Sharing some thoughts

[Josep]

I have been testing Zentyal 2.0 unsuccessfully. The process always started with a clean installation, followed by an update and upgrade of Linux and Zentyal components. The I gradually added a new component and tested it.
After a few trials It failed on me with the Mailfilter component (didn't receive emails, no warnings in logs, nothing) and now it fails with the VPN.
I have repeated this process about 5 times in Virtualbox.
So, I decided to do the same with EBox 1.4-2, and it worked right out of the box. All the components that were my minimum requirements were functional.
I guess, that 1.4 is the stable version, while 2.0 represents a testing version.
I would like to ask all of you what's your experience with these versions. Which version are you using in production environmentes: 1.4 or 2.0?
Have you installed 2.0 with all the lates components and is it working without a glitch?
I would appreciate your feedback on this.

[SeanPF]

2.0 seems like one giant glitch to me, constant problems... I'm going insane all the time.

I never thought of trying 1.4 to see if it works better. I always assume newer = good.

[FutureTechSys]

I have 2.0 WORKING without a glitch, but it has certainly taken some effort to get it to that point.

To be honest, I found about 90% of the answers on Google looking for Ubuntu stuff versus things specific to Zentyal, and the other 10% through the forum.

I personally recommend doing the base install and ONLY adding what you need - I basically installed just about everything one at a time and got it working, so I could test out the various features.

I think in a production environment with a small number of users (5-20) which is my target market for this, it would work fine for most folks who just want internet access, file sharing, and the ability to handle their own email.

I think also you have to factor in the price ($0.00) and realize that you will have to invest some more of your time than you might like to get things going the way you want.

However, the staff seems really resposive when there are genuine bugs, and usually release a patch within a day.

[Josep]

Thanks for your feedback.
The "community" edition is priced at 0€, but then, you will also have to run your own tests before rolling any changes into your client's systems, right? Because Zentyal will not do that for you. (I still do not understand the rationale behind their release policy: they claim that 2.0 is a stable release, but it is proven that it is not). If I sell a product to a customer, I need some confidence that it will work for a reasonable period of time.
I am testing the systems with the same method you are following: one item at a time and validating each step. In 2.0 I have already identified 2 bugs: one related to non-ASCII characters in the Certificate Authority and another one with the Mail Filter module (apparently, the module fails to update the LDAP database).
Again, I will not test every possible combination, but in a small office you would expect: controlled file sharing, email (with some antispam system) and VPN for secure remote access. This base functionality works for me out of the box in 1.4 and not in 2.0.
That's why I am asking other Zentyal users what's their experience in the real world.

[FutureTechSys]

I hear ya... have had some frustrations myself.  The way I see it its sort of a "Late beta" and we're helping work out the kinks.

[Josep]

Yeah. That's the same thing Red Hat did with Fedora. Now everyone goes with Ubuntu.

[Sam Graf]

I have not yet replaced all my 1.4 machines with 2.0, but at the moment I am behind a 2.0 production machine and have had no show-stopper problems at all since deployment, some weeks back. This machine does the basic infrastructure and network stuff, site-to-site VPN, and some simple file sharing. Everything has worked pretty much as advertised, right out of the box. I am a no-tweaks type of user, so there has been no fiddling by hand involved.

So I personally have no experience yet that makes me think of 2.0 as a "production beta." On the contrary, so far I am appreciating the improvements over the 1.x line.

As for the bit about "quality assured" updates, I think that simply is an offer to minimize the risk of using an integrated solution. For example, back in version 1.0 or 1.2 (can't recall off hand), a standard DansGuardian update through the Ubuntu repositories broke eBox Internet connectivity (if I recall correctly). The eBox/Zentyal developers worked it out pretty quickly, but anybody who rolled out the change to a production machine in the usual way was in a little trouble. We had some lengthy discussions about how to deal with the problem, including some sort of automated ability to roll back changes (again, if I recall correctly).

I understand Zentyal to be offering an alternative to the stock internal process of rolling out changes to test machines before going live, or to some sophisticated roll back process. They appear to be offering to take the testing step for us, for a fee. I really think the weight of the risk is not so much on the Zentyal packages (though everybody makes mistakes) but more on the Ubuntu updates side of the equation, where a particular package update could unintentionally cause issues in an integrated system.