SUMMARY

MailEnable stores its configuration and message store on file services. As such, a separate server can be configured to share the same message store and configuration data.

This effectively allows organisations to configure separate servers to act as front end servers, leaving the message store and configuration on a backend server.

The following procedure explains how to share configuration and data amongst MailEnable servers.

DETAIL

MailEnable has extensively tested the instructions provided within this article and can confirm the steps are successful in the environments tested.  The steps provided must be followed exactly as any variations are likely to cause issues.

The instructions in this article apply to only the Enterprise and Enterprise Premium Editions, as only these support the required queue management for multiple servers.  

Enterprise Edition provides a clustering interface under the Messaging Manager properties section of the MailEnable Administration Program. It allows clustering of one or more front end MailEnable servers (providing web mail and other services) to a backend storage server. The following steps are provided if not using the clustering wizard provided with Enterprise Edition.

Step 1: Pre-Installation Requirements

To facilitate this, firstly install (or have installed) a copy of MailEnable on a dedicated server within the organisation. This will effectively provide access to basic MailEnable connectivity for mailbox owners within your organisation. The next thing to do, is create a file service or shared directory that allows other remote MailEnable servers to access the shared configuration information. The directory that was specified as the Configuration Directory when MailEnable was originally installed will need to be shared. By default this is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mail Enable", however it can be identified by running the MailEnable Administration program and selecting the properties of the Messaging Manager. There will be an entry called the Configuration Directory. The directory to share is the directory immediately below this directory e.g. The Configuration directory C:\PROGRA~1\MAILEN~1\CONFIG, should share the directory called C:\PROGRA~1\MAILEN~1. The share for this directory should be a "hidden" share, ideally called "MAILENABLE$". (The trailing "$" makes the file service hidden - to protect it).

Step 2: Installation MailEnable on your Secondary Server

Before installation, it is advisable to change the Administrator password of this server to have the same Administrator password as the first server. This is required in order to allow administration from either server. Since the share contains the configuration data, Windows will try to authenticate with the username/password of the currently logged in user in order to access it. Once this server is configured and is up and running, then install MailEnable on a secondary server. This is required because MailEnable will need to connect to the file service created on your original MailEnable installation. Verify that the Share is accessible by connecting to the UNC Path (e.g. Start|Run|\\[MAILENABLE SERVER NAME]\MAILENABLE$)

Disable the unwanted MailEnable services using the Services control panel applet. The core files are required by web mail when it accesses configuration from the remote file store, so the full product needs to be installed on all servers. 

During the installation of MailEnable (on the second server), it will prompt for the location of the MailEnable repository. Specify the UNC path to the Share created earlier. Therefore the UNC path would be \\[ServerName]\MAILENABLE$. Complete the installation of MailEnable as prompted via the installation wizard.

Step 3: Configuring web mail (Optional)

Once the installation of this server is complete, there are a few additional steps that must be completed to allow web mail to work on the server. These should only need to be done once, and re-installs should not overwrite the changes. MailEnable web mail and web administration use a Windows service account called IME_ADMIN when they are running. Hence, because the newly installed server needs to access the file service on the original server, the passwords for the service accounts must match (hence facilitating NTLM authentication). Therefore, it is required to change the passwords for these accounts to match - use Computer Manager. In the C:\Program Files (x86)\Mail Enable\Bin directory on each of the servers, run the following utility (with appropriate parameters).

MEINSTALLER.EXE password WEBMAIL
where password is the password set for the IME_ADMIN account.

This needs to be done on both servers.

This utility will do the following:
- Set the password for the IME_ADMIN account

It should now be possible to access MailEnable web mail services from the newly installed MailEnable server.

TROUBLESHOOTING

It is critical that any MailEnable services on the front end server are configured to run under the IME_ADMIN account and that the password for this account matches the IME_ADMIN account that resides on the backend store.

Here are two tests that may assist in troubleshooting.

1. If it is possible to access the mailbox via the MailEnable administration program and view the messages in inbox, and there are no errors in the Diagnostic Report, then the paths specified to the backend store are correct.

2. Whilst logged on to the machine as Administrator (who will presumably have access to the remote UNC store), stop the POP service (or whatever service you are attempting to use) and run it in debug mode from the command prompt. e.g. MEPOPS -debug

This will have the service run under the currently logged in user and access the remote store as this user. If it is possible to use the protocol/service to access mail correctly, then the issue preventing MailEnable from working in normal mode is permissions related and the fact that the service account (IME_ADMIN) being used for that service does not have access to the shared file service.

The Microsoft tool called Process Monitor can be used on the server to determine why the front-end computer is not able to access the backend UNC. You can find this tool at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon

MORE INFORMATION

How to use the MEInstaller.exe utility: Article ME020314