Mithi Connect Server™ XD – Feature Matrix
Copyright © 2000-2006 Mithi Software Technologies

Feature Matrix

Mithi Connect Server™ XD (v 2.2.5)- Feature matrix

Mithi Connect Server™ XD (v 2.2.5)- Feature matrix

Legend

Summary

OS Support

Details

Open Source Building blocks

Packaging

Solutions

Comprehensive Online documentation

Systems Integration

Integration with Third party applications

Scalability

Compatibility

Enterprise Management (Distributed domains)

Server Management

Domain Management

Role based administration

Group Management

User Management/Directory

Mail Server

Availability

Reports

Monitoring

Security

Anti Virus

Anti Spam

Email Gateway/Retriever

Mithi Web Client™

Directory/Address Book Integration with email clients

Multilingual

Mithi Personal Address Book™

Mithi Global Address Book™

Public folders

Proxy

Web Calendar and Scheduler (Integrated third party open source component) (*)

Legend

/ Improved over the last versions (2.2.2/2.2.3/2.2.4)
/ New Features in 2.2.5

Summary

Basic Modules / Availability
Email Server / 
Email Gateway/Retriever / 
Calendar and scheduler integration / 
Chat and Instant Messaging server integration / 
Proxy / 
Mithi Web Mail™ - Multilingual email (11 Indian languages + English) / 
Mithi Corporate Directory™ (Domains, Users, groups, aliases directory) / 
Address Books (Mithi Personal Address Book™ & Mithi Global Address Book™) / 
Mithi Server Manager™ - Configuration and Management console / 
Mithi Enterprise Manager™ - Configuration & Management console for a distributed setup / 
Advanced Spam control (Mail detection and Filtering) / 
Anti virus control (Mail Filtering) / 
Security (Firewall, Policy control, SSL…) / 
Reporting / 
Monitoring with Alerts / 
Public Folders / 
Automatic Installation and Upgrade / 

OS Support

Mithi Connect Server™ / Fedora Core 3 / Red Hat Linux EL 3 x86 / Red Hat Linux EL 3 x86_64 / Red Hat Linux EL 3 ia64(Itanium)
2.2.5 /  /  /  / 
2.2.4 /  /  /  / 
2.2.3 /  /  / 
2.2.2 /  /  / 
Mithi Connect Server™ / Red Hat Linux 8.0 / Red Hat Linux AS 2.1 / Red Hat Linux ES 2.1
2.2.1 /  /  / 
2.2.0 /  /  / 
2.1X /  /  / 
1.X / 

Details

Adaptable Messaging Solution / Availability

Open Source Building blocks

Building block components viz. Fedora Core 3, Red Hat Linux EL3 x86, x86_64, ia64, Apache, PostgreSQL, Qmail, Courier 4.10, Tomcat, Iptables, Fetchmail, Squid, Open-LDAP 2.3 on a BDB backend, Squid, Spam Assassin, ClamAV, Jboss, Java 1.5 / 

Packaging

Automatic Installation, Uninstall and Upgrade for the open source components and the applications thus eliminating the complexity associated with using open source building blocks.
Pre install OS check to confirm proper installation of OS before proceeding with MCS installation to save time.
Automatic tuning of the OS and MCS parameters to suit the loading conditions.
Post installation configuration wizard to take you through the most common configuration tasks.
Post boot upgrade configuration for time consuming changes to minimize downtime in an upgrde.
No dependence on the minor version of the OS during setup. / 
Mithi Server Manager™ - Command line configuration and management programs / 
Mithi Server Manager™ - Remote Web based administrative console (GUI) to configure and manage the network. / 
Mithi Enterprise Manager™ - Command line configuration and management programs for a distributed setup. / 
Out-of-the-box support for supported OS platforms. / 
Access to the Mithi Server Manager™ (Remote Administrative console) via SSL or SSH. / 
Modular architecture to permit patching and modular upgrades for quick and reliable fixes/improvements. / 

Solutions

Mail Server / 
Mail Relay Server / 
Mail Router / 
Front End Server / 
Disaster Recovery Server / 
Mail Gateway / 
Distributed setup / 
Extension to proprietary mail solutions / 

Comprehensive Online documentation

Web based help for the administrator / 
Web based help for the user / 
Indexed topics / 
Search for topics / 
Troubleshooting and FAQ section / 
End user application usage and configuration guide / 
Service Manual for advanced troubleshooting and diagnosis and repair. / 

