Administrator's role

Help Document

The Admin menu

List Directory

Search the Directory for any entry and perform common administrative functions on accounts.

Pattern

The pattern to search for.

Search

The field to match. The results are listed sorted by this field. You can search by:
•       Name
•       UserID
•       User group
•       Internet alias
•       Client ID
If you select By User ID, remote names and routes will not appear in the list because they do not have user IDs. If you select By User Group, you must enter the group name exactly at "Pattern".

Show
Regular users

Includes users classified as regular users on their user information forms.

Remote users

Includes users classified as remote users on their user information forms.

Gateways & routes

Includes gateways and routes.

Remote names

Includes users registered on other servers.

Conferences

Includes conferences.

Other

Includes user groups and mail lists.

Search

Starts searching.

Stop

Stops searching.

Admin function buttons
New User

Adds a new user.

Edit

Edits the selected entry's information form.

Open Desktop

Opens the selected entry's Desktop.

Delete

Deletes the selected entry.

New Message

Click to send a message.

System Profile

Edit global settings on the System Profile form.

Add

Add any of the objects listed in the submenu (for example, chat file, gateway, user group).

New Stationery

Add Stationery.

Add New User

Add a new user.

Give Alias

Put a shortcut to the selected object on a specified user's Desktop.

Broadcast

Send a message to all connected users.

Control

Provides a submenu with the following options:

•       Force an immediate trash collection.
•       Perform a fast shutdown.
•       Perform a polite shutdown.
•       Restart the Server.
•       Log off selected users.
•       Log off all users.
•       Pause or continue monitoring.
•       Reset all Server modems.
Session Monitor

View the session monitor.

The administrator's Desktop

In addition to the standard icons that all users see, the administrator Desktop contains its own set of standard icons. Do not delete or rename any of these icons. If you do, you might not be able to perform necessary administrative tasks. These objects are protected by default.
Warning

If you delete one of the standard user icons from the administrator Desktop (News or Conferences), that object and all its contents will be deleted and it may be impossible to restore the administrator's link.

Internet Services

A folder where you configure your Internet connections and services.

Log Files

A folder containing a copy of the Server log files.

Hard Disk

An external folder that gives you access to the other files on the hard disk containing the post office. This folder is created automatically when you install your Server.

Private Conferences

A folder similar to the public Conferences folder, where you can add private conferences.

CLUI Help

A folder containing the Command Line User Interface (CLUI) help text files.

Gateways

A folder containing the gateways defined on your Server.

Groups

A folder containing all the user and conference groups defined on your Server.

Mail Lists

A folder containing all the public mail lists on your Server.

Statistics & Billing

A folder containing the Server statistics file.

Volumes and MultiVol Conferences

Folders containing a list of all the volumes mounted on the Server computer.

Multi-Site Setup

A folder containing forms used in setting up networks consisting of two or more Servers, using the Directory Synchronization feature. This also contains the FC Resource Registry, which allows you to update resources such as forms, icons, and sounds automatically.

FirstClass Services

A folder containing the Server and Session monitor forms.

Registration form

The online registration form. You must complete and send in this form to get access to product and documentation updates and support conferences. You can either email the preaddressed form via the Internet or print it and mail it to one of the addresses indicated in the message body.

The Administrator Directory

You can view the Directory just as end users can. In addition, as administrator you have a more powerful view of the Directory. To get this view, choose Admin > List Directory.

You

can use the List Directory form to add, update, and delete Directory entries.

Selecting multiple entries

To select a block of continuous entries, click the first one, then Shift-click the last one in the block. To select discontinuous entries, click the first one, then Control-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) the others. You can combine these selection methods.

Performing multiple searches

You can perform multiple searches and save the results of each search using push pins.

1       Perform the first search.
2       Click the push pin column at the left beside each result you want to save.
3       Perform the next search.
        The results with the push pins will stay and the others will be cleared from the list.

If the new search results move the push pinned results out of sight, you can click the push pin column heading to bring all push pinned results to the top.
To clear a push pin from a result, click the push pin icon.

