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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates in general to the field of data communication
systems and more particularly to an improved electronic mail management
system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many organizations interconnect private networks at various sites using a
public network to provide for data transfer between the private networks.
For example, an organization having multiple sites might allow for
electronic mail to be transmitted between the sites through the
interconnection of networks which is commonly referred to as the
"Internet". The Internet requires TCP/IP addressing but allows for system
level and user level aliases to be used to provide for more intuitive
addressing of messages. An organization must maintain its database of
aliases to insure the proper delivery of smtp e-mail message traffic to
the organization.
In the past, maintenance of an alias database has been accomplished by
providing for a central repository of alias information. All e-mail
message traffic to the organization is then directed to the central
repository so that the appropriate address translations and resolution can
take place. This approach prevents errors from mismatched aliases or the
failure of aliases to be updated on time. However, the central authority
approach is very slow to respond to changes in aliases and creates a
significant bottleneck in the delivery of messages as all messages must go
through a single host machine. Further, the central host becomes a single
point of failure for message delivery within the organization.
Another problem area dealing with electronic mail administration in prior
systems involves the management of message queues. Most electronic mail
systems utilize a process referred to as "sendmail" which will retrieve
electronic messages from a message queue, will see to the proper
addressing of the message, and will transmit the message to the public
network. The message queues themselves are merely a collection of files
which include header information, locking information and the actual
messages themselves. Depending upon its status, a single message may be
associated with as many as five or six separate files in the message queue
at any one time. In the past, management of the message queues involved
direct manipulation of these numerous files. This approach was extremely
prone to error and was so inconvenient that efficient and proactive
message queue maintenance was largely ignored. Message queue maintenance
is important, however, because undeliverable messages or large queue
volume can seriously tax the resources of the host machines as sendmail
processes repeatedly attempt to deliver these messages. Dealing with these
problem messages and other queue management issues has been a very
difficult task in the past.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an electronic mail management system
that allows for the efficient updating and maintenance of electronic mail
aliases and allows for the efficient proactive management of electronic
mail message queues.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, an electronic
mail management system is provided that substantially eliminates or
reduces disadvantages associated with prior systems and methods.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an electronic mail
management system is provided that operates on a host computer system
coupled between a private network and a public network. The electronic
mail management system is operable to receive alias information and format
and transmit a site alias information file to a central host computer. The
central host computer is operable to receive the site alias file and
retransmit the site alias file to all participating host computers. Each
host computer is operable to receive the retransmitted site alias file and
to reinitialize their alias databases using the new site alias file.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, an electronic
mail management system is provided that provides an administrator of the
electronic mail system with a graphical user interface to allow for the
efficient management of electronic mail queues within a host computer
system. According to this embodiment of the present invention, the
graphical user interface allows the administrator to bounce messages from
the queue, to delete messages from the queue, and to stop and start the
actions of the queue as well as other management functions using almost a
single step from the graphical user interface.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A more complete understanding of the present invention may be acquired by
referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings in which like reference numbers indicate like
features and wherein:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the operational environment of the
electronic mail management system of the present invention;
FIGS. 2a through 2c are flow charts illustrating the operation of the
electronic mail management system of the present invention; and
FIGS. 3a and 3b are illustrations of the graphical user interface of the
electronic mail management system of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to FIG. 1, a communications system 10 is illustrated which
comprises a public network 12. Public network 12 may comprise, for
example, the interconnection of networks which is commonly known as the
"Internet". Public network 12 is accessed by a private network 14, a
private network 16, and a private network 18. Traffic from private
networks 14, 16 and 18 are directed to the appropriate locations within
public network 12 by router systems 20, 22 and 24, respectively. Access
control and other management facilities are provided for each of the
private networks 14, 16 and 18 by firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30,
respectively. Firewall host system 26 comprises an alias database 21 and a
send mail process 23. Similarly, firewall host system 28 comprises an
alias database 25 and a send mail process 27. Finally, firewall host
system 30 comprises an alias database 29 and a send mail process 31.
Alias databases 21, 25 and 29 provide firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30,
respectively, with the ability to resolve e-mail addressing of inbound
messages routed from the public network 12 to the appropriate users within
the private networks 14, 16 and 18. The alias databases 21, 25 and 29 are
dynamic datasets which are changed as persons within private networks 14,
16 and 18 change the aliases associated with their mailboxes and as new
users are added and old users are deleted from the private networks 14, 16
and 18. In order for uninterrupted access to be provided to the users of
the private networks 14, 16 and 18 from the public network 12, it is
important that the alias databases 21, 25 and 29 be maintained and that
changes in the alias databases are reflected in each location.
