Prior to running the automatic configuration generator, you should have a good idea of your network configuration and what input needs to be supplied to the PMDF configuration utility. Note that the configuration utility will attempt to provide default values to its prompts. These defaults are picked up, whenever possible, from your system environment.
5.1.1 Network configuration
The automatic configuration generator is capable of creating rewrite
rules and channel blocks for the local system or OpenVMS cluster as
well as TCP/IP (and in the case of the command line utility DECnet
networks) connected to the local system. You may have any or all of
these present on your system.
The command line PMDF configuration utility will look for these networks and try to determine what variety you have. You may override the default network type if PMDF CONFIGURE provides an incorrect default or no default. Note that PMDF CONFIGURE will only discover network packages running on the node upon which you execute the procedure. If you are configuring PMDF on an OpenVMS cluster you should run this procedure on a node which is running all of your network packages. If your network packages are spread out across different nodes in your OpenVMS cluster be sure to inform PMDF CONFIGURE of all of your network packages, even though they may not show up by default.
Note:
If you want PMDF to use network facilities which are not all resident on a single member of your OpenVMS cluster you must provide PMDF with access to an OpenVMS queue on each system with a network facility that you want PMDF to use. After generating your configuration file with the PMDF configuration utility (either the web-based or the command line version) you will need to add thequeuechannel keyword to those channel definitions for network facilities which are not accessible from your default PMDF service queue (normally MAIL$BATCH). See the PMDF System Manager's Guide for additional information on thequeuechannel keyword.
5.1.2 Selecting a system name
You should give some thought to what your system name should be prior
to configuring PMDF. This is not just a matter of picking a name for
your system; if you wish to communicate with systems on the Internet
your system will have to be registered as a member of some network
domain. In order to be eligible for registration you must have a
connection to a system on the Internet which is able to perform name
server functions for you.
If you are using PMDF in an isolated (non-Internet) application you may pick any system name that you want. However, you should remember that networks have a way of growing and at some point in the future you may regret a careless decision about naming conventions you made earlier. Try to pick a sane, sensible name which is appropriate to your users, system, and site.
In many environments, a system may not be referred to by a single name. While undesirable, this is a very common occurrence. For example, a homogeneous OpenVMS cluster is usually configured for PMDF with a single official host name, but each OpenVMS cluster member's name should be recognized as synonymous with the local host. Mail originating from any node in the OpenVMS cluster will always be marked by PMDF as coming from the official host name, regardless of which node of the OpenVMS cluster originated the message or handled the network connection.
Many sites use a different name for DECnet than they do on the Internet. Again, a single name must be chosen as the official local host name. That name is generally the fully qualified Internet domain name. If you are not on the Internet or are not using TCP/IP domain names, you might choose your DECnet name.
5.1.3 Authentication and security
There are various contexts in which users may need to authenticate
themselves (i.e., supply a password): connecting to read their
e-mail via a POP or IMAP client, setting up a personal mailbox filter,
sending e-mail using SASL. PMDF supports performing such authentication
against various authentication sources, such as the SYSUAF, the PMDF
password database, PMDF user profiles (PMDF MessageStore or PMDF
popstore account profiles), or even an LDAP directory. The PMDF
default, allowing authentication against any of a PMDF user profile,
the PMDF password database, or system login (SYSUAF) passwords, is
usually a good starting point for most sites. See the PMDF System Manager's Guide for
further information on PMDF authentication and security configuration.