Sun Java System Instant Messaging 7.2 Administration Guide

Chapter 8 Federating Deployment of Multiple Instant Messaging Servers

In an LDAP-only deployment, when you federate multiple Instant Messaging deployments you form a larger Instant Messaging community. End users from different servers can communicate with each other, use conference rooms on other domains, and subscribe to news channels on remote servers based on the access privileges.

For enabling communication between multiple Instant Messaging servers in your network, you need to configure your server to identify itself to the other Instant Messaging servers in the network. An Instant Messaging server identifies itself with its domain name, host and port number, server ID, and password.

In an LDAP-only deployment, the two servers should reside in different domains.

Within the server configuration, you can assign each Instant Messaging server a symbolic name, consisting of letters and digits, for example, IMserver1.

Caution –

Secure server-to-server communication using TLS. This is required to prevent third party infringement of security when data is exchanged between two servers. This precaution is extremely desirable in the case where the link between the two servers uses the public internet. Follow the instructions outlined below to configure TLS between Instant Messaging servers.

Configuring Federated Communication Between Instant Messaging Servers

This section describes how to enable federated communication between two Instant Messaging servers.

Table 8–1 lists the parameters in iim.conf used to federate communication between two servers, and the values for these parameters for two example Instant Messaging servers; iim.company22.com and iim.i-zed.com.

For more information on the configuration parameters, see Appendix A, Instant Messaging Configuration Parameters in iim.conf.

Note –

Each Instant Messaging server is identified by its symbolic name. The symbolic name of the server is added in the iim_server.coservers parameter in iim.conf. This parameter has multiple values and each value is separated by a comma.

Table 8–1 Example Configuration Information for Two Federated Instant Messaging Servers


Parameter in `iim.conf`	Value for Server `iim.company22.com`	Value for Server `iim.i-zed.com`
`iim_server.serverid`	`Iamcompany22`	`iami-zed`
`iim_server.password`	`secretforcompany22`	`secret4i-zed`
`iim_server.coservers`	`coserver1`	`coserver1`
`iim_server.domainname`	`iim.company22.com`	`iim.i-zed.com`
`iim_server.coserver1.host`	`iim.i-zed.com:5269`	`iim.company22.com:5269`
`iim_server.coserver1.serverid`	`Iami-zed`	`Iamcompany22`
`iim_server.coserver1.password`	`secret4i-zed`	`secretforcompany22`
`iim_server.coserver1.domain`	`i-zed.com`	`company22.com`

To Federate Communication Between Two Instant Messaging Servers

Gather the information listed in Table 8–1.

Change to im-cfg-base on the server iim.company22.com.

See Instant Messaging Server Directory Structure for instructions on locating im-cfg-base.

Open iim.conf.

See iim.conf File Syntax for instructions on locating and modifying iim.conf.

Note –
The iim.conf file should be owned by the Instant Messaging server account you created during installation. If the iim.conf file cannot be read by the Instant Messaging server account, the server and multiplexor will be unable to read the configuration. Additionally, you might lose the ability to edit iim.conf.

Modify the parameter values to match your deployment.

Table 8–1 lists the parameters you need to modify. If the parameters do not exist in iim.conf, add them. The following example shows the section of iim.conf on iim.company22.com corresponding to the server-to-server communications that you need to modify:

iim_server.serverid=Iamcompany22
iim_server.password=secretforcompany22
iim_server.domainname=iim.icompany22.com
iim_server.coservers=coserver1
iim_server.coserver1.host=iim.i-zed.com:5269
iim_server.coserver1.serverid=Iami-zed
iim_server.coserver1.password=secret4i-zed
iim_server.coserver1.domain=i-zed.com

Follow steps 2 through 4 for the iim.conf file on server iim.i-zed.com.

The following example shows the section of iim.conf on iim.i-zed.com corresponding to the server-to-server communications that you need to modify:

iim_server.serverid=Iami-zed
iim_server.password=secret4i-zed
iim_server.domainname=iim.i-zed.com
iim_server.coservers=coserver1
iim_server.coserver1.host=iim.company22.com:5269
iim_server.coserver1.serverid=Iamcompany22
iim_server.coserver1.password=secretforcompany22
iim_server.coserver1.domain=company22.com

Save the changes and close iim.conf.

Refresh the configuration on both servers.
imadmin refresh server