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_v3.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 & Provisioning: Account provisioning and message storage

  • Proxy: Web access

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

Collaboration Components

These add advanced collaboration and communication features to Carbonio:

  • Files

  • Chats

  • Docs & Editor

  • Tasks

  • Preview

  • Video Server & 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:

Note

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

Mesh & Directory

  • service-discover-server: service-discover-server (0.7.4-1)

  • carbonio-directory-server: carbonio-directory-server (5.4.0-1)

  • carbonio-message-broker: carbonio-message-broker (0.5.16-1)

  • carbonio-storages: carbonio-storages (1.0.2-1)

  • carbonio-user-management: carbonio-user-management (1.3.5-1)

Database

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration-db: carbonio-ws-collaboration-db (0.6.20-1)

  • carbonio-message-dispatcher-db: carbonio-message-dispatcher-db (0.6.14-1)

  • carbonio-notification-push-db: carbonio-notification-push-db (0.4.21-1)

  • carbonio-files-db: carbonio-files-db (0.6.10-1)

  • carbonio-mailbox-db: carbonio-mailbox-db (1.0.0-1)

  • carbonio-docs-connector-db: carbonio-docs-connector-db (1.0.20-1)

  • carbonio-tasks-db: carbonio-tasks-db (0.3.20-1)

  • carbonio-videorecorder-db: carbonio-videorecorder-db (1.1.21-1)

  • carbonio-preview-db: carbonio-preview-db (1.0.21-1)

Proxy

  • carbonio-proxy: carbonio-proxy (4.14.8-1)

  • carbonio-catalog: carbonio-catalog (1.0.0-1)

  • carbonio-admin-console-ui: carbonio-admin-console-ui (0.19.1-1)

  • carbonio-admin-login-ui: carbonio-admin-login-ui (0.10.2-1)

  • carbonio-auth-ui: carbonio-auth-ui (1.6.6-1)

  • carbonio-calendars-ui: carbonio-calendars-ui (1.34.4-1)

  • carbonio-contacts-ui: carbonio-contacts-ui (1.21.6-1)

  • carbonio-login-ui: carbonio-login-ui (0.11.5-1)

  • carbonio-mails-ui: carbonio-mails-ui (1.45.0-1)

  • carbonio-search-ui: carbonio-search-ui (0.1.2-1)

  • carbonio-shell-ui: carbonio-shell-ui (15.2.0-1)

  • carbonio-storages-ui: carbonio-storages-ui (0.17.9-1)

  • carbonio-files-public-folder-ui: carbonio-files-public-folder-ui (0.0.21-1)

  • carbonio-tasks-ui: carbonio-tasks-ui (0.1.2-1)

  • carbonio-files-ui: carbonio-files-ui (2.17.4-1)

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration-ui: carbonio-ws-collaboration-ui (0.18.1-1)

  • carbonio-avdb-updater: carbonio-avdb-updater (2.0.0-1)

MTA

  • carbonio-mta: carbonio-mta (4.2.8-1)

Mailstore & Provisioning

  • carbonio-advanced: carbonio-advanced (4.34.0-1)

  • carbonio-zal: carbonio-zal (4.35.0-1)

Files

  • carbonio-files: carbonio-files (3.1.2-1)

Docs & Editor

  • carbonio-docs-editor: carbonio-docs-editor (25.04.8-6)

  • carbonio-docs-connector: carbonio-docs-connector (2.2.8-1)

Preview

  • carbonio-preview: carbonio-preview (3.2.4-1)

Tasks

  • carbonio-tasks: carbonio-tasks (1.2.13-1)

Chats

  • carbonio-message-dispatcher: carbonio-message-dispatcher (1.4.4-1)

  • carbonio-ws-collaboration: carbonio-ws-collaboration (1.15.4-1)

  • carbonio-push-connector: carbonio-push-connector (0.4.1-1)

  • carbonio-notification-push: carbonio-notification-push (0.8.0-1)

Video Server & Video Recording

  • carbonio-videoserver-advanced: carbonio-videoserver-advanced (2.3.16-1)

  • carbonio-videorecorder: carbonio-videorecorder (2.4.2-1)

Monitoring

  • carbonio-prometheus: carbonio-prometheus (3.14.0-1)

  • carbonio-prometheus-alertmanager: carbonio-prometheus-alertmanager (0.34.0-1)

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)

  • CalDAV

  • CardDAV