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Saturday, August 27, 2011

Main Page - SME Server

SME Server

Welcome to http://contribs.org, the home of the SME Server. We're here to provide collaborative documentation of the SME Server project.

SME Server is a leading Open Source distribution for small and medium enterprises. It is a simple, powerful, secure Linux server for networking and communicating, used by thousands of individuals, companies and organizations all over the world. SME Server provides a friendly, free alternative to expensive proprietary software, standing apart from the competition by shipping with most common functionality preconfigured, and features a number of popular additional enhancements in the form of downloadable Contributions.

SME Server is built on CentOS using the publicly available open source Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources. It's advantages include:

Simple to set up and use
Secure and stable to operate
Cross platform and extendible to meet future needs
Open source and Free to use

SME Server provides the following standard functionality (See About SME Server for more detail):

Ease of Administration
File and print sharing
Sharing of a single Internet connection between multiple computers
A robust email server, which includes virus and spam filtering and webmail
A network firewall to protect against Internet intruders
Secure remote access
Directory services
Web application server, including support for Apache, MySQL, PHP and Python (LAMPP)
RAID and Backup
Automatic updates
Extendibility
Support for multiple languages
and much more ...

all managed through an intuitive web interface

Read More...
http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page

Hardware Requirements of the SME Server

The hardware requirements of the SME Server are modest compared with other server software available today. However, because of its critical role in your office, selecting an appropriate host computer is important. The hardware requirements of the host computer depend on such things as the number of users on your network, whether you plan to use the proxy server on the server, and the speed of your Internet connection.

When you consider the requirements, please be aware of the following notes:

The server ships with the remote access services disabled by default. Enabling webmail will increase the resource requirements of your server, in particular the memory requirement. Other remote access services, such as SSH and PPTP, are also processor-intensive. You should consider a fast processor speed if you intend to make significant use of these services.
The server should work with any i586 or i686 compatible CPU that can run Centos 4.4.
The amount of available RAM is one of the most important considerations for server performance as it reduces the load on the disks. If a tradeoff is required, extra RAM will usually be more beneficial than a faster CPU.
For a dedicated connection in server and gateway mode, your server requires two ethernet adapters (also called network adapters or network interface cards). For a dialup connection or server-only mode, one ethernet adapter is needed.

See also a forum thread with users suggestions http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=36603.15

Note:

Version 7.0 of SME Server is based on CentOS 4.4 and uses the 2.6 series Linux kernel. This combination supports a wide variety of hardware, but it is important that any hardware chosen for the server has been tested for compatibility before deployment. We expect that all hardware which is marked as "Certified" or "Compatible" for RedHat Enterprise Linux Update 4 on the RedHat Hardware Compatibility web site, located at: https://hardware.redhat.com/hwcert/, will function correctly with SME Server 7.0. We do not recommend the use of server hardware which is not listed as "Certified" or "Compatible".

4.1. Minimum Hardware Requirements

The following information outlines what we consider the bare minimum system that will function as a basic file/print server and network gateway. Note that we do not believe such a system will provide satisfactory performance for features such as webmail, remote access via PPTP, Virus and Spam Scanners, which are cpu intensive will not perform well on this platform. To utilize all the features of SME Server 7.0, please have a look at the 'Recommended' Hardware Requirements.

Table 4.1 Minimum Hardware Requirements
Category	Specifications
Architecture	PCI-based i586 or i686 compatible processor
Processor speed	400 MHz
RAM	256 MB
Hard Drive	SATA/PATA or SCSI - at least 4 GB
SCSI adapter	SCSI adapter must appear on the supported list (only necessary for SCSI systems)
Ethernet adapter(s)	The ethernet adapters installed on your server must appear on the supported list.
Modem (for dialup only)	Only modems that are Linux-compatible may be used. WinModems are not supported.
CD-ROM drive	ATAPI or SCSI
Monitor	any
Graphics card	any

4.2. Recommended Hardware Requirements

The following information is what we would suggest is the recommended minimum to utilize all the features of SME Server 7.0. How many users this configuration will support depends on how heavily the server will be utilized, but should be sufficient for at least 25 users.

