The multithreaded TCP SMTP channels' SMTP server is handled by the PMDF Service Dispatcher. Each worker process the Service Dispatcher creates for the multithreaded SMTP server can handle multiple, simultaneous connections, and the Service Dispatcher can create multiple such worker processes. To start the SMTP server, you must start the PMDF Service Dispatcher.

The Service Dispatcher can be started with the command

pmdf startup dispatcher

If you modify your PMDF configuration or options that apply to the multithreaded TCP SMTP server, you must restart the server so that the new configuration or options will take effect. On OpenVMS and UNIX platforms, use the command

pmdf restart smtp

On NT platforms, you must restart the Dispatcher itself using the command

C:\> pmdf restart dispatcher

A new SMTP server process will be created, using the new configuration, and will process subsequent incoming SMTP connections. The old TCP SMTP server process will finish up any SMTP sessions it might have and exit when they are finished.

Note that you can stop the TCP SMTP server at any time. On OpenVMS and UNIX platforms, use the command

pmdf shutdown smtp

which will shut down the server gracefully, allowing any outstanding connections to finish up.

On NT, you must shut down the Dispatcher itself, or edit the Dispatcher configuration removing the SMTP service and then restarting the Dispatcher.