

The AppleShare IP Mail Tool is an unsupported utility that allows administrators to manage the AppleShare IP Mail Server database. While this database requires no management or intervention by users under normal circumstances, it is possible for the database to become corrupted after a system crash.

The AppleShare IP Mail Tool also allows reassignment of mail messages for disabled mailboxes, and can be used to update and compress existing databases.

Tool Requirements

The AppleShare IP Mail Tool cannot read ASIP 5.0 mail databases, but it can read and update 5.0.x databases. If you are still running ASIP 5.0, obtain the Appleshare IP 5 Mail tool (from the Apple Software Updates web site), and use it to convert your database to a 5.0.x database. After it has been converted, it can then be used with ASIP 6.0 IP Mail Tool.

Tool Features

Mail Database Updating

Users of the AppleShare IP 5.0.x Mail Server must use AppleShare IP Mail Tool to update the database format if they do not wish to force all of their users to download their mail.

Mail Database Compression and Repairs

The AppleShare IP Mail Tool offers the ability to compress, scavenge and/or repair an AppleShare IP Mail Database. Database corruption can occur for a variety of reasons that include (but are not limited to) power failure, hardware failure, and system crashes. In addition to being a database repair tool it is also sometimes useful to run the tool on non-corrupt mail databases since it removes unused free space inside the original mail database, greatly compressing the size of a mail database which may have grown over time.

Disabled Mailbox Reassignment

The mail server uses a special "fingerprint" to ensure that a user's mailbox in the mail database matches the correct user record in the current AppleShare IP Users & Groups Data File. The fingerprint is a unique number that is stored in both the user's record and the user's mailbox in the AppleShare IP Mail database. The mail server checks for fingerprint mismatches each time it starts up. When it finds a mailbox in the AppleShare IP Mail database whose fingerprint does not match the fingerprint of a user in the currently active Users & Groups Data File, the server disables that mailbox. No mail is deleted from the disabled mailbox, however, the mailbox in inaccessible to a user trying to login under that account.

To retrieve mail from a disabled mailbox, use the AppleShare IP Mail Tool to assign the disabled mailbox to a valid user in the AppleShare IP Users & Groups Data File.

You can prevent mailbox mismatch problems by taking these precautions:

  • Treat the Users & Groups Data File and the AppleShare IP Mail Database as a set. Always back up and restore them together. If you were to restore the AppleShare IP Users & Groups Data File without also restoring the mail database, the mail server could disable mailboxes that have no matching users in the current Users & Groups Data File. If you must restore the Users & Groups Data File, make sure that all current users have retrieved their mail first (if possible). Then restore the Users & Groups Data File and the mail database from the same backup.

    Alternatively, you can restore the Users & Groups Data File, start the mail server, note the mailboxes that are disabled, and use the AppleShare IP Mail Tool to assign the disabled mailboxes to valid users.

  • If you move the AppleShare IP mail database to another computer, move the AppleShare IP Users & Groups Data File also. If you were to move the AppleShare IP mail database to another computer without moving the Users & Groups Data File, the mail server would disable most if not all mailboxes and create new, empty mailboxes for all users in the Users & Groups Data File for whom mail is enabled.

    Note that moving the Users & Groups Data File to another computer that is running the Web & File Server will cause any access privileges that have been assigned on that computer to be lost because the access privileges no longer match the Users & Group Data File. See How Privileges are Stored for details on this.

  • When you delete users for whom mail is enabled, make sure the AppleShare IP Mail Server is running. If the mail server is not running when you delete users for whom mail is enabled, the next time the mail server starts up, it will report that each deleted users' mailbox does not have a matching entry and it will disable their mailboxes.

It is always safe to throw away a mail database that is empty (as indicated by a zero in the "Number of Messages" field in the Mail Server Activity window). When you restart the mail server, it will create a mailbox for each user in the AppleShare IP Users & Groups Data File for which the Enable Mail radio button is selected.


Frequently-Asked Questions

Question: Can I use the AppleShare IP Mail Tool to backup an existing AppleShare IP Mail Database?

    Answer: Yes, there should be no problem using the AppleShare IP Mail Tool to backup an AppleShare IP Mail Database. That is not really the tool's purpose and therefore we recommend that you use your normal backup software to perform regular backups.

 

Question: Can I run the AppleShare IP Mail Tool while the Mail Server is running?

    Answer: No. The Mail Server must be shut down for the AppleShare IP Mail Tool to function.

 

Question: I've noticed in the AppleShare IP Reassignment screen that some entries in the User's list are in italics, and I can't click on these users. Why is that?

    Answer: The AppleShare IP Mail Tool only allows the selection of users that have no mail in their accounts, or are not enabled for Mail. Users who are enabled for mail and have more than zero messages in the Mail boxes can not be the target for reassignment. These users are shown in italics in the list to indicate their non-selectable status.

 

Question: Do I have to reassign all the disabled mailboxes in an AppleShare IP Mail Database?

    Answer: No. The AppleShare IP Mail Tool supports the direct deletion of disabled mailboxes. This feature is useful for clearing out the mail of a user who's account record has been deleted from the Users & Groups Data File.

 

Question: Can I run the AppleShare IP Mail Tool on a machine other than the server it is normally used on?

    Answer: Yes, but it is not recommended. While the AppleShare IP Mail Tool is reassigning accounts, or updating/scavenging/repairing an Mail Database it uses and updates user-mail information present in the Users & Groups Data File on the server. It is best if you use the tool on the Mail Server itself.

 

Question: After running the AppleShare IP Mail Tool I've noticed that the resulting mail database file is much smaller than the original file. Does this mean I have lost mail?

    Answer: No. In the normal day-to-day use of the mail server it can occasionally grow the mail database file to a large size to accommodate large messages and/or a large number of smaller messages. Over time this space is released and the mail server then reuses space inside the file. When running the AppleShare IP Mail Tool a new copy of all the information present in the original file is created. Many times the space requirements of this information are far less than the maximum file size represented by the old database.

 

Question: After running the tool, some of my users received duplicates of some messages that they had already downloaded and deleted. Is this expected?

    Answer: Yes. Depending on when, where, and how bad the damage is to an AppleShare IP Mail Database it is sometimes difficult for the tool to determine if the message was actually deleted by the user. In cases like this the tool errors on the side of caution and will post a copy of a message with an ambiguous deletion state. This can lead to message duplicates for mail that users have already received. We apologize for these messages, but felt that option was better than risking the loss of mail that wasn't actually deleted.