Kolab 2 Questions

[Bernhard Reiter]

On Monday 07 March 2005 02:02, Mark Saward wrote:
> We're currently running a kolab 1.0.14 server, and investigating kolab 2
> to use, but have a few critical questions.

(Note that you have quoted the version number of the kolab daemon.
This was confusing for Kolab1. You would need to be more specific
about which Kolab1 server variant you are running and which clients.)

> 1.  1.0.14->2: Is it easy or possible to upgrade 1.0.14 to 2, or is it a
> difficult task?  Has anyone tried, or are there any guides available?

Kolab2 uses a different storage format.
However the kolab2 server still has the necessary funcationality
for the old storage format and can provide this to clients. 
The migration thus depends on the choice of clients
and basically has to do with the conversion of the data and the structure.
Emails are no problem of course.
Depending on the client you can export and import the datafiles
per user level.

I have not seen guides for the migration yet, probably because it depends
a lot on how this is all used.


> 2.  Security: Kolab being packaged the way it is means we must wait for
> kolab developers to provide security updates.  

This depends. 
As production user it is recommended that you 
buy a service contract to be save for garanteed maintence and 
access to support in case of bad bugs or other problems.
So this is not different from any other software.

If the distributors pick up Kolab, we would very much like it.
For the Kolab team right now, the current Kolab2 server packaging
gives the best results for users.

Kolab1 Server for instance was also packaged by Mandrake, 
who issue security updates.
Kolab2 and Kolab1 Server have also been packaged based
on Openpkg.  Usually the security updates from Openpkg can be used
right away.

> Depending on the
> distribution, normally updates can be available within a few hours.  How
> long does it take the kolab team to update?  

It depends on the nature of the security problem and if we get notified
before publication.  Most server packages come from Openpkg
and they have a good record of providing timely security updates.
(Note: most security bugs do not get fixed within hours 
by regular distributions.)
The KDE client is developend in stable CVS branches, which do get
the security updates of the KDE project.

In short: Kolab was based on software that cares for security
and uses the updates from those sources quite easily.

We of course face the situation that KDE or OpenPKG might
phase our security updates for one or the other revision.
At this point as community we must see if we can manage the effort
to still produce security updates on our own.

> is there any way to roll
> your own updates easily if the kolab dev team is taking too long?  

Sure, the code is there and all the structure is in the open.
You very much welcomed to help Kolab to produce such updates. :-)

> How do others of you manage updates?
> 3.  XML:  What does the XML change for kolab 2 give us?

The outstanding feature is interoperability on the objects between
 other Kolab2 clients as there is Outlook with Toltec, the KDE Kolab2 client,
 and the experimental Webclient.
Also outstanding is the freebusy generation support which actually
works with folders that are used by several people.
This allows you now keep your appointments in a few different folders.
Next there is automatic booking of resources with adjustable policies
and automatic invitation dealing.
There is the extended freebusy feature which you can use with the fbview
to get overview of a group of people via the web.
(And there is probably more I am currently not thinking of.)

Bernhard
ps.: That have been three questions, right? ;-)
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