Zentyal

Zentyal (previously known as eBox Platform) is an open source and full-featured Linux server operating system dedicated to small and medium businesses. It is based on Ubuntu Linux. It can be transformed into a single, easy-to-use Linux platform to handle all your network services. Additionally, it can act as a UCS (Unified Communications Server), office server, infrastructure manager, gateway, or Unified Threat Management (UTM).

A communications server

As a communications server, Zentyal includes a mail server, groupware and instant messaging components. As an office server, it provides a LDAP directory server, file sharing & domain services, printer sharing, and backup systems. Moreover, when used as a gateway, Zentyal offers transparent caching, traffic shaping, load balancing, and content filtering. The UTM (Unified Threat Management) part includes VPN management, an advanced firewall, Intrusion Detection System (IDS), mail filter, and antivirus components.

Can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes

The operating system can be installed and configured in less than 30 minutes. The installation media is very similar to the Ubuntu one, offering both expert mode and normal installation modes, along with the usual entries for testing the physical memory, boot the currently installed operating system, check the installation media for defects and rescue a broken system.

Text-mode installer

Even if the installation process is not a graphical one, you will find it quite easy to use. Except for the fact the you will have to manually select your preferred language, current timezone, set the clock, and create a user, everything else is done automatically. Apparently, after the text-mode installation, the system will still need some core packages, which are downloaded over the Internet. After this final step, you will see the Zentyal desktop.

50,000 active installations

The Mozilla Firefox web browser will be automatically started, allowing users to login into the web interface with the user account created during the installation. From here, you will be able to install the Zentyal server packages and modules explained at the beginning of the article. All in all, with an estimated 50,000 active installations, Zentyal proves to be a very good and free alternative to the quite expensive Windows Small Business Server product offered by Microsoft.

What is new in this release:

• Linux 4.13: Ubuntu HWE Kernel with support for recent hardware and not vulnerable to Meltdown and Spectre
• New IDS/IPS module
• New FTP module
• Integration of SOGo 4.0
• Integration of ejabberd 17.07

What is new in version :

• ca:
• Use SHA256 by default
• core:
• Distribution base is now Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
• Use Clone instead of Clone::Fast
• Some code adaptation to remove warnings with changes in Perl 5.2X
• Remove deprecated 'remoteservices' internal module
• Remove OpenChange crashes notifications in the dashboard
• Get list of interfaces from /sys/class/net
• Better management of webadmin reload using uwsgi master process
• Avoid crash in manage-logs script with undefined mods
• Fix error while visiting System -> General as root user
• Fix empty lines in /etc/resolv.conf
• dhcp:
• Disable TFTP
• Display unknown hostnames as 'Unknown' in leases widget instead of an empty string.
• dns:
• DNS updates now done via GSS-TSIG no longer require custom samba patch
• Forbid use of loopback address as forwarder
• mail:
• Remove OpenChange integration as project is not stable yet
• Use system daemons instead of old custom upstart ones
• Update configuration to work with Postfix 3.1
• Integration only with external mailfilter
• network:
• Integrate objects and services modules inside network
• Use Net::Interface instead of IO::Interface::Simple, which seems buggy with new interface naming
• Fix regression in initial modules enable after last change
• ntp:
• Use default systemd daemon instead of custom upstart one
• Adapt apparmor profile for new Samba version
• openvpn:
• Adapt to systemd instead of upstart
• Replaced deprecated tls-remote parameter by successor verify-x509-name
• Corrected typo when referring to Second Nameserver
• samba:
• Integrate Samba 4.5
• Remove perl bindings to use just samba upstream packages, current sysvol sync also deprecated, workaround at https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Rsync_based_SysVol_replication_workaround this affects also ad-migrate script, currently it will not sync GPOs
• Use winbind instead of sssd
• DNS updates now done via GSS-TSIG no longer require custom samba patch
• Remove deprecated scannedonly integration
• Simplified internal ACL management
• Adapt code to Perl 5.22
• Add systemQuota object class when setting user quota
• Added explicit check for full name in EBox::Samba::User::create
• Remove external AD mode leftovers in menu when not configured
• software:
• Use groupware metapackage instead of mail in installer
• Include squid again in installer
• sogo:
• New standalone sogo module independent from old openchange module
• Integrate SOGo 3.2.1
• Install memcached as dependency so SOGo can use it for caching
• squid:
• Adapt old squid module from 4.0 to Ubuntu 16.04
• Remove no longer maintained Active Directory integration
• Removed packages:
• antivirus
• mailfilter
• openchange
• printers

What is new in version 4.2:

• Improved stability and scalability
• No plugins nor connectors needed client-side
• Support for Microsoft Outlook0 2007 and 2010
• Server settings autodiscover
• ActiveSync support for mobile devices
• Autorefresh and desktop notifications (commercial version only)
• Outlook0 Anywhere HTTPS access
• Global address list
• Out of Office
• Web access: mail, calendars and contacts
• Standard mail protocols: IMAPS, POP3S, SMTPS, CalDav.

