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  1. James Server
  2. JAMES-3819

[GSOC] James as a (distributed) MX server

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Details

    • Improvement
    • Status: Open
    • Major
    • Resolution: Unresolved
    • None
    • None
    • SMTPServer

    Description

      Why ?

      Alternatives like Postfix...

      • Do not offer a unified view of the mail queue across nodes
      • Requires statefull persistent storage

      Given Apache James recent push to adopt a distributed mail queue based on Pulsar supporting delays (JAMES-3687), it starts making sense developing tooling for MX related tooling.

      I propose myself to mentor a Gsoc on this topic.

      Benefits for the student

      At the end of this GSOC you will...

      • Have a solid understanding of email relaying and associated mechanics
      • Understand James modular architecture (mailet/ matcher / routes)
      • Have a hands-on expertise in SQL / NoSQL working with technologies like Cassandra, Redis, JPA...
      • Identify fix and solve architecture problems.
      • Conduct performance tests and develop an operational mindset

      Inventory...

      James ships a couple of MX related tools within smtp-hooks/mailets in default packages. It would make sense to me to move those as an extension.

      James supports today...

      checks agains DNS blacklists. `DNSRBLHandler` or `URIRBLHandler` smtp hook for instance. This can be moved as an extension IMO.

      We would need a little performance benchmark to document performance implications of activating DNS-RBL.

      Finally as quoted by a gitter guy: it would make more sens to have this done as a MailHook rather as a RcptHook as it would avoid doing the same job again and over again for each recipients. See JAMES-3820 .

      Grey listing. There's an existing implementation using JDBC as an underlying storage.

      Move it as an extension.

      Remove JDBC storage, propose 2 storage possibilities: in-memory for single node, REDIS for a distributed topology.

      Some work around whitelist mailets? Move it as an extension, propose JPA, Cassandra, and XML configured implementations ? With a route to manage entries in there for JPA + Cassandra ?

      I would expect a student to do his own little audit and come up with extra suggestions!

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              Unassigned Unassigned
              btellier Benoit Tellier
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