Zentyal 2.0

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Hi Zentyal users!

Your favorite development team proudly presents  Zentyal 2.0. Zentyal (formerly known as eBox Platform) is a Linux small business server that can act as a Gateway, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Infrastructure Manager, Unified Communications Server or a combination of them. The development of Zentyal started in 2004 and currently it is an enterprise-level Linux server solution that integrates over 30 open source network management tools in one single technology.

Let us summarize some of the new features of this new version.

Highlights

• New distribution base: Ubuntu 10.04 'lucid'. This implies a major change because all the Zentyal components are updated.
• Improved software management: the software management module has been completely revamped, with usability and visual improvements. Now it is a part of Zentyal core and it is also used as a graphical installer. It also includes autoconfiguration wizards after the package installation.
• Performance improvements: we have changed our old configuration backend (gconf) to a new one (redis) and this has globally improved the speed of Zentyal. There are also other performance improvements in migrations, and specially in the logs engine.
• More friendly graphical environment: we have switched from blackbox to lxde to provide a better user experience. The look of the Zentyal UI has also improved.
• New Zarafa module: it provides all the basic Groupware functionality that a SMB needs (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, ...) with an interface very similar to Microsoft Exchange. It also provides synchronization with mobile devices!
• New FTP module: demanded by many community members, it provides a classic alternative to Samba file sharing.
• Bridged mode: you can now deploy Zentyal in the middle of your WAN router and your internal network in a transparent way.
• Webserver with HTTPS support: you can now deploy the web applications (webmail, zarafa, or your own website) in a secure way, integrated with the Zentyal Certification Authority (CA).
• Improvements in the firewall: Added ability to log redirects and also a new table that shows and allows to disable all the rules added by the Zentyal services.
• Improvements in the CA: support for subject alternative names and ability to export and download PKCS12 files.
• Rewritten modules: Printers now directly relies on the CUPS interface for adding and auto-discovering printers, this makes things a lot easier. Jabber also has entirely changed, now it is based on ejabberd and uses the Zentyal MVC framework.
• PAM management directly from the Zentyal interface: you can turn the LDAP users into users that can log in and get a shell!
• Login on the Zentyal interface can be done now by using different system administration accounts instead of a shared password.
• Reduced installer size (just 460MB), now you can save some time downloading and burning it on a CD ;)

Important Notes

Upgrading

Take into account that this is a major release, based on an entirely new distribution (Ubuntu 10.04 instead of 8.04). This means that the migration could not be straightforward, so be extremely careful when doing it in production environments.

If you are upgrading a production machine we strongly recommend you to make use of common sense and proceed with caution. Always backup your system. We encourage you to use a virtual machine to install or upgrade to 2.0 your current 1.4 configuration. Check that everything is working as expected. And then proceed with the actual upgrade. Make sure that there is no regression with the feature set you are using.

Finally, if you need any kind of support during the migration, don't hesitate to ask for our professional support.

Repository

Here is the APT source entry for Zentyal 2.0:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/zentyal/2.0/ubuntu lucid main

About Zentyal

Zentyal aims at providing small and medium businesses with an affordable and easy-to-use enterprise-level computer network. By using Zentyal, SMBs are able to improve the reliability and security of their network infrastructure and to reduce their investments and operational costs.

Zentyal development was started in early 2004 and currently it is an open source alternative to Windows Small Business Server. The Zentyal Development Team and Authorized Zentyal Partners offer a series of subscription services such as Quality Assured Software Updates, Alerts and Reports, Centralized Monitoring and Administration of multiple Zentyal servers, Technical Support and Certified Training.

Full Change Log

You can read the full change log from 1.4 to 2.0 here.