MDaemon Email Server

MDaemon is watched with the DumbMonit agent installed on the Windows server that runs it. Mail queues, sessions, Windows services and the disk space of the mail store can only be read on the server itself: MDaemon publishes them nowhere else, and no remote interface returns them. The agent reads them locally and sends them to DumbMonit; the MDaemon monitor then ties the agent to the mail ports DumbMonit checks from the outside (SMTP, IMAP, POP3, webmail, Remote Administration).

Agent required on the mail server

Without the agent, DumbMonit only sees the mail ports and, if you give an account, the version. The page of the monitor says so in a banner: Agent not installed or not linked, or Agent unreachable. That banner is a warning on the page, not an outage: no notification is sent for it.

	With the agent on the server	Without it
Mail ports (SMTP, IMAP, POP3, webmail, Remote Administration)	Checked	Checked
Windows services of MDaemon (state, start mode)	Read	Not watched
Queues (inbound, local, remote, retry, bad, holding…) and their oldest message	Read	Not watched
Active sessions, message totals, spam and virus verdicts	Read	Not watched
Version	Read	Only with an XML API account, or from the SMTP greeting
Disk space of the mail store	Read	Not watched

Network ports to open

From the agent to the DumbMonit server:

Port	Protocol	Purpose
8080	TCP	Agent readings (default port, 443 behind a TLS proxy)

From the DumbMonit server (or its relay agent) to the device:

Port	Protocol	Purpose
25	TCP	SMTP check (default)
143	TCP	IMAP check (default)
3000	TCP	Webmail check (default)
444	TCP	Only with an XML API account (HTTPS, default)
1000	TCP	Only with the XML API over HTTP
587	TCP	Only with msa in the Services option
465	TCP	Only with smtps in the Services option
110	TCP	Only with pop3 in the Services option
995	TCP	Only with pop3s in the Services option
993	TCP	Only with imaps in the Services option
5222	TCP	Only with xmpp in the Services option

The agent calls the server, never the other way round: no port needs to be opened on the mail server for it.

Validated against the documentation only

This integration was built from MDaemon Technologies’ published documentation, not against a real MDaemon server. Every call is a read, and the mail-port checks follow the protocol standards, but nobody has yet run it against a live MDaemon. This applies in particular to the names of MDaemon’s Windows services, the folders of its queues (Queues\Inbound, Retry, Bad…) and the names of its performance counters, which come from published documentation and not from a running server. Tell us what breaks.

Install

1. Install the agent on the Windows server that runs MDaemon: in DumbMonit, add a Server with agent monitor and run its PowerShell command in an elevated PowerShell. From Add a device → MDaemon Email Server, the Install the Windows agent button opens that flow with the PowerShell command only, and the Add the MDaemon monitor button brings you back.
2. Add the MDaemon monitor and choose that agent in Agent installed on this server. When the address you type has the host name of an agent, DumbMonit pre-selects it. Without this choice, the page falls back on finding the agent by itself (the agent set as the monitor’s parent, the relay agent that probes it, the agent whose host name matches the address), but only the explicit choice tells you, in a banner, when the agent is missing or silent.
3. Leave the credential on Services only. An XML API account is optional and only adds the exact version.

The agent detects MDaemon without any setting: it looks for a Windows service whose name or display name contains MDaemon, takes the install folder from the path of its executable (C:\MDaemon\App\MDaemon.exe gives C:\MDaemon), and reads the product’s performance counters. To force it on or off, set mdaemon: true or mdaemon: false in agent.yaml; false also switches off the Windows service and queue folder reading described below.

What it watches

Read by the agent

The Windows services, the queue folders, the version and the disk space come from the agent’s own reading. They are prefixed dumbmonit_agent_mail_, belong to the agent’s target, and carry product="mdaemon".

Metric	Labels	Meaning
info (value 1)	product, version	MDaemon was found on the server, with the product version of its executable (absent when unreadable).
service_up	product, service, display, start	1 if the Windows service is running. service is its name, display its display name, start how Windows starts it: auto, manual, disabled or other. Every service whose name or display name contains MDaemon is listed (the engine, Remote Administration, XMPP, anti-virus…, as installed).
queue_files	product, queue: inbound, local, remote, retry, bad, holding, lan, quarantine, raw	Messages (.msg files) in the queue folder under Queues\ in the install folder. Only the folders that exist; at most 20,000 files are counted per folder.
queue_oldest_seconds	product, queue	Age of the oldest message of a non-empty queue folder.
data_free_bytes, data_total_bytes	product	Free and total space of the volume that holds the install folder.

Sizes are counted from the folders so that they exist even where MDaemon’s counters are missing. When the counters below exist, the page shows their values; the folder count fills in the other queues.