Systems Integration

Command hooks for all Mithi Connect Server commands to allow running programs after the command is executed. Using this you can customize the behavior of the commands and allow coupling with other enterprise systems. / 
Can be setup on a completely new hardware and interfaced with existing mailing systems over standard protocols to add additional users to the network without needing any change in the existing email network. / 
Can be configured in a Heterogeneous Environment to work with a multi server setup and also integrate with existing email, CRM, SCM, ERP systems. / 
Tested for compatibility on the latest Xeon and Itanium Intel platform via the EAP program of Intel. / 
Tested for compatibility on the AMD opteron server from SUN. / 
Integration with Lotus 6 server (***)
  • To maintain user information at a single point
  • Extend the Lotus system to add more users on the same domain.
  • Migration of mail stores from the Lotus system to MCS
/ 
Integration with an ADS server to maintain user information at a single point. (***)
  • To maintain user information at a single point
  • Extend the Windows ADS system to add more users on the same domain.
  • Migration of mail stores from the Exchange system to MCS.
  • Authenticate directly with an existing Microsoft Active Directory server in the network over the LDAP protocol.
/ 
Migration tools for moving mail stores from a sendmail system to MCS. (***) / 

Integration with Third party applications

Programmatic interfaces to use the mailing engine in the form of Web services. / 
Web services for
  • User Management (Add, delete, enable/disable a user)
  • User Options (Password, personal information)
  • Mail folder management (Available folders, details, number of new messages)
  • Message management (List message headers, message details)
  • Message Transport (Send a message)
/ 
Complete Online documentation in the form of web services reference, sample code and overview. / 

Scalability

User scalability tested at the Intel Solutions center. / 
Third party application plug in supported. More web services and improved documentation with samples. / 
Comprehensive document for tuning the OS and Mithi Connect Server to handle high load (users, mail and application access) / 
Component Load Balancing - The solution can be configured over multiple servers, with each server running a limited part of the service. The replication of the directory information is automated. / 
Network Load Balancing – Can be setup on multiple geographically distributed servers for load balancing the domains. The replication of the directory information is automated. / 

Compatibility

Standard well documented (non-proprietary) format for data and mail storage. / 
Based on standard protocols like SMTP, IMAP, POP, MIME, HTTP, HTTPS, JMS etc. / 
Email clients e.g. MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger etc. Access to the address books and corporate directory provided via LDAP to allow searching for people and also auto-completion of names, email ids and aliases while composing messages. / 
The Mithi Server Manager™ (remote administrative console) accessible from any client platform using a browser. With an improved architecture, this is supported on a larger set of client platforms and browsers. / 
Mithi Web Mail™ (web mail client) accessible from any client platform using a browser except for Indian languages that works only from a Windows client. / 
Web access via Internet Explorer, Netscape or Mozilla / 
Comprehensive document to detail the directory structure of Mithi Connect Server with samples on how external applications can access the data over LDAP. / 

Enterprise Management (Distributed domains)

Commands to setup a domain as a master on a server and slave on other servers. / 
The directory maintenance is central. That is the user creation and deletion is done at a central server and the information is automatically replicated to other servers. / 
Control the replication frequency. / 
The users on any server in the setup can view the entire list of users in the domain. / 
The users can update their properties from any server. / 
The users can access their mailbox using the mail client via any server in the setup. / 
In case any server in the setup is inaccessible, the information is synced as and when it comes up. / 
Possible to move users from one server to another by just changing the location attribute of the user. / 
The mail routing is automatic depending on the location of the user. / 
Comprehensive documentation to setup a distributed domain, rebuild a slave, disaster recovery, relay server etc. / 
Mithi Enterprise Manager™ - Command line configuration and management console for a distributed domain. / 
Multiple domains spread across the same enterprise network. / 
Tools to list messages in a queue meant for a server or posted by a server, delete messages from a queue, check if the queue is jammed, etc. / 
Transactional message handling with ‘stop on failure’ and alerts to indicate jammed queues. / 
Allow changing password from any location by any user with instant replication to the user’s mailbox server to permit uninterrupted access of the web mail session. This was done to support configurations where the web mail server is remote. / 

