This Read Me file includes: - Upgrade instructions for existing users of Post.Office for Windows NT - Installation instructions for new users of Post.Office for Windows NT - Important information on disk space requirements ====================================================================== UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS - POST.OFFICE v. 3.1 - WINDOWS NT ====================================================================== ALL users upgrading to Post.Office 3.1 from version 2.0 need to purchase a 3.x license, as entry of the 3.x license number is a required step in the upgrade operation. If you are upgrading from version 3.0, no new license number is required. If you are upgrading from version 2.0 and do not have a valid 3.x license number, please contact Sales@Software.com. Note: The same software is used for installing Post.Office version 3.1, upgrading from an earlier version (2.0 or 3.0), or entering a new license number to accommodate additional accounts/mailboxes and mailing lists. The program checks to see if Post.Office already exists, then self-adjusts to perform the necessary installation or upgrade procedure. However, the upgrade instructions that follow apply to current users of the Post.Office software. If you are installing Post.Office for the first time, refer to the Installation Instructions section of this document or the detailed instructions in the Post.Office Installation Guide. REVIEW THE FOLLOWING *BEFORE* UPGRADING YOUR SYSTEM: ---------------------------------------------------- THE POST.OFFICE UPGRADE OPERATION IS PERFORMING TASKS OF CONSIDERABLE COMPLEXITY INCLUDING DATABASE REGENERATION. TO ENSURE SUCCESS YOU MUST BACKUP YOUR SYSTEM PRIOR TO UPGRADING AND ALLOW ADEQUATE TIME TO COMPLETE THE POST.OFFICE UPGRADE OPERATION. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THE PROCESS RUN TO COMPLETION WITHOUT INTERRUPTION. PLEASE NOTE THAT A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF THE TIME REQUIRED FOR UPGRADE IS SPENT RESETTING PERMISSIONS ON THE VARIOUS POST.OFFICE DIRECTORIES. INSTALLATIONS WITH A LARGE NUMBER OR ACCOUNTS, AND THEREFORE A LARGE NUMBER OF MAILBOX DIRECTORIES, SHOULD EXPECT DELAYS DURING THAT PORTION OF THE UPGRADE PROCESS. FOR EXAMPLE, IT TOOK APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR TO UPGRADE A SERVER WITH 250 ACCOUNTS. CAUTION: If you have more than 30,000 mail accounts established on your server or if you are making use of linked mailbox directories, please contact Support@Software.com for assistance before attempting to upgrade to Post.Office version 3.1. BACK UP YOUR EXISTING SYSTEM In the interest of safety and good software practices, existing users of Post.Office should back up their system before upgrading to version 3.1. Upgrading is a nondestructive process which retains all mail, and account and configuration information; however, if the upgrade operation is interrupted your mail system can be corrupted. Instructions on restoring your mail system are provided in the Backup and Restore section of the FAQ (available at http://www.software.com/tech/faq/FAQ_Contents.html), but those instructions presume existence of the required backup files. To assist you in completing this essential operation, backup instructions are included as part of the upgrade instructions that follow. VERIFY THAT ADEQUATE SPACE IS AVAILABLE FOR EXPANSION OF THE REGISTRY The size of the Registry expands during upgrade. If insufficient space is available the upgrade will fail and recovery will be required. Although the exact amount of space required depends on a variety of factors including the number of Post.Office accounts currently established, a good rule of thumb is that Maximum Registry Size should be at least twice Current Registry Size. To verify that sufficient size is available do the following: 1.) From the Program Manager double click on the Main\Control Panel\System icons in the order indicated. 2.) Click on the Virtual Memory button in the System window. 3.) In the Virtual Memory window check the values in the fields titled Current Registry Size and Maximum Registry Size. The maximum size should be at least twice the current size. If it is not, make the necessary correction and click on the OK buttons to dismiss the Virtual Memory and System Windows. Registry size should now be sufficient to complete the upgrade successfully. UPDATE ANY CUSTOMIZED FORMS Because Post.Office forms were significantly modified in version 3.x, users working with customized versions of the Post.Office 2.0 forms need to perform the following steps when upgrading their system to version 3.1. 1. Obtain copies of the standard forms for Post.Office version 3.1 by sending a request to Support@Software.com 2. Revise the standard forms as desired. 3. Follow the detailed instructions presented below to backup your system and upgrade the Post.Office software. 4. Once the upgrade process is complete, re-submit your revised versions of the standard 3.1 forms for use with the upgraded system. POST-UPGRADE REVIEW Please review the comments at the bottom of the upgrade instructions for additional information on possible upgrade errors or issues related to the use of NT integrated passwords. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows NT Upgrade Instructions To permit recovery if the upgrade process is accidentally interrupted (or fails to complete for any reason), backup instructions are included as the initial steps in the upgrade process. DO NOT omit these important first steps. 