Table 4.2. Recommended Hardware Requirement
Category	Specifications
Architecture	PCI-based i686 compatible processor
Processor speed	1.5GHz
RAM	512 MB
Hard Drive	One or more SATA/PATA or SCSI - at least 40 GB
SCSI adapter	SCSI adapter must appear on the supported list (only necessary for SCSI systems)
Ethernet adapter(s)	The ethernet adapters installed on your server must appear on the supported list.
Modem (for dialup only)	Only modems that are Linux-compatible may be used. WinModems are not supported.
CD-ROM drive	ATAPI or SCSI
Monitor	any
Graphics card	any

4.3. Hard Drive Configuration

SME Server 7 introduces a new feature - Automatic configuration of Software RAID 1, 5 or 6. RAID is a way of storing data on more than one hard drive at once, so that if one drive fails, the system will still function. In the case of RAID 6, two drives can fail and the system will still function. We highly recommend that at a minimum you utilize 2 identical drives in your sytem to take advantage of the redundancy provided by the RAID configuration.

Your server will be automatically configured as follows:

1 Drive - Software RAID 1 (ready to accept a second drive).
2 Drives - Software RAID 1
3-5 Drives - Software RAID 5 (4-5 drives with SME 7.1)
6+ Drives - Software RAID 6

	Note:
	With SME 7.0 if you utilize more than one drive, they should all be identical in size and model. From SME 7.1 this is no longer a requirement.

4.4. Supported Ethernet or SCSI Adapters, or Tape Drives

Either one ethernet adapter (in the case of dialup connectivity or server-only mode) or two ethernet adapters (for dedicated connections in server and gateway mode) must be installed on your SME Server. Your ethernet adapters must be supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

If the computer you plan to use for your server has a SCSI hard disk, your SCSI adapter must be supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

If you intend to use the tape backup capabilities of the SME Server, you must have a tape drive that is supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.

Welcome to SME Server 7

Congratulations on choosing the SME Server as your network and communications server!

SME Server is an open-source Linux server distribution designed to be:

Simple to setup and use: Installation and basic configuration takes less than 20 minutes, and every configuration option can be set via a web-based interface.
Secure and stable to operate: SME Server only includes what is necessary, which translates into the entire ISO being around 500MB. Stability comes from using proven, supported rpm packages and from an update system that notifies you with available updates.
Cross-platform and extendable to meet future needs: SME Server already has everything necessary to provide the core services most people need to network Linux, Macintosh, and Windows systems.
And it's completely free!
Download the ISO from http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Download

The heart of SME Server 7 is based on the GPL'd sources of the unsupported developer release of SME 7.0 alpha from Mitel, who is the copyright holder for much of what makes SME Server what it is. Mitel's commercial offering is known as the "Mitel Managed Application Server", and in the past was known as e-Smith. Mitel has been very generous to fund development of the alpha and beta versions and to keep to the spirit of the GPL by sharing their source code freely.

SME Server 7 uses many packages from CentOS and RPMForge. CentOS 4 is built from publicly available open source Red Hat Enterprise Linux SRPMS and aims to be binary compatible. RPMForge is a collaborative effort of several RPM packagers that build RPMs not included with CentOS. Almost all of the packages that SME Server includes from these upstream vendors are included unmodified. The purpose of doing so is to take advantage of the stability that comes from the huge user base that uses these packages, for security, and to allow automatic updates as soon as an update is available from the upstream vendor. Security updates from Redhat/Centos should be available until 2012 for Centos 4.

About This Manual

SME Server Manuals

The Administration Manual describes installation and day to day operation by the local Server Admin.
The User Manual provides information to help users configure their client applications, and interact with the server.
The Developers Manual contains information required to integrate applications into SME.
There are also Frequently Asked Questions and Howto and Contrib Collections.

Administration Manual : Index

Chapter 1. Welcome to SME Server 7
Chapter 2. The role of the SME Server
Chapter 3. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Chapter 4. Hardware requirements of the SME Server
Chapter 5. Installing and configuring your SME Server Software
Chapter 6. The Server Console
Chapter 7. Configuring the computers on your network
Chapter 8. On-going administration using the server-manager
Chapter 9. server-manager : Collaboration
Chapter 10. server-manager : Administration
Chapter 11. server-manager : Security
Chapter 12. server-manager : Miscellaneous
Chapter 13. server-manager : Configuration
Chapter 14. Information Bays (i-bays)
SME Manual Appendix
SME Manual Glossary

User Manual : Index

Chapter 1. Remote Access
Chapter 2. Configuring Applications
Chapter 3. File Storage
Chapter 4. Webmail

Developers Manual : Index

Section I. An overview of the SME Server
Section II. SME Server internals
Section III. How to create an SME Server package - step by step
Section IV. Advanced customization of the SME Server
Section V. Documentation and resources
Section VI. License texts

	Note:
	The manuals are protected from general editing. Add proposed changes to the discussion tab.