Listing Directory entries

To list entries in the List Directory form, click Search.
You can refine the list by:
•       using the "Pattern" field just as regular users do
•       choosing the field you want to match at "Search"
•       selecting the types of objects you want to list.

Disabling logins

Sending broadcast messages
You can send a broadcast message to every connected user. This message appears automatically on their screens, instead of in their Mailboxes. You might send a broadcast message, for example, if you want users to log off so you can do a backup.

To send a broadcast message:
1       Choose Admin > Broadcast.
2       Type your message (maximum 80 characters).
3       Click Broadcast.

Temporarily disabling logins

Occasionally you might want to disable logins temporarily. You can disable logins:
• for all users

The administrator and subadministrators can still log in. Other users cannot log in until you re-enable all logins by reversing this procedure or restarting the Server.

• for a user group

Users in this group cannot log in until you re-enable at least one access option.

• through your modems

Modem users trying to connect to a Server that is shut down normally get no answer. If you prefer that they get a busy signal, you can take all modems off hook. This is called busying out modems.

Disabling logins for all users

To disable logins for all users:

1       Choose Admin > System Profile > Server.
2       Select "Disable all logins".
3       Close the form and save your change.

Disabling logins for a user group

To disable logins for all users in a group:

1       Double-click Groups on the administrator Desktop.
2       Double-click the user group for which you want to disable logins.
3       Clear "FirstClass access", "Internet access", and "Command line access" on the Access tab.
4       Close the form and save your changes.

Logging off all users

When you log off all users, everyone except yourself and subadministrators are logged off immediately. If you need to log off subadministrators, you must log them off selectively.
To log off all users:
1 optional

Choose Conferencing > Who's Online to see who is currently logged in.

2 Choose Admin > Control > Logoff All Users.
3 Click OK.

Logging off selected users

When you log off selected users, they are logged off immediately. This can include yourself and subadministrators.
To log off selected users:

1       Choose Conferencing > Who's Online or Admin > Session Monitor.
2       Select the users to be logged off.
3       Choose Admin > Control > Logoff Selected Users.

Disabling logins through your modem

To busy out your Server modems:
1       Shut down your Server.
2       Start FirstClass Tools.
3       Choose File > Busy Out All Modems.

Resetting Server modems

Most modems are not set up to work with your Server when they are initially turned on. When the Server starts up, it sends a Reset string to each modem to set it up correctly. The Server also sends the Reset string to a modem when a user logs off, or when a session ends for some other reason.
If you turn a modem off and back on again, or otherwise reset it, you must force the Server to send these strings again by choosing Admin > Control > Reset Server Modems. The reset command is sent to all modems not actively being used for connections.
If the Server does not receive an OK response after 50 attempts to reset a modem, it reports the problem to you by email.
Note

Selecting Reset Server Modems also causes Internet Services to disconnect and reconnect.

Model Desktops

To create a Model Desktop:

1       Double-click the individual or user group for which you want to create a Model Desktop.
2       Click Model Desktop on the individual or group user form.
3       On the Admin Desktop, select an object (such as a conference) that you want on these users' Desktops.
4       Choose Conferencing > Add to Desktop.
5       Drag the Desktop alias that you just created from the administrator Desktop to the Model Desktop.
6       Repeat the previous three steps for every object that you want on this Model Desktop.
7       Close the Model Desktop.
8       Wait for modeling to complete.
9       Do not log off until you are told that modeling is completed.

To update a Model Desktop:

1       Open the Model Desktop.
2       Rearrange, add, or delete objects as needed.
        Note

If you are just rearranging objects, you must force remodeling by adding an object, remodeling, then deleting the object and remodeling again.

3 Close the Model Desktop.
4 Wait for remodeling to complete.

User accounts

When you delete a user account, any messages sent by the user remain on the server until they expire or are deleted by recipients. You can delete user accounts in the following ways:

• manual deletion

This is appropriate for a small number of accounts.

• automatic deletion of inactive accounts

Expired accounts are deleted during trash collection. Each deletion is logged in the server log file. You cannot use this method for users with the Does Not Expire privilege.

• deletion using the DEL or DELALL batch administration commands.

To delete a user account manually:

1       Choose Admin > List Directory.
2       Display the user account in the Directory list.
3       Select the user account.
4       Click Delete.