MDaemon also publishes its queue sizes (inbound, local, remote, retry, bad, holding, quarantine), its session counts, its message statistics and its uptime as Windows performance counters, in the object named MDaemon. The agent reads them; none of MDaemon’s published documentation describes an XML API call that returns them. The series are prefixed dumbmonit_mdaemon_:

Metric	Labels	Performance counters read
queue_messages	queue: inbound, local, remote, retry, bad, holding, lan, quarantine, raw	Inbound queue messages, Local queue messages, Remote queue messages, Retry queue messages, Bad queue messages, Holding queue messages, LAN queue messages, Quarantine queue messages, RAW queue messages
queue_frozen (1 frozen)	queue: inbound, local, remote	Inbound queue frozen, Local queue frozen, Remote queue frozen
sessions_active	protocol: smtp_in, smtp_out, pop3_in, pop3_out, imap, webmail	Active SMTP (in) sessions, Active SMTP (out) sessions, Active POP3 (in) sessions, Active POP3 (out) sessions, Active IMAP sessions, Active Webmail sessions
sessions_total (counter)	protocol: smtp_in, smtp_out, pop3, imap	SMTP sessions (in) total, SMTP sessions (out) total, POP3 sessions total, IMAP sessions total
messages_total (counter)	protocol: smtp_in, smtp_out, domainpop_in	SMTP messages (in) total, SMTP messages (out) total, DomainPOP messages (in) total
filtered_messages_total (counter)	filter: spam, virus, dnsbl; verdict: accepted, refused	spam accepted total, spam refused total, Viruses accepted total, Viruses refused total, DNSBL accepted total, DNSBL refused total
server_active (1 active)	server: smtp, pop3, imap, webmail, webadmin, activesync, antispam, antivirus, minger, multipop, domainpop	SMTP server state, POP3 server state, IMAP server state, Web Mail server state, Web Admin server state, ActiveSync server state, AntiSpam server state, AntiVirus server state, Minger server state, MultiPOP server state, DomainPOP server state
running (1 running)		MDaemon running state
uptime_seconds		MDaemon up time

Totals count since MDaemon last started: apply increase() or rate() in queries, as the page does for its 24-hour figures. The per-second counters (SMTP messages (in)/sec…) are not read, since the totals give the same rates. A counter that your MDaemon version does not have, or names differently, is reported once in the agent’s log (performance counter not available) and the others are still read; to read one the preset lacks, list it under perf_counters in agent.yaml (see Windows performance counters).

Network services

Checked by DumbMonit from the outside, with no account. All metrics are prefixed dumbmonit_mdaemon_.

Metric	Labels	Meaning
service_up	service, port	1 if the port accepted the connection and, for SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, greeted with 220, +OK or * OK. 0 if it did not answer, or answered to refuse service (421, 554, -ERR, * BYE).
service_response_seconds	service, port	Time to the greeting, or to the connection for a port without one.
scrape_duration_seconds		Time the whole check took.

API (optional)

With an XML API account only.

Metric	Labels	Meaning
api_up		1 if the XML API answered, 0 if it did not.
api_response_seconds		Time the XML API took to answer.
api_operation_ok		1 if the account was allowed to run the call, 0 if MDaemon answered with an error status.
info (value 1)	version, build, source	The version: from the XML API (source="xml_api", build is the service build), or else from the SMTP greeting when the server announces it there (source="smtp_banner").

A partial outage is still a successful check. One stopped service gives service_up 0 for that service and the others are still measured. Only when no service and no API answers at all is the monitor unreachable.

A refused account is a configuration error, not an outage. A wrong password, an address the XML API does not allow, or a wrong port is shown on the monitor page with the reason and is not notified.

The license is not exposed through a documented interface or a performance counter, and is not read.

The built-in rules that apply: MDaemon mail service down and MDaemon XML API not answering (from the monitor), plus Monitor unreachable; and, on the agent’s monitor, Mail server Windows service stopped, MDaemon mail queue growing, Mail queue stuck, MDaemon queue frozen, MDaemon Bad queue not empty and MDaemon Retry queue high.

The monitor page

The page of an MDaemon monitor shows, from top to bottom:

1. A banner when the agent is missing or silent: Agent not installed or not linked (with a button to install it and one to choose it), Agent unreachable (with the time of its last report), or The agent does not see MDaemon on its machine. It warns that the queues and Windows services are not watched; it is not an alert.
2. Read by the agent: the Windows services (running or stopped, and how they start), the Queues (messages per queue, the age of the oldest one, and a word when a queue is frozen, stuck, or when Bad is not empty or Retry is over fifty), the Sessions, the messages and spam, virus and DNSBL verdicts of the last 24 hours, MDaemon’s uptime and version, the disk space of the mail store, and the internal servers MDaemon reports as inactive. The same panel appears on the agent’s own page.
3. Network services: every watched port, a word and a colour (Answering, Down), the response time; then, under API, the XML API state and the version it reads.

