Zentyal Forum, Linux Small Business Server

Zentyal Server => Email and Groupware => Topic started by: trysomething on January 29, 2016, 01:53:00 am

Title: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: trysomething on January 29, 2016, 01:53:00 am
Hi All,
I have been very successfully running a 4.2 test server in a tiny test environment for months now.  We finally decided to "up the bet" and put our small organization on a full fledged Zentyal 4.2 server.  I've had a TON of Samba crashes, looks like after the most recent updates that's all worked itself out though.  Openchange was crashing here and there and again, updates fixed it (I think LoL).
Sogo has dropped out on us a few times too but I'm pretty sure that's because Outlook clients can't connect to the Openchange server so everyone's beating up ActiveSync.  Yeah, I know that's wrong, I really don't need that lecture, but it's driving me bonkers now.
I've gone through all kinds of stub files and config files on the currently in use server and the test server and haven't been able to find the culprit.  I've been neck deep in the logs (/var/logs/samba, /var/logs/apache2, /var/logs/ocsmanager, etc.) and haven't found much of anything.  There is on occasion a samba.log entry about user isn't mailbox owner, but in checking all of the permissions it all looks correct.
So now I'm at the point where I can connect Outlook 2013 and it says it's connected, I can even send messages.  I cannot receive them in Outlook though.  In addition I cannot really do much in the way of deleting messages, moving things to different folders or anything other than sending new messages.
The whole time outlook says it's connected and whatever folder I go into says it's synced, but it's not really working.
Anyone have any kind of clue on what I can do?  I kind of want to uninstall and reinstall Openchange but I know that usually goes over like a led balloon so I was hoping someone could hook me up with some knowledge here.
Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: jodel on January 30, 2016, 12:57:14 am
I wonder has anyone succeeded in setting up a stable and working instance of Zentyal community/development version as an Exchange replacement?
I am thinking of an example that might have say 10 users with mail, contacts and calenders that is working reliably.
I would like to think that is is possible.  Looking through your previous posts it is  obvious that you have a lot of knowledge and that you have gone to considerable effort  to understand Zentyal.   I would think that if you are having difficultries implementing it,  then most will struggle to get Zentyal (community/development edition) working in a production environment.  If you are using the Commercial Edition and experiencing the problems you mention then there is a bigger problem. :)

Jodel
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: Gabriel GHEORGHIU on January 30, 2016, 09:05:20 am
Hi guys,

I use Zentyal community/development edition (now 4.2.1.3) from about 2 years, till now only as E-mail server, in the following configuration:
- placed in DMZ (Endian 3.05 beta1 community edition).
- all filters (SMTP Proxy, POP3 Proxy, Black and Whitelists, Spam Filters, Virus Scanner) are made by Endian.
- no AD integration.
- external NS.
- multi domains: 7 different domains with approximative 100 mailboxes.
- because of multi domains, Callendar Sharing and Contacts Sharing are disabled.
- works without issues on: Blackberry, Windows Phone, iPhone, Android (IMAP, POP3, Exchange).
- works without issues on desktops: Outlook 2010, 2013, Thunderbird (IMAP, POP3, Exchange).

Notes:
- After the upgrade to 4.2, I didn't have issues with Openchange.
- Restat the server only when updates/upgrades ask.
- A few minor issues during some updates, solved after a few CLI commands.
- I have tested a few months ago, for a very short time, Calendar Sharing and it works well from Sogo to Thunderbird, if i remember well. I don't remember if worked from Thunderbird to Sogo or from Sogo to Outlook and vice versa.

