2 Managing Oracle Mail Objects

This chapter contains information necessary for managing Oracle Mail objects, including domains, users, distribution lists, newsgroups, and aliases. Additionally, it discusses the delegation of certain administration tasks.

Both system and domain administrators have the necessary privileges to manage Oracle Mail objects, although domain administrators are limited to specific domains.

This chapter includes the following topics:

• Managing Oracle Mail Users

• Managing Oracle Mail Domains

• Managing Distribution Lists

• Managing Aliases

• Managing News Objects

Managing Oracle Mail Users

Using the Oracle WebMail client, you can perform user management tasks, such as adding, removing, and modifying e-mail users.

Notes: After a successful installation of Oracle Mail, a user with full administrative privileges (a system administrator) must be created using Oracle Delegated Administration Services prior to any user being provisioned or deprovisioned using Oracle WebMail, and also prior to creating any domains. Base users having multiple mail IDs cannot be managed from the centralized provisioning framework in Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g. Users that have multiple mail IDs cannot be managed from Oracle Delegated Administration Services; Oracle WebMail must be used to manage such users.

See Also: "oesucr" for information about managing users from the command line

This section includes the following topics:

• Adding E-mail Users

• Modifying E-mail User Attributes

• Setting Default New User Attributes

• Removing E-mail Users

• Recovering Deleted Messages

Adding E-mail Users

Notes: A base user must exist in Oracle Internet Directory before an e-mail account can be created. If the intended e-mail user has no entry in the directory, a message displays with a link directing you to the directory's Oracle Delegated Administration Services page. You can create and provision the user there. Once users are created using Oracle Delegated Administration Services, it is not necessary to re-create them using the Oracle WebMail client. If the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database was down when user provisioning occurred (whether from Oracle Delegated Administration Services or Oracle WebMail), the Oracle Mail servers and Oracle WebMail will create the folders in the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database for the user when they receive a message or when the user logs in.

To add e-mail users:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the User subtab. The Add E-mail Service to User page displays by default.

4. Select a domain from the E-mail Domain list.

5. Click Select to display the following list of user attributes for an e-mail account:

   • E-mail User Account Name: Enter an account name for the user, such as firstname.lastname.

     
     

     Note: Only US-ASCII characters are accepted in this field. Spaces in account names are converted to periods (.). Account names containing the following non-US-ASCII characters are not supported: ä Ä ö Ö ü Ü ß

     
     

   • Base Subscriber: Select a domain from the list.

     This is the Oracle Internet Directory realm under which the base users are provisioned. The Oracle Internet Directory realm can be different than the domain of the e-mail address. For example, base users can be provisioned under the realm dc=foo,dc=com; however, the domain of the e-mail address could be us.foo.com or sales.foo.com. Use this field to select the Oracle Internet Directory realm under which the base user is provisioned to enable Oracle WebMail to ascertain with which base user to associate this user ID.

   • Collaboration Suite Database: Select an information store from the list.

   • E-mail Quota (MB): Enter a number to represent the number of megabytes (MB) of e-mail storage assigned to this user.

     1048576 MB is the maximum quota that can be specified in this field.

     Enter 0 to give a user unlimited quota.

   • Role: Specifies the permissions of a particular user.

     
     

     See Also: "Overview of Oracle Mail Administration" for information about the various administrator roles

     
     

   • Archive Policy: Select an archive policy to assign to the user.

     Archive policies can be applied to any e-mail user so that all of the user's incoming and outgoing e-mail messages are stored in a third-party storage facility. If you do not want to associate the user with an archive policy, leave this option blank. If archive policies are created later, you can modify archive policy application for a user.

     If no archive policies exist, this field will not be displayed.

     
     

     See Also: "Oracle Mail Archive Policies" for more information about archive policies

     
     

6. Click Add to add the user to the domain or Cancel to return to the previous page.

A Word About Quota

Two quota values can be set for users: user-quota and voice-quota. When usage reaches user-quota, it means that the sum of e-mails and voice mails is equal to the user-quota value. The voice-quota is an additional buffer provided to users so that voice-mail delivery is not affected when users reach their quota.

All e-mails and voice mails are delivered to users as long as they are under user-quota. Once users reach their user-quota, e-mails are held in the system and not delivered. In addition, users cannot save new messages in the server folders when they reach user-quota. For example, saving a copy of outgoing messages to the Sent folder is not allowed. The IMAP server informs the client that the user is over quota when the user tries to save new outgoing mail.

However, voice-mail delivery continues as long as total usage is under the user-quota plus voice-quota value. For example, if user-quota is 50 MB and voice-quota is 20 MB, e-mail delivery stops after the usage is 50 MB, but voice-mail delivery continues until user-quota and voice-quota reach 70 MB.

E-mail messages are received as usual when a user is over quota. They are stored in exactly the same tables but there is a flag that sets the status of the message so that it cannot be viewed by the user. The system will continue to receive messages until the disk space fills to capacity.

The message ID of any message received while a user is over quota is set to a negative number to indicate that it was received while the user was over quota. Once the user is back under quota, the message ID is set to a positive number and the messages can then be retrieved.

When users clean up their accounts and are under the user-quota and user-quota plus voice-quota values, e-mail and voice-mail delivery resume.

Modifying E-mail User Attributes

To modify the attributes of an existing user:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the User subtab.

