Role Of The Post Office Agent; Client/Server Processing - Novell GROUPWISE 8 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

Historical Note: In GroupWise 5.x, the GroupWise client allowed the user to enter a path to the post
office directory to facilitate direct access mode. The GroupWise 6.x and later clients no longer offer
the user that option. However, you can force the GroupWise 6.x and later client to use direct access
by starting it with the /ph switch and providing the path to the post office directory.

35.5 Role of the Post Office Agent

The GroupWise Post Office Agent (POA) delivers messages to users' mailboxes, connects users to
their post offices in client/server access mode, updates post office databases, indexes messages and
documents, and performs other post office-related tasks. You must run at least one POA for each
post office.
The following sections help you understand the various functions of the POA:
Section 35.5.1, "Client/Server Processing," on page 481
Section 35.5.2, "Message File Processing," on page 482
Section 35.5.3, "Other POA Functions," on page 482

35.5.1 Client/Server Processing

Using client/server access mode, the GroupWise client maintains one or more TCP/IP connections
with the POA and does not access the post office directly. Consequently, the performance of the
POA in responding to requests from the GroupWise client directly affects the GroupWise client's
responsiveness to users. To provide the highest responsiveness to client users, you can configure a
POA just to handle client/server processing. See
Server POA," on page 564.
When using client/server access mode, the GroupWise client can be configured to control how much
time it spends actually connected to the POA.
In Online mode, the client is continuously connected.
In Caching mode, the client connects at regular intervals to check for incoming messages and
also whenever the client user sends a message. Address lookup is performed locally. Caching
mode allows the POA to service a much higher number of users than Online Mode.
In Remote mode, the client connects whenever the client user chooses, such as when using a
brief modem connection to download and upload messages.
NOTE: Remote mode is not currently available in the Linux/Mac client.
For more information about the client modes available with client/server access mode, see:
"Using Caching Mode" and
Guide
"Caching Mode" in the
Client/server access mode also allows users to access their GroupWise mailboxes from POP and
IMAP clients, in addition to the GroupWise client. See
on page 502.
Section 38.1.3, "Configuring a Dedicated Client/
"Using Remote Mode" in the
GroupWise 8 Linux/Mac Client User Guide
Understanding Message Delivery and Storage in the Post Office 481
GroupWise 8 Windows Client User
Section 36.2.3, "Supporting IMAP Clients,"