Server Management

Multiple Domain Support on one server / 
Can configure multiple domains across multiple servers for load balancing / 
Automatic online backup and restore function to secure the server data for disaster recovery. / 
An improved backup program providing options for multiple backup jobs, scheduling and controls to create the backup output on another server or tape. / 
Mail store backup program to allow backup for a list of users or all users, with a consolidated file or individual file output for easy copy to a remote server and restore. / 
Control to start and stop services / 
Reporting on usage of server, mail traffic, health, security, etc. (See the Reports section for details) / 
360-degree maintenance loop to allow the system administrator to correct the problem or let Mithi handle it. / 
Control to reconfigure server IP / 
Improved service monitoring interface. / 
Single folder with links to all CLI of each module to make it easier for the administrator to locate and execute commands. / 
Improved error reporting from the business logic. Stacked messages give exact cause of the failure. / 
Business logic programs with calls to other programs, collate logs in the parent log file for easier analysis (rather then be distributed across files making it very difficult to recreate the flow). / 
Configuration & Activity event logging to track each and every ‘action’ performed on and by the server and by whom (client IP if done via an SSH client). Activity event log includes actions like mail being received, being sent, logins, logouts, etc. This feature is very helpful for troubleshooting, auditing and reporting. / 
Linux command history to track and troubleshoot any operations done via the command line. / 
Use the query tool available with Event log to extract trends, get reports on specific events/actions (like login failures, messages deleted, received messages, etc), get date wise summary, etc. / 
Structure configuration report (XML), which can be used to view the report graphically and also reconfigure the server if necessary. / 
Log monitoring, which allows the administrator to monitor multiple service logs from the GUI rather than sign into the command line interface. / 
Monitoring Agents to perform routine monitoring and cleanup tasks on a time trigger. See Monitoring section below. / 
Set server software parameters on the fly to configure debugs, error logging, memory utilization etc. / 
Mithi Server Manager™ - Configuration and Management console / 

Domain Management

List of domains in the system. / 
Domain alias. (Specify another name for a domain such that mail sent to the alias domain are delivered to the original domain). / 
Domain masquerading. (Specify another name for a domain such that outgoing mail from the original domain have the ‘from id’ replaced to the new domain). Useful to consolidate multiple domains as one to the outside world. / 
Add contacts into the Global address book in a batch operation. Useful to upload a list of addresses in one shot without having to add one at a time, which is slow. / 
Control at 2 levels viz, Domain and user. Besides the domain manager, the end users can themselves perform routine configuration and management tasks within a defined scope. / 
Customizable – look and feel, behavior, of the Mithi Web applications (Mithi Web Mail, Mithi Personal Address Book, Mithi Corporate Directory and Mithi Global Address Book etc.) / 
Customize the Terms of Service, Privacy statement, color schemes, logo, etc. / 
Customize the URL to visit automatically, after the user logs out. This can be used for promoting the internal web site or any such purpose. / 
Change password / 
Multilingual – Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and English / 
Selectively expose features to individual users (tri-state controls available for some features) and entire domain. / 
Mithi Applications Manager™ - Multi-level (Admin and user) configuration console / 

Role based administration

Define roles with selected commands for delegated/junior administration to allow different privileges to different administrators
Assign roles to users to grant them the privilege of administration with restricted commands. Users log in using their email ids and passwords thus simplifying the maintenance.
Pre defined role - Server Manager, with all commands can be assigned to users who are to be responsible for the entire server – domains, security, etc.
Pre defined role - Domain Manager, with domain specific commands can be assigned to users who are to be responsible for the to manage their domains like Users, quotas, groups, etc.
Controls to enable/disable roles and users’ administration rights. / 

Group Management

Groups to be able to communicate with a group of people in one transaction. Add, delete groups, add, delete users from a group, list users from a group. / 
Define group-mailing policies to be able to control a set of users in a single operation. / 

User Management/Directory

Enable/disable an email account. Modular control for separate services i.e.
  1. Enable mailing (can login to access account; Can receive mail)
  2. Partially enable mailing (Can’t login; Can receive mail)
  3. Disable mailing (Can’t login; Can’t receive mail)
  4. Enable Proxy
  5. Disable proxy
/ 
Easy ‘find user’ command to locate a set of users based on criteria like quota, name, address, date, roaming status, etc.
  • Support for all user properties
  • Provide conditions like 'equals', 'not equals', 'contains', 'greater than' etc.
  • Field dependant value selection to minimize errors.
  • Results showing search criteria fields.
  • Delete link to enable the 'Find and delete users' operation
/ 
A User properties interface to view and manage all the user's configurations from one page. These include personal information, quota, forwarding, POP accounts, user login count, etc. / 
A List User interface to show all users in a domain with some key properties to make it easy for the administrator to check configurations. / 
LDAP/database driven user directory for single point user information storage and authentication by applications. / 
Change label of fields in the directory and add custom fields in the directory. These are accessible via LDAP and the web client interfaces of MCS. / 
Multiple users can be created for a domain automatically using an existing database of user record/details. / 
Store personal information, which is useful as contact information about the users. / 
Domain administrators can reset the password for users in case he has forgotten the password / 
Optional wizard on first time login by users to enforce filling of mandatory personal information fields. The wizard also includes the change password function to make it mandatory to change the password on first login thus improving security. / 
Configure each field in the directory to show up as mandatory, read only or regular read/write. Use this feature to enforce filling of certain mandatory fields by the users and to prevent editing of certain read only fields as per company policy / 
Schema rework to include Employee Number, Joining Date, Relieving date, & Office / 
Ability to define mandatory fields to be filled in by the administrators while adding a user. / 
Users can set forwarding from their accounts. (Feature controllable from the Domain Manager) / 
Add free format comments/notes while creating new users to help locate user for collaborative initiative or for targeting specific messages. / 
Date fields in the directory can have perpetual values. E.g. leaving date. / 

