Architecture of Carbonio

Architecture of Carbonio#

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

../_images/architecture_Carbonio_v2.png

Fig. 1 Simplified architecture of Carbonio.#

Fundamental Concepts#

Carbonio 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 depending on the desired level of performance, scalability, and redundancy.

Core and Collaboration Components#

Within the collection of Components, we can distinguish:

Core Components

These are required for the basic operation of Carbonio:

  • 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:

  • Files

  • Chats

  • Docs and Editor

  • Tasks

  • Preview

  • Video Server and Video Recording

Additional Components and Monitoring

Some components serve special purposes:

  • Monitoring: Centralising metrics with dashboards tailored for Carbonio

  • Redundancy (optional): needed in specific installation scenarios, they include Directory Replica and Event Streaming

List of the Main Carbonio Packages#

Below is the list of Carbonio packages collected by component and updated to version 25.6.0.

Note

Click each Component section below to see the packages that make it up.

Mesh and Directory

  • service-discover-server: service-discover-server (0.2.1)

  • carbonio-directory-server: carbonio-directory-server (4.22.0)

  • carbonio-message-broker: carbonio-message-broker (0.2.1)

  • carbonio-storages: carbonio-storages (0.0.12)

  • carbonio-user-management: carbonio-user-management (0.8.2)

Database

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration-db: carbonio-ws-collaboration-db (0.2.3)

  • carbonio-message-dispatcher-db: carbonio-message-dispatcher-db (0.2.2)

  • carbonio-notification-push-db: carbonio-notification-push-db (0.1.2)

  • carbonio-files-db: carbonio-files-db (0.1.7)

  • carbonio-mailbox-db: carbonio-mailbox-db (0.2.0)

  • carbonio-docs-connector-db: carbonio-docs-connector-db (0.0.3)

  • carbonio-tasks-db: carbonio-tasks-db (0.0.4)

Proxy

  • carbonio-proxy: carbonio-proxy (4.9.0)

  • carbonio-catalog: carbonio-catalog (0.0.1)

  • carbonio-files-public-folder-ui: carbonio-files-public-folder-ui (0.0.9)

  • carbonio-webui: carbonio-webui (4.4.1)

  • carbonio-tasks-ui: carbonio-tasks-ui (0.0.17)

  • carbonio-files-ui: carbonio-files-ui (2.12.0)

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration-ui: carbonio-ws-collaboration-ui (0.9.16)

  • carbonio-avdb-updater: carbonio-avdb-updater (1.0.5)

MTA

  • carbonio-mta: carbonio-mta (4.2.0)

Mailstore & Provisioning

  • carbonio-advanced: carbonio-advanced (1:4.23.0)

  • carbonio-zal: carbonio-zal (1:4.24.0)

Files

  • carbonio-files: carbonio-files (0.16.0)

Docs & Editor

  • carbonio-docs-editor: carbonio-docs-editor (23.05.19)

  • carbonio-docs-connector: carbonio-docs-connector (0.8.1)

Preview

  • carbonio-preview: carbonio-preview (0.4.3)

Tasks

  • carbonio-tasks: carbonio-tasks (0.5.2)

Chats

  • carbonio-message-dispatcher: carbonio-message-dispatcher (0.15.2)

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration: carbonio-ws-collaboration (1.6.0)

  • carbonio-push-connector: carbonio-push-connector (0.1.3)

  • carbonio-notification-push: carbonio-notification-push (0.2.1)

Video Server & Video Recording

  • carbonio-videoserver-advanced: carbonio-videoserver-advanced (2.0.12)

  • carbonio-videorecorder: carbonio-videorecorder (1.1.1)

Monitoring

  • carbonio-prometheus: carbonio-prometheus (3.4.0)

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 Services#

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

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

  • Carbonio 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)

  • ActiveSync

  • LDAP (for external address books)

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