[pkg-kolab] Lenny/Kolab

[Mark Pavlichuk]

Price,Neil wrote:
>  
>   
>>   Looks like Mathieu has already edited the wiki with the latest 
>> information on getting Kolab working.
>>     
>
> Will check it out.
>
>   
>>   My Kolab efforts are part of a larger project - I'm trying 
>> to automate 
>> building of an LDAP based infrastructure with lots of integrated 
>> services and a GUI.  So far I've got scripts for installing 
>> GOsa (a GUI 
>> for managing LDAP based services), and integrating services 
>> such is Unix 
>> posix accounts, Samba, DNS, and DHCP.  I've also got a script for 
>> integrating SOGo (Scalable Opengroupware), but integrating 
>>     
>
> That's a commercial product right? Is it still being actively developed? How
> do you like it?
>   

  SOGo?  It's an open source product just coming up to version 1.0.  It 
is a descendant of the OGo codebase, and seems quite capable.  It has a 
nice AJAX GUI and seems to integrate with Thunderbird /w Lightning 
(although when I was testing it about six months ago the Lightning 
integration had some bugs).  There's also a Funambol plugin for mobile 
devices etc...  and a commercial Outlook plugin.

  There are no packages and it must be compiled from source at the 
moment, which is definitely not straight forward due to the strangeness 
of Objective-C and the complexity of setting it up.  I wrote a script to 
automate these steps with some bug fixes and additions from other people 
eg. fixes for running under Ubuntu.  Hopefully a Debian package 
maintainer discovers this script and uses it as a shortcut to rolling a 
package.

  Regarding Samba & SOGo integration it seems relatively easy because 
SOGo uses LDAP merely for username/password pairs, and optionally for a 
global address book.  Kolab seems more heavily reliant on LDAP, with 
it's own custom schemas which might not coexist well with certain 
others...  although I'm hoping the situation isn't as difficult as my 
initial impressions and google searches seem to indicate.

>> Kolab seems 
>> like it will be difficult and beyond my skills - I Googled for wisdom 
>> after having some schema issues and the mailing-list advice 
>> is that it's 
>> a difficult and seldom trodden path.
>>     
>
> I was interested in integrating it with LDAP-based samba and have seen some
> info on the web about that.
>
> Your experience is discouraging. My skills (esp LDAP) are not that great.
> I'm going to look at Citadel, Zimbra and Scalix but I've got a sinking
> feeling I'm going to have to go back to Windows and Exchange.
>   

  Try SOGo /w GOsa...  At the moment it's easier to get running (at 
least if my documentation is up to scratch).  I've also documented 
Samba/LDAP integration...  which means your Samba accounts can be 
managed by GOsa.  I'm hoping eventually I can somehow get Kolab 
documented too which should make it just as easy.

  I haven't attempted CUPS integration yet, though a standalone CUPS 
would probably be tolerable except at a very large site.

  The exciting thing about GOsa is the plugins for advanced services 
such as Asterisk, FAI (fully automated installer), fax gateway software 
etc...  Will get to those after I've smoothed out the more essential 
services.

-- 
Mark Pavlichuk
Strategic IT
ph. (07)47242890
m. 0409 124577