4. Click Modify User.

5. Enter the user ID in the Search Criteria field. Enter an asterisk (*) to perform a wildcard search.

6. Select the user's domain from the Domain list.

7. Click Go.

8. Click the name of the user in the E-mail User Account Name column to modify attributes for that user.

9. Modify the following attributes, as necessary:

   • E-mail User Account Name: The e-mail user account address. This information cannot be modified.

   • Collaboration Suite Database: Global database name of the information storage database containing this user's folders and messages. This information cannot be modified.

   • E-mail Quota (MB): This is the maximum amount of e-mail messages, measured in megabytes, that an individual can store on the mail store. If you enter 0, a user has unlimited quota.

   • Additional Voice Mail Quota (MB): This is the maximum amount of voice mail messages, measured in megabytes, that an individual can store on the mail store. If you enter 0, a user has unlimited quota.

     This quota is in addition to the e-mail quota. For example, if a user has 40 MB of e-mail quota and 10 MB of voice mail quota, the user has a total of 50 MB of message storage. While e-mail quota cannot exceed the amount given, voice-mail quota can exceed its given amount up to the total amount of message storage.

     If either of these quotas is set to 0, a user has unlimited overall storage. However, if the voice-mail quota is set to 0, and e-mail quota is set to a finite value, such as 40 MB, when the voice-mail quota reaches 40 MB, the user will no longer be able to receive e-mail.

   • User State: Choose either Active or Inactive from the User State list.

     
     

     Notes: An inactive user cannot access the mail system at all. However, messages sent to an inactive account are stored in the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database and can be accessed if the account is reactivated. If the user state is changed to inactive and if the user owns mailing lists or newsgroups, Oracle WebMail displays a warning message listing the names of distribution lists or newsgroups owned by the user. This warning message informs the administrator that because the owner of these lists or newsgroups is inactive, some administrative activities handled by the owner will not be possible for these distribution lists or newsgroups.

     
     

   • Auto Reply Mode: Select from the list one of the following automatic reply choices:

     • Reply with original message, along with "Auto Reply Message" below

     • Reject sender's e-mail

     • Vacation, reply only one e-mail with each sender

     • Reply each incoming e-mail with "Auto Reply Message" below

   • Auto Reply Text: Enter any text to be included in automatic replies.

   • Auto Reply Expiration: Enter a date at which automatic reply will cease.

   • Forward E-mail Address: Specify an address to which messages will be forwarded.

     If an e-mail address is entered here, an orclforwardaddress entry is created in Oracle Internet Directory, and all messages are forwarded to the specified address. No messages are delivered to the original recipient's Inbox.

     In order for messages to continue being delivered to the user's Inbox, a filter must be created to accomplish this task.

   • Text Indexing: When enabled, Oracle Mail servers index messages as soon as possible after the messages enter the system so that the user can search the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database and return results in seconds. This task is performed by the Housekeeper server.

     
     

     Note: Formally known as index synchronization, text indexing can be performed for messages already present in a user's mailbox. Set the oracle.mail.admin.policy.indexoldmessages parameter to true in the oc4j.properties file located in the $ORACLE_HOME/j2ee/OC4J_OCSClient/config directory on each Applications tier. Restart Oracle WebMail after making this change. By default this parameter value is false, so text indexing is done only for new messages.

     
     
     
     

     See Also: "Configuring Housekeeper Tasks" for more information about index synchronization

     
     

   • Role: Specifies the permissions that a particular user has:

     System Administrator: A system administrator will have permissions to administer and configure the entire Oracle Mail system.

     Domain Administrator: A domain administrator will have permissions to administer and configure Oracle Mail within a particular domain.

     User: A user will have permissions only to access, read, and send e-mail, fax, and voice-mail messages.

   • Archive Policy: Select an archive policy to assign to the user.

     Archive policies can be applied to any e-mail user so that all of the user's incoming and outgoing e-mail messages are stored in a third-party storage facility. If you do not want to associate the user with an archive policy, leave this option blank. If archive policies are created later, you can modify archive policy application for a user.

     If no archive policies exist, this field will not be displayed.

     
     

     See Also: "Oracle Mail Archive Policies" for more information about archive policies

     
     

10. Click Modify to apply the changes.

Setting Default New User Attributes

All new e-mail users created in a particular domain are given default attributes that can later be changed.

To set the default attributes of new users in a particular domain:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab. The Default New User page in the Domain subtab displays by default.

3. Select an installation from the Installation list.

4. Select a domain from the Domain list.

5. Click Submit.

6. Modify the following attributes:

   • Collaboration Suite Database: Select an information store from the list where each user's mail is to be stored.

   • E-mail Quota (MB): Enter a number to represent the number of megabytes of e-mail storage assigned to each user.

     Enter 0 to give a user unlimited quota.

   • Additional Voice Mail Quota (M): Enter a number to represent the number of megabytes of voice-mail storage assigned to each user.

   • User State: Defines the user as active or inactive. If User State is set to Active, the user has full use of the mail protocols that are exposed by the implementation.

     A message sent to an inactive user will result in a delivery status notification (DSN) being sent to the sender of the message.

   • Text Indexing: When text indexing is enabled, e-mail messages are indexed for searching.

   • Role: Defines the user as either a regular user, a system administrator, or a domain administrator.

     
     

     See Also: "Overview of Oracle Mail Administration" for more information about system and domain administrators

     
     

   • Number of Messages Displayed in Oracle WebMail: Specifies the number of message headers displayed at one time on the Oracle WebMail client. For example, you can specify to display 20 messages at a time.

   • Display Headers (Oracle WebMail): Select Full from the list to display Oracle WebMail headers in detail.

