You can use an existing electronic mail mechanism as the transport
method for packets. On the sending end, compress and encode the packet and
then send the resulting data to a specific electronic mail alias at the receiving
site. On the receiving end, redirect the electronic mail alias to a script
that decodes and decompresses the incoming information.
To ensure that a electronic mail message is not too large to be delivered,
you can specify the maximum size for a packet by using the –maxsize option,
the shipping.conf file (Linux and the UNIX system), or the MultiSite Control
Panel (Windows).
Advantages:
- Transport mechanism is well understood and widely available.
- Little effort is required from the system administrator.
Disadvantages:
- No control over routing of data.
- Possibility that messages can be intercepted or lost without notification.
- Less efficient than ftp or store-and-forward.
Note: - You can write scripts to automate electronic mail transport. The sending
script creates the packets, compresses and encodes them, and divides them
into multiple small packets so they are not too big for the electronic mail
process. The script must mark the multiple packets with the correct sequencing.
The script then sends the packets to an address at the target location or
replica.
At the target location, the account that receives the packets
redirects or pipes them to a process that reassembles, decodes, and uncompresses
them and places them in the replica’s storage bay.
MultiSite import
commands handle out-of-sequence and missing packet problems, so your scripts
do not have to address these issues.
- Using ssh and scp (secure shell and secure copy) provides
a secure way to move files through firewalls.
- For security, you must encrypt the packets.