General questions about Kolab

[Aurelien Marchand]

Hi there,
this is my first post in this list. Part of why I subscribed is because 
I couldn't find the information online and I hope you'll be able to help me.

I have been asked by a friend to setup a full network for folks he is 
contracted by. This friend wants to have Linux servers wherever 
possible. The folks that he is contracted by have the following settings:
* around 15 people at the moment, will be 25 by the end of the month and 
even more coming soon
* workstations are running XP pro with Outlook XP
* they will have 2 static IP addresses from an ISP, at 4 Mb/s each
* no web site for now, just a domain name so they can receive their 
email with their domain name.

I was thinking of doing the following:
* 1 firewall with no DMZ
* 1 mail server running Kolab
* 1 samba PDC (with DNS and possibly DHCP)

The idea would be for clients to get their groupware features using 
Kolab (and I guess a plugin to use with Outlook, I was looking at Toltec 
lately but for some reason I got the impression Kolab comes with the 
Konsec Konnector - maybe I'm wrong).
I would also like to tie the samba PDC to the Kolab's LDAP backend. 
Basically, when a client wants to log on, he queries the samba PDC which 
in turn, using LDAP would query the Kolab server to see if they have an 
account on it. I just don't know if samba can make use of Kolab's LDAP 
backend (I've read somewhere the LDAP structure for Kolab is quite 
incompatible with everything else - that too may be wrong).

As a result, adding a user to the domain would be summed up by creating 
for them a mail account on Kolab.

I have also a concern that if you use Toltec or any other plugin for 
Outlook to connect to Kolab, you'd have to manually enter the password 
either each time you check your mail or each time you reset a client's 
password. Obviously, it would terrific if Outlook would get its 
credentials silently from the samba PDC (and thus from the Kolab 
server). I just don't know if it is possible. What is your experience 
with those plugins?

Finally, entirely unrelated to Kolab, is my DNS settings. I just 
finished reading and digesting the DNS HOWTO and I get the impression I 
would be forced to have 2 DNS servers: 1) one internal to resolve local 
machine names and external domain names and 2) one on a DMZ to just 
point out MX records (and later on a www server). Anyone has experience 
with this?

I was planning on using MNF for the firewall, even though I am confident 
with linux firewalls (I've played with them for 4 years now), so that my 
friend can keep up the maintenance, and other servers on Mandrake. I've 
seen that Mandrake has developed packages for Kolab (thanks to Luca 
Villani for pointing it out!) but I don't know if the Kolab community 
recommands it since they bypass the whole openPKG thing AFAIK.

Again, sorry for the lengthy diatribe. Thanks in advance for any 
pointers you could refer me to. I'm quite comfortable with Linux (been 
using it since 1997) and I would love to get a grasp on Kolab to avoid 
Microsoft Exchange altogether.

Thx again,

Aurelien Marchand