In addition, firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30 may also serve as
platforms for system log management systems and nameserver administration
systems as described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No.
08/446,213 entitled "System Log Management System" and U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 08/446,330 entitled "Nameserver Administration System
and Method", assigned to the assignee of the present patent application,
the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
As discussed previously, prior systems would solve the problem of changing
alias databases by maintaining all alias information in a central
location. All mail routed to the group of private networks must
necessarily be routed through this central location. In contrast, the
communications system 10 allows for many access points into the
organization associated with private networks 14, 16 and 18. Each of the
access points maintains a current alias database for the entire
organization through the operation of the electronic mail system of the
present invention.
The send mail processes 23, 27 and 31 are used by the firewall host systems
26, 28 and 30, respectively, to process electronic messages which are
stored within message queues within the firewall host systems 26, 28 and
30. The manipulation and management of the messages within the queues as
they are processed by the sendmail processes 23, 27 and 31 will be
discussed more completely herein with reference to FIGS. 3a and 3b which
illustrate the efficient graphical user interface that is provided to
administrators of the message queues according to the teachings of the
present invention.
It should be understood that while the communication system 10 is
illustrated comprising three private networks 14, 16 and 18, this is
solely for purposes of teaching the present invention and should not be
construed to limit the teachings of the present invention to this or any
particular number of networks. In order to fully describe the important
aspects of the present invention, an example of an update to the alias
databases 21, 25 and 29 involving three separate firewall host systems
will be described. In this example, an update that is first initiated on
firewall host system 26 will be sent to firewall host system 28 for
distribution to the entire interconnected system. Firewall host system 30
will be described acting in its role as one of many recipients of the
distribution of new information. The example of the operations performed
by each of the firewall host systems is provided in FIGS. 2a through 2c.
The operations of firewall host system 26 is described in the flow chart
shown in FIG. 2a. Similarly, the operations of the firewall host system 28
in this example are shown in the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 2b.
Finally, the operations of firewall host system 30 are shown in the flow
chart illustrated in FIG. 2c.
Referring to FIG. 2a, the process of changing and distributing updates of
an alias database is begun in firewall host system 26 when the
administration utility is invoked by a user of firewall host system 26 in
step 32. The method then proceeds to step 34 where the user of firewall
host system 26 manipulates the information in alias database 21 and adds
or deletes alias information or edits existing alias information. The
method then proceeds to step 36 where the revised alias information is
installed on firewall host system 26. This step comprises the rebuilding
of the local alias database 21 which results in the construction of a new
local site alias information file.
The method then proceeds to step 38 where the user of firewall host system
26 invokes the distribution operation of the new local alias information.
The method then proceeds to step 40 where the firewall host system 26
constructs, encrypts and sends an electronic mail message which includes
the new local site alias information file. This electronic mail message is
routed through router 20 to public network 12 and is addressed to the
firewall host system 28.
Firewall host system 28 acts as a central gathering point for the
electronic mail messages which include alias information updates. In
contrast to prior systems, firewall host system 28 does not need to act as
a gathering point for all electronic mail traffic because, as will be seen
in FIG. 2b, firewall host system 28 merely reflects the electronic mail
message to all host systems within the organization. Each of the host
systems is then able to update their own local alias databases.
Referring to FIG. 2b, the firewall host system 28 in the present example
receives the electronic mail message from firewall host system 26 at step
42. The firewall host system 28 then decrypts the electronic mail message
in step 44.
The firewall host system 28 then retrieves a distribution list in step 46
which includes the electronic mailing address for each firewall host
system in the organization. In the present example, this distribution list
would include firewall host system 28 and firewall host system 30. The
method then proceeds to step 48 where the firewall host system 28 uses the
distribution list retrieved in step 46 to construct, address and reencrypt
an electronic mail message. The electronic mail message includes the
updated local site alias information that was transmitted by firewall host
system 26 to firewall host system 28. The method then proceeds to step 50
where the firewall host system 28 transmits the encrypted message to all
of the distribution sites within the organizations. The method then
terminates.
