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 & 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 and updated to version 25.6.0.

Note

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

Mesh & 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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