   • Archive Policy: Select an archiving policy to assign to new users.

     Archive policies can be applied to any e-mail user so that all of the user's outgoing and incoming e-mail messages are kept in an archive. If no archive policies exist or you do not want to associate the user with an archive policy, leave this option blank. If archive policies are created later, you can modify archive policy application for a user.

     
     

     See Also: "Oracle Mail Archive Policies" for more information about archive policies

     
     

7. Click Submit to apply the changes.

Removing E-mail Users

Notes: When an e-mail user is removed, any shared folders and public shared folders owned by that user are also deleted; however, user data stored in the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database is not removed. If the user being deleted owns a distribution list or newsgroup, the user deletion will not proceed. An error message displays that will contain the names of the distribution lists or newsgroups owned by this user. The administrator must change the ownership of these lists and newsgroups for deletion of the user to succeed.

See Also: "oesucr" for information about removing a user's data from the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database

To remove individual e-mail users:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the User subtab.

4. Click Remove User.

5. Enter the user ID in the Search Criteria field. Enter an asterisk (*) to perform a wildcard search.

6. Select the user's domain from the Domain list.

7. Click Go.

8. Select the user you want to remove.

9. Click Remove to display a confirmation page.

10. Click Return to User Management.

Recovering Deleted Messages

Using this feature, you can recover deleted messages for users using the LogMiner feature of the Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g Database.

Note: Recovering deleted messages from the redo log is an expensive operation because it involves searching the redo log file with the LogMiner utility. The time it takes to recover deleted messages is a function of: The size and number of the redo logs being searched The number of messages to be recovered The size of the MIME message The greater the number of messages to be recovered, the longer the operation takes. The operation can take from several minutes to several hours, depending upon the preceding factors. If a large number of messages must be recovered, Oracle recommends running LogMiner during off-peak hours. You must run Housekeeper server before you can recover deleted messages.

To recover deleted messages:

1. Set up LogMiner to recover deleted messages as described in "Setting Up LogMiner to Recover Mail".

2. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

3. Click the Administration tab.

4. Click the User subtab.

5. Click Recover E-mail to display the Recover E-mail page.

6. Enter information in the following fields:

   • E-mail Account Name: Enter the fully qualified e-mail address of the user for whom you are recovering messages.

   • Sender: Enter the fully qualified e-mail address of the sender if the user is searching for deleted messages by sender.

   • Subject: Enter a string of text to search the Subject field of deleted messages.

   • Date Range From: Enter a date from which to begin searching messages.

   • Date Range To: Enter a date at which to end searching messages.

   If more than one field is given for a search, the search is performed on all the criteria. For example, if the Date Range From, Date Range To, and Sender fields contain values, the search returns deleted messages where the Date Range From is mm/dd/yyyy (or dd/mm/yyyy, depending upon your locale), the Date Range To is mm/dd/yyyy (or dd/mm/yyyy, depending upon your locale), and the Sender is sender.

   The Subject and the Sender fields are used to perform regular POSIX and Unicode expression matching.

7. Click Search to display a list of recoverable messages.

8. The list of recoverable messages includes the following information:

   • Sender: Fully qualified e-mail address of the sender of the message

   • Date: Date that the message was sent

   • Subject: Contents of the Subject field of the message

   • Database Instance ID: The system identifier (SID) of the Oracle instance (especially applicable in an Oracle Real Application Clusters environment) on which the message was deleted, and identifies the redo log file name from which the deleted message must be recovered

   • Redo Log Number: The redo log number identifies the archived redo log file from which the deleted message is to be recovered.

   • Available on Disk?: If checked, the redo log file from which messages are recovered is online. If it is offline, the redo log file cannot be read and the messages cannot be recovered.

   
   

   Note: If the Database Instance ID and Redo Log Number both have a 0 value for a message, and the Available On Disk? column is checked for that message, this message can be recovered. In this case, the 0 values indicate that this message has not yet been through the garbage collection process of the Housekeeper server.

   
   

9. Select any number of messages and click Recover. The same message can be recovered multiple times if the message appears in the recoverable messages list based on the search criteria.

10. Click OK when the confirmation page displays. Recovered messages return to the user's inbox. If an error page displays, no messages were recovered. If a warning page displays, some messages were recovered, while others were not.

    The SMTP server in the Oracle Internet Directory service registry is used to deliver the recovered messages to the user's Inbox. The received date of the recovered message is changed to the date that the recovered message is received.

Managing Oracle Mail Domains

Domains identify e-mail addresses as being from a specific company. E-mail domains can have subdomains that can be administered separately even if they are on the same system. The advantages to administering subdomains on the same system separately are:

• Convenience in accommodating subdomains with different maintenance schedules, which is typical for subdomains in different geographic regions

• Ease of administering subdomains with different default attributes, which is common for subdomains belonging to different organizations

Using the Oracle WebMail client, an administrator can perform domain management tasks, such as modifying default attributes for new users, managing domain settings, and creating domains.

Note: Only system administrators can create domains. Ensure that a system administrator has been created prior to attempting to create domains.

This section includes the following topics:

• Creating Domains

• Modifying Domain Settings

Creating Domains

Oracle Mail domains are created using the Oracle WebMail client. The base domain is created automatically during installation of the Oracle Collaboration Suite Infrastructure. E-mail domain names can be different than the base domain. For example, you can create e-mail subdomains of company.com named a.company.com, b.company.com, and c.company.com.

To create additional domains:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab. The Domain subtab displays by default.

