Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
On this page you can find out about the major improvements introduced with R12.0v1:
- Signed Operations in M-Vault (more)
- Sodium: A new Directory User Agent (more)
- M-Switch Queue Management: Low latency message switching (more)
- Mobile Messaging: Support for LEMONADE Profile 1 (more)
- New Internet Messaging Features (more)
- MConsole2: A complete re-write of the main M-Switch operational management tool (more)
- Military Messaging enhancements (more)
- Extensions to the messaging 'Quick Config' wizard (more)
- Extended platform support (more)
R12.0 has now been superceeded, the current Isode release is R14.3.
R12.0 was preceeded by R11.5.
Signed Operations in M-Vault
Isode's M-Vault directory support for strong authentication has been extended to include Signed Operations, as described in a recent white paper. It's straightforward to restrict deployments to require signed operations for all modifications, which is important for secure directory deployments. You can find out about setting up a secure directory in our updated guide to strong authentication and secure directory configuration.
Sodium (Secure Open Data, Identity and User Manager)
Sodium is a new Administrative Directory User Agent, which gives flexible and extensible GUI management of directory data. Sodium has support for general purpose X.500/LDAP information, and additional support for PKI deployments, ACP 133 (Military) and ATN (Aviation) directory. Sodium provides secure access to the directory using Strong Authentication and Signed Operations. Sodium enables easy setup of secure identities for strong authentication, interacting with a Certification Authority (CA) using PKCS#10 Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs). You can read more about Sodium here.
Low Latency Message Switching
The M-Switch Queue Management system has been completely rewritten. A key goal of this is to enable low latency message switching, with typical message switching times of a few hundred ms. To support this, it is now possible to configure permanent and scheduled connections. There is also extensive support for message priority handling, including priority restrictions on channels and connections. There are improved statistics tools to show message latency, including grouping by priority.
These changes have also led to a substantial improvement in overall performance. We will be providing benchmark papers later.
LEMONADE: The Open Standard for Mobile Messaging
Isode has been an active participant in the IETF's 'LEMONADE' working group to define extensions to IMAP and SMTP for mobile messaging. LEMONADE Profile 1 was adopted as an RFC in June of 2006. With R12.0 Isode's M-Box and M-Switch become the first messaging servers released to support these new Open Standards.
Isode's Internet Messaging whitepapers give more details on LEMONADE and why we beleive that this Open Standard is important for organizations looking to provide email access to mobile staff.
Internet Messaging Features
As well as functionality for mobile messaging, we’ve enhanced our anti-spam solution with support for: SPF (Sender Policy Framework); TLS (data confidentiality) for inbound and outbound SMTP; and IMAP quota and ACL capbabilities.
MConsole2
MConsole, our main M-Switch operational management tool, has been completely rewritten. It provides an improved view of the message queue, including information and control on connections and inbound messages. Queued messages can now be viewed from MConsole. There is integrated support for Message Tracking, by access to the message database, including display of archived messages. You can read more about MConsole here.
Support for ACP 142, STANAG 4406 Annexe E & P1 Strong Authentication
We've enhanced our Military Messaging standards support. ACP 142 ("PMul, Protocol for Reliable Multicast Messaging in Constrained Bandwidth and Delayed Acknowledgement (EMCON) Environments"), is a CCEB (Combined Communications-Electronics Board – AU, CA, NZ, US, UK) standard for military messaging designed to support NATO's STANAG 4406 Annexe E. We've also added support for Strong Authentication of P1 connections.
You can read more about Isode's Military Messaging products here, the free whitepaper "Military Messaging over Low Bandwidth networks" gives an overview of military messaging and military messaging scenarios.
Quick Config
With previous Isode releases we've shipped a 'Quick Configuration Wizard', a tool that enabled quick setup of pure X.400 or X.400 MIXER configurations.
In order to assist with evaluations of all Isode messaging products, the Quick Config Wizard has been extended so that it now covers:
- Full ISP: This configuration sets up M-Switch to be an Internet
only MTA (SMTP/LMTP),
and it also sets M-Box for IMAP/POP3 access. - Aviation CAAS: This is a standard X.400 configuration, with the
possibility of setting up an ATN
Directory. The users are based on the CAAS Addressing Scheme - Aviation XF: This is a standard X.400 configuration, with the possibility
of setting up an ATN
Directory. The users are based on the XF Addressing Scheme - EDI: This is a standard X.400 configuration, with support for EDI content type
- Military: This is a standard X.400 configuration, with support for military content types
- MIXER: This configuration demonstrates both X.400 and Internet capabilities
in the
servers, as it sets up M-Box (for IMAP/POP3 access) - Pure X.400: This "pure X.400" configuration doesn’t have market specific settings
Platform Support
With R12.0, M-Vault nows supports two 64-bit platforms:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0
- Solaris 10
Our full supported platforms statement can be found here.
