Zentyal is glad to announce that it will be present at SambaXP 2013, the international Samba conference for users and developers taking place in Göttingen, Germany, from May 14 to 17. A talk entitled Challenges and Experiences of the Samba 4.0 Integration in Zentyal will be held by Samuel Cabrero, developer at Zentyal, within the track 2 on May 16 at 10:45h. Julien Kerihuel, CTO of Zentyal, will also be attending this event and discuss the progress and ecosystem of the Open Source OpenChange project he has funded and lead for the past decade.

Zentyal Team is excited to participate in the Samba XP! As you might know, Zentyal Server 3.0 integrated Samba 4.0 with the aim of providing a full replacement for the Windows Server Active Directory and make the migration procedure from Windows servers to Linux servers easy. The event offers a wonderful opportunity to meet the Samba Team, learn from other projects integrating Samba and continue building links between the different development teams.

Integration of Samba 4.0 in Zentyal 3.0 rose some technical challenges, mainly related to keeping OpenLDAP and Samba4 databases synchronized and how Samba 4.0 was integrated with the rest of the Zentyal modules, for example, DNS and DHCP with dynamic DNS updates. In this technical presentation, Cabrero will expose how Zentyal solved these issues.

During the presentation, Cabrero will also explain how thanks to Samba 4.0, Zentyal can be integrated into existing Active Directory domains so Linux based services can be deployed within Microsoft environments (additional file server, Kerberos authentication for HTTP proxy and Mail server, etc).

Zentyal Development Team is glad to announce the next stable Zentyal server release (Zentyal 3.2) is one step closer: the first beta Zentyal 3.1 packages and installer are available! This new installer and packages come already with some new features: new IPS module, L2TP support in the IPsec module, faster Zentyal administration interface, new headless (remote administration only) installation in the expert mode and faster boot due to better daemons management.

The new installer, for both 32- and 64-bit architectures, is available at the Beta Downloads Page. It is also possible to install the 3.1 packages on an existing Ubuntu Server 12.04 following the instructions on the Installation Guide. The highlights of this new release are:

• Improved Samba4 integration: GPO support, external AD authentication/SSO, Contacts and Distribution lists support and Multiple OU support via Zentyal UI.
• Improved user experience and better support in disaster recovery scenarios: improved UI responsiveness, JQuery UI and MySQL backup.

So now it is time for your feedback and bug reports through the Forum and Trac. Zentyal Team greatly appreciate your help in testing this version in order to make Zentyal 3.2 the best release ever!  Please remember that Zentyal 3.1 is a beta version and it is not intended for production environments. The stable version of Zentyal 3.2 will be released in September 2013.

Zentyal Development Team is glad to announce that the definitive development roadmap for the next stable Zentyal server release (Zentyal 3.2) has now been published. Zentyal 3.2 will run on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) and it will be released in September 2013. The 3.1 branch code freeze is expected on June 15th.

Zentyal 3.2 will primarily improve the current features of Zentyal Linux small business server, focusing specially on improving the Samba4 integration. In short, the main features that will be introduced are GPO support, external AD authentication/SSO, Contacts and Distribution lists support and Multiple OU support via Zentyal UI. You can find the detailed roadmap soon at trac and give any feedback on the roadmap in the Forum.

In addition, Zentyal 3.2 comes with important improvements in Zentyal core, user experience and better support in disaster recovery scenarios: improved UI responsiveness, JQuery UI and MySQL backup. Moreover, this new release will come with IPS integration, L2TP support for mobile connectivity and support for headless installation.

So, a great release is coming up and the first beta will be out very soon (with IPS, L2TP, UI responsiveness improvements and headless installation). Stay tuned to join the Zentyal Beta Testing Team to make this the best Zentyal release ever!

Zentyal Team is glad to announce that an updated version of the Zentyal module development tutorial (for Zentyal 3.0) has now been published in the community wiki. The tutorial offers an easy-to-follow, practical guide for developing new Zentyal modules and extending the existing features.

If you would like to get started, but are not sure what module might prove popular, take a look at http://ideas.zentyal.org This tool has been set up to make it easier to submit, vote and track ideas for Zentyal server development. You can pick any idea from here and get started!

If you have any feedback or questions, please let us know through Zentyal Forum or Development Mailing List.

Zentyal, developer of easy IT solutions for small business, has announced today that the lead developer of the OpenChange project Julien Kerihuel joins the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). As CTO, Kerihuel will be responsible for defining and driving Zentyal’s technology strategy to ensure the fulfillment of the company vision of bringing SMBs and their local IT providers all-in-one IT solutions that are easy to use.

“Julien brings to Zentyal unique insight and experience in technologies such as MS Exchange Server, Active Directory and Samba 4.0. Both his background and vision are essential to our business strategy and expansion plans. I am thrilled to have him on board” said Ignacio Correas, CEO of Zentyal.

