Chapter 1 Overview
This chapter covers the features of the Isode M-Switch required by Operators of M-Switch.
It gives detailed descriptions of the monitoring and control features and components,
especially the Graphical Management tools. It also provides links to the complementary
volumes, M-Switch Administration Guide and the M-Switch Advanced Administration
Guide .
1.1 What is the Isode M-Switch?
M-Switch is a high-performance, versatile Message Transfer Agent (MTA), which can be
installed on either Windows or UNIX platforms. It is the main component in a messaging
system and supports:
• Internet messaging
• X.400 messaging
• ACP127 messaging
• A mixture of the three variants, converting messages from one form to the other.
The MTA consists of:
• The Queue Manager (qmgr)
• Channels which deliver messages into mailboxes or relay to other MTAs or gateway to
other Message Transfer Systems
• Protocol listeners for messages entering the MTA (iaed, smtpsrvr or the isode.pp.p3
daemon)
• Channels which perform conversions on messages
Other components of a complete Isode messaging system include:
• An M-Vault DSA, used to hold configuration
• The Message Audit Database which records information about messaging events and
provides applications with the ability to access this information
• Management tools (GUIs and command line)
Overview
1M-Switch Operator's Guide