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iPlus Info Browser v4.13 - Product Overview   Minimize

I.  What is iPlus Info Browser?

iPlus Info Browser is import/export/reporting tool for IPSwitch's IMail mail server.  It is designed with the busy IMail administrator in mind and provides fast and easy to use tools that help take care of repetitive tasks such as keeping global email lists up to date, updating email address lists on bastion hosts, checking for performance killers like nobody aliases, providing quick import and export capabilities, etc.  At this time, iPB works only if you are using the native IMail database (Windows registry).

II.  What are the major differences among the versions?

Number of domains processed
iPB Free - limited to a single domain
iPB Standard and PRO - unlimited domains

Password decryption on reports
iPB Free and iPB Standard do not export passwords on any reports.  They will both decrypt passwords via the interface but only one at a time.
iPB PRO includes decrypted passwords on any report where it is appropriate.

IMail Migration Tool (IMT)
IMail Migration Tool is only available in the PRO version.

III.  What tools are included in the iPB Suite?

iPB Tools
iPB contains three main tools and a report engine.  The tools are:  Manual Password Decrypter, Password Browser & the IMail Migration Tool.

Manual Password Decrypter - The Manual Password Decrypter allows you to enter a user name and the encrypted password string.  When the Decrypt button is pressed, the encrypted password string is decrypted and the decrypted password is displayed in the Decrypted Password field.  This tool is of limited use and was used primarily when developing the password decryption routines.  See Figure 3.3 for more details.

Figure 3.3 - Click to see larger image

Password Browser - The iPB Password Browser is at the core of iPB functionality and allows you to quickly look up a missing password, see configured aliases for a given domain & maintain global users.lst/users.txt files for use with the IMail List Server.

Password browsing is accomplished quickly and easily by simply clicking first on the domain and next on the user.  Both the encrypted password string and the decrypted password are displayed.

Browsing aliases is just as easy.  Simply click on the domain and all aliases will be listed in the Aliases window.  Aliases are listed in the following format:  alias >>>> acutal email address.  Example:  abuse@martek.net >>>> evans@martek.net.

At Martek.Net we maintain an announcement list that contains ALMOST every email address on our server.  This used to be a chore to maintain until iPB and was the primary reason that we wrote iPB in the first place.  We used to export every non alias email in IMail to users.lst/users.txt.  However, some of our domain admins wanted addresses excluded from our broadcasts.  Others wanted to include addresses that were not hosted by Martek.net in our broacast.  This is where the Exclude Addresses and Include External Addresses come into play.

If you want to include external addresses in users.txt/users.lst creation, type them into the text box below Include External Addresses and click on the Add Address button.  These addresses will be appended to both the global and domain level exports.

If you want to exclude addresses from users.txt/users.lst creation, either drag them over to the Exclude Addresses box OR click the Exclude All button if you want to exclude every address.  If you only want to send to a few addresses, it is often easier to click the Exclude All button and then to select the addresses that you don't want excluded and click in the Del Address button.  See Figure 3.4 for more details.

Figure 3.4 - Click to see larger image

/Portals/5/ipb48docs/ipb48-1s.jpg

IMail Migration Tool (IMT) - The IMail Migration Tool is primarily an export tool.  It is designed to pull all the information necessary to either move to another platform or to interface with other programs, databases, etc.  Many iPB users use this export file to do further processing / reporting.  Please see the reports section for more information regarding the format of the output file.  IMT pulls most of its information from the Windows registry.  It pulls the forwarding information from each user's directory. 

Before running IMT, enter the output directory and filename in the Output File field.  Example:  C:\Program Files\IPB4\reports\imail-export.txt.  By default there is no delay between record reads.  However, on slower or heavily loaded systems, it may be necessary to introduce some delay between record reads.  This is where the "Milliseconds of delay between record reads" slider comes into play.  It is rare that you will have to change this setting but it is available just in case you do.  The only other configuration option is the Forwards or Output radio button.  It defaults to Output and shows the comma delimited data in the Output window.  If you select Forwards, it displays forwarding information in the Output window.  See Figure 3.5 for more details.

Figure 3.5 - Click to see larger image


iPB Reports
iPB contains a set of reports that allows you, as the IMail Administrator, to get an accurate idea of resource allocation including domain count, user count per domain, IP resources allocated to domains, etc. as well as reports that can be used as input for other processes such as spam filters, etc.  The reports are as follows:

IMail Address Book Report
This report is in the same format as IMail's address book files.  These files can be drop in replacement for the alias.txt files found in each user's directory.
   
    Output Files:         global_addressbook.txt (global)
                               addressbook.txt (per domain)
   
    Example Output:    "Evans Martin" <evans@martek.net> 


Adduser.txt Report
This report includes username, password & fullname and is suitable for use with IMail's adduser.exe utility.
   
    Output Files:         global_adduser.txt (global) - PRO ONLY
                               adduser.txt (per domain) - PRO ONLY
   
    Example Output:    evans,password,Evans Martin   


All Domains/Aliases Report
These reports contains a list of all domains along with their associated host aliases.