1. Back up the required Registry information by launching the Registry Editor, (REGEDT32.EXE), locating the following keys, and saving each one independently (by selecting the desired key, pulling down the Registry menu, and then choosing the Save Key command). a) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Software.com\Post.Office (suggested name & location: anotherhost\temp\Post.OfficeRegKeyBackup) b) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Software.com\Post.Office\MTA-Accounts (suggested name & location: anotherhost\temp\MTA-AccountsRegKeyBackup) 2. Back up the required file system information. The exact location of the required directories can be found via the Program Manager by double clicking on the Main\Control Panel\Post.Office icons in the order indicated. When the Post.Office applet window appears look at the bottom to determine the locations of the following items: a) The Spooling Directory containing configuration information (suggested name & location: anotherhost\temp\Post.OfficeBackupconfig) b) the Program Directory containing Post.Office executables (suggested name & location: anotherhost\temp\Post.OfficeBackupexecs) c) the Mailbox Directory containing your mailbox information (suggested name & location: anotherhost\temp\Post.OfficeBackupmailbox) Back up those directories in addition to the Registry keys mentioned in Step 1 above. The back up of the Mailbox directory, in particular, is of extreme importance as this directory is restructured during the upgrade process. Note: If you aren't already doing so, you should be backing up these items on a regular basis. 3. Verify that you are logged on properly. If you are on a workstation or non-primary domain controller server you must be logged on as the Administrator of your host machine before running Setup.exe. Only if you are on a primary domain controller server can you log in as the Administrator of your domain. 4. Quit any programs that are currently running. This includes the NT Control Panel applet, which must be closed during the execution of the Post.Office installation program. 5. Locate the Post.Office package either on the CD on which it was delivered, or in the directory in which you stored a downloaded version. 6. If you obtained the software from our web or ftp site simply double-click on the Post.Office ".exe" file. The package will self extract and the Setup program will be launched automatically. If you obtained the software on CD, double-click on the Setup.exe file. Note: The Setup program occupies only half your screen to allow for simultaneous display of Simple Online Support (SOS). SOS is intended for use as a guide during initial installation, however it contains supplemental information that may also be of interest to people upgrading their software. To access SOS, launch your browser and point it to: http://www.software.com/tech/sos/po-install.htm 7. The Installshield GUI will prompt you to choose one of three options: Remove, Update, or Set License Number. Choose Update and click on the Next button. This installs all the new software and configuration files, retaining the values of any parameters you have customized and all information in your accounts database. When it's finished, the Setup program will re-start Post.Office for you. Note: You will be required to enter your 3.x license number as one of the first steps in the upgrade process. To prevent unintended upgrades the program will not execute without a valid 3.x license number. Please contact Sales@Software.com if you wish to purchase the required license. Caution: If you encounter a permissions error when copying the Post.Office.cpl file, you should answer "No" (don't bother to copy) and continue with the upgrade. The upgrade will complete successfully, but the Post.Office.cpl file will not be updated. You can contact Support@software.com after the upgrade to obtain the 3.1 version of that file and instructions on how to install it. Remember: After the upgrade, any account which uses the NT integrated password feature *and* was deliberately locked by the Postmaster should be reviewed. (To determine an account's status post-upgrade, access the appropriate Account Data Form and check the response to the question "Lock Account to prevent POP3 access and configuration via Web or E-Mail?". If you wish to lock the account and prevent access, the answer should be Yes. If you do not wish to lock the account, the answer should be No.) ====================================================================== INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS - POST.OFFICE v. 3.1 - WINDOWS NT ====================================================================== 1. Verify that all pre-installation requirements have been met. 2. Verify that you are logged on properly. If you are on a workstation or non-primary domain controller server you must be logged on as the Administrator of your host machine before running Setup.exe. Only if you are on a primary domain controller server can you log in as the Administrator of your domain. 3. If you are installing Post.Office on a backup domain controller, additional steps are required before continuing with the installation. Refer to the following section, "Installing on a Backup Domain Controller" for more information. You MUST complete these additional steps successfully before installing Post.Office. 4. Quit any programs that are currently running. This includes the NT Control Panel applet, which must be closed during the execution of the Post.Office installation program. 5. Open the Simple Online Support (SOS) tool by launching your browser and pointing it to: http://www.software.com/tech/sos/po-install.htm This tool provides detailed information on pre-installation requirements, the installation process, and related topics such as proper configuration of DNS records. If you are unable to access the SOS tool you must read the detailed instructions which appear in the Post.Office Installation Guide in order to obtain the necessary pre-installation information. 