To set up automatic deletion of inactive user accounts:

1 Choose Admin > System Profile.
2 Specify how long users can be inactive before their accounts expire at "Inactivity limit before deletion".

The value No Limit means there will be no automatic deletion of inactive accounts.

3 Close the System Profile and save your changes.

Conferences

To create a conference:

1 Double-click one of the following on your administrator Desktop:

• Conferences

to create a public conference

• Private Conferences

to create a private conference

2       Choose File > New > New Conference.
3       Choose File > Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac OS) with the new conference selected.
4       Type the name you want for this conference at "Name".
5       optional

Change the icon for the conference.

Select "Protected" to prevent the conference from being moved, deleted, or renamed by accident.

6 optional

Select "Auto open" to make the conference open automatically whenever a user logs in and the conference contains messages not read by that user.

7 Close the Info form and save your changes.

To create a conference group:

1       Open the Groups folder on your administrator Desktop.
2       Choose Admin > Add > Conference Group.
3       Type the name you want for this conference group.
4       Choose File > Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac OS) with the conference group selected.
5       Select "Protected" to prevent the conference group from being deleted by accident.
6       Close the Info form and save your change.

Calendars

Each user can have only one personal calendar. This calendar is available with the Calendaring privilege. You can set this privilege through a user's information form or a user group. A personal calendar can be modeled on the Desktop of any user with the correct user privilege.
Calendar groups allow you to set default permissions for all calendars that belong to the group. FirstClass comes with the following standard calendar groups:
•       All Calendars
•       User Calendars
•       Group Calendars
•       Resource Calendars
•       Location Calendars.
All calendars of all types belong to the All Calendars group and have that group's permissions applied first. They then belong to the group specific to the type of calendar and the permissions of that group override the All Calendars permissions. These permissions are in turn overridden by the permissions of any group that you create.

To add a calendar group:

1 Open the Groups folder on your administrator Desktop.
2 Choose Admin > Add > Calendar Group.
Users with the Create conferences and Calendaring privileges can create group, resource, and location calendars just as you can. In addition, because it often makes sense to put public calendars inside conferences to which they apply (for example, location calendars for meeting rooms inside a staff conference), users also need the Create subconference permission for conferences inside which they may create calendars.

Public chats

To create a public chat:

1 Open the conference or folder in which you want to create the chat.

Note

Public chats can only be located in a conference or folder. You cannot put a shortcut to a public chat on a Model Desktop or an individual user's Desktop.

2       Choose Admin > Add > Chat File.
3       Choose File > Properties (Windows) or Get Info (Mac OS) with the new public chat selected.
4       Type the name you want for this chat at "Name".
5       optional

Change the icon for the chat.

6 Close the Info form and save your changes.

Public mail lists

To create a public mail list:

1       Double-click Mail Lists on the administrator Desktop.
2       Choose Admin > Add > Mail List.
3       Type the name you want to give this mail list at "Name".
4       Add users to the mail list just as you would address a message.
5       Close and save the Global Mail List form.

To limit who can see the mail list:

1       Choose Admin > List Directory.
2       Display your new mail list in the Directory list.
3       Select the mail list.
4       Click the Edit icon.
5       Add user and conference groups at "Member of:" just as you would address a message.
6       This makes your mail list visible only in the Directory views of those groups.
7       Close the Mail List Directory Information form.

Server and disk use statistics

Disk usage report

When FirstClass performs a trash collection, it produces a Disk Usage report. You can view the report using FirstClass or a text editor, or import it into a spreadsheet.
Disk Usage reports are named DiskUse.txt and are in the folder specified on the Statistics Control form. The report contains an entry for each user consisting of one line, with the following information:
First column - User ID

The user's unique ID.

Second column - Volume

The name of the volume on which the user account is registered.

Third column - Total Space

For performance reasons, FirstClass no longer maintains this field. For backward compatibility with log analysis programs, this field remains, but is always zero.

Fourth column - Total Files

For performance reasons, FirstClass no longer maintains this field. For backward compatibility with log analysis programs, this field remains, but is always zero.