Most recently, Kerihuel was the CTO of OpenChange Ltd. and the lead developer of the OpenChange project, that provides a portable open source implementation of Microsoft Exchange Server and Exchange protocols. Previously, Kerihuel was Project Manager and Information Security Professor at the Open Source Laboratory of EPITECH (L’Ecole de L’Innovation et de L’Expertise Informatique) in Paris, France.

Julien Kerihuel was born in Paris in 1981. He received a degree in Computer Engineering and Masters in Information Technology from EPITECH in 2005. During his studies he worked as a Kernel developer and Security auditor as well as a software developer.

Zentyal Team is glad to announce that a new Zentyal server 3.0-2 installer is now available for download! This installer comes with a new compilation of packages, including all the bugfixes and Ubuntu system updates since the release of the previous 3.0-1 installer.

This 3.0-2 installer is based on the new Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS, that was released last month and it comes with all the system updates and features a new Linux 3.5 kernel.

You can download the ISOs as usual from: www.zentyal.org/downloads/ If you already have Zentyal 3.0 installed, simply upgrade your server through the web interface (Software Management module) or with apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade.

Remember to spread the word! Feedback and suggestions are warmly welcome through the Forum!

Zentyal Development Team is glad to announce the second part of the additional Zentyal 3.0 documentation for deploying Samba 4/Kerberos correctly. The new documentation explains “How to carry out a total migration from Windows Server to Zentyal Server” and clarifies why it is currently not possible to “Combine Master/Slave and Samba domains“.

The additional Samba4 documentation for Zentyal 3.0 now includes the following scenarios:

• Deploying an standalone Zentyal server with Samba 4 domain
• Deploying multiple Zentyal servers as additional domain controllers
• Joining an existing Windows server using Zentyal
• Total migration from Windows Server to Zentyal Server
• Combining Master/Slave and Samba domains with Zentyal

All this documentation and necessary Zentyal server packages have been updated to correspond to the recent Samba 4.0.3 release. If you are missing some specific information, please do request it through the Forum or if you come up with any incidents, please do report them through Trac.

Zentyal Team is glad to inform all Zentyal 2.2 users that a migration guide to ease the migration from Zentyal 2.2 to Zentyal 3.0 has now been published! The guide sums up information regarding how to prepare and carry out the migration, provides access to helpful scripts, list of current limitations and known issues.

It is important to note that due to the mayor changes introduced in Zentyal 3.0 (new distribution base, Kerberos, big changes in some modules like HTTP Proxy, etc.), migrating everything is not possible. However, the migration guide provides some helpers to ease the migration process and helps to avoid manual configuration from the scratch.

If you are missing some specific information, please do request it through the Forum and we will do our best to include it. When additional migration information is available, it will be documented on the above mentioned Migration Guide page.

Enjoy your new Zentyal 3.0!

Zentyal Development Team is glad to let you know that the first part of additional documentation to deploy Samba4/Kerberos is now available. This documentation includes all the hints, warnings, dos and don’ts of deploying Zentyal 3.0 with Samba in the following scenarios:

• Deploying an standalone Zentyal server with Samba 4 domain
• Deploying multiple Zentyal servers as additional domain controllers
• Joining an existing Windows server using Zentyal

This documentation is currently in wiki state, because some implementation changes are still expected, but we wanted to make it available as soon as possible to save you from any additional trouble. When changes will take place, they will be documented here and when fully ready, this documentation will become part of the Official Zentyal Documentation.

Second part of the additional documentation including more complex deployments (Total migration of an existing Windows Domain-scenario and Combining Windows, Zentyal and Master/slave-scenario) will be published in mid-January. Check this post about the current status of Samba4 in Zentyal 3.0 and stay tuned for further updates.

Zentyal Team is glad to announce that a new Zentyal 3.0-1 installer is now available! This installer includes a new compilation of packages with all the bugfixes and Ubuntu system updates since the release of the first 3.0 installer. Moreover, we would like to highlight the following changes:

• This installer already includes the final Samba 4.0.0 package. Please read this post about the current status of Samba4 in Zentyal server 3.0.
• It comes with improved UTF-8 support. This is specially useful for those who are not using Zentyal in English. Please note that if you are already experiencing issues with UTF-8, upgrading may not be enough and probably you need to reinstall the server in order to resolve the issues.
• This installer also allows to introduce your Zentyal account credentials since the beginning of the installation to automatically register your server.

You can download the ISOs as usual from: www.zentyal.org/downloads If you already have Zentyal 3.0 installed and you are not affected by UTF-8 issues, you can simply upgrade your server through the web interface (Software Management module) or with apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade.

Remember to spread the word! And as always, feedback and suggestions through the Forum are much appreciated!