Mail Stack Testing for ClearOS 6.2
Please see the blog post for an introduction on the ClearOS 6 Mail Stack beta
Installing the Test Version
Before you begin the install, please make sure the system is registered and all the latest updates have been installed on your system:
yum upgrade
You can then install most of the mail stack with:
yum --enablerepo=clearos-developer,clearos-updates-testing install \ app-zarafa-community app-mail-antivirus app-mail-antispam app-greylisting app-smtp
Please expect to see noisier than normal install output - debug mode is enabled. The above command installs the following apps:
- Zarafa Community for ClearOS
- Mail Settings
Configuration
The base mail domain is used by a number of apps: SMTP Server, IMAP, Mail Filter, etc. Each app saves this information in its own configuration file, but we really only want to see the domain in one place in the user interface. That's where the Mail Settings app comes in. This might not be the way we'll do it in the final release, but that's how it is done right now:
- Go to
System|Account Manager|Account Manager to make sure the accounts system (users/groups) is running.
- Go to
System|Settings|Mail Settings to set the mail domain.
- Go to
System|Accounts|Users to create a few users. Please make sure the SMTP Server User and Zarafa Account are enabled for the user. Feel free to fill out the contact information too - this information is shown in Zarafa's address book!
- Go to
System|Accounts|Groups to create a group or two. You will see a new option when adding/editing a group: Distribution List. If you leave this option enabled, the group becomes a mail distribution list (e.g. [email protected] will go to all the members of the sales group).
- Go to
Server|Messaging and Collaboration|Zarafa Community and start all the servers (if not running).
That's it. You should be able login to the Zarafa web client with your user account credentials:
- Go to https://w.x.y.z/webaccess to access Zarafa's web client
Mail Apps
The Zarafa integration is the newest app and the primary focus of integration and testing. However, don't forget about the other base mail stack apps that were available in previous versions:
Feedback
Please go to this forum thread to discuss Zarafa and the mail stack.
Under the Hood - Tech Stuff
System Database
The Zarafa solution stores information in a MySQL database. Instead of using the main MySQL server, a separate sandbox server is used for ClearOS apps. You can find the install base for this sandboxed MySQL database in /usr/clearos/sandbox. If you want to login and poke around, you can find the password in /etc/zarafa/server.cfg:
grep mysql_password /etc/zarafa/server.cfg /usr/clearos/sandbox/usr/bin/mysql -uzarafa -p zarafa
Mail Routing and Mail Filter
Though the Mail Routing and Mail Filter apps are not visible in the web interface, these two apps perform important roles in the mail flow. You can find more information about these two apps in the Mail Architecture document.
Account Extensions and Plugins - LDAP
When you add or edit a user, you will notice three new hooks:
- Contact Extension - basic contact information
- Zarafa Extension - Zarafa account details (notably, mail quotas)
- SMTP Server Plugin - user access SMTP Authentication
You will also see a new field when adding/editing a group. If you want to make a group into a mail distribution list in Zarafa, just enable it in the web interface.