SmarterMail Help
Community Knowledge Base

Odin APS (Automated Provisioning System) Package for SmarterMail

Package Description

The SmarterMail APS package is designed to integrate SmarterTools' SmarterMail email server software within the Parallels Operations Automation system. SmarterMail can then be used as the mail server of choice for Odin administrators when creating hosting plans for resale, when adding domains that require email services and more.

Package Goals

The goal of the SmarterMail APS package was to provide a means of easily managing domains, mailboxes, mailings lists and aliases. To those ends, services provided include:

  • Domain Services
    • Add / Remove Domains
    • Add / Edit / Remove Domain Aliases
    • Add / Edit / Remove User Aliases
    • Domain Disk Space Reporting
  • Mailbox Services
    • Add / Edit / Remove Mailboxes
    • Configure Email Forwarding Settings
    • Configure Auto-responder Settings
  • Mail List Services
    • Add / Edit / Remove Mailing Lists
    • Add / Edit / Remove Mailing List Subscribers

Prerequisites

This goes over the list of requirements that are needed before installing, configuring and using the SmarterMail APS package. These requirements are as follows:

  • Existing installation of Parallels Operations Automation (PoA)
  • Existing, licensed installation of SmarterMail 9.x or above
  • Required knowledge in the following areas:
    • Application Manager
      • APS catalog
      • Importing packages
    • Provisioning Manager
      • Resource templates
      • Service templates
    • Customer Manager
      • Creating of customers
    • System director
      • Task manager

Installation

This covers getting the APS package set up with the PoA system. There are two ways to install the SmarterMail APS package within PoA using the Application Manager: from Applications or the APS Catalog

  • Applications
    1. Expand Service Director
    2. Expand Application Manager
    3. Select Applications
    4. Click on “Import Package”
    5. Select “local file” option and click “Choose File”
    6. Provide the path to the SmarterMail APS
    7. Check “Enabled” option
    8. Finally, click “Submit” and the package will be scheduled for importing
  • APS Catalog
    1. Expand Service Director
    2. Expand Application Manager
    3. Select APS Catalog
    4. Select the “Application” field and search for ‘SmarterMail*'
    5. ‘SmarterMailAPS' package should appear in the list
    6. Check the box next to the Application column and click “Import Package”
    7. On the next screen click “Import Packages” and the package will be scheduled for importing

Configuration

This covers the configuration of the SmarterMail APS package after it has been installed/imported into the PoA system.

Resource Types

Resource Types are used to define activation parameters, which are:

  • General package settings
  • Global settings
  • Default settings
  • Services

Creating an Application

The application resource is the crucial part of setting up the SmarterMail APS package. This defines the global settings that are used by each application service.

  1. Expand Service Director
  2. Expand Application Manager
  3. Select Applications
  4. Select the “Application” field and search for ‘SmarterMail*'
  5. The results should yield the ‘SmarterMailAPS' package that was installed prior (where applicable)
  6. Select the ‘SmarterMailAPS' package
  7. Click the “Resource Type” tab
  8. Click “Create”
    • Select Application from the Resource Class list
    • Give it a name (Ex: SmarterMail App) & Description, click “Next”
    • Fill in the following fields under the “Global application settings” section:
      • SmarterMail public site URL
      • SmarterMail installation host
      • SmarterMail installation IP
      • Primary System Administrator Login
      • Primary System Administrator Password
      • Primary MX
    • Click “Next”
    • Uncheck “Automatically provision application,” click “Next”
    • Check “External Provisioning,” click “Next”
    • Click “Finish”

Creating an Application Service

The application service is what defines the defaults for each service that used by the SmarterMail APS package (domains, mailboxes, etc.) .An application service will have to be created for each service that you want to provide.