Mail Server

Mithi Connect Server now boasts of a mail-tracking tool. Using this tool the administrator can trace the path of a particular mail from entry into the server, upto exit or successful delivery to the mailbox. / 
User level mail filters to allow processing incoming mail based on rules and taking action like bounce, move to folder, copy etc. The filters provide intelligent capability to detect duplicates while moving or copying. / 
‘Forward to host’ - push mail to another account on same/different server. / 
Domain option to control whether mail footers need to be appended to every outgoing mail or not. Using this option, the mail footer can stay as it is but it can still be disabled. Facility to provide a rich HTML footer to enabled formatted text. / 
Individual email ids unique on a domain name. / 
Quota
  • Control email storage allocation (quota) per user.
  • Configure the default domain quota, which will apply to new users.
  • Query to find out used up mailbox space for any user(s)
  • Improved and optimized calculation engine for the used up mailbox space. Using a lazy method this improves performance of the enterprise servers.
Quota policy
  • Control action to be taken on mailbox usage overflow viz. viz. block receiving mail when quota gets full or block sending of mail when quota gets full.
Quota alerts
  • The Quota overflow alerting system has been improved to provide alerts on multiple thresholds, incremental thresholds, configurable HTML messages, configurable frequency of checks, control to disable/enable alerts to domain users.
/ 
Mail delivery commands to setup forwarding, etc. / 
Email id alias. / 
Mail server can be configured to catch-all-id to lower administrative overhead in maintaining individual user accounts. / 
Configure Message routing rules. Advanced configuration provided for additional flexibility. / 
Configuring SMTP and Relay Hosts / 
Configuring email ids and domains for relay / 
Categorize your mails into folders and share folders with other users / 
Mail Server enhanced to support bouncing of mail if the message size is beyond the limit specified. / 
Mail delivery statistics user and domain wise with message tracking. This is much faster now. Improved to provide domain wise mail delivery reports. / 
Configure Welcome mail to be sent to every new account created. / 
Domain Alias. / 
Domain Masquerade. / 
Archive account (CC every incoming and outgoing mail to admin log account.) / 
Mail policy control at server and domain level. (Define rules to accept or reject any mail depending on the sender, recipient, and mail content). / 
Authenticated SMTP
  1. User level
  2. SMTP AUTH support while relaying mail from this server.
  3. Domain level
  4. Remote SMTP AUTH while relaying mail from ISP server.
  5. Machine / IP level
  1. SMTP AUTH support while relaying mail to remote MTA
  2. SMTP AUTH support while sending mail from this server
/ 
Host level SMTP rules to minutely control any SMTP connection.
(IP Address /Pattern, Access, RBL, RBLONLYHEADER, QMAILSCANNER, RELAYCLIENT, SMTPAUTH, AUTHREQUIRED, LOGLEVEL, MAXRCPTCOUNT, NODNSCHECK, BLOCKRELAYPROBE, REJECTEXEC, RETURNMXCHECK, SANITYCHECK, RCPTCHECK, SENDERCHECK, NOBOUNCE, NOPBS, 550GREETING, SMTP550DISCONNECT, AUTHPREPEND, TARPITCOUNT, TARPITDELAY) / 
Soft limits (Memory limits) for SMTP/POP/IMAP to tune performance (**) / 
Vacation reply/Automatic response to incoming messages.
The Domain manager and users can setup and configure auto response for incoming messages via the Domain Manager and the Options section of the Mithi Web Mail. / 
IMAP controls
  • Control automatic deletion from the 'Trash' folder.
  • Change access port.
  • Control maximum connections.
/ 
Scanner
  • Parse messages (incoming and outgoing) for bad MIME.
  • Log density control for verbose or regular logging.
  • Inform sender, recipient and administrator of any rejection.
/ 
Shared mailboxes to enhance collaboration like in a customer support environment where many users use a common mailbox but still maintain their identity. / 
Bounce administrator for groups to direct error reports of mail sent to groups to a designated administrator email id. This prevents the sender from being flooded with error reports. / 
Queue life time control / 

Availability