ISPConfig & LDAP

[SamTzu]

I understand that this request is not easy to implement, BUT...
It is in my opinion the ONLY right way for us to go.

Many people use DataBases (DB) to handle authentication because it is an easy way to do it. It was never designed to do this and will eventually cause problems later on down the road. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) can be difficult to set up correctly and there are too many different ways to do it.

The good thing about this is that we would not have to start from nothing.

I hesitate to suggest this, BUT the easy way to do this would be to integrate Zimbra with ISPConfig. Zimbra is a HEAVY duty mail server that comes with LDAP, MySQL, Tomcat, Ajax, Java & etc. implementations. There would be no need to learn and implement a new LDAP system that integrates with mail system that use MySQL.

In my opinion (+10 years in business) this is the best way to significantly improve ISPConfig while keeping the load on the good people who code this software to minimum.

I look forward to your opinions on the matter.
I belive we all need this one.

Sami Mattila
http://www.matttila.eu

[till]

ISPConfig 3 will use MySQL for authentication. We decided that we will not use ldap as it is much too complicated to setup for most users.

I hesitate to suggest this, BUT the easy way to do this would be to integrate Zimbra with ISPConfig. Zimbra is a HEAVY duty mail server that comes with LDAP, MySQL, Tomcat, Ajax, Java & etc. implementations. There would be no need to learn and implement a new LDAP system that integrates with mail system that use MySQL.

Please read the zimbra licence, it is not really open source even if they have a so named open source version. Additionally, using a project like zimbra as basis for ISPConfig is not an option for me as this would limit ISPConfigs functionality too much.

[SamTzu]

I thought that Zimbra was an OpenSource project?

You are welcome to use, modify, and redistribute ZCS Open Source Edition free of charge, provided you do so according to the terms of the appropriate License.

Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) source code is licensed under the terms of the Yahoo! Public License (YPL).

How about just "copying" the zimbras-ldap module to make one for us?

Even Joomla project has finally managed to "support" ldap authentication. (v1.5)
Joomla has been notoriously bad with authentication because their CMS comes from Publishing sector that has never cared about such things.
We could just go that way. Not really adding anything in ISPConfig execpt the "support" for external ldap queries.

I don't see any way around this. The longer we wait with this the more it will hurt us when the circumstances force us to support ldap.

Sam

[binaryrogue]

Without LDAP, you will lose many users... including myself.

[binaryrogue]

Are there any ISPConfig alternatives that supports LDAP? I hate to leave ISPConfig because it's great.

[SamTzu]

I have looked, but so far ISPConfig is the best. (Even without LDAP)
Perhaps someone who knows openLDAP well could give ISPConfig people a hand?

It doesnt have to be perfect if its an "option"

[telcontarius]

Originally Posted by SamTzu

I have looked, but so far ISPConfig is the best. (Even without LDAP)
Perhaps someone who knows openLDAP well could give ISPConfig people a hand?

It doesnt have to be perfect if its an "option"

I believe from Till's reply that its not that they can't, it's that they don't want to use LDAP. I can't see how this can become an Enterprise-level system (e.g. a FOSS replacement for commercial products like CPanel et al) if it doesn't support distributed authentication using LDAP.

I also wish it'd support multiple backends. Courier isn't really a very good imap server; both cyrus and dovecot are superior, yet neither seems supported with ISPConfig 3.

[till]

I believe from Till's reply that its not that they can't, it's that they don't want to use LDAP.

No. Its not that we dont want it, just I will not implement it as primary authentication source at the moment. If someone who is familar with LDAP is willing to implement it as additional Authentication source, we will add it in the main distribution.

I also wish it'd support multiple backends. Courier isn't really a very good imap server; both cyrus and dovecot are superior, yet neither seems supported with ISPConfig 3.

Generally, ISPConfig 3 supports any IMAP or POP§ daemon that is able to authenticate against a SQL server. Just the installer of current Beta writes only config files for Courier, thats all. The current Beta also supports just debian and ubuntu, this does not mean that it will not support other distributions in the finel version

By the way guys, if you complain about missing features or that I dont implement this or that, sit down and start coding and I will intergrate it in the main distribution. I'am not able to write the code for everything alone if you want to see all features soon. I start with the most requested and common featues.

[telcontarius]

Originally Posted by till

No. Its not that we dont want it, just I will not implement it as primary authentication source at the moment. If someone who is familar with LDAP is willing to implement it as additional Authentication source, we will add it in the main distribution.

Ok, that's a different matter then. I said that because two months ago you wrote "We decided that we will not use ldap as it is much too complicated to setup for most users."

Originally Posted by till

Generally, ISPConfig 3 supports any IMAP or POP§ daemon that is able to authenticate against a SQL server. Just the installer of current Beta writes only config files for Courier, thats all. The current Beta also supports just debian and ubuntu, this does not mean that it will not support other distributions in the finel version

Ok. So more advanced features such as support for shared folders (cyrus) would also have to be implemented, right?

Originally Posted by till

By the way guys, if you complain about missing features or that I dont implement this or that, sit down and start coding and I will intergrate it in the main distribution. I'am not able to write the code for everything alone if you want to see all features soon. I start with the most requested and common featues.

I don't currently have a debian or ubuntu testing box available. I wanted to download the VMWare image from your other post but it's from 2005. Is a newer version of the image available?

-- tel

[till]

Ok. So more advanced features such as support for shared folders (cyrus) would also have to be implemented, right?

Yes. But in opposite to ISPConfig 2, ispconfig 3 is modular and such application specific features can be implemented by writing a small plugin.

I don't currently have a debian or ubuntu testing box available. I wanted to download the VMWare image from your other post but it's from 2005. Is a newer version of the image available?

http://www.howtoforge.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22788