3. Click Create Domain.

   
   

   Note: If you do not have system administrator privileges, this link will not display in the user interface (UI).

   
   

4. Click the name of the installation for which you want to create the new domain.

5. Select a domain from the Parent Domain list.

6. Enter the new domain name in the Domain field.

7. Click Create Domain to display the Domain Settings page.

8. Click Submit to display a confirmation page.

Modifying Domain Settings

Note: Preferences modified for a domain apply only to entries created after the modifications. For example, if the default mail quota for the oracle.com domain is changed to 60 megabytes (MB), only users newly created in that domain have the new 60 MB quota. Existing users in that domain retain their old mail quota.

To modify domain settings:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab. The Domain subtab displays by default.

3. Click Domain Settings.

4. Select an installation from the Installation list.

5. Select a domain from the Domain list.

6. Click Submit.

7. Modify domain attributes in the following fields, as necessary:

   • Location in Public Namespace: A valid distinguished name within the list server to which distribution lists are synchronized. This specifies the distinguished name of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) container in Oracle Internet Directory, which contains all distribution lists in a public namespace for client lookup.

     For example:

     cn=List,dc=foo,dc=com,cn=um_system,cn=EMailServerContainer,cn=Products,cn=OracleContext
     

     
     

     See Also: "Enabling Distribution List Lookup from Standard Clients" for more information about distribution list synchronization

     
     

   • Objectclasses for Creation in Public Namespace: Enter a list of LDAP objectclasses used while creating distribution lists in the public namespace. The list of LDAP objectclasses must include the groupofnames or groupofuniquenames parameter.

     For example:

     groupofuniquenames=domainRelatedObject
     
     

   • Naming Attribute for Creation in Public Namespace: Contains the naming attribute to be used while creating distribution lists in the public namespace.

     For example:

     domain
     
     

   • Flashback Mail Recovery: Enables or disables flashback mail recovery for e-mail users. This attribute does not affect the flashback mail recovery capability for administrators using the PL/SQL interface.

8. Click Submit to apply the changes.

Managing Distribution Lists

Distribution lists are managed using the Oracle WebMail client. Management tasks include:

• Create, delete, or show distribution lists or list members

• Modify distribution list properties

• Show all distribution lists to which a member belongs

Additionally, routing control of incoming mail and certain List Server parameters configurable using Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control Console can be used to further manage how messages are delivered to distribution lists. In some cases, distribution lists can contain many hundreds or even thousands of users, which could potentially interfere with e-mail service.

Limits to the number of recipients in an e-mail envelope (this is applicable to all e-mail traffic, not just messages sent to distribution lists) can be established, in addition to batching recipients and setting a number of e-mails that can be processed concurrently.

See Also: "Configuring Advanced Routing Control Settings for Incoming Mail" "Oracle Mail List Server" for a list of List Server parameters

This section discusses various management tasks and provides distribution list attributes and parameters.

See Also: "oesdl" for information about managing distribution lists from the command line

This section includes the following topics:

• Setting Default Distribution List Attributes

• Distribution List Parameters

• Creating a Distribution List

• Modifying Distribution List Properties

• Modifying Default Distribution List Parameter Values

• Deleting a Distribution List

• Managing Distribution List Members

• Showing All Distribution Lists to Which a User Subscribes

Setting Default Distribution List Attributes

Distribution list attributes include:

• Group type, described in Table 2-1

• Subscription type, described in Table 2-2

• Posting type, described in Table 2-3

To set the default attributes of new distribution lists in a particular domain:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click Default New List in the Domain subtab.

4. Select an installation from the Installation list.

5. Select a domain from the Domain list.

6. Click Submit.

7. Modify the following attributes, described in Table 2-4:

   • Collaboration Suite Database

   • Owner

   • Topic

   • Editor's List

   • Moderator's List

   • Auto Reconfirm

   • Group Type

   • Group Subscription Type

   • Post Type

   • Maximum Message Size

   • Invite Text

   • Information Text

   • Merge Tag

   • Edit/View Member Privilege

   • Enable Digests

   • Enable Bounce Processing

   
   

   Note: For the Group Type, Group Subscription Type, Post Type, Edit/View Member Privilege, Enable Digest, and Enable Bounce Processing parameters, in a domain hierarchy, if any of these parameters are set in any parent domain, and the child domain does not have any values set, the value of the attribute is inherited from the parent domain. For example, if the foo.com domain has Edit/View Member Privilege set as Members, Owner, Provers, Moderators, Editors, and if us.foo.com, a child domain of foo.com, does not have a value set for this parameter, Oracle WebMail displays the settings of the parent domain, if available. If you clear the value in us.foo.com by selecting the blank option from the Edit/View Member Privilege list and save your settings, the next time you view, you will see that the settings for this parameter are those of the parent domain, if there are any present for the parent domain. Also, if foo.com does not have a value for one of these parameters, but the .com default distribution list settings do have values set, the us.foo.com default distribution list settings will reflect that, if it does not have values of its own. If in the entire parent hierarchy of us.foo.com, this value is blank, Oracle WebMail will display a blank value.

   
   

A distribution list group type is set by the distribution list owner during list creation and controls distribution list attributes. Examples of distribution list attributes include what headers are included on mail delivered to a distribution list, or whether the list is moderated. The distribution list owner can change the group type after the list is created.

Table 2-1 describes the different group types.