What is new in version 4.1:

• This release is completely focused on improving the stability and set of features delivered by the OpenChange module, based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS to provide the latest stable packages.
• Zentyal server comes in two different flavors: development version, for bleeding edge testing of the latest available features and commercial version for stable production environments.

What is new in version 4.0:

• New base distribution: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty)
• Removal of synchronization with OpenLDAP
• Support for Microsoft Outlook 2010 and inbox refresh improved
• Removal of some modules (L7 Filter, FTP, Zarafa, User Corner, Captive Portal and Bandwidth Monitor) to focus in the rest

What is new in version 3.4:

• Highlights:
• High Availability for Unified Threat Management (UTM) and Gateway
• Outlook Anywhere support
• New restyled Zentyal webmail UI
• Out of Office support for OpenChange
• Core Changes:
• New base distribution: Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy
• Removal of Apache instance for Zentyal Administration
• Improved system of bug reports
• Improved management of exceptions

What is new in version 3.3:

• Microsoft Exchange Server migration tool:
• Calendars (default folder)
• Contacts
• Native Microsoft Exchange Server replacement:
• Provisioning of Zentyal as first Microsoft Exchange Server
• Provisioning of Zentyal as additional Microsoft Exchange Server
• User management
• Autodiscovery support
• Virtual Domain hosting
• Webmail:
• Email Support (IMAP)
• Calendar Support (MAPI)
• Contact Support (MAPI)
• Global Address List Support (AD)
• Other:
• Improved exception management system
• General bugfixing and improvements
• UI, style and menu improvements
• More responsive pages through partial AJAX updates

What is new in version 3.2:

• New base distribution: Ubuntu 12.04.03 Long Term Support, featuring a new Linux 3.8 kernel and providing the last updates for all the packages and services managed by Zentyal
• Unified style and usability across the GUI, featuring Drag and Drop support to move table rows, Single Click support to enable modules and their dependencies all together and icons!
• Integration of the latest Samba 4.1 release
• Completely new Users and Computers interface based on a Tree view, including support for multiple Organizational Units for some of the modules (Samba, Proxy, Mail, Zarafa)
• New mode that allows to authenticate against an external Active Directory server
• Initial GPO support for login/logout scripts (to be extended in next releases!)
• New IPS module
• L2TP support in the IPsec module
• Faster Zentyal administration interface!
• New headless (remote administration only) installation in the expert mode
• Faster boot due to better management of daemons

What is new in version 3.2 RC1:

• The Zentyal 3.2-rc1 comes with all the Zentyal Server 3.2 features and from now on, all the focus will be on bugfixing, polishing details and working on migration paths from Zentyal Server 3.0 to 3.2. This version includes all the bug fixes done since the last beta release together with the following improvements:
• New base distribution: Ubuntu 12.04.03 (featuring a new Linux 3.8 kernel)
• Unified style and usability across the GUI
• Moreover, as announced in the Forum, the following modules have been moved to the contrib repositories in order to live up to our motto of being an easy-to-use Linux small business server:
• PPTP
• Virtualization
• Thin clients
• VoIP
• The release date is approaching quickly (September 19th!) so it is more important than ever that you join the testing effort! To test this version, do a fresh installation of Zentyal 3.2-rc1 with Internet connection to make sure that the latest versions of the packages are downloaded. If you already have a Zentyal 3.1-2 installed, you can upgrade the full system by using the Software Management module or with apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade in command line.

What is new in version 3.1 Beta:

• New IPS module
• L2TP support in the IPsec module
• Faster Zentyal administration interface!
• New headless (remote administration only) installation in the expert mode
• Faster boot due to better management of daemons

What is new in version 3.0-2:

• 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.

What is new in version 3.0-1:

• This installer already includes the final Samba 4.0.0 package. Please read the current status of Samba4 in Zentyal server 3.0 (http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php/topic,13403.0.html).
• 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 fix them.
• This installer also allows to introduce your Zentyal account credentials since the beginning of the installation to automatically register your server.

What is new in version 3.0:

• New distribution base: Ubuntu 12.04, providing new versions of all the packages and services managed by Zentyal.
• Improved performance: there is now a global cache to speed up all the requests to the Redis configuration backend. Also, the MVC framework uses now a new model load system to save some CPU processing and to reduce memory usage.
• Improved reliability: new locking and transactions systems have been developed to avoid any risk of data incoherences or corruptions.
• Samba 4 integration: a full replacement of the Windows Server Active Directory, which allows Zentyal to join as additional controller of an existing AD Domain.
• Kerberos integration: single authentication for HTTP Proxy, Mail and Zarafa groupware, in addition to File Sharing which is already provided by Samba.
• New look & feel for the Web interface along with usability improvements.
• New Master-Slave architecture: now it's easier than ever to synchronize your users between several Zentyal servers.
• New UPS module:it helps to keep your server always up and running in case power outages.
• New Thin Clients module using the popular LTSP software.
• Reviewed HTTP Proxy with a simpler interface and improved filtering by time period.
• Zarafa 7.1: a new version of the groupware suite featuring a new web interface, multi-domain support and web chat integration.
• Support for advanced NAT rules in Firewall module