Firewall host system 30, as well as all of the firewall host systems within
the organization, receives the electronic mail message from the central
firewall host system 28 at step 52 shown in FIG. 2c. The method proceeds
from step 52 to step 54 where the firewall host system 30 decrypts the
received message. The method then proceeds to step 56 where the firewall
host system 30 invokes an administration program by sending the decrypted
message to an update address. In this manner, the administration program
executing on the firewall host system 30 acts as a node on the private
network 18. The firewall host system 30 can send a message to an address
which is not an actual node on the private network 18 but is rather a
program which, when messages are sent to that address, begins processing
with the message as the input to the program.
The administration program begins processing using the decrypted electronic
mail message as input and in step 58 it scans this electronic mail message
for security concerns. For example, the administration program will scan
the electronic mail message to make sure that no executable programs are
included within the body of the message. After completing the security
scan in step 58, the method proceeds to step 60 where the administration
program determines if the new site alias file is associated with the local
firewall host system 30. If the new site alias information file originated
from the local site, the method terminates because the local firewall host
30 will have already rebuilt its alias database as was described in step
36 with reference to FIG. 2a previously.
However, if the administration program determines in step 60 that the new
site alias information file is from a different firewall host system
within the organization, the method proceeds to step 62 where the
administration program will write the new site alias information file to
the site alias information directory. The method then proceeds to step 64
where the administration program will reconstruct the alias database 29
using all of the site alias information files within the site alias
information file directory including the new site alias information file
received from firewall host system 26 through firewall host system 28. The
method then terminates.
As discussed previously with reference to FIG. 1, each of the firewall host
systems 26, 28 and 30 comprise a send mail process 23, 27 or 31
respectively. In a "UNIX" or similar processing system implementation, the
inbound portion of the send mail process that processes mail received from
public network 12 comprises a daemon which is always operating on each of
the firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30 to receive electronic mail
messages from the public network 12 and place them in a mail message queue
within each of the firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30. When mail messages
are present in the queue, firewall host system 26, 28 and 30 will spawn
one or more send mail processes in order to deliver the messages within
the mail message queue. Often, messages will be present in the queue which
are undeliverable for a variety of reasons. These messages will continue
to cause outbound send mail processes to be spawned and will thus tax the
processing resources of the firewall host systems 26, 28 and 30. For this
and other reasons, the electronic mail management system of the present
invention provides for a mail queue maintenance graphical user interface
which displays the current status of the mail message queue and which
provides for maintenance functions to be presented to the administrator in
a convenient, graphical presentation.
FIG. 3a is an illustration of a graphical user interface, indicated
generally at 66, that comprises a queue display area 68. Queue display
area 68 presents the administrator of the mail message queue with seven
columns of information about each message that is present in the mail
message queue. Reading from left to right in FIG. 3a, the queue display
area 68 displays the queue identification, a busy indication which
indicates whether or not a send mail process is currently attempting to
deliver the message, a size indication indicating the size of the message,
a priority indication indicating the priority of the message, a queue time
indicating the time at which the message was placed in the mail message
queue and the sender and receiver addresses associated with the messages.
As shown in FIG. 3a, the top message on line 0 has been selected. Single
messages within the message queue or multiple messages within the message
queue can be selected at one time ill order to have operations performed
on them.
The graphical user interface 66 also comprises a command area 70 which
comprises push buttons to exit the maintenance facility and to elicit
help. In addition, push buttons are provided to print selected
information, to save messages to disk files or other facilities and to
refresh the queue display area 68 on demand by accessing the actual mail
message queue and displaying the information that is located there. The
display is automatically updated periodically.
The graphical user interface 66 also comprises a queue command region which
includes a number of queue maintenance buttons, including a queue stop, a
queue start and queue drain button. The queue stop button will terminate
the sendmail daemon that may be attempting to deliver messages. The queue
stop button will also create a situation where the firewall host system
will not accept any more inbound mail. In this instance, the public
network 12 will attempt to redeliver the message to the firewall host
system at a later time. The queue start button restarts the sendmail
daemon after the queue has been stopped. The queue drain button shown in
FIG. 3a will force a send mail process to be initiated even if other send
mail processes are already in place attempting to deliver messages. As
such, an administrator can proactively clear many or all messages in the
mail message queue by repeatedly hitting the queue drain button to force
the firewall host system to spawn new send mail processes. This can be
very useful because a single send mail process can remain occupied with a
single message if, for example, that message has a large number of
recipients.
The graphical user interface 66 also comprises a mail command region which
includes a number of mail management push buttons. The graphical user
interface 66 includes a bounce button, a delete button, a headers button,
a reroute button and an active processes button shown in FIG. 3a.
