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Planning
Use this topic as an overview of planning task.
Messaging overview
The IBM® Domino® mail system has three basic components: Domino mail servers, Domino mail files, and mail clients. The Domino mail server is the backbone of an organization's messaging infrastructure, acting both as an Internet mail server and an IBM Notes® mail server. Domino provides standards-based Internet messaging through its support of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). At the same time, Domino supports Notes mail through the use of Notes routing protocols -- Notes remote procedure calls (NRPC) -- and the Notes rich text message format.
How mail routes in a Domino® system
Mail message routing through the IBM® Domino® Domino environment is described.

Planning
Use this topic as an overview of planning task.
- Roadmap for deploying Domino® servers
  Use this as a tool when planning how to integrate IBM® Domino® into your existing environment.
- Planning server-to-server connections
  Servers must connect to each other to exchange data, for example to replicate databases and exchange mail. You can create connections between servers across a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), by using a pass-through server (a server that acts as an intermediary server between a client and its destination), or over the Internet. Create a Server Connection document whenever you need to establish any new or additional server connections. You can modify this document when necessary.
- Planning directory services
  IBM® Domino® provides a range of directory service features.
- Planning a mail routing topology
  IBM® Domino® offers you considerable flexibility in configuring your mail system infrastructure, allowing you to use IBM Notes® routing, SMTP routing, or both, for internal and external messages.
- Planning a cluster
  When planning a cluster, it is important to consider the performance and ability of your hardware. The cluster must have enough CPU power, memory, and disk space to handle the cluster traffic and the number of databases and replicas required.
- Planning the TCP/IP network
  The default TCP/IP configuration for an IBM® Domino® server is one IP address that is globally bound, meaning that the server listens for connections at the IP addresses of all NICs on the computer. Global binding works as long as the computer does not have more than one IP address offering a service over the same assigned TCP port.
- Planning the NetBIOS network
  The IBM® Domino® network is compatible with NetBIOS, a set of IBM session-layer LAN services that has evolved into a standard interface that applications use to access transport-layer network protocols.
- Messaging overview
  The IBM® Domino® mail system has three basic components: Domino mail servers, Domino mail files, and mail clients. The Domino mail server is the backbone of an organization's messaging infrastructure, acting both as an Internet mail server and an IBM Notes® mail server. Domino provides standards-based Internet messaging through its support of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME). At the same time, Domino supports Notes mail through the use of Notes routing protocols -- Notes remote procedure calls (NRPC) -- and the Notes rich text message format.
  - Requirements for a working mail system
    Consider these basics when planning your IBM® Domino® server-based mail topology.
  - Supported routing, format, and access protocols
    The IBM® Domino® server and IBM Notes® client support both Internet standards and Notes protocols for message routing, retrieval, and formatting. On the server, the Domino mail router (the router) can send and receive messages using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Notes Remote Procedure Calls (NRPC), or Notes routing. To enable users to retrieve mail, the server supports the Internet access protocols, IMAP and POP3, as well as NRPC.
  - The Domino® mail server and mail routing
    To process incoming and outgoing mail, IBM® Domino® mail servers run a variety of server tasks and maintain a number of special databases. Some components are required for all Domino messaging systems; others are needed to support specific configurations only.
  - How mail routes in a Domino® system
    Mail message routing through the IBM® Domino® Domino environment is described.
  - Domino® mail files
    When you create a user account through the IBM® Domino® registration process, Domino creates an IBM Notes® database (NSF file) to serve as the user's personal message store. Each mail file database is created from a mail file template on a Domino server. The server where the mail file resides is known as the user's home server or mail server. Users can access a Domino mail file from a Notes client, a Web browser, a POP3 client or an IMAP client or from multiple types of clients.
  - Mail clients
    Clients interact with mail files on the IBM® Domino® server in different ways. All clients can create, send, and receive mail. Some clients, such as Web browsers, can only interact with mail on the server and cannot store mail locally. Some clients, such as POP3 clients, can only download mail from the server and work with it locally. Some clients, such as IBM Notes®, IBM iNotes®, and IMAP clients, can download mail or work with it on the server and can store mail locally.
  - Mail security
    To provide secure message transfer among clients and servers, the IBM® Domino® mail server supports name and password authentication and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for SMTP mail routing, IMAP, and POP3 access, and supports Notes® encryption when routing mail over Notes routing.
  - Working with other mail systems in your organization
    IBM® Domino® interoperates with other mail servers and systems through its support of Internet standards and message transfer agents (MTAs), for example, Microsoft™ Exchange. Domino can exchange mail with other SMTP servers and route mail to and from Microsoft Exchange and other systems through the MTAs. Additional third-party tools are available to provide interoperability with and gateways to other mail systems.
  - Mail performance and monitoring
    IBM® Domino® offers performance-enhancing features.
  - The Domino® Directory and mail routing
    The Domino® Directory (names.nsf) is the most important database on a server. It defines the primary administrative unit in a Domino network, the Domino domain, which is a group of servers that have the same Domino Directory. The Domino Directory serves as the control center for the domain. Administrators use it to manage users and connect and configure servers and it contains almost all of the essential information required for routing mail.
  - Overview of routing mail using Notes® routing
    IBM® Domino® uses Notes® Remote Procedure Calls (NRPC) to transfer mail between servers. IBM Notes routing uses information in the Domino Directory to determine where to send mail addressed to a given user. Notes routing moves mail from the sender's mail server to the recipient's mail server.
  - Overview of routing mail using SMTP
    IBM® Domino® uses the IBM Notes® routing protocol to transfer mail between servers. You can configure Domino to use SMTP to route mail instead of or in addition to using Notes routing.
  - The Domain Name System (DNS) and SMTP mail routing
    The Domain Name System (DNS) is a directory used by SMTP to convert a name, such as renovations.com, to a list of servers that can receive connections for that name and to find the IP address of a specific server. By looking up a destination server's address in the DNS, the sending server can properly route a message to a recipient.
  - Examples of using multiple MX records
    You can use a single Internet domain with a single domain name or single Internet domain name with two balanced servers when using multiple mail exchanger records (MX records).
  - Converting TNEF file attachments to Notes® file attachments
    Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format (TNEF) is a Microsoft™ standard for tunneling rich data over the Internet to a recipient. Rich data includes Microsoft Rich Text Format (RTF) text, OLE objects, file attachments, and other application data such as Microsoft Outlook calendar data. Microsoft Outlook clients and Microsoft Exchange can be configured to format email for sending to recipients who use Microsoft Outlook. In such a configuration, Microsoft Outlook sends the RTF data as plain text and places all other objects into the TNEF stream, which is usually attached to the email as a file named winmail.dat.
  - Using shared mail
    If you previously used shared mail, consider configuring your Domino® site to use both the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) and both types of compression, instead of SCOS.
- Planning your Notes® client deployment
  Use the references listed here to plan for, install, upgrade to, and configure the IBM® Notes® client.
- Planning security
  An important aspect of planning security for your Domino® environment is understanding the tasks and features involved with securing each type of resource.

