Operations

Monitoring

The ability to notice problems that affect the performance characteristics of the electronic mail service requires that a monitoring function exist as part of the service. These faults need to be diagnosed, and dispatched to a fault resolution function. Without monitoring of the technical infrastructure, routing and delivery problems of electronic mail will not be noticed and corrected in a timely manner. This implies that the technical components are instrumented in a manner that facilitates this monitoring function.

Fault Resolution & Escalation

Once performance problems or faults are noticed and diagnosed, a resolution function must exist to ensure a timely and effective resolution of the problem. An escalation procedure is necessary to ensure that problems do not get overlooked or forgotten, and that closure of client problems is achieved in a timely manner.

Backups

Protecting electronic mail from unintentional loss is a high priority of any reliable electronic mail system. One function critical to achieve that goal is to ensure that mail queued on the transport agent, stored on the mail store, or in the client's mailbox is not lost due to a server crash. This is accomplished by implementing a policy of frequent backups of the disks storing electronic mail that may be at risk in the event of a system crash.