SQL Connector MailBox property PluginID

This document will explain the reason behind this new property and what could happen when you upgrade to this version from a previous version of MailSite.

In version 6.1 the SQL connector now supports multiple plug-ins properly, in the same way as the Registry connector does. In the 'MailboxProperties' table there is a new property called 'PluginID'.

In previous versions of MailSite it has been possible to use NT authentication against the SQL connector. If this option has been enabled, the NTSQL piggyback plug-in would assume that if an NT user existed with the same name as the MailSite user, it should authenticate the mailbox user with that NT account.

When upgrading from a previous version of MailSite this field in the database will be set to NULL. The way that the 'PluginID' is configured is accomplished when a mailbox is opened, the mailbox manager traverses the plug-in list trying to find a plug-in that will authenticate that mailbox. If one is found, the 'PluginID' is set to point to that plug-in value, if not, a plug in value of zero is used. This approach ensures that users of the NTSQL plug-in have a seamless upgrade. It is assumed that systems not using the NTSQL plug-in will have no collisions between mail names and NT user names; unfortunately this is not always the case.

A workaround is to manually set each mailbox's 'PluginID' to zero before starting the services after an upgrade. If the system has been upgraded already and users are experiencing authentication issues because their 'PluginID' has been incorrectly set by the mailbox manager, setting the 'PluginID' to zero will restore the user's ability to use their mailbox.

Caveats:

If a mailbox is inadvertently set to authenticate against an NT user and the user logs into the mailbox with the correct password for the NT account, the mailbox password will be set to match the NT password. This is a feature of the way the AD plug-in works.