How mail routes in a Domino® system

Mail message routing through the IBM® Domino® Domino® environment is described.

These steps describe how mail routes in an IBM® Domino® mail system.

Using a mail client such as IBM® Notes®, a user creates and addresses a mail message to a recipient.
The user sends the message.
The user's mail client does one of the following:
- Uses Notes® protocols to deposit the message into the mail.box database on the user's Domino® mail server.
- Uses SMTP to send the message to the user's Domino® mail server, which must be running the SMTP listener task. The SMTP listener task deposits the message into mail.box (Notes® clients, IMAP clients, POP3 clients).
- Uses HTTP to send the message to the user's Domino® mail server, which must be running the HTTP task. The HTTP task deposits the message into mail.box (Web clients).
The mail router finds the message in mail.box and determines where to send the message for each recipient. The Router checks its routing table to calculate the next "hop" for the message on the path to its recipients and determines the appropriate protocol -- either SMTP or Notes® routing -- to transfer the message.
- Using SMTP routing, the Router connects to the destination server -- the recipient's mail server, a relay host, a smart host, or one of the servers in the recipient's Internet domain -- and transfers the message.
- Using Notes® routing, the Router moves the message to the mail.box database on the server that is the next hop in the path to the recipient's mail server. The Router on that server transfers the message to the next hop, until the message is deposited in the mail.box database on the recipient's home server.
The Router on the recipient's server finds the message (in mail.box on a Domino® server) and delivers it to the recipient's mail file.
Using a mail client, the user retrieves the message from the mail file. Depending on the type of mail client, one of the following protocols is used: Notes® remote procedure calls, IMAP, POP3, or HTTP.