Table 2-1 Distribution List Group Types

Type	Description
Announcement	Automatic replies or DSNs are not delivered to the sender. This group type is useful for making announcements to a group of recipients where the sender is not concerned with knowing if a message was delivered to individual recipients or if a recipient has set an automatic reply.
Discussion	Distribution list group type used for discussions among a group of people. Messages posted to this distribution list have a Reply-To header added, which is set to the distribution list mail ID itself. Thus, replying to such a message will send the reply back to the distribution list. Automatic replies and DSNs are delivered to the sender of a message (unless bounce processing is enabled for the list, in which case automatic replies or DSNs are sent to a special address list_ID-bounce@domain and are processed by the bounce processor in the List Server).
Edited	Distribution list group type that controls who can post mail to the list. Only users from a configurable list of editors can post mail to this list. Automatic replies and DSNs are delivered to the sender of a message (unless bounce processing is enabled for the list, in which case automatic replies or DSNs are sent to a special address listid-bounce@domain and are processed by the bounce processor in the List Server).
Moderated	All messages posted to this distribution list group type are sent to list moderators (specified in the Group Moderators List attribute). At least one moderator must approve any message within 3 days for the message to be posted to the distribution list. Automatic replies and DSNs are delivered to the sender of a message (unless bounce processing is enabled for the list, in which case automatic replies or DSNs are sent to a special address listid-bounce@domain and are processed by the bounce processor in the List Server).

Subscription types control who can subscribe to a distribution list, as described in Table 2-2.

Note: These subscription types do not apply to external distribution lists. For more information about external distribution lists, see "External Distribution Lists".

Table 2-2 Distribution List Subscription Types

Type	Subscription
Open	No approval required; any user can subscribe.
Restricted	The list owner, or one member of a list of appointed approvers, must approve any request to subscribe to this distribution list.
Closed	Subscription requests are not processed. Users can only subscribe by invitation of the distribution list owner.

Table 2-3 describes the distribution list posting type, which restricts whether nonmembers can post messages to the list.

Note: These posting types do not apply for edited lists.

Table 2-3 Distribution List Posting Types

Type	Description
Subscriber	Only list subscribers can post a message to the list. Mail from nonsubscribers is rejected.
Open	Both subscribers and nonsubscribers can post mail to the list.

Additionally, a server-side rule can be created to restrict certain users from posting messages to a particular list.

See Also: Chapter 9, "Oracle Mail Server-Side Rules" for more information about creating server-side rules

Distribution List Parameters

Distribution lists are created using the Oracle WebMail client. When a new list is created, various parameters are set, giving the new list various attributes, such as archiving and posting attributes.

Table 2-4 describes distribution list parameters.

Table 2-4 Distribution List Parameters

Parameter	Description	Acceptable Values	Default Value
Distribution List NameFoot 1	E-mail address of the new distribution list.	Any valid e-mail address	None
OwnerFootref 1	The e-mail address of the person who is to own the list.	A fully qualified e-mail address, such as [e-mail]	None
Maximum Message Size (bytes)	The maximum allowable size of a message posted to the distribution list. Messages exceeding this value are rejected. Use a value of 0 to indicate unlimited size.	Any integer greater than or equal to 0	None
Topic	Single-line phrase describing the topic of discussions on this list.	String of text	None
Invite Text	Multiline text sent in e-mail to users invited by a list owner to join the list.	String of text	None
Editor's List	List of users (e-mail addresses) for the editors of the list. Applicable only if the distribution list group type is Edited. See Also: Table 2-1, "Distribution List Group Types" for more details about group types	A fully qualified e-mail address, such as [e-mail]	None
Moderator's List	List of users (e-mail addresses) who are moderators of the list. Applicable only if the distribution list group type is Moderated. See Also: Table 2-1, "Distribution List Group Types" for more details about group types	A fully qualified e-mail address, such as [e-mail]	None
Group Approvers	List of users (e-mail addresses) who are the subscription approvers of the list. Applicable only if the distribution list subscription type is Restricted. See Also: Table 2-1, "Distribution List Group Types" for more details about group types	A fully qualified e-mail address, such as [e-mail]	None
Information Text	Multiline owner-provided descriptive text about the list	String of text	None
Merge Tag	A tag used for specifying mail merge and scheduler tags, enabling a list owner to support mail merge or scheduled mail delivery.		None
Collaboration Suite Database	If specified, the Oracle Collaboration Suite Database on which the messages addressed to this list are queued until the List Server processes them. If not, then messages addressed to this list are queued wherever they are received.	Select an Oracle Collaboration Suite Database from the list	None
Auto Reconfirm	If set to True, requests to suspend or resume delivery from a distribution list trigger an e-mail from the list requiring a reply e-mail from the requester confirming the action. The default False value is recommended, because in the case of a suspend request, the requester may be unaware of the need to reconfirm the request and no longer be offline when the reconfirmation e-mail is delivered. In this case, suspension from the distribution list will not occur.	True or False	False
Group Type	Type of distribution list, as described in Table 2-1, "Distribution List Group Types".	Discussion, Announcement, Edited, or Moderated	Discussion
Group Subscription Type	Type of subscription control placed on the list, as described in Table 2-2, "Distribution List Subscription Types".	Open, Restricted, or Closed	Open
Post Type	Type of posting control placed on the list, as described in Table 2-3, "Distribution List Posting Types".	Open or Subscriber	Open
Unsubscribe Not Allowed	If TRUE, allows only the list owner to unsubscribe a member from a list. If FALSE, anyone can unsubscribe.	True or False	False
List State	State of the list: active, inactive, or migrating: Active: Posting is permitted. Inactive: The list is not recognized as a recipient, no posting is permitted. Migrating: The list is being migrated into this Oracle Collaboration Suite installation.	Active, Inactive, or Migrating	Active
Enable Digests	If selected, enables the digest feature, in which posts to a list are held and only one e-mail message is sent to a list member at a member-specified frequency, containing all the posts to the list during the interim.	Not applicable (NA)	None
Enable Bounce Processing	If selected, when a DSN is received from any member of a list a specific number of times, the list owner receives a notification and can then unsubscribe the member from the list.	NA	None
Edit/View Member Privilege	Select from the list which type of user has the privilege to view and edit list members.	Owner Owner, Approvers, Moderators, Editors Members, Owner, Approvers, Moderators, Editors All	Members, Owner, Approvers, Moderators, Editors
Restrict Membership to Group's Domain	If Yes, restricts distribution list membership only to those users within the domain of the distribution list. If No, users from outside the domain of the distribution list can be members.	Yes or No	Yes
Send Notification On Subscribe/Unsubscribe To	Indicates who receives notifications upon a successful subscription or unsubscription	None, Only Member, Only Owner, and Owner and Member	Owner and Member
Members from OiD Group	Select this option to tie the membership of the list to a group created in Oracle Internet Directory. All members of the Oracle Internet Directory group will be members of the new distribution list. Whenever members are added to the group in Oracle Internet Directory, those members will be automatically added to the distribution list.	NA	None
OiD Group	Select an Oracle Internet Directory group from the list. See Also: Chapter 9, "Dynamic and Static Groups in Oracle Internet Directory" in Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information about groups in Oracle Internet Directory	NA	None
NA	In the Suppress Headers in posts section, check the header types to be suppressed in mails distributed to the list.	NA	None
NA	In the Archive List Properties section, give the following information: Group Has Archive: If set to True, enter an archive name in the Archive Name field in the form ListArchive.list_name. If you choose to archive list information, select either Create a new archive on newsstore or Use existing archive. Select from the Access Control list whether anyone can view archived messages, or restrict access to list members only	NA	False
NA	In the External List Properties section, select True from the Group is External list to make the list available externally. In the External Procedure field, enter a name for the external procedure used to resolve the list, in the following format: schema-name.procedure-name See Also: "External Distribution Lists" for more information	NA	None

