Architecture of Carbonio CE

Architecture of Carbonio CE#

This section contains a description of Carbonio CE architecture and of the Components along with the features they provide.

../_images/architecture_Carbonio_CE_v2.png

Fig. 1 Simplified architecture of Carbonio CE.#

Fundamental Concepts#

Carbonio CE is built on a multi-component architecture. Each component is responsible for a specific part of the collaboration suite and can be installed on a Single Node or distributed across multiple Nodes.

Core and Collaboration Components#

Within the collection of Components, we can distinguish:

Core Components

These are required for the basic operation of Carbonio CE:

  • MTA / AV-AS: Sending and receiving emails

  • Mailstore and Provisioning: Account provisioning and message storage

  • Proxy: Web access

  • Database / Mesh and Directory: Backend services required for infrastructure operation

Collaboration Components

These add advanced collaboration and communication features to Carbonio CE:

  • Files

  • Chats

  • Docs and Editor

  • Tasks

  • Preview

  • Video Server

Additional Components and Monitoring

  • Monitoring: Centralising metrics with dashboards tailored for Carbonio CE

Component Communication#

All components communicate over Carbonio Mesh, a secure internal service layer that provides:

  • Service discovery

  • Automatic configuration propagation

  • Secure RPC over HTTP/HTTPS

External clients (webmail, mobile apps, third-party clients) typically interact through the Proxy node which routes the traffic to internal services.

Accessing Carbonio CE Services#

Once the installation is completed, Carbonio CE features are available via:

  • The main webmail interface, see Section Access to the Web Interface

  • Carbonio CE mobile apps (Mail, Files, and Chats)

  • Third-party clients

Supported protocols include:

  • POP3 and POP3S

  • SMTP and SMTPS (SMTP over TLS/SSL)

  • IMAP and IMAPS (IMAP over SSL)

Contents