Contact Information
- Name: CAEN Staff
- Email: caen@umich.edu
- Phone: (734) 764-CAEN
Releases Quick Access
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
CAEN Performs Email Service Upgrades
Over the summer, CAEN worked to improve email services for the College of Engineering. Server capacities have been significantly increased to handle the continually increasing volumes of email being sent and received. The CAEN and ITCS IMAP-based email environments now share similar configurations and implementations in order to make it easier for engineering students to use resources from each provider and from various campus locations in a transparent fashion. New email-related services have been implemented, and more are being explored.
New Hardware for Main Email Server Installed
Srvr5.engin.umich.edu, the primary mailbox server at CAEN, was recently upgraded to meet and exceed the increasing email demand and usage. The storage subsystem is comprised of higher performing components including a FibreChannel, a hardware-based RAID, and a solid-state RAM disk to minimize latency for especially intensive I/O operations. Network connectivity is provided by a Gigabit Ethernet network interface. Although CAEN expects this new hardware to fulfill its requirements throughout the next year, the new overall email configuration will allow us to quickly add more hardware resources during the year if that is required. CAEN will closely monitor system performance and respond quickly to significant or chronic slowdowns of the email system.
In addition to allowing users with both CAEN and ITCS accounts to use the email resources of both accounts to their best advantage, the new software installation fixes a number of software bugs and support a number of email clients in addition to the traditional Pine environment many are familiar with.
Browser-based Email Now Available
A new web email interface for CAEN account holders with mailboxes on srvr5.engin.umich.edu is now available on the web at engin.mail.umich.edu. Provided in partnership with ITCS, the engin.mail.umich.edu interface has the same look-and-feel as the mail.umich.edu service for ITCS users, including the new "addressbook" feature, with a CAEN-specific login page. This site replaces the my.umich.edu service, which was discontinued by ITCS in May, 2002. CAEN account holders who receive their email on the ITCS IMAP servers can access it via the web at mail.umich.edu. CAEN account holders who receive email on Exchange can access their email via the web at https://exchange.umich.edu.
Exchange Service Upgraded to Exchange 2000
The Microsoft Exchange-based email service for CoE faculty and staff was upgraded this summer from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000. This upgrade enables the sharing of Public Folder and Calendaring information with other Exchange servers on campus, including LS&A, EECS and ITCS. Exchange users should also notice faster response from the server, and a new web interface at https://exchange.umich.edu. Additionally, the upgrade improved the robustness and security of the Exchange server, and provided CAEN staff with better tools for server administration. An additional Exchange Front-End server was also added to handle HTTP, IMAP4 and POP3 requests. The front-end server provides non-Outlook clients a consistent connecting point to the Exchange-based email environment. Additional information on connecting to the front-end server is available on the CAEN web site at www.engin.umich.edu/caen/faqs.
New Email Quotas Implemented
To ensure fair and equitable access to email services for all users, CAEN is now implementing a quota of 250 MB per user for email stored on the main email server, srvr5.engin. umich.edu. Excessive email storage can have a significant negative impact on email server performance. Of the 8,500 active email users on srvr5, only a handful currently use more than 250 MB. CAEN will work with these individuals to reduce their email storage requirements without disruption of their email service.
Only email stored on srvr5, including the Inbox and IMAP folders, will count toward the new quota. Email stored in AFS, on the Exchange servers, or the ITCS email servers will not be affected by this new quota, but may be subject to quotas related to use of those services instead.
If a srvr5 mailbox goes over quota, a notice will be delivered to the mailbox. New email for the over-quota user will be held for five days, and delivered when the mailbox is no longer over-quota. If the mailbox is still over-quota after five days, the email will be returned to the sender. The sender will also receive a notification if the email is not delivered within four hours.
Updated Pine Software for Labs
All Solaris, Linux and HP-UX UNIX workstations in CAEN labs have the new email client, Pine 4.44, installed. This version of Pine includes built-in SSL support that fully encrypts every email session. It also fixes several bugs, including one that caused Pine to lock and crash on certain malformed messages. Sendmail 8.12.5 is also in use on all UNIX-based platforms. This version provides a variety of security fixes and enhancements.
Incoming Students To Receive Email at ITCS
Due to a change in the way ITCS accounts are now created for first year students, all incoming freshman, transfer and graduate students will receive their email on ITCS's mail servers. CAEN will be developing and installing technology over the next few months to make it easier for people to move between different email servers. Based on our experience, we feel that the email environment is more intuitive and accessible for first year students when they have just one inbox as their default configuration. A direction over the upcoming months will be to more uniformly provide services without requiring people to be so conscious of the "engin" or "umich.edu" identities.