^Footnote 1 Required information

See Also: "Managing Distribution Lists" for more information

Creating a Distribution List

To create a list:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the List subtab.

4. Click Create a new list in the Distribution List Management section.

5. Select the domain from the Select Domain list.

6. Select Quick or List Server from the Distribution List Type list. The distribution list type defines the distribution list type.

7. Click Go.

8. Enter the information in the corresponding fields, as described in Table 2-4, "Distribution List Parameters".

9. Click Create.

Modifying Distribution List Properties

To edit list properties:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the List subtab.

4. Click Edit/View List properties in the Distribution List Management section.

5. Select the domain of the list from the Select Domain list.

6. In the Search Criteria field, enter the list name, or enter an asterisk (*) to display all available lists.

7. Click the name of the list you want to modify.

8. Edit the properties you want to change.

9. Click Modify.

Modifying Default Distribution List Parameter Values

An administrator can modify the default distribution list parameter values one sees when creating a new list. Modifying these parameter values is done at the domain level.

To modify default list parameter values:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the Domain subtab.

4. Click Default New List.

5. Select the installation from the Installation list.

6. Select the domain from the Domain list and click Submit to display the Default New List Attributes page.

7. Enter the parameter values you want to set as defaults.

   
   

   See Also: Table 2-4, "Distribution List Parameters" for a comprehensive list of distribution list parameters and descriptions for each

   
   

8. Click Submit to commit the changes, or use your browser's back button to return to the previous page.

Deleting a Distribution List

To delete a list:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the List subtab.

4. Click Delete list(s) in the Distribution List Management section.

5. In the Search Criteria field, enter the list name, or enter an asterisk (*) to display all available lists.

6. Select the domain of the list from the Select Domain list.

7. Click Go.

8. Select the list you want to delete.

9. Click Delete.

10. Click Return to Distribution List Management to return to the Distribution List Management page.

Managing Distribution List Members

To add or delete users from a distribution list:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the List subtab.

4. Click Membership Management.

5. Click Add/Remove member(s) to display the Choose a List to Manage Member page.

6. In the Search Criteria field, enter the list name, or enter an asterisk (*) to display all available lists.

7. Select the domain of the list from the Select Domain list.

8. Click Go to display the Add/Remove member(s) page.

9. Click the list in the Name column you want to manage.

10. Enter or remove fully qualified e-mail address or aliases in the following fields:

    • Members (user): Users on this system that are members of this list. Select users from the User(s) list and use the Move, Move All, Remove, and Remove All buttons to move users to and from the Selected User(s) list.

    • Members (list): Other lists that are members of this list

    • Members (alias): Aliases that are members of this list

    • Members (foreign): Users foreign to this system who are members of this list

11. Click Modify to apply changes.

12. Click Cancel to return to the Distribution List Management page.

Showing All Distribution Lists to Which a User Subscribes

To show all lists to which a user subscribes:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the List subtab.

4. Click Miscellaneous Functions.

5. Click Show all memberships of a user.

6. Enter the user's name in the User Name field.

7. Select the domain of the user from the Select Domain list.

8. Click Show Memberships to display a list of distribution lists to which the user subscribes.

9. Click Return to Distribution List Management to return to the Distribution List Management page.

Managing Aliases

Aliases are shorter or more descriptive names you can use when sending messages to long user IDs or list names. Aliases are pointers that redirect messages to the intended receiver.

