UNIX and Windows Accounts in Zimbra LDAP and Zimbra Admin UI: Difference between revisions

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One of the biggest problem with Windows to Linux move in the server side are the missing killer apps, probably the most importants are Exchange and Active Directory.
One of the biggest problem with Windows to Linux move in the server side are the missing killer apps, probably the most importants are Exchange and Active Directory. With Zimbra we've got a chance to replace Exchange with Zimbra. It's mail server MTA, both IMAP, POP3, webmail, calendar, contact and outlook connector too. But we still can't replace Active Directory which is not just an LDAP server but tightly integrated with Exchange. Windows sysadm has to add new users once and can modify all kind of attribs in one place in AD. so even if we can change Exchange to Zimbra the system get more complicated. Users have to add both to the AD and Zimbra, keep them in sync what's more still need Windows. Even if we can replace AD with Samba with another LDAP server, the sysadms still have much more work, more complicate tasks and have to hack a lots of thing together (and I'm still sure that the given system will be inconsistent in a year later). It doesn't have such a nice gui (as AD) to manage the whole system.
But it could have been done easily with Zimbra with a 'small' enhancement! It has a nice working and tested admin ui. it (seems) to desing well and can be extended easily. If we can manage posix and samba account in Zimbra's LDAP server through Zimbra admin UI, than we've got everything (we only must configure Samba to use Zimbra's LDAP server) and in this case that can be a real killer app!

Revision as of 16:10, 20 April 2006

One of the biggest problem with Windows to Linux move in the server side are the missing killer apps, probably the most importants are Exchange and Active Directory. With Zimbra we've got a chance to replace Exchange with Zimbra. It's mail server MTA, both IMAP, POP3, webmail, calendar, contact and outlook connector too. But we still can't replace Active Directory which is not just an LDAP server but tightly integrated with Exchange. Windows sysadm has to add new users once and can modify all kind of attribs in one place in AD. so even if we can change Exchange to Zimbra the system get more complicated. Users have to add both to the AD and Zimbra, keep them in sync what's more still need Windows. Even if we can replace AD with Samba with another LDAP server, the sysadms still have much more work, more complicate tasks and have to hack a lots of thing together (and I'm still sure that the given system will be inconsistent in a year later). It doesn't have such a nice gui (as AD) to manage the whole system. But it could have been done easily with Zimbra with a 'small' enhancement! It has a nice working and tested admin ui. it (seems) to desing well and can be extended easily. If we can manage posix and samba account in Zimbra's LDAP server through Zimbra admin UI, than we've got everything (we only must configure Samba to use Zimbra's LDAP server) and in this case that can be a real killer app!

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