How to install a working Kolab 3.2 server?

[Brady, Mike]

On 2014-03-18 06:22, ITSEF Admin wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> In our ongoing quest to find a working groupware solution we're still 
> looking
> into replacing our ageing Kolab 2.x server with a new 3.2 server. Right 
> now,
> we are trying to build a minimal test network with the Kolab server 
> (based on
> a CentOS 6.5 platform, 64bits, minimal fresh install) and one or two 
> Kubuntu
> clients (KDE 4.12.x -> Kontact). The specific aim of this test network 
> is to
> test the new Kolab version and - even more imporant - the newer Kontact
> version (Kontact has been a constant source of headaches of the past 
> years)
> when used with Kolab.
> 
> Unfortunately, even just getting a working server installed seems more
> difficult than it should be (and I remember 2.x back in the days much 
> easier
> to install...). We were following this guide:
> http://docs.kolab.org/installation-guide/index.html
> and while we're quite certain that we followed it step by step up until
> "setup-kolab", the resulting server comes up with a number of problems:
> 
> - kolab-freebusyd initially throws a number of errors about an invalid
> certificate - there is no information about this in the installation 
> guide,
> nor does the installation process ask any questions about this. We were 
> able
> to get rid of the errors for now by modifying kolab.conf and changing 
> the uri
> line for cyrus
> from "imaps://localhost:993" to "imaps://localhost:143" and by allowing
> plaintext in imapd.conf (it's a test network, so no encryption needed 
> for now
> - we just want to get it working ASAP to determine whether Kontact is 
> finally
> mature enough).
> 
> - Free-busy does not work even after the change. When logging into 
> roundcube,
> we can create events and add another user to them, but when looking at 
> the
> availability information, it just stays grey. kolab-freebusyd.log does 
> not
> give any hints.
> 
> - Free-busy also does not work in Kontact - no availability information 
> is
> shown
> 
> - When looking at free-busy in Kontact, I noticed that the installation 
> guide
> contains an error on the "First Login" page. It states:
> "Additional locations for applications installed include:
>  [...]
>         kolab-freebusy: /kolab-freebusy/
> [...]
> "
> On our server, that location results in a 404 page not found. 
> /freebusy/ seems
> to exist, though.
> 
> - The default configuration of the server "out-of-the-box" is not clear 
> to us:
> -- Apparently, some certificates are auto-generated and used - but 
> which and
> why?
> -- Is 389ds configured to allow anonymous logins? Apparently not, given 
> the
> error messages Kontact comes up with, but is that described somewhere?
> 
> There are more problems on the Kontact side, but that's another mail 
> (indeed,
> my colleague has already sent one out last week).
> 
> If anyone out there can point us in the right direction (RTFMs most 
> welcome)
> as to what we may have missed during our installation attempts or with 
> tips in
> general, I'd be most grateful!
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Thomas

Yes the default configuration certainly needs improving as there are 
quite a number of issues with it.  You just have to search the list 
archives and bugzilla for fixes.

In particular freebusy on 3.2 doesn't work due to the change to Cyrus 
IMAP 2.5.  For a work around see 
http://lists.kolab.org/pipermail/users/2014-March/016819.html.

Regards

Mike