Zentyal Server – Affordable All in One Server

J

Jarret W. Buse

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Zentyal Server – Affordable All in One Server

Many businesses, especially small and medium size ones, can get a server based on Ubuntu which can incorporate many features in one server. Granted, you can add these items one by one to your Ubuntu Server, but Zentyal has them all in a package which makes installation and updating very simple.

To acquire Zentyal, you can download an ISO file from the Zentyal website at www.zentyal.com/server/ or www.zentyal.com/download/. The image can be used to install Zentyal on a new server.

Another choice for installation is to update an existing Ubuntu Server to Zentyal. Before starting, be sure everything is updated to the newest version. Update Ubuntu to the latest LTS edition. To do this, you need to add the Zentyal repository to your system by:
sudo add-apt-repository “deb http://archive.zentyal.org/zentyal 3.5 main extra”

NOTE: You need to use a user within the sudo group to log into the Server or connect to the Zentyal dashboard remotely.

Next, you need a key from Zentyal to verify the downloads:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 10E239FF
wget -q http://keys.zentyal.org/zentyal-3.5-archive-asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now, you need to update the package list from the repositories by:

sudo apt-get update

After the lists are updated, you can start the Zentyal update of Ubuntu Server. The command is:

sudo apt-get install zentyal

Once completed, you can install the desktop system which is a GUI used by Zentyal. To install it, use:

sudo apt-get install zenbuntu-desktop

To make sure all the Zentyal packages are installed and being used, reboot your server.

From the GUI, you can install any of the Profiles or individual modules. There are four Profiles and numerous modules:

zentyal-all - All Modules
zentyal-antivirus - Antivirus
zentyal-bwmonitor - Bandwidth Monitor
zentyal-captiveportal - Captive Portal
zentyal-communication - Communications Suite Profile
zentyal-ebackup - Backup
zentyal-ftp - FTP
zentyal-gateway - Gateway Suite Profile
zentyal-infrastructure - Network Infrastructure Suite Profile
zentyal-ips - Intrusion Prevention System
zentyal-ipsec - IPsec and L2TP/IPsec
zentyal-jabber - Jabber (Instant Messaging)
zentyal-l7-protocols - Layer-7 Filter
zentyal-mail - Mail Service
zentyal-mailfilter - Mail Filter
zentyal-monitor - Monitor
zentyal-nut - UPS Management
zentyal-office - Office Suite Profile
zentyal-openchange - OpenChange Server
zentyal-radius - RADIUS
zentyal-remoteservices - Cloud Client
zentyal-samba - File Sharing and Domain Services
zentyal-software - Software Management
zentyal-sogo - OpenChange Webmail
zentyal-trafficshaping - Traffic Shaping
zentyal-usercorner - User Corner
zentyal-users - Users and Computers
zentyal-webmail - Web Mail Service
zentyal-webserver - Web Server

NOTE: The Profile Suites install every module within it, but the modules can be installed individually.

Any of the listed modules or Profiles can be installed by:

sudo apt-get install <zentyal-name>

For example, to install webmail, you would enter in the shell:

sudo apt-get zentyal-webmail

The Zentyal Dashboard is a GUI which contains icons to install the Profiles or individual modules. The Dashboard also includes administrative tools to perform system and security updates as well as system monitoring.

Access to the Zentyal Server can be done remotely from a browser and connecting to the address https://<server IP Address>:443. You will need to log into the server with a username in the sudo group. All actions can be done from the GUI just as if you were sitting at the server. Remote administration is a very simple task.
Zentyal Server is an alternative to Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS). Zentyal can even replace an existing Exchange Mail Server.

Commercial licenses can be purchased to provide technical support help other than from the website (help yourself) and the forums. The non-commercial version, referred to as the Community version, allows updates which may not be stable when updates are performed.

The hardware requirements are based off a Ubuntu Server, but for more Profiles and modules used, a higher performance system will be needed. The higher performance allows for better performance when many modules are running as well as more users on a network to access the server.

Download the ISO or sign up for a 30-day trial of the Commercial version for free. It is an all-in-one server solution that makes for an interesting test machine. With the GUI, it eases administrative tasks even remotely.

NOTE: If you install Zentyal in VirtualBox and you want to use a browser from the Host OS, you need to setup the Networking properly in VirtualBox. On Adapter 1, set it as a Bridged Adapter. For Adapter 2, set it as Host-only Adapter. And finally, Adapter 3 should be Internal Network with the name set to intnet. As long as your Zentyal Server is running in VirtualBox, switch to your Host OS and open a browser and go to https://<Zentyal Server IP Address>:443. You should get a Zentyal logon screen.
 

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