In the next couple of months, I will try to setup Zentyal as E-mail Server on a separate machine, only for my company, to use Callendar Sharing and Contacts Sharing (placed in DMZ, all filters on Endian, no AD integration).
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: jodel on January 30, 2016, 02:42:46 pm
It is good to hear of a positive experience.  It seem as if the mail side is robust from your experience.The sogo,samba and openchange bits are the areas where I seem to hit most trouble.
Jodel
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: trysomething on January 30, 2016, 07:35:52 pm
Well I have a few Zentyal 4.2 community edition servers up and running without issue actually.  I've even got one running multiple domains with autodiscover working flawlessly.  Shared calendars and shared contacts works just as expected, but this particular deployment has thrown some curve balls my way.
The commercial edition of Zentyal comes with support so I would not be posting in here if I was on the commercial edition - I'm actually talking to Heidi at Zentyal and am going to purchase a full commercial server next week though.
These here forums are meant for the beta community to help one another out and for the most part it works rather well.  I'm just stuck on this issue and I don't want to just hit the reset button on it, I want to learn more about the inner-workings of Zentyal.  In the future it's always handy to know as much as possible whether it's the community or commercial version.
Anyways I've figured out a few new things about this issue but still can't seem to get whatever little bugger is causing my headache.
I've submitted a TON of Samba, Openchange and Sogo crash reports but it's all just the same "this is a duplicate of" message I get.  The bug tracker doesn't have much info in it either so I'm about ready to just give it the old "start all over" try.
Anyone at Zentyal want to drop some suggestions in here I'd be super thankful btw, thanks all.
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: Gabriel GHEORGHIU on January 30, 2016, 08:31:05 pm
It is good to hear of a positive experience.  It seem as if the mail side is robust from your experience.The sogo,samba and openchange bits are the areas where I seem to hit most trouble.
Jodel

Hi Jodel,

Indeed, I have a positive experience with Zentyal as e-mail server.

Next, I will try to replace my PDC/AD/File Server/Print Server on Windows 2k8 Std with Zentyal or NethServer.
My first option is Zentyal because of Samba4.
I'm not sure yet in what configuration (PDC/AD/File Server;  PDC/AD with FreeNas as File Server;  PDC/AD with Openmediavault as File Server).
I'm sure I cannot use it as Print Server. I have Canon Color MF with network scanner and I have no drivers to use them at full capacities.

Gabriel
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: trysomething on January 30, 2016, 08:41:35 pm
3 out of 4 of my Zentyal 4 servers I am running right now work flawlessly as PDC with mail and groupware.
One thing that you ned to do after getting everything all up and running is open a terminal and install Sogo ActiveSync:
sudo apt-get install sogo-activesync

Then go into your Zentyal Admin Panel and navigate to Mail > Openchange and check the ActiveSync box.  After that is all done then your Android, IOS and Windows Phone devices will all work flawlessly too!
No clue on why that package isn't just installed automatically though.
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: Gabriel GHEORGHIU on January 30, 2016, 08:45:40 pm
3 out of 4 of my Zentyal 4 servers I am running right now work flawlessly as PDC with mail and groupware.
One thing that you ned to do after getting everything all up and running is open a terminal and install Sogo ActiveSync:
sudo apt-get install sogo-activesync

Then go into your Zentyal Admin Panel and navigate to Mail > Openchange and check the ActiveSync box.  After that is all done then your Android, IOS and Windows Phone devices will all work flawlessly too!
No clue on why that package isn't just installed automatically though.

Especially after remaining just Sogo ActiveSync! ;)
Title: Re: Openchange, Samba and Sogo - are they out to get me?
Post by: trysomething on February 01, 2016, 09:18:50 pm
Holy cow I think I fixed it!!!!
If anyone on Zentyal 4.2 is having Samba 4 crash issues just try changing all of the user passwords...  Seriously it's working for me now!!!
I came across an old Samba crash thread on an old Apache forum and the solution/work around was to set all users to "require password change at next login" via RSAT.  I wasn't inside the LAN when I read that so I decided to try just changing my own password to see what happens.  Samba actually just didn't crash...
I changed my password back to what it originally was and still no smashy-crashy action.
I've now changed all users passwords, then changed them back (to make it seamless for them) and for the past couple of hours I've been importing PSTs, connecting, sending and receiving messages just like it's supposed to do.
After exhaustive searching and pouring over billions of forum posts, my own notes, scouring log after log after log - it was just a change the password thing LoL.
Still going forward with the commercial edition of Zentyal, but I'm going to keep moving forward with the beta forum too.
Hope someone finds this and it works for them before they lose as much hair as I did LoL.
Thanks to everyone who's put some input into this one and thrown whatever idea at me they could come up with.