multiple kolab servers

[Stéphane Konstantaropoulos]

Le mardi 17 oct 2006 18:01, Jan Gerle a écrit :
> Hi Stéphane & all
>
> Stéphane Konstantaropoulos schrieb:
> > Do you know if there is a document somewhere that explains how to set up
> > multiple kolab servers?
> >
> > I wonder especially how is works for the emails: what server must be
> > configured as the MX and how it redirects to the server that holds the
> > email account for the user. Is there anything specific to do to postfix
> > or to cyrus to that, or is it completely automatic?
>
> There are several relevant points for using multiple servers, depending
> on what you are up to. Basically Kolab consits of these parts:
> - smtp server (postfix, MTA)
> - antispam and -virus (SpamAssassin, amavisd
> - imap server (cyrus, MDA)
> - directory server (openldap)
> (- and some webstuff, ftp etc.)
>
> Using multiple SMTP servers is quite easy: your second MTA (e.g. MX 20
> in DNS) just needs to know where to deliver mail. Either it delivers
> directly to Cyrus, e.g. on your primary machine or it forwards to your
> primary or even on-site SMTP. This mainly depends on how your inbound
> mail is directed and where/how you would like to scan for virii and
> SPAM. You can even have a dedicated machine for scanning. This is all
> postfix related and not kolab itself. AFAIK it is not configurable via
> Kolab webfrontend, only through proper service config files (postfix
> main.cf etc.).
>
> If your focus is more on load balancing the users mailboxes you are up
> to Cyrus Murder (IMAP storage over multiple backend servers = back end)
> and Aggregator (IMAP load balancer = front end where users connect their
> MUA to).
>
> Usefull links:
> http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/imapd/install-perf.html
> http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/imapd/install-murder.html
> http://cyrusimap.web.cmu.edu/ag.html
>
> -> These tools are part of the Cyrus IMAP server, but _not_ explicitly
> of Kolab, allthough they are installed. I do not know how well the Kolab
> webfrontend cooperates with the config changes needed to get
> Murder/Aggregator to work (my guess: it does not).
>
> > Then, as for the client, if his/her email account is on a specific
> > server, does he/she have to set up the email client software to query
> > that server and not the master?
>
> See Cyrus Murder and Aggregator: client MUA connects to Aggregator,
> which transparently proxies to the next free IMAP (or POP) backend.
>
> > Is it useful to have multiple servers as a whole? (I have lots of users
> > here)
>
> As written above you can have various different multiple servers.
> Operation with multiple SMTP servers is quite easy, Cyrus
> Murder/Aggregator is more advanced. For load balancing openldap you
> could use an IP sprayer - I ever tried and only read about that. You can
> also take a look at LDAP replication/distribution to use multiple LDAP
> servers and then configure each Cyrus backend server to use one of those
> (IMAP1 -> LDAP1, IMAP2 -> LDAP2 etc. pp.).
>
> Some links I found with a quick Google lookup:
> FAQ: flexible administration of multiple kolab servers
> http://lists.kde.org/?l=kroupware&m=103336398827374&w=2
> The Big Kolab Kontact Interview - Part I
> http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/dot-stories/2005-January/000403.html
> -> they say it is possible, but they do not tell how :)
>
> HTH,
> Jan
>

Hi Jan,

Thank you for doing all that research for me, it is very interesting the way 
Cyrus works.

However in a thread on kolab-devel, they seem to say that it is possible to 
have multiple kolab servers while keeping it transparent from the user.

I cannot find any explanation on how this works and I have not run any tests 
yet. But it seems like postfixe will deliver to the right server set upt for 
the user, then the question remains as to how the user sets up his MUA to 
check his mail, and also the issue of webmail (that can be set to query only 
one server. and this I cannot see in the generated imapd.conf anywhere.

Does anybody know how to set up kolab in multi-location mode and, say, how to 
use squirrelmaIl transparently with such a setup/

I now have two instances of kolab running and they replicate, the set up was 
easy enough, thanks to all the wizards ;-)

Thanks,
-- 
Stéphane Konstantaropoulos <skonstant at sgul.ac.uk>
-- Web Developer - Computing Services
--- St George's University of London
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