For example, if Jane Doe changes her name to Jane Roe, an alias can be created so that messages sent to her original account, [e-mail], are automatically redirected to her new account, [e-mail]. This alias prevents her from losing messages sent to her old user ID.

Using the Oracle WebMail client, you can create, modify, and delete aliases.

This section includes the following topics:

• Creating a New Alias

• Editing Alias Attributes

• Deleting Aliases

Creating a New Alias

To create a new alias:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the Alias subtab to display the Alias Management page.

4. Click Create New Alias.

5. Select a domain from the Select Domain list.

6. Click Go to display the Create New Alias page.

7. Enter alias attributes in the following fields:

   • Alias Name: Enter a name by which the user ID will be referred. The alias name can either be just a name, such as dave, or it can be a fully qualified user or list ID, such as [e-mail].

   • Alias Target: Enter the fully qualified user or list ID to which the alias refers.

   • Description: Optionally, enter a description of the alias.

8. Click Create to display a confirmation page.

9. Click Return to Alias Management.

Editing Alias Attributes

To edit attributes of an existing alias:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the Alias subtab to display the Alias Management page.

4. Click Edit Alias Properties.

5. Select the domain containing the alias from the Select Domain list.

6. Enter the alias name in the Search Criteria field. Enter an asterisk (*) to perform a wildcard search.

7. Click Go.

8. Click the alias you want to edit.

9. Edit the attributes, as necessary.

10. Click Modify to display a confirmation page.

11. Click Return to Alias Management.

Deleting Aliases

To delete an alias:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the Alias subtab to display the Alias Management page.

4. Click Delete Alias to display the Choose Alias to Delete page.

5. Enter the alias name in the Search Criteria field. Enter an asterisk (*) to perform a wildcard search.

6. Select the domain containing the alias from the Select Domain list.

7. Click Go.

8. Select the alias or aliases you want to delete.

9. Click Delete to display a confirmation page.

10. Click Return to Alias Management.

Managing News Objects

If a Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) server is configured on an Oracle Collaboration Suite installation, an administrator can manage available peer servers and newsgroups using the Oracle WebMail client.

See Also: "NNTP Server" for more information about configuring NNTP servers "oesng" and "oespr" for information about managing newsgroups and peers from the command line

This section includes the following topics:

• Managing Peer Servers

• About Newsgroups

• Managing Newsgroups

Managing Peer Servers

Use the Oracle WebMail client to add, edit, or delete peer servers, as the following sections describe:

See Also: "About News Servers" for more information about peers

• Adding Peer Servers

• Editing Peer Server Properties

• Deleting Peer Servers

Adding Peer Servers

To add a peer server:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab to display the Peer Server Management page.

4. Click Add.

5. Enter information in the following fields:

   • Installation(s): An Oracle Collaboration Suite installation for which this peer is to be configured in which newsgroups have been created, and an NNTP server has been configured. The default is um_system.

   • Hostname: Fully qualified Internet host name of the peer, used by the NNTP inbound process to recognize an incoming connection as a peer connection

   • Port: NNTP port on which the peer listens, used by the NNTP outbound process to connect to the peer. The default is 119.

   • Accepted Newsgroup(s): Names of newsgroups (wildcards are acceptable) for which feed is accepted from this peer. If any groups are specified, messages are accepted only if addressed to one or more of them.

   • Rejected Newsgroup(s): Names of newsgroups (wildcards are acceptable) for which feed is rejected from this peer. If any groups are specified, messages are rejected if addressed to one or more of them. This is checked after Accepted Newsgroup(s). If a newsgroup appears in both Accepted Newsgroup(s) and Rejected Newsgroup(s), it is rejected.

   • Feed Newgroups: Names of newsgroups for which feed is offered to this peer. If any groups are specified, then only messages posted to any of these groups are offered.

6. Click Submit to add the peer server and display a confirmation page. Click Return to Peers to return to the Peer Server Management page.

   Click Cancel to return to the previous page.

Editing Peer Server Properties

To edit a peer server:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab to display the Peer Server Management page.

4. Select an installation from the Installation(s) list.

5. Click Go.

6. Click the icon in the Edit column of the peer server for which you want to edit properties.

7. Edit the properties, as necessary.

8. Click Submit to commit the changes or Cancel to return to the previous page.

Deleting Peer Servers

To delete a peer server:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab to display the Peer Server Management page.

4. Select an installation from the Installation(s) list.

5. Click Go.

6. Select the peer server you want to delete.

7. Click Delete.

8. Click Yes to delete the peer server or No to return to the Peer Server Management page.

About Newsgroups

Note: Newsgroups cannot be viewed in Oracle WebMail.

A newsgroup is a collection of messages discussing a particular subject, posted to an Internet site and redistributed through Usenet, a worldwide network of news discussion groups. There are two types of newsgroups, public and private:

• Public newsgroups have worldwide distribution, are maintained at many news sites, and are intended to contain nonsensitive information. The NNTP service exchanges newsgroup articles among news sites.

  If your Oracle Collaboration Suite installation hosts more than one domain, public newsgroups are shared, which greatly reduces the storage space required for news articles. An inbound server always services all public newsgroups configured for an Oracle Collaboration Suite installation.