    Output Files:        global_all_domains.txt (global)
                              haaf.txt (per domain)

    Example Output:   global_all_domains.txt - Formatted for human use.  Easy to pick out primary domains and their associated aliases.
                              somedomain.com            <-- primary domain
                                    somedomain.org       <-- host alias 1
                                    somedomain.net       <-- host alias 2

                               haaf.txt - Formatted for programmatic use.  First record element is primary.  All subsequent element are aliases.
                                    somedomain.com, somedomain.org, somedomain.net                                <-- primary, alias 1, alias 2
                                    anotherdomain.com, mail.anotherdomain.com, smtp.anotherdomain.com       <-- primary, alias 1, alias 2


Host Aliases Report
This report contains only host aliases, one per line.

    Output Files:        global_host_aliases.txt (global)

    Example Output:   somedomain.org
                              somedomain.net
                              mail.anotherdomain.com
                              smtp.anotherdomain.com



Outlook.Csv Report
The output from this report is suitable for importing into the Outlook address book and may be suitable for importation into other mail clients

    Output Files:        global_outlook.csv (global)
                              outlook.csv (per domain)

    Example Output:   "Evans","Martin","Evans Martin","evans@martek.net"


Postfix Dictionary Report
This report is suitable for use with Postfix.

    Output Files:        global_postfix_dictionary.txt (global)
                              postfix_dictionary.txt (per domain)

    Example Output:   evans=evans@[192.168.0.1]


Postfix SASL Report
This report is suitable for use with Postfix SASL configurations.  For more info, see http://www.postfix.org/SASL_README.html.

    Output Files:        global_postfix_SASL.txt (global) - PRO ONLY
                              postfix_SASL.txt (per domain) - PRO ONLY

    Example Output:   martek.net            evans:password


Postfix Users/Domains Report
This report is suitable for use with Postfix.

    Output Files:        global_postfix_users.txt (global)
                              global_domains.txt (global)
                              postfix_users.txt (per domain)

    Example Output:   global_postfix_users.txt
                                   
evans@martek.net                ok
                               
                              global_domains.txt - This report contains all domains, one per line.  NOTE:  This report does not contain host aliases
                                                             and should be combined with global_host_aliases.txt to create a complete listing of all hostnames
                                                             on your mail server.
                                   
somedomain.com
                              anotherdomain.net
                              yourdomain.org

 

Users.lst/Users.txt Report
This report contains the email addresses of all users on your mail server.  It can include aliases and root, one per line.  these files can be a drop in replacement for the subscriber files that IMail's list server users.

    Output Files:        global_users.lst (global)
                              global_users.txt (global)
                              users.lst (per domain)
                              users.txt (per domain)

    Example Output:   users.lst

                                    users.txt



Nobody.txt Report

    Output Files:        nobody.txt (global)


Primary to Alias Association Report
    Output Files:        haaf.txt (global only)

    Example:

                              Primarydomain1.com, hostalias1.net, hostalias2.com, hostalias3.org
                              Primarydomain2.com, hostalias1.net, hostalias2.com, hostalias3.org


Overview Report
    Output Files:        overview.txt (global) - Passwords decrypted in PRO ONLY

Example:

Report executed on 12-25-2006 at 17:07:11.
NOTE:  User counts do not include root or aliases.

       Host admins are marked with a ( ).
       Non-admins are marked with a (-).



SOMEDOMAIN.COM (207.65.132.23)
Host Aliases:  some.com domain.com sd.com
Top Directory:  C:\IMAIL\somedomain

User Count:  4

     --{ USERS }--
     user01(-)             password
     root(-)                 mypass
     anotheruser( )    wordofpassage

     --{ ALIASES }--
     postmaster >>>> root



IMail Migration Tool Report - Migration Tool Output (User Defined)
    Output Files:        User defined path & filename - PRO ONLY

The output of iMT is in the following format:

Fullname,username,username@domainname,password,domainname, ,username@domainname;username@domainname;username@domainname

 

Example:

Evans Martin,evans,evans@martek.net,password,martek.net, ,forward1@somedomain.com;forward2@somedomain.com;forward3@anotherdomain.net

 

Notes:

1.)     The ‘ ’ in this example denotes a host admin.  If this user had not been a host admin it would have been a ‘-‘ instead.

2.)     Email addresses beyond the ‘ ’, are forwards and are delimited by ‘;’.



NOTE:
  Global reports are stored at the top level of the user defined report output directory.  Non-Global reports are stored in the domain folder below the top level of the user defined report output directory.  Reports in blue are NEW!  Reports in red are available in iPB PRO only.
 

IV.  Can I schedule iPB to be run from the command line or as a scheduled process?

Running iPB in auto mode (Non UI) - iPlus Info Browser can be executed from the command line in such a way that it produces reports and then exits gracefully. This is perfect for scheduling reports to be created during maintenance periods or for creating lists of email addresses to use in conjunction with spam filtering software to reject mail to non existent addresses.

In order to run iPB in auto mode call the executable with the /auto switch.

Example: ipb4.exe /auto

NOTE:  iPB can support over 3000 users in the UI mode but there have been instances where a domain has more users than the interface allows.  In this case, iPB can be executed from the command line using the /auto switch and reports will be generated without issue.

 

NOTE:  If your questions have not been answered, please go to http://support.martekware.com and submit your question.  We'll be happy to clarify anything that you're not clear on.  :-)

 


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