PMDF Installation Guide
Linux Edition


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6.1 Before You Begin

Prior to running the PMDF-LAN configuration utility you must have installed PMDF-MTA with PMDF-LAN support and have configured PMDF-MTA, including configuration of the PMDF Service Dispatcher (normally configured by the web-based PMDF-MTA configuration utility as part of the base MTA/SMTP configuration). Refer to Chapter 1 through Chapter 5 if you have not already installed and configured PMDF-MTA.

The PMDF-LAN configuration utility will prompt for several pieces of required information. Although the utility will attempt to provide default values to its prompts for a few of the more general questions, providing correct answers to the more specific questions requires some knowledge of the PC-LAN setup at your site. You should be prepared to provide answers to these questions. Knowing the correct values to answer usually requires coordinating with whomever does the PC-LAN management at your site. If that person is not you, check with them to find out current values, and impress upon them that any future changes in these values will need to be coordinated with you: unilateral changes in the PC-LAN setup will break the mail gateway.

In particular, you will need to be prepared with answers to the following questions.

If you will be configuring a cc:Mail, Microsoft Mail, WordPerfect Office (Groupwise), or Novell MHS channel, or some group of these, you will also need to be prepared with answers to the following question. If you will be configuring a Lotus Notes channel, you will also need to be prepared with answers to the following questions.

6.1.1 Selecting Pseudo Domain Names

You should give some thought as to the pseudo domain names to associate with PC-LAN mail post offices. Particularly if you are using PMDF in an isolated (non-Internet) application, you may pick any pseudo domain names that you want; indeed, if you set up a system of centralized naming, e.g., with PMDF's facilities along such lines, the particular pseudo domain names assigned may be largely invisible even if you are part of a larger network. However, you should remember that networks have a way of growing and becoming more visible and at some point in the future you may regret a careless decision about naming conventions you made earlier. Try to pick a sane, sensible name which is appropriate to your users, system, and site, and which, even if you do not currently expect it to be visible to users, would be acceptable if it were visible.

Your PMDF system has a name associated with it. In addition, PC-LAN mail systems often have their own, internal name for the post office and "network" or "domain" or "workgroup" of which they are a part. If your PC mail system is located on a server, that server may itself have a name. Some combination of these names is usually appropriate. Suppose your PMDF system is naples.example.com, and your WordPerfect Office (GroupWise) post office considers itself to be the HQ postoffice in the EXAMPLE WordPerfect Office domain, and the post office files are stored on a Novell file server named WIDGETS. Reasonable possibilities for the name of the pseudo domain associated with that WordPerfect Office post office might be wpo.example.com, wpo.naples.example.com, wpo.widgets.example.com, hq.naples.example.com, hq.example.example.com, or factors such as: whether you have or anticipate having multiple WordPerfect Office post offices; if so, whether you expect the post offices to reside on the same server, and whether such servers will be accessed from the same PMDF system or from multiple systems; and whether the important distinguishing feature of these users is that they are "WordPerfect Office users", or whether it is that they are "HQ users".


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