The bounce button will force a return to sender operation to be performed
on any selected messages within the queue. In prior systems, this
operation was extremely difficult to perform because prior systems used a
command line interface and required the editing of multiple files in order
to alter the intended address of a message and to edit the message itself
to inform the sender that his message had been bounced. According to the
teachings of the present invention, the bounce operation is greatly
simplified in that the activation of the bounce command will bring a
bounce dialogue box to the screen such as a bounce interface 72 shown in
FIG. 3b.
According to the teachings of the present invention, the bounce command
automatically locates the header file for the message to be bounced and
prepends the character string "(bounce)" to the front of the subject line
of the message. In addition, message text which can be selected by the
administrator is prepended to the message itself. As shown in FIG. 3b,
bounce interface 72 may include a number of preformatted messages to be
included as a portion of the message text to a bounced message. In the
example shown in FIG. 3b, the words "recipient no longer exists at this
site" will be inserted into the message. Other messages can also be
prepended to the text of the message. For example, the sender could be
informed that the recipient is on vacation. In addition, the sender could
be informed that because of the use of the system of the present
invention, his message was bounced but that the text of his message was
not read prior to bouncing. In prior systems, the editing of the message
text itself necessarily involved opening the message text file. This
operation allowed the administrator to read the text of the electronic
message intended for someone else. Using the present invention, the
message may be bounced and message text may be inserted into the message
without the administrator ever having read access to the electronic
message itself.
Referring again to FIG. 3a, the command region 70 also includes a delete
button. The delete command will delete from the queue any messages that
have been selected in the queue display region 68.
The command region 70 also includes a headers button. The headers command
will display the header information for any selected entries in the
message queue. The header of a message contains a great deal of
information that is useful to an administrator in attempting to solve
problems with his messaging system. For example, improper addressing of
source and recipients and other information is contained in electronic
mail message headers.
The command region 70 also includes a reroute button. The reroute command
allows the administrator to access the header of a selected message, enter
a new address for the message, and put the message back into the queue for
redelivery. The reroute command allows mail that has mistakenly been
placed in a queue for a recipient that no longer exists at that delivery
location because of a change in address or a change in alias to be
redirected to the correct address. This situation might occur for mail
that was in the process of being delivered when a change in address or
change in alias was made.
The command region 70 also includes a queue active button. The queue active
button brings forth a dialogue box that contains a listing of all
running/active sendmail processes and the queue i.d.s associated with
each, except possibly for the daemon process. By selecting one or many of
the processes, a terminate option is provided which will terminate that
process and reenter that message in the message queue.
The send mail processes can also be accessed by double clicking on the
queue i.d. portion of a message entry within message queue display region
68.
The graphical interface 66 also includes a search command region 74 shown
in FIG. 3a. Through manipulation of search region 74, an administrator can
select whether a character match or regular expression search is to be
performed. The search pattern can be entered in the search pattern window
shown in FIG. 3a. Preselected search patterns may also be stored and
selected using the up and down arrows to the right of the search pattern
window. Using the search capabilities of the electronic mail system of the
present invention, single messages within the current message queue or
multiple messages within the current message queue can be selected by
searching for character strings within the header information associated
with the messages.
According to the teachings of the present invention, a mail queue
maintenance system is provided that allows for the proactive maintenance
of the mail message queue prior to the delivery of the messages within
that queue. An administrator is presented with a graphical representation
of all of the messages within the queue at any particular time and the
status of those messages in terms of delivery and the send mail processes
associated with the messages. On the same graphical user interface, the
administrator is provided with a variety of commands to manipulate
messages within the mail message queue. These commands are presented as
graphical radio buttons. The mail message maintenance system of the
present invention performs all of the file maintenance required to perform
the various commands instituted by the administrator. A single message
within a message queue could have up to a half a dozen files associated
with the message. Prior systems required cumbersome command line
interfaces and file manipulation. Improper manipulation of these files
could create orphan files or could result in the unwanted deletion of
messages within the queue.
According to another aspect of the mail maintenance system of the present
invention, a sanity check is performed each time the message queue is
stopped or started. According to this aspect of the present invention, the
queue is searched for orphan files each time the queue is stopped. These
orphan files are deleted to prevent unnecessary use of storage facilities
and potential confusion within the queue itself.
According to the teachings of the present invention, an electronic mail
management system is provided that provides for both the efficient
maintenance of alias databases and the proactive maintenance of electronic
mail message queues.
Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in
detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and
alterations can be made therein without departing from the spirit and
scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
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