Fifth column - Referenced Space

The total size, in kilobytes, of incoming and outgoing messages, documents, and uploaded files in the user's Mailbox and folders.

Sixth column - Referenced Files

The total number of incoming and outgoing messages, documents, and uploaded files in the user's Mailbox and folders.

Sixth column - Privileges

Special privileges granted to the user. This field can contain one or more of the following:

A - administrator
E - Edit User Information
U - View Unlisted
V - View User Information.

Viewing a Disk Usage report using FirstClass

To view a Disk Usage report while you are logged into FirstClass as administrator:

1       Double-click Statistics & Billing on the Desktop.
2       Double-click the Statistics folder.
3       Double-click DiskUse.txt.
The report opens in SimpleText (Mac OS) or Notepad (Windows).

Viewing a Disk Usage report using a text editor

To view a Disk Usage report when you are not logged into FirstClass:

1       Open the FirstClass Post Office folder (Mac OS) or FCPO folder (Windows).
2       Double-click the Stats.Dir folder.
3       Copy DiskUse.txt to a location outside the FirstClass folders.

We suggest you view a copy instead of the original, because problems could occur if the server is running while you view the file in its original location, and the application you use to view the report acts in an irregular manner.

4 Double-click the copy of DiskUse.txt.
The report opens in SimpleText (Mac OS) or Notepad (Windows).

Releasing disk space

In your System Profile, you can configure the minimum free disk space required on each volume on your server. When the amount of free disk space on a volume is less than or equal to this amount, the server refuses to accept messages from users or gateways on that volume.
There are several ways you can free up space:

•       Use the Disk Usage report to identify users who are using excessive space. Ask these users to clean out their Mailboxes.
•       Set disk usage quotas.
•       Look for and delete files with large attachments.
•       Make sure all aliases of a deleted item are also deleted. The space an item takes up is recovered only when all copies are deleted. Deleting a large file recovers no space unless the alias is also deleted from the sender's Mailbox (and from the Mailboxes of all other recipients).
•       Decrease the expiry period on the System Profile form or on the Permissions form of your busiest conferences.
•       Delete old statistics and log files. We suggest that you back up these files before you delete them, in case you need to troubleshoot a recurring problem.

On a Mac OS, the statistics files are located in FirstClass Post Office/Stats.Dir. The log files are located in FirstClass Post Office/LogFiles.
In Windows, the statistics files are located in FCPO/STATS.DIR. The log files are located in FCPO/LOGFILES.

To recover freed disk space, trash collection must be run after files are deleted. You can force a trash collection immediately, or wait until the next scheduled trash collection takes place.

Checking user statistics

FirstClass lets you collect statistics on selected user activities. To specify the statistics you want to collect:

1       Double-click Statistics & Billing on the administrator's Desktop.
2       Double-click Statistics Control.
3       Fill in the Statistics and Billing Control form.
4       Close the form and save your changes.

User statistics file format field types

The Statistics and Billing Control form fields are demarcated by the delimiter you specified on the Statistics and Billing Control form. Below are the format types that can be applied to each record.

Field types

Each record contains a user ID, Time, Date field and one or more additional fields specific to the record type. These are the common field types:
userID

The user ID of the user performing the action.

date

The date the action was performed, in the format dd>/<mm>/<yy.

time

The time the action was performed, in the format hh:mm:ss am|pm.

fileID

The unique file ID of the file or folder being processed. FirstClass uses file IDs to access the files and folders on a volume.

clientID

The client ID of the user performing the action. FirstClass assigns a unique client ID to each user. The client ID is never assigned to another user.

messageID

The message ID of the message being processed. Every message in FirstClass has a unique message ID.

obj name

The name of the object being processed.

obj type

The type of object being processed. Possible types are: Message, Conference, and Folder.

parent obj

The parent object of the object being processed. For example, a conference item's parent object would be the conference.

file size

The size, in bytes, of the object being processed.

Record details

For each record, we list the checkbox you must select on the Statistics and Billing Control form to generate the record. If more than one checkbox is listed, you can generate that record by selecting any of those checkboxes.
AddUser

Action that generates this record:
A user is added with the Admin > Add New User command.