PMDF System Manager's Guide
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Chapter 23
TCP/IP Channels

TCP/IP channels are used to link PMDF to TCP/IP based networks such as the Internet. The TCP/IP channels all use the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), including extensions such as those described in RFCs 1426, 1869, 1870, and 1891.1 The description of this protocol and extensions to it can be found in files such as rfc1426.txt, rfc1869.txt, rfc1870.txt, rfc2821.txt, and rfc2822.txt in the rfc subdirectory of the PMDF documentation directory.

On UNIX and NT, PMDF's multithreaded TCP SMTP channel uses the TCP/IP network protocol stack supplied with the operating system.

On OpenVMS, PMDF supports the following TCP/IP packages:

On OpenVMS, the multithreaded TCP SMTP channel uses DECthreads in order to handle multiple, simultaneous SMTP sessions in a single process. 2 The multithreaded TCP SMTP channel thus requires OpenVMS V6.1 or later, Pascal RTL V5.0-15 (VAX) or V5.0-18 (Alpha) or V5.0-25 (I64) or later, and as the underlying TCP/IP package, any one of MultiNet V3.5A or later with all UCXDRIVER patches (upgrading to the latest MultiNet is recommended), Pathway V2.5.x with all patches (including C82195 as of this printing) or later, TCPware V5.0 or later3, or TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS V4.0 or later (with UCX V4.1 requiring upgrading to at least ECO 5). Contact Process Software or your PMDF distributor if you have any questions regarding version compatibility with these TCP/IP packages.

The multithreaded TCP SMTP channel includes a multithreaded SMTP server which runs under the control of the PMDF Service Dispatcher. Outgoing SMTP mail is processed by the multithreaded PMDF channel program (tcp_smtp_client), run as needed under the control of master.com (OpenVMS) or the PMDF Job Controller (UNIX and NT).

Configuration instructions are presented in this chapter for the multithreaded TCP/IP channel.

Section 23.3, towards the end of this chapter describes how to establish a "gateway" channel to route mail through another system, as for instance to a mailhub or firewall system. Section 23.4, at the end of this chapter, describes performing "polling" with TCP/IP channels, that is, requesting that a remote system attempt to deliver any stored messages to your system; for instance, this can be particularly useful over "intermittent" sorts of TCP/IP links, such as dial-up connections.

Note

1 Two additional SMTP channels, SMTP over task-to-task DECnet and "generic" SMTP channels, are presented in Chapter 22 and Chapter 28.

2 The multithreaded TCP SMTP channel replaces PMDF single-threaded TCP/IP channels specific to the above TCP/IP packages. For sites upgrading from older versions of PMDF, see the OpenVMS Edition of the PMDF Installation Guide for instructions on switching to using the multithreaded TCP SMTP channel.

3 PMDF has been tested against TCPware versions through 5.5.

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