Overview
The Switchboard is one of the default installation components that is included in the GFI MailEssentials programs group created during installation and is an important configuration tool for the MailEssentials administration environment.
This article discusses the role of the Switchboard utility as well as how to use it to configure various critical MailEssentials settings.
Introduction
The MailEssentials Switchboard is launched by navigating to the Windows Start menu > GFI MailEssentials > Switchboard.
This will launch the Switchboard application from which the following application settings can be configured:
- User Interface Mode
- Virtual directory names
- Disabling email processing
- Enable/Disable Tracing
- Email backup before and after processing
- Setting Quarantine Store Location and Public URL
- Setting a Microsoft® Exchange account
- Specifying Remoting Ports
- Enable/Disable Failed emails notifications
Description
User Interface Mode
The GFI MailEssentials User Interface (UI) can be configured in either of the following two modes which determine how MailEssentials is accessed by the users:
Local Mode: When this mode is selected, MailEssentials can only be configured and managed from the local machine in which is installed.
IIS Mode: This allows MailEssentials to be configured and managed remotely over the network using a web browser. This is the default UI mode and is preferred over the Local mode as some functionalities (e.g. spam digest links and user portal) are only available if MailEssentials is running in IIS Mode.
Refer to this linked article for more details about Configuring User Interface Mode.
Virtual directory names
The default virtual directory names for GFI MailEssentials web interface and Quarantine RSS are MailEssentials and MailEssentialsRSS respectively. These Virtual directory names are customizable in IIS is necessary however it is recommended that these are not changed.
The custom virtual directory names can be changed from the UI tab under the IIS user interface mode options area and clicking Apply to save the new settings.
Disabling email processing
Disabling email processing disables all protection offered by GFI MailEssentials and enables all emails (including spam and malicious emails) to get to your user’s mailboxes. Email processing is typically disabled only for troubleshooting purposes.
Disabling and re-enabling email processing is done from the Switchboard > Troubleshooting tab. Refer to this linked article for more details on Enabling or Disabling GFI MailEssentials Processing
Enable/Disable Tracing
GFI MailEssential provides the capability to create log files for debugging purposes. Customers will sometimes be asked to enable tracing temporarily for troubleshooting purposes or when contacting GFI Support. Tracing should however be disabled once the required debug logs have been collected as enabling debug logging for extended periods could result in performance issues due to the extensive logging.
When enabled, GFI MailEssentials stores several debug log files as described in this linked article on MailEssentials Debug Logs.
It is also possible to clear tracing logs that are no longer required by navigating to the Tracing tab then clicking on Clear Tracing Logs button and click Yes to restart the displayed services.
Email backup before and after processing
SinkArchiving and SourceArchiving which are enabled from the Switchboard make it possible to know the status of an email before as well as after it was processed by MailEssentials. This requirement will typically arise during troubleshooting if customers report that MailEssentials is corrupting or deleting their Emails.
This effectively creates and stores a backup copy of every email before and after it is processed by MailEssentials.
Refer to these linked articles to read more about this capability: MailEssentials SinkArchive and SourceArchive files and Configuring email backup.
Setting Quarantine Store Location and Public URL
The Quarantine Store location and the Quarantine Public URL are configured from the MailEssentials Switchboard under the Quarantine tab.
The Quarantine Store location is the Quarantine Store location where quarantined emails are stored. By default, this is located in the GFI MailEssentials installation path. This might however need to be moved to an alternate location in cases where, for example, you might be running out of disk space.
The Quarantine Public URL provides access to the Quarantine Page from an external location. By default, this is based on the GFI MailEssentials IIS Virtual directory settings provided during installation. This however might need to be changed if you are sending quarantine digest emails or notifications that are accessed outside of the internal network. When this is the case, the URL should be changed to be reached publicly through the Internet.
Read more about configuring Quarantine store options from this linked article on Quarantine Store Location and Public URL.
Setting a Microsoft® Exchange account
When GFI MailEssentials is installed on Microsoft® Exchange, a dedicated user must be created to use any one of these features:
- Deliver spam email to an Exchange mailbox sub-folder (required when installing on Exchange 2010 or newer versions only)
- Information Store Protection using Exchange Web Services (EWS)
MailEssentials can create this user and configure permissions automatically or else the dedicated user can be created manually from the Switchboard as described below:
- Launch GFI MailEssentials Switchboard from Start > Programs > GFI MailEssentials > Switchboard.
- Select the Exchange account tab.
- Click Change....
- Select one of the following options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Create a new account | Let GFI MailEssentials automatically create a user with all the required rights. |
| Use the following account | Use a manually created user. Specify the credentials (Domain\username and Password) of a dedicated user and click Set access rights to assign the required rights to the specified user. |
- Click Finish to apply settings.
- Click OK.
This account's details (such as username and password) must not be changed from Microsoft® Exchange or Active Directory, else the above features will not work.
Specifying Remoting Ports
Remoting ports enable modules in MailEssentials to communicate with each other. By default, GFI MailEssentials uses ports:
- 9090 - used by the GFI MailEssentials Backend service (9093 for Gateway server deployment scenario)
- 9091 - used by the GFI MailEssentials Attendant service
- 8015 - used by the GFI MailEssentials AutoUpdater service
Ensure that no other applications (except GFI MailEssentials) are listening on these ports. If these ports are in use by some other application, the remoting port numbers should be changed to ports that are not used by other applications.
This is done from the Switchboard by following the below steps:
- Launch the GFI MailEssentials Switchboard from Start > Programs > GFI MailEssentials > Switchboard and select Other tab.
- In the Remoting Ports area, change the number of the Remoting port to a one that is not utilized by other applications.
- Click Apply.
- Note: Some services are temporarily stopped while performing this operation. This may affect mail flow and/or email scanning.
- Click Yes to restart the displayed services.
- Click OK.
Enable/Disable Failed emails notifications
There may be instances where the GFI MailEssentials email security or content filters cannot scan an email, for example, emails containing corrupted header information. In this case, MailEssentials blocks the email since it may contain malicious content and moves these emails to the FailedMails folders
MailEssentials can be configured to notify the administrator when this happens.
The administrator’s email address is configured from the General Settings node by navigating to General Settings > Settings and selecting the General tab and then keying in the Administrator’s email address in the Administrator Email textbox.
Failed Mails notifications are enabled by following the below procedure:
- Launch the GFI MailEssentials Switchboard from Start > Programs > GFI MailEssentials > Switchboard and select Other tab.
- Select Send Notifications on Failed Mail.
- Click Apply.
- Click Yes to restart the displayed services.
- Click OK.