Regardless of what location incoming email is received, all CAEN account holders will still be able to store email on srvr5.engin.umich.edu in IMAP folders and take full advantage of the extra services that the College of Engineering provides for engineering students. For help with setting up IMAP folders in Pine, refer to the CAEN FAQs, How do I configure Pine to use IMAP folders on the CAEN email server?
New Hardware for Main Email Server Installed
Srvr5.engin.umich.edu, the primary mailbox server at CAEN, was recently upgraded to meet and exceed the increasing email demand and usage. The storage subsystem is comprised of higher performing components including a FibreChannel, a hardware-based RAID, and a solid-state RAM disk to minimize latency for especially intensive I/O operations. Network connectivity is provided by a Gigabit Ethernet network interface. Although CAEN expects this new hardware to fulfill its requirements throughout the next year, the new overall email configuration will allow us to quickly add more hardware resources during the year if that is required. CAEN will closely monitor system performance and respond quickly to significant or chronic slowdowns of the email system.
In addition to allowing users with both CAEN and ITCS accounts to use the email resources of both accounts to their best advantage, the new software installation fixes a number of software bugs and support a number of email clients in addition to the traditional Pine environment many are familiar with.
Browser-based Email Now Available
A new web email interface for CAEN account holders with mailboxes on srvr5.engin.umich.edu is now available on the web at engin.mail.umich.edu. Provided in partnership with ITCS, the engin.mail.umich.edu interface has the same look-and-feel as the mail.umich.edu service for ITCS users, including the new "addressbook" feature, with a CAEN-specific login page. This site replaces the my.umich.edu service, which was discontinued by ITCS in May, 2002. CAEN account holders who receive their email on the ITCS IMAP servers can access it via the web at mail.umich.edu. CAEN account holders who receive email on Exchange can access their email via the web at https://exchange.umich.edu.
Exchange Service Upgraded to Exchange 2000
The Microsoft Exchange-based email service for CoE faculty and staff was upgraded this summer from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000. This upgrade enables the sharing of Public Folder and Calendaring information with other Exchange servers on campus, including LS&A, EECS and ITCS. Exchange users should also notice faster response from the server, and a new web interface at https://exchange.umich.edu. Additionally, the upgrade improved the robustness and security of the Exchange server, and provided CAEN staff with better tools for server administration. An additional Exchange Front-End server was also added to handle HTTP, IMAP4 and POP3 requests. The front-end server provides non-Outlook clients a consistent connecting point to the Exchange-based email environment. Additional information on connecting to the front-end server is available on the CAEN web site at www.engin.umich.edu/caen/faqs.
New Email Quotas Implemented
To ensure fair and equitable access to email services for all users, CAEN is now implementing a quota of 250 MB per user for email stored on the main email server, srvr5.engin. umich.edu. Excessive email storage can have a significant negative impact on email server performance. Of the 8,500 active email users on srvr5, only a handful currently use more than 250 MB. CAEN will work with these individuals to reduce their email storage requirements without disruption of their email service.
Only email stored on srvr5, including the Inbox and IMAP folders, will count toward the new quota. Email stored in AFS, on the Exchange servers, or the ITCS email servers will not be affected by this new quota, but may be subject to quotas related to use of those services instead.
If a srvr5 mailbox goes over quota, a notice will be delivered to the mailbox. New email for the over-quota user will be held for five days, and delivered when the mailbox is no longer over-quota. If the mailbox is still over-quota after five days, the email will be returned to the sender. The sender will also receive a notification if the email is not delivered within four hours.
Updated Pine Software for Labs
All Solaris, Linux and HP-UX UNIX workstations in CAEN labs have the new email client, Pine 4.44, installed. This version of Pine includes built-in SSL support that fully encrypts every email session. It also fixes several bugs, including one that caused Pine to lock and crash on certain malformed messages. Sendmail 8.12.5 is also in use on all UNIX-based platforms. This version provides a variety of security fixes and enhancements.
Incoming Students To Receive Email at ITCS
Due to a change in the way ITCS accounts are now created for first year students, all incoming freshman, transfer and graduate students will receive their email on ITCS's mail servers. CAEN will be developing and installing technology over the next few months to make it easier for people to move between different email servers. Based on our experience, we feel that the email environment is more intuitive and accessible for first year students when they have just one inbox as their default configuration. A direction over the upcoming months will be to more uniformly provide services without requiring people to be so conscious of the "engin" or "umich.edu" identities.
Regardless of what location incoming email is received, all CAEN account holders will still be able to store email on srvr5.engin.umich.edu in IMAP folders and take full advantage of the extra services that the College of Engineering provides for engineering students. For help with setting up IMAP folders in Pine, refer to the CAEN FAQs, How do I configure Pine to use IMAP folders on the CAEN email server?