6. Locate the Post.Office software package that was downloaded from the Software.com web site (http://www.software.com), obtained via ftp from the Software.com ftp site (the public/software/PostOffice/PO31 directory), or delivered directly on CD. 7. Double-click on the Post.Office ".exe" file. The package will self extract and the Setup program will be launched automatically. Note: The Setup program occupies only half your screen to allow for simultaneous display of Simple Online Support (SOS). 8. Respond as prompted to complete the installation process (making entries via Installshield and then the web interface) using SOS to guide you through each step. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Installing on a Backup Domain Controller Part of the process of installing Post.Office is the creation of a new NT user and user group; this is the login account that Post.Office will use to run under NT. On standard NT systems, this user is automatically created during Post.Office installation and is assigned the appropriate access rights. However, on a backup domain controller, no user database exists -- users and groups are stored on the primary domain controller. It is therefore necessary to manually create the required user and group when installing Post.Office on a backup domain controller. Before executing the Post.Office installation program on a backup domain controller, carry out the following operations on the backup domain controller system: 1. In the User Manager, create a new user and group (suggested names: MailServer-user and MailServer-group), and make the new user a member of the new group. If you need assistance in creating this user and group, refer to the Simple Online Support instructions at: http://www.software.com/TechSupport/Post.Office/SOS/in1-3.html 2. Also in the User Manager, set the appropriate user rights to the new user. The Post.Office user must have the following user right: - Log on as a service If you intend to use the Program Delivery feature, the user must also have the following user rights: - Act as part of the operating system - Increase quotas - Replace a process level token Again, if you need assistance in setting these access rights, consult the Simple Online Support instructions at: http://www.software.com/TechSupport/Post.Office/SOS/in1-3.html 3. In the Server Manager, update the primary domain controller to include the new user and group by selecting Synchronize Entire Domain from the Computer menu. This operation may take several minutes. 4. Once the domain has been synchronized to include the new user and group, proceed with the Post.Office installation. When you are given the choice between using a new or existing user and group with Post.Office, choose to use an existing user and group. When prompted, enter the name of the user and group that you created in step 1. ====================================================================== IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON DISK SPACE REQUIRMENTS ====================================================================== The following known issue exists in Post.Office on NT platforms: ISSUE If the server system runs out of disk space during the distribution of a message to multiple mail hosts, Post.Office will later attempt to retry the entire transaction, and will keep retrying until it succeeds. However, these retries may cause some recipients to receive multiple copies of the message. EXAMPLE A mailing list has 20 subscribers, each from a different remote domain. When distributing a message to this mailing list, the server system runs out of disk space after only 15 subscribers have received a copy of the message. Because the lack of disk space caused the distribution to fail, the entire transaction is queued for later delivery. On the subsequent retry, Post.Office starts over and again attempts to send the message to 20 users, and the 15 subscribers who successfully received the message during the first (failed) distribution get a second copy. If the distribution continues to similarly fail because of lack of disk space, these users continue to receive additional copies of the message. PREVENTION To minimize the impact of mailing lists on your available disk storage, use the subscriber and message limits associated with each list. Your server should always have enough disk space to accommodate the maximum storage requirements for the distribution of one message to any mailing list that you are hosting; this storage requirement is equal to the maximum number of subscribers' domains multiplied by the size of the largest message that can be posted to the list. For example, on a mailing list with subscribers from 500 remote domains and a maximum message size limit of 1 Mb, the maximum storage requirements for the distribution of a message from this list is 500 Mb. BACKGROUND The Post.Office mailing list exploder creates one copy of each outgoing mailing list message for each remote domain to which it is addressed. This means that a mailing list that includes subscribers from 1,000 different remote domains will create 1,000 copies of each outgoing message during mailing list distributions. (Note: This behavior is not specific to mailing lists; the same duplication of outgoing messages happens if you simply address a message to users in multiple remote domains, or to a group account that forwards to users in remote domains. Mailing lists are simply more likely to send mail to thousands of users, the condition that is most likely to impact available disk space.)