Icewarp on CentOS 7

[coffee]

Perhaps I am a bit premature with this but I just finished up an install of Icewarp on a test server at the shop. What is Icewarp and why should you care?

I think the game just changed.

Icewarp is a direct replacement for MS Exchange that runs on both windows and linux. It handles all the functions of Exchange and uses less resources than SBS and costs much less. The Icewarp package comes with everything you need and installation on CentOS 7 was without a hitch. The prerequisites for installing it on linux are outlined in a pdf file and it runs off of mysql as a database manager.

My plan is to outline an updated install and eventually a setup webpage that is tailored towards CentOS 7. Why should you care. Well, It simply puts more profits in your pocket. Thats what we want right?

Here is a screenshot of the login to the Admin functions on my little test server (if you can call it that).

After logging in this below is your starting point:

As I investigate this more, I will be posting to this thread with updates. But for now I am so far impressed with the relative ease of installation. My test box is just a lowly dual core dell with 4 gigs of ram. That is more then enough to evaluate and test with my windows in a VM.

coffee

 

[fencepost]

I'll look into it, but the concern I have with some of these solutions is whether it saves customers any money. Sure there's lower cost up front for the software, but there's quite possibly more setup cost for your time, and possibly higher ongoing support costs - particularly if something goes wrong.

Also, when you say it's a replacement for Exchange do you mean as in "It's a groupware server with mail, calendar, tasks, and sharing" or "It's a groupware server that is a dropin replacement for Exchange and works well with Outlook as a client"?

 

[coffee]

I'll look into it, but the concern I have with some of these solutions is whether it saves customers any money. Sure there's lower cost up front for the software, but there's quite possibly more setup cost for your time, and possibly higher ongoing support costs - particularly if something goes wrong.

Also, when you say it's a replacement for Exchange do you mean as in "It's a groupware server with mail, calendar, tasks, and sharing" or "It's a groupware server that is a dropin replacement for Exchange and works well with Outlook as a client"?

Mail, Calander, Tasks, Sharing.

On the server it appears to handle all these. I am in the process of installing a copy of outlook 2010 on my windows VM and test it out. There is a plugin that you install in Outlook that takes care of the syncNstuff from outlook. Apparently this plugin is transparent to the user.

Users can use a web interface (webclient) to login to the server and access their calander, email ect.. too. Then if you are in the Admin group you can access the server settings ect.. from a webpage also.

So far I have it setup and running and still in the middle of testing. I am using samba to run the AD and it works great. I am not sure though if samba is even needed anymore. I have to check into that.

As for costs, The license you get when you first start it for trial is free for 30 days. Then its approximately 700 (US) for a full blown install I do believe. If you run this on CentOS / Redhat / Ubuntu on a server you can see the savings from both the technical end and client end.

Icewarp has intrigued me for a while because of all the problems I have had to take care of with a client of mine. I just became really frustrated with MS and looked around for an alternative just as a "For the *ell of it".

 

[coffee]

Forum for Outlook sync in case of issues.
http://forum.icewarp.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?41-IceWarp-Outlook-Sync

 

[fencepost]

It does look interesting, though I really loathe systems of "Tell us how many seats and what features, and our sales people will get in touch with you so they can convince you how great we are" aka "Request a Quote" which is how they're doing it.

I'm curious about how it compares to Kolab.

 

[fencepost]

We've also used MDaemon (http://www.altn.com) in the past, it was pretty full-featured and remarkably simple to maintain. At the time everything was stored as individual files in the filesystem on the server, not sure what they're doing these days.

 

[coffee]

For not knowing a lot about Exchange I have the calendar working fine and just sorting some stuff out on email setup. Be honest, I started in on it pretty hard at 6am today. I am getting pretty tired.

I installed the plugin for Outlook (2010) on my windows vm and it was pretty darn painless. It takes the place of going into mail settings and setting things up. You do need the plugin for outlook to work. But its free.

It really isnt that hard to setup.

I really havent heard of the other programs you mentioned. I know that there are others but Icewarp is the one that caught my eye. Besides it runs on quite a few flavors of linux.

 

[coffee]

Apparently you still need the admin console that runs in windows to configure a lot of things on the server.

https://www.icewarp.com/download-premise/remote-administration/

Downloading it right now and I am going to check it out. Ill just run it from my vm of windows.

 

[TenYardFight]

Be sure to test on mobile...

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[coffee]

Be sure to test on mobile...

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Not sure I get the full gist of your post.

 

[MDD1963]

I'd think he is curious if the modern /mobile versions of Outlook will function with Icewarp? (At least, that's my guess..)

 

[coffee]

@MDD1963 -- Gotcha now.

I just finished up my installation of IceWarp on my test server and installed Outlook 2010 as a test version. Everything ran smooth as silk. I had no problems with calendar or email. They also have a web based client and I checked that out and its very usable and I got good performance with that too.

Here are some screenshots because we all like posts with pics right?

Below is the calendar in the webclient that comes with Icewarp.

Setting up a calendar event below:

Email in the Webclient

Writing an email in the webclient:

Administering (sp?) Icewarp is handled by a stand alone program installed on a windows box or by once again the web interface.

All in all, I find Icewarp easy to deal with and well laid out. I have had no trouble configuring anything and there are good pdf's on how to manage it and different situations.

My Icewarp install is running on CentOS 7 with the following prerequisites:

1. SAMBA 4.4.4 - Download and compile please. Remove the version that comes with C7 as it is missing samba-tool which is extremely helpful in setting up your smb.conf file. Makes it extremely easy. For some reason samba-tool is not included in C7 and there is no separate package I could find for it. Samba is used to provide AD for the Domain.

2. MYSQL - Easy enough. There is plenty of documentation and should not be a problem.

You will download the gz file of icewarp and compile it - you know, ./configure,make, make install. TIP: do not change the location of the smb.conf file from the default when running configure. I did this and it did cause some headaches.

While compiling icewarp there are some dependencies needed. They will be evident when running configure. They are not hard to find and easily installed.

3. DNS - Most are used to using bind for the DNS features. However, samba has this feature built into it! Its a lighter version but should handle quite a few requests unless your admining to IBM (lol).

Be sure to turn off: httpd (apache), named, procmail (port 25 is used) and anything else that uses the SSL / open sockets. Icewarp comes with its own built in.

Install directory for icewarp should be /opt/icewarp

I really do not have any issues at all. If anyone is looking into this the only downside I see running a linux exchange server is that some companies have proprietary software running on the same server. Something like PC-LAW and that would have to be moved to another server or cloud. I am sure applications like that can live very well on a smaller server. PC-LAW does depend on MS-MYSQL since the latest version which just came out at beginning of year.

As for phone access, It does have it but I am leary of opening outside ports up to the world. I might give it a go on a temp basis to see how it runs. In closing, I am impressed. I would think that running a linux exchange server you can do a lot more with it like serving out DNS but your not going to run a website on it. It would have to be ran on different ports. icewarp has its own http server once again built in.

I have collected the install guilds for DNS and icewarp from various places on the internet. If anyone is interested just PM me and I will forward them on to you. Otherwise, I call this a success in my book.

coffee

p.s. - Thunderbird has a plugin for calendar and exchange email if anyone is wondering.