  1. Navigate to the “Resource Types” section of the SmarterMail APS package. Follow the same steps when creating an application resource to get to this section.
  2. Click "Create"
    • Select Application Service from the Resource Class List
    • Give it a name (Ex: SmarterMail App Domain Service) & Description, click “Next”
    • Select from the list of services the application service will be (Ex: SmarterMail Domain Service)
    • Provide default values for this resource, then click “Next”
    • Priority can be any number, so let's go with 1, Click “Next”
    • Click “Finish”

Again, these steps must be repeated for each application service that is offered with the package.

Service Templates

This covers the creation of service templates for the package. A service template defines both subscription limits as well as what services are provided when using the package.

Creating a Service Template

  1. Expand Service Director
  2. Expand Provisioning Manager
  3. Select Service Templates
  4. Click “Add New Service Template”
    • Provide a name & description
    • Uncheck “Autoprovisioning”
    • Set “Type” to Custom
    • Click “Next”
  5. A list of available Resources will be shown
    • Select the Resource Application that was created earlier as well as any of the Resource Application Services that were just created. For example, "SmarterMail App" and "SmarterMail App Domain Service"
    • Click "Next"
    • Set the limits of the service template
      • Check Unlimited for the Resource Application (Ex: SmarterMail App), Application Backup and Application User
      • Resource Application Services (Ex: SmarterMail App Domain Service) can be either set to unlimited or can have a limit applied to them
      • Home Visibility is an optional field that can be checked, if desired, that provides usage information for the user when they log in
    • Click "Next"
    • Review your settings, then click "Finish"

Subscriptions

This covers the how to apply subscriptions to customers using the service template that was created early.

Creating a Subscription

  1. Expand Service Director
  2. Expand Provisioning Manager
  3. Select Service Templates
  4. Select the “Service Template” field and search for, then select, the service that was created prior
  5. Click “Activate” under the General section of the service template (the service template must be activated prior to adding a subscription)
  6. Click “Subscriptions” tab
  7. Click “Create New Subscription”
  8. Select the “Company” field and search for the company that will be subscribing to this template, then select the company from the search results
  9. Set additional resource limits for the subscription if desired (subscriptions will inherit the values from the service template by default)
  10. Click “Next”
  11. Review the settings and click “Finish”

The company selected now has the ability to use the SmarterMail APS package.

Package Setup and Usage

This covers the steps required before provisioning and usage of the package can be conducted.

Setup

Creating a Domain

  1. Expand Operations Director
  2. Expand Customer Manager
  3. Select Customers
  4. Select the "Company" field and search for a company, then select the company from the search results
  5. Click the Resources tab
  6. Click "Add New Domain"
    • Provide a domain name (e.g., example.com)
    • Check "Set Registrar Status to Ready"
    • Select the SmarterMail APS subscription from the "Subscription" dropdown
    • Click "Next"
    • Click "Next" again
    • Review the settings and click "Finish"

A domain is required to be associated with the package so the domain can be properly added with the package. After a domain has been added, the package can start being used.

Usage

This covers an example usage of using the package by creating a domain as a customer.

Login

  1. Expand Operations Director
  2. Expand Customer Manager
  3. Select Customers
  4. Select the “Company” field and search for the company, then select the company from the search results
  5. Click “General” tab
  6. Click “Staff Members” and a list of staff members will be shown
  7. Click “Login as Customer”

Configure

  1. Click the “SmarterMailAPS” link towards the bottom of the page
  2. Click “Add New”
  3. Fill in the following fields:
    • Display Name
    • Check “Login in existing domain”
    • Fill in the user name
    • Fill in the password (Generate New Password can be used to generate a random password for this account)
  4. Click “Next”
  5. If “Display Name” was supplied from the previous step, the system administrator's first & last name will be filled in. If not, it is optional to provide a first & last name
  6. Click “Next”
  7. Review the settings and click “Finish”
  8. The account and the domain will be scheduled for provisioning

The steps when configuring each service are the same for each service the package provides. Simply fill out the required fields for each service and follow through each wizard.

Copyright © SmarterTools Inc. All rights reserved.