[Kolab-devel] Extending Kolab

[Gunnar Wrobel]

Marcus Hüwe <suse-tux at gmx.de> writes:

> On 2008-05-19 08:42:22 +0200, Gunnar Wrobel wrote:
>> Gunnar Wrobel <wrobel at pardus.de> writes:
>> 
>> > Bernhard Reiter <bernhard at intevation.de> writes:
>> >
>> 
>> [...snip...]
>> 
>> >
>> >>  Of course I am still looking forward to your proposal. :)
>> >
>> > Will come in few weeks ;)
>> 
>> A while ago I mentioned that I am working on a suggestion on how to
>> solve Kolab server extensions. By now I am convinced that this
>> solution would work fine and so it is time to discuss this in detail.
>> 
>> 
>> Let me give you some background first:
>> 
>> The native Kolab Server port to Gentoo has always been problematic in
>> two areas: 
>> 
>>  1) The Kolab specific patches to imap c-client, php, as well
>>     as cyrus-imapd 
>> 
>>  2) kolabconf.
>> 
>> The patch situation has been resolved by now but kolabconf is still
>> something that simply does not work on Gentoo.
>> 
>> The Kolab server has been established for OpenPKG because the
>> developers were able to control many crucial parameters within the
>> OpenPKG system while still being able to install the server on many
>> different base distributions. A crucial point about OpenPKG is the
>> ability to specifically fix the version of a package. The user is
>> bound to use the package version prepared by the developers and the
>> installed package will provide all required features.
>> 
>> Concerning that point Gentoo is living on the other side of the
>> spectrum. As a more developer oriented distributions it allows its
>> users to choose between different versions of a package and provides
>> the means to easily switch package features on or off.
>> 
>> It is a dangerous game to configure such a system with kolabconf since
>> it is agnostic of package versions and assumes that the base system is
>> providing a defined set of features.
>> 
> Hmm can you elaborate this a bit more? Why do you think it's dangerous
> to use kolabconf in combination with Gentoo?
> Are you talking about cases where the user decides to disable feature
> "xy" during the build of let's say ldap and the static slapd.conf still
> has the settings for feature "xy"?

The main problem are package versions as detailed in my response to
Bernhard. I hope that mail explains the problem well enough.

But the specific problems of kolabconf on Gentoo are not the reason
why I suggest to move away from kolabconf.

The main plus of puppet are modular plugins.

The main reason for having the Kolab2/Gentoo port - besides being able
to use the sysadmin tools one is accustomed to rather than the script
from OpenPKG - are extensions. And I assume this to be the same on any
of the native ports. At least the original messages from Richard that
actually gave rise to this thread lead me to be believe that you have
the same ideas on Suse as I have them on Gentoo.

Once the Kolab server has been installed natively it is an easy task
to add additional tools. May it be munin, mailman, mysql, webapps,
or whatever.

And I envision that we'd be able to easily share such puppet modules
across the different distributions. So what I am currently
establishing at

http://github.com/wrobel/pardalys/tree/master

is meant to be cross-platform in the end. I do established it on
Gentoo at the moment so there are a fair bit of statements like this
one in there:

case $operatingsystem {
  gentoo:
    ...
  default:
    ...
}

If there would be the slightest interest from any of the other native
ports (Suse, Debian, ...) to adopt puppet I'd definitely help actively
in the move. I believe the move away from kolabconf and the kolabd
package would be extremely beneficial for the native ports and would
allow us to share our knowledge in a more efficient way.

Cheers,

Gunnar

>
>
> Marcus
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kolab-devel mailing list
> Kolab-devel at kolab.org
> https://kolab.org/mailman/listinfo/kolab-devel

-- 
______ http://kdab.com _______________ http://kolab-konsortium.com _

p at rdus Kolab work is funded in part by KDAB and the Kolab Konsortium

____ http://www.pardus.de _________________ http://gunnarwrobel.de _
E-mail : p at rdus.de                                 Dr. Gunnar Wrobel
Tel.   : +49 700 6245 0000                          Bundesstrasse 29
Fax    : +49 721 1513 52322                          D-20146 Hamburg
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   >> Mail at ease - Rent a kolab groupware server at p at rdus <<                 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~