Go there and Read More...
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation

Configuring the Computers on Your Network

What Order to do Things

For efficiency, we recommend you configure your desktop computers in the following order:

Step 1: First, configure one of your desktop computers to work with TCP/IP (using the information in this chapter).

Step 2: With TCP/IP up and running on one of your computers, you can now access the server manager over the web and create your employees' user accounts. The next chapter, explains this simple process.

Step 3: Once e-mail accounts are created, you can ensure that all the computers on your network are configured for TCP/IP, e-mail, web browsing and LDAP using the information in this chapter and the User Manual.

This chapter helps you configure software and hardware supplied by other companies and for that reason is not as specific as the rest of this guide. Given the wide range of computers, operating systems and software applications, we cannot accurately explain the process of configuring each of them. If your computers and applications came with manuals, they might be useful supplements to this chapter. Technical problems encountered in networking your desktop computers and applications are best resolved with the vendors who support them for you.

	Warning:
	This chapter demonstrates only one of the many possible ways to configure your client computers and is provided here as an example.

Configuring Your Desktop Operating System

Skipping on Down...

	Note:
	We strongly recommend that you configure all clients machines using DHCP rather than manually using static IP addresses. Should you ever need to change network settings or troubleshoot your network later, you will find it much easier to work in an environment where addresses are automatically assigned.

Skipping...

Automatic DHCP Service

Your server provides a DHCP server that assigns each of the computers on your network an IP address, subnet mask, gateway IP address and DNS IP address(es). For a more detailed explanation of DHCP, consult the section in the|Chapter 5 called "Configuring Your DHCP Server".

Note:

In some rare cases, you may want to use a static IP address for a particular client machine. The typical approach is to manually enter this IP address into the network properties of the specific machine. The negative side of this approach is that you cannot easily change or alter network settings without having to go in and modify the information on the client machine. However, it is possible to provide this static IP address directly through DHCP rather than manually configuring the client computer. To do so, you will first need to determine the Ethernet address of the client computer (usually through the network properties). Next you will go to the Hostnames and addresses web panel of the server manager and enter the information there.

	Warning:
	Only One DHCP Server It is imperative that no other DHCP server is on your network. If a former DHCP server configured your computers, you should remove that DHCP server from your network. Leave DHCP enabled, and reboot each computer. New IP addresses, netmasks, gateway IP addresses and DNS addresses will be assigned automatically by the server DHCP server.

Manual entry for computers not using DHCP service

Go there and Read it all...
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:Administration_Manual:Chapter7

I tried out SME Server (smeserver-7.4-i386) on a 400MHz with about 325Mb of ram, when it first cam out. It ran great, but there was a problem with the Remote Web Interface. So, I could not use it. At the time I decided on CAOS NSA and it has work great for several years. But, I never did figure out how to get my MySQL Databases imported, in the Command Line (the only way to do it in Caos). I couldn't even successfully make new Databases. I kept getting errors that I couldn't find a way to get around. So, my Web Site is stuck with only the old HTML Pages that I built in 1998 - 99. I have about 5 Dynamic Sites, all that I downloaded from my Paid Hosting Provider, when they got too expensive and I decided to go with a Home Server. Now, Caos has been fantastic. No trouble, no worries. It updated itself and has a GUI Desktop. It uses RPM Apps and that is what I want, since my Favorite Distro is Fedora. And that's what I use on my Desktop Computers and have since Fedora 5. I'm now running Fedora 14 on my newer machines. But, the make too much heat and noise to run all the time. The old 400MHz Desktop - now a Server. Is quiet and makes allot less heat. You see I have to sleep in the same room as my Computers... So, I'm really liking what I'm reading about the Newest Version of SME Server (smeserver-7.5.1-i386). I have another 500MHz Machine, that I have been wanting to do something with for a while. I think that I will install SME on it and see if I can get my Dynamic Web Sites up and Running again...

Don