Westcountry Business Ltd - Cost-effective IT solutions to meet the needs of business in the Westcountry, Torquay, Newton abbot, Torbay, South Devon

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Installing Cyrus-IMAP on an e-smith SME server

Warning - this may not be up to date! For the most recent version of this how-to, check the main website http://www.westcountrybusiness.com

Document Produced by:	Jon Roberts, Westcountry Business Ltd.
Latest Revision Date:	23 February 2004
Website link:	http://www.westcountrybusiness.com (click on 'SME How To's' link)

The following installation is based on installing Cyrus IMAP on an e-smith SME 5.6. server. It also contains scripts for installation on an SME 6.0 server, although I have not personally tested these. The usual disclaimers apply - It works for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for you, YMMV and all of that.

Credit where credit it due

I can't claim much credit for this. All the real work was done by Lionel Debrus. I know no more about him than he is French and responded to a request on the e-smith forums by e-mailing me a working solution. All I have done is translate it from French to English, tidy up the install script and write this how-to.

So thanks, Lionel. You are a star.

Why Cyrus IMAP

I'm sure there are many people out there who know a lot more about the Cyrus project than me. So I'll be brief. The Cyrus IMAP server offers Access Control Lists (ACL) over folders.

If you are looking for a way to share Outlook folders (Calendars, Contacts, To-Do's etc.) without an Exchange server, then there are a few products that will do it. The one I prefer in the Toltec Connector, which I why I became a reseller for it, but there are others, such as the Bynari Insight Connector.

These products function as a plug-in to Outlook to enable all groupware functionality to work via an IMAP server, rather than Exchange. However, the IMAP server must support ACL. The IMAP server technology at the core of both these connector products is the Cyrus IMAP server (sold as part of the Insight Server package in the case of Bynari).

So with the connector on the desktop and Cyrus IMAP on the server, your e-smith server becomes a genuine option as a replacement for Exchange - or rather more likely - a replacement for MS Small Business Server.

Disclaimers

These scripts are new. The rpms etc all work as far as I can tell, but then I didn't have anything to do with them. I did the SME Install scripts but have only really tested the 5.6 one. As both scripts originally came from Lionel (see Credits above) and my changes have been fairly simple, I have no reason to think they won't work, but if you find anything, please let me know.

Installation

Download either the 5.6 or 6.0 zip file as you need. Unzip and save anywhere on the SME server. Go to that folder and run the install script ('./install'). Reboot the server and that's it. You control everything via the Server-Manager panel (located under 'Sherwood').

Notes:

The 5.6 installation and server manager panel is now in English - (well, sort of. I did my best but can't guarantee the translation in all places). If you want it in French, look in the readme file. This tells you what to do.
The 6.0 is still in French. I will get round to translating it, but I am hoping for a little feedback on my 5.6 translation first. Its still fairly easy to understand, even if you don't speak French (Supprimer = Delete, Boite = Box - as in Mailbox - Droits = Rights and Creer = Create). At least that's what I think - if I'm wrong, then for god's sake be careful which buttons you press!!!

Any and all feedback or further contributions much appreciated. I'll try and include any contributions in a version on this server so others can download.

Here it is. Good luck.

(Downloads can be found at our main website http://www.westcountrybusiness.com)