Appendix F: MAILbus 400 Architecture

Appendix F: MAILbus 400 Architecture

Overview

NCL/EMA

Every network needs a means of managing it. DECnet employs an architecture called EMA (enterprise management architecture) which is depicted in Figure F-1. All of the related entities that can be managed are grouped together into modules. Examples of modules are a DSA module for X.500 and MTA and MTS modules for MAILbus 400. In some cases the entities are too complex to be represented singly. The architecture allows the entity to spawn off subentities, which can be managed separately. To manage the actual entities you need to use an application called a director. The standard director for DECnet is called NCL.

Figure F-1. Entity Naming Hierarchy

MTA Entity

As we have already seen, message transfer agents are responsible for routing MPDUs within a message transport system. They will be configured differently with every implementation of X.400, and every application will have its own way of accessing and representing the data they access.

Nevertheless, they all perform the same tasks and have essentially the same objects with which to work. Figure F-2 shows these objects in terms of MAILbus 400, where they are managed using an EMA director and are called entities. A quick look at these entities should give you an idea of what the MTA does and how it does it.

Figure F-2. MTA Entity


	?	Agent: A user agent, message store or gateway. You can manage and examine certain characteristics, such as how to invoke them, the...

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