Email server system and method

• US 8,176,162 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2009
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WatchGuard Technologies Incorporated (Gladiator Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WatchGuard Technologies Incorporated (Gladiator Corporation)
• Inventors: Walker, Bruce Murray
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): NANO, SARGON N
• Application Number:
  US12/610,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049818A1
• Time in Patent Office: 918 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/219, 709/220, 709/221, 709/223
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0889 Techniques to speed-up the configuration process
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/00 User-to-user messaging in packet-switching networks, transmitted according to store-and-forward or real-time protocols, e.g. e-mail
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/23 Reliability checks, e.g. acknowledgments or fault reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

An email system comprises a plurality of email servers connected by a data communications network. The email system avoids single points of failure by employing multiple email servers which self configure, without requiring dedicated servers, through self addressing and discovery and announcement protocols. An email server can act as a primary email server by executing an administration tool allowing an administrator to modify the configuration data set which the email servers utilize, and the primary email server will then announce the resulting change in the version level of the configuration data set to other email servers. Each email server will then determine and request any needed updates to its respective configuration data set from the primary email server or another email server. The resulting email system is: robust, avoiding single points of failure; scalable, as additional email processing capacity can be achieved by adding additional email servers; and is simple to administer as changes to the configuration data set can be made at any email server with a copy of the appropriate administration tool and such changes automatically propagate through the email system.

Claims

1. An email system comprising:

a plurality of email servers, each of said email servers being connected to each other of said email servers via a data communications network, each of said email servers being operable to communicate with the others of said email servers and being further operable to process email received from and/or sent to said data communications network in accordance with a configuration data set stored on each server;

each one of said email servers being further selectable to act as a primary server and receive and effect changes, from an administrator, for the configuration data set stored on a selected one of the email servers,

wherein, in response to changes to the configuration data set of said selected email server, said selected email server to announce that the configuration data set stored on said selected email server has been changed to the others of the email servers connected by the network and, in response to requests from email servers, providing the changes to the configuration data set to each requesting email server for storage and use thereon, and

wherein the selected email server is configured to present an HTML graphical user interface to the administrator to effect the changes for the configuration data set.

2. An email system according to claim 1, wherein the administrator can subsequently select another server from the subset of email servers to be said selected email server.

3. An email system according to claim 2, wherein, upon a failure of said selected email server, the administrator can select another of said plurality of email servers to be said selected email server.

4. An email system according to claim 1, wherein said selected email server stores both at least one HTML file reflecting the current settings of the configuration data set and at least one data file representing the configuration data set, said selected email server providing copies of both the at least one HTML file and the at least one data file to the plurality of email servers in response to the requests from the plurality of email servers.

5. An email system according to claim 4 wherein a subset of the plurality of email servers are limited email servers, each limited email server only storing the at least one data file of the configuration data set and the administrator being unable to select a limited email server to be said one email server.

6. An email system according to claim 1 further comprising a second data communications network connecting each of said plurality of email servers and wherein communications between said plurality of email servers relating to the announcement that the configuration data set stored on said selected email server has been changed and the provision of the changes to the configuration data set to requesting email servers occurs over the second data communications network.

7. An email server system, comprising:

at least two email servers, each email server being in data communication with each other email server in the system via a data communication network and each email server being operable to establish its presence in said data communication network, each email server being further operable to process, in accordance with a configuration data set, email messages received and/or sent over the data communication network, and

wherein any one of the at least two email servers is operable to act as a primary server by an administrator connecting to a selected one of the email servers through the data communication network to change the configuration data set of the selected email server,

wherein the selected email server is operable to announce the changed configuration data set to each other of the at least two email servers and to provide the changed configuration data set to each other of the at least two email servers in response to requests received therefrom in response to the change of the configuration data set of the selected email server, and

wherein the selected email server is operable to present an HTML graphical user interface to the administrator to effect the changes for the configuration data set.

8. The email server system of claim 7 wherein said data communication network employs the Internet Protocol.

9. The email server system of claim 8 wherein each said email server negotiates with each other email server to assign itself an IP address to establish its presence in said data communication network.

10. The email server system of claim 7 further comprising a second data communication network between the at least two email servers and wherein communications between the at least two email servers to announce a changed configuration data set and to provide the changed configuration data set to email servers occurs over the second data communication network.