@scottalanmiller

Just to be clear. I install Kopano on my PRODUCTION systems regularly on Debian and I have ZERO missing packages nor errors.

I just install them, run the dependencies and it just works.

you also have to remember that what's available for the community at their download site is the main development branch not the official releases which are reserved for customers. That said I never had any issues and I do run mainbranch in production

I use it for work the entire day and every single email I send or receive, including cloud, videoconferencing and so on, is via Kopano.

I did say that I am not sure whether Ubuntu 16.10 does work, the packages are for Ubuntu 16.04

I am pretty sure packages do work otherwise it would be all over the place on the kopano forums website.

If you have issues with the packages I would recommend you talking directly to the developers in the kopano forums:

https://forum.kopano.io/

Or otherwise send an e-mail to [email protected]

All I can speak is from my own experience. I am not trying to convince you to use Kopano or otherwise as I do not have any shares in the company nor I am one of their developers.

I can only speak from my own experience and despite me digging around everywhere else (including Zimbra) I have not found a product which gives me the same features in the community.

I have also been successful in building the webapp and plugins code from scratch myself again with little difficulty.

@scottalanmiller

Not sure how different 16.04 is from 16.10, I am running on 16.04 so I have no idea whether Kopano 16.04 installs on 16.10

If you have a domain name you want to test with, I can add it to our system and you can test Kopano live on our installation.

After that you can replicate it on yours if you like.

@mcostan

To test I would just install a standard Debian / or Ubuntu distribution on a Virtual Machine (I use VirtualBox) and install them there.

I normally just run dpkg -i * (for all the kopano packages) and that's about it.

afterwards I run

apt-get -f install

and that takes care of all the dependencies. I haven't seen a failed one whatsoever.

Z-push instead (activesync link) comes straigth from the repositories once you link the repository so that's even easier.

@scottalanmiller

I am running on Debian, I haven't tested Ubuntu but I suppose it must be pretty much the same.

I never had issues installing the packages on Debian.

If you do need to stick with Centos 7 and you still have issues I would recommend you to post your issues to the Kopano forums and I am sure someone will reply.

That said, I am very happy running with Debian and I never had any issues.

@scottalanmiller

As I said ignore the manual for the packages. Take the packages out of the community edition and just install them.

Remember that the community edition is evolving weekly or so, so it is obvious packages will change.

That however doesn't matter.

Personally every two weeks or so, I go to the community site, download the tarball, uncompress the packages, and simply install them.

it has been working for months and if a package changes, I do not even notice it, I just install the latest one.

The primary configuration files, that is server.cfg, dagent.cfg etc. do not change as far as I have seen, perhaps never. Or if they do, they are optional settings which I have never changed.

In summary pick the packages at the core and webapp locations above and then carry on with the admin manual as below.

Note that the community edition is obviously evolving that is why you should pick the latest tarball, extract it, and from there you get the packges rpm or deb to install.

3.2.1.1. RPM based distributions

Use the following command to install the KC packages on RPM based distributions:

rpm -Uvh <package files you want to install>

Replace <package file> with the packages found in the tarball. Start with libvmime, libical and kopano-server-packages (in this order) then install the other packages. The package manager might find unresolved dependencies, try to install packages for these dependencies as normal would be done for that distribution (yum -i on Red Hat, zypper -i on SLES).

Note

Using distribution specific packaging tools it may be easier to resolve package dependencies for rpm based distributions. For SLES you should use “zypper in <package>” and for RHEL based system “yum localinstall <package>”.
3.2.1.2. DEB based distributions

On DEB based distributions (most commonly Debian and Ubuntu) use:

dpkg -i <package files you want to install>

To install the correct dependencies for KC apt-get or an equivalent tool can be used.

@scottalanmiller

Hi,

My view would be to use the admin manuals for actual configuration if you have to.

For installation, really all you need is to pick up this:

https://download.kopano.io/community/core:/
https://download.kopano.io/community/webapp:/

For your architecture and just unpack them and install the packages.

Once you get passed this I am pretty sure the admin manuals will be correct.

If you have any issues happy to assist. The only thing you will need to watch out for is the sendmail / postfix or whichever MTA you are planning to use.

