Zimbra

mattwalston · #1 (**permalink**) 02-08-2007, 06:22 AM

Some background... We are a small deployment of the Open Edition. It is not economical for us to purchase 25 licenses, though we could definitely use the features. My role is multi-purpose. I handle the IT needs, purchasing, and back office needs. We are are a HVAC (air conditioning) contractor. Our infrastructure is shared access computers in common work areas, 5 to be exact, one on the bosses desk, one on mine, and one on the front office's desk. Many of the administrative tasks such as time tracking and project management are handled on these machines. Login information is shared through an incredible simple openldap directory created from the migration scripts. /home's are mounted via NFS. Machines reinstall weekly from the server via PXE and kickstart file to make sure all clients have the current “system image”.

Being a small company my goal is to decrease the amount of time IT takes from my daily schedule.

A problem with many solution...
Utilize an external LDAP for authentication
Pros – existing function
Cons – requires an unnecessary daemon running on an alternate port, no solid GUI tools exist for LDAP, errors in replication?, more than one entry point for data
Create a module to manage additional object types in the Zimbra hierarchy
Pros – Great solution for deployments up to around 200 users, only one openldap daemon on server, no data replication, value added feature for small scale deployments
Cons – Does not exist yet, adds to bulk and monolithic qualities of Zimbra

We are very interested in managing are POSIX users and groups through a GUI in Zimbra. I have survival openldap knowledge, minimal Zimbra knowledge, and a competent development knowledge, and I am gifted with project management. My employer desires this feature and is willing to let me work on it using their time.

We are willing to license such a module as OSS or commercially. If you are interested in this project please PM me.