• Private newsgroups belong to and are visible in only one domain, where they are intended as internal discussion groups. Access to private newsgroups is permitted only if the inbound server has the local domain parameter set to that domain. An inbound server instance cannot host private newsgroups for more than one domain. For example, an inbound server instance with the local domain set to acme.com serves all public newsgroups in addition to only those private newsgroups that belong to the acme.com domain.

Newsgroups are organized into subject hierarchy. The first few letters of the newsgroup name indicates the major subject category; subcategories are represented by a subtopic name. Users can post to existing newsgroups and respond to previous posts, while only administrators can create newsgroups. Some newsgroups have a moderator, a designated person who decides which postings to allow or to remove.

Three attributes are associated with newsgroups:

• Name

• Description

• Posting allowed

Managing Newsgroups

Use the Oracle WebMail client to add, edit, or delete private and public newsgroups.

This section includes the following topics:

• Adding Private Newsgroups

• Editing Private Newsgroup Properties

• Deleting Private Newsgroups

• Adding Public Newsgroups

• Editing Public Newsgroup Properties

• Deleting Public Newsgroups

Adding Private Newsgroups

To add a private newsgroup:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Private Newsgroup Management.

5. Select a domain on which the newsgroup will reside from the Domain list.

6. Click Add to display the Create/Edit Newsgroup page.

7. Enter information in the following fields:

   • Newsgroup Name: A string of text that is the name of the newsgroup

   • Owner: A fully qualified e-mail address of the person who is to be the newsgroup owner

   • Description: A string of text that briefly describes the newsgroup

   • Moderated Newsgroup: Select either Yes or No from the list depending upon whether the newsgroup is to be moderated. The default value is No.

   • Moderator(s): Fully qualified e-mail addresses of newsgroup moderators if the newsgroup is moderated

   • Posting Allowed: Select either Yes or No from the list depending upon whether posting to the newsgroup is allowed. The default value is Yes.

   • Collaboration Suite Database: Select from the list the database upon which news is stored for this newsgroup.

   • Article Retention Day(s): Enter a number to specify the numbers of days an article is to be stored on the database.

8. Click Submit to add the newsgroup and display a confirmation page. Click Return to Private Newsgroups to return to the Private Newsgroup Management page.

   Click Cancel to return to the previous page.

Editing Private Newsgroup Properties

To edit private newsgroup properties:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Private Newsgroup Management.

5. Select the domain on which the newsgroup resides from the Domain list.

6. To limit the number of newsgroups listed, enter a newsgroup name—or a partial name with an asterisk (*) as a wildcard—in the Filter field.

7. Click Go.

8. Click the icon in the Edit column of the newsgroup for which you want to edit properties.

9. Edit the properties, as necessary.

10. Click Submit to apply the changes and display a confirmation page. Click Return to Private Newsgroups to return to the Private Newsgroup Management page.

    Click Cancel to return to the previous page.

Deleting Private Newsgroups

To delete a private newsgroup:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Private Newsgroup Management.

5. Select the domain on which the newsgroup resides from the Domain list.

6. To limit the number of newsgroups listed, enter a newsgroup name—or a partial name with an asterisk (*) as a wildcard—in the Filter field.

7. Click Go.

8. Select the newsgroup you want to delete.

9. Click Delete.

10. Click Yes to delete the newsgroup or No to return to the Private Newsgroup Management page.

Adding Public Newsgroups

To add a public newsgroup:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Public Newsgroup Management.

5. Click Add to display the Create/Edit Newsgroup page.

6. Enter information in the following fields:

   • Newsgroup Name: A string of text that is the name of the newsgroup

   • Owner: A fully qualified e-mail address of the person who is to be the newsgroup owner

   • Description: A string of text that briefly describes the newsgroup

   • Moderated Newsgroup: Select either Yes or No from the list depending upon whether the newsgroup is to be moderated

   • Moderator(s): Fully qualified e-mail addresses of newsgroup moderators if the newsgroup is moderated

   • Posting Allowed: Select either Yes or No from the list depending upon whether posting to the newsgroup is allowed

   • Collaboration Suite Database: Select from the list the database upon which news is stored for this newsgroup

   • Article Retention Day(s): Enter a number to specify the numbers of days an article is to be stored on the database

7. Click Submit to add the newsgroup and display a confirmation page. Click Return to Public Newsgroups to return to the Public Newsgroup Management page.

   Click Cancel to return to the previous page.

Editing Public Newsgroup Properties

To edit a public newsgroup:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Public Newsgroup Management.

5. To limit the number of newsgroups listed, enter a newsgroup name—or a partial name with an asterisk (*) as a wildcard—in the Filter field and click Go.

6. Click the icon in the Edit column of the newsgroup for which you want to edit properties.

7. Edit the properties, as necessary.

8. Click Submit to apply the changes and display a confirmation page. Click Return to Public Newsgroups to return to the Public Newsgroup Management page.

   Click Cancel to return to the previous page.

Deleting Public Newsgroups

To delete a public newsgroup:

1. Open the Oracle WebMail client.

   
   

   See Also: "Oracle Collaboration Suite 10g WebMail Client" for information about how to access the Oracle WebMail client

   
   

2. Click the Administration tab.

3. Click the News subtab.

4. Click Public Newsgroup Management.

5. To limit the number of newsgroups listed, enter a newsgroup name—or a partial name with an asterisk (*) as a wildcard—in the Filter field and click Go.

6. Select the newsgroup you want to delete.

7. Click Delete.

8. Click Yes to delete the newsgroup or No to return to the Public Newsgroup Management page.