Everything is read from the last stored measurement: opening the page never connects to the server.

Install the agent, then add the monitor

1. On the Windows server that runs MDaemon, add a Server with agent monitor in DumbMonit and run its PowerShell command in an elevated PowerShell. The agent finds MDaemon by itself.

2. Back here, enter the server address and choose that agent in Agent installed on this server. DumbMonit pre-selects the one with the same host name.

3. Leave the credential on Services only: the agent already brings the queues, sessions, Windows services and disk space, and the mail ports are checked from DumbMonit.

4. Optional, only to read the exact version: open Accounts → Account Manager → New account and create the account below, with a long unique password.

   [email protected]

5. Allow the address DumbMonit connects from in Setup → XML API Service → Address Restrictions (Setup → XML API Management on MDaemon 26), then enter the account’s full email address and its password.

6. To check more ports than SMTP, IMAP and webmail, set the Services option to a list like this one.

   smtp,msa,imap,pop3,imaps,webmail

Required permissions

• Local administrator on the server: Only to install the agent, which then runs as a Windows service
• XML API access for the account: Optional: only to read the version
• XML API address restriction: Optional: allow the address DumbMonit connects from

Vendor documentation: https://help.mdaemon.com/mdaemon/en/xml-api-service.html

Good to know

The queues, sessions and Windows services are read by the agent, with the rights of the Windows service that runs it (Local System by default), which can read the install folder and the performance counters. Nothing is written on the server.

The XML API account only serves to read the version: DumbMonit only calls GetVersionInfo, which reads no mailbox and changes nothing. Since MDaemon 24, the XML API only answers the addresses it allows. It is reached on the Remote Administration HTTPS port, 444 by default. To check from the DumbMonit host that the account reaches the API, run the command below: it asks for the password and prints an answer that starts with <MDaemon><API productversion=…>.

curl -k -u [email protected] -H 'Content-Type: text/xml' --data '<MDaemon><API><Request version="20.0.0" echo="0" verbose="0"><Operation>GetVersionInfo</Operation><Parameters/></Request></API></MDaemon>' https://mail.example.com:444/MdMgmtWS/

Dynamic Screening can block an address after repeated failed logins, so a wrong password here can get the DumbMonit host blocked: test with the command above first. Remote Administration often uses a self-signed certificate: if the connection is refused for that reason, tick “Accept an unverifiable certificate” in the options.

Warning

The queues, sessions and Windows services of MDaemon can only be read on the server itself: without the agent, DumbMonit sees the mail ports and nothing else. The XML API account is optional and only brings the version; MDaemon has no read-only role for it, so never reuse your own account, and use a password found nowhere else, as repeated failures can get DumbMonit blocked.

The XML API is served by the Remote Administration web server: port 1000 over HTTP and 444 over HTTPS by default, at /MdMgmtWS/, or by IIS when Remote Administration runs there. Its full reference ships with the server: open https://mail.example.com:444/MdMgmtWS in a browser, or look in \MDaemon\Docs\API\XML API\.

Credentials

Credential	Fields
Services only	Nothing: the mail ports are checked without logging in. This is the usual choice: the agent brings the rest.
XML API account (optional)	The full email address of the account, and its password, sent as HTTP basic authentication. It only adds the exact version.

Address: the server’s host name or IP, for example mail.example.com. A port written in the address (mail.example.com:8444) is taken as the XML API port.

Options

Option	Default	Effect
services	smtp,imap,webmail	What to check, comma-separated: smtp (25), msa (587), smtps (465), pop3 (110), pop3s (995), imap (143), imaps (993), webmail (3000), remote_admin (1000), remote_admin_https (444), xmpp (5222). name:port changes a port; any other name with its port adds a service of your own, checked by connection only. none checks no port.
agent_id	none	The monitor of the agent installed on the MDaemon server (chosen in the form; the id of the agent’s monitor).
request_timeout_seconds	10	Time allowed for each connection, greeting and API call, from 1 to 60.
api_port	444	The Remote Administration port that serves /MdMgmtWS/. Used only with an account.
api_tls	true	HTTPS to the XML API. Untick only for Remote Administration over plain HTTP (port 1000 by default): the password then crosses the network in clear.
insecure_tls	false	Accept a self-signed certificate on the XML API.

The TLS ports (smtps, pop3s, imaps, remote_admin_https) are checked by connection only. To watch their certificates’ expiry, add a TLS certificate monitor for each.