@vhinzsanchez

Best to look at their primary website for screenshots and demo.

www.kopano.com

you will see the online demo as well as a video showing you all the feature like files, web meetings etc.

@mcostan

In general you should be able to just install the packages with rpm or dpkg and run it assuming you have mysql running and apache.

Unless you want very specific configurations, the only thing you need to do is to make sure your MTA (sendmail, postfix etc.) works and create at least one kopano user with

kopano-admin -c mynewuserlogin -f "Name Surname" -p mypasswd -e [email protected]

from then onwards

if you type:

myURL/webapp

you should be able to login

If you want z-push (i.e. activesync) again that's a very easy install from automatic packages and it will work by itself

https://wiki.z-hub.io/display/ZP/Installation

@scottalanmiller

Hi, It's all online:

This is the core components:

https://documentation.kopano.io/kopanocore_administrator_manual/

And then you can look at the other admin manuals, starting of course with webapp which you would need to install:

https://documentation.kopano.io/

Regardless of the manuals, installation is pretty easy... you just have to go to:

https://download.kopano.io/community/

Download the packages: core, webapp (and if you want to, the plugins like mdm, smime, files and webmeetings)

and depending on which architecture you have use rpm, dpkg etc.

Clearly download the correct packages you need for your operating system.

you then configure some users, and when you restart apache it should just come up with webapp

You will clearly need to have a working mail delivery solution, being sendmail (I am old fashion, I use this one) or postfix or whatever to send or receive e-mails from the outside world.

I hope this helps. If you get stuck let me know.

P.S. I am not affiliated in any shape or form directly nor indirectly with zarafa/kopano. I just bumped into it a few years back and I use the community edition and I find it useful for me.

@thwr

Hi, Kopano is simply the new name for Zarafa, which has been around for a long time.

It's zarafa++ and essentially only Kopano will be developed going forward.

@mcostan

the community site is www.kopano.io (www.kopano.com is the commercial one).

@mcostan

In Summary: kopano (renamed zarafa) you get ALL the functionality in the community builds. That includes activesync and everything else (you just install z-push which is one line install and works on its own).

In summary as far as I am concerned: I need cloud integration, activesync (mobile) integration, outlook integration, and web conferencing.

Zimbra I did look at it, but the community edition was missing several bits which I needed and for my personal uses, I wouldn't want to buy the commercial edition.

Also note that there is now a kopano forum:

https://forum.kopano.io/

Where in case you are stuck you should get replies fairly quickly.

My own experience is that when I did bump into issues the kopano develpers were able to help me and point me into the right direction even via email and even if I wasn't a paid customers.

So I have no complaints whatsoever.

@mcostan

Just realised in my previous posting:

The correct link is below:

https://download.kopano.io/community/

you have core, which is basically the actual sytem, then webapp which is the user interface and then you can install the extra plugins like files and webmeetings if you want to.

@mcostan

Apologies, also mobile integration and Outlook integration.

I did look at Zimbra but their webmail interface is a few years behind in terms of functionality and features compared to Kopano webapp. Note that Zarafa was forked to Kopano and the functionality available in the apps is also vastly improved.

@mcostan

There is also an important difference.

The community edition of Kopano gives you access to ALL functionality with no restriction:

https://download.kopano.io/community/webapp:/

Most importantly:

• files sharing, i.e. cloud access from Kopano which is fantastically good as it is 100% integrated
• web meetings, which is video conferencing, again fully integrated.

@vhinzsanchez

Kopano only needs one single command and that's to create a user, it does not require any other command line at all.

I am sure it is easy to type the following:

kopano-admin -c newusername -p newpassword -f "Full Name" -e "[email protected]"

that's all it needs.

@mcostan

Also it will be soon available in Debian directly, although it is just as easy to get the Kopano build packages and simply installed them as above from the community site.

Otherwise you can find the debian project here:

https://wiki.debian.org/Groupware/Kopano

@vhinzsanchez

I have been using Zarafa/Kopano successfully for years and I think it's great.

You can get the community packages yourself here:

https://download.kopano.io/community/

And to my experience they are easy to manage.

You can also have videoconferencing, cloud etc. etc. all installed in the community edition.

Highly recommended, at least it works for me.