Zentyal 2.0 ( AkA e-box) - SME - Linux Applications

Zentyal, formerly known as eBox Platform, is a multi-purpose Linux distribution based on Ubuntu server. It can function as a network gateway, unified threat manager, office server, infrastructure manager, and a unified communications server. It is developed and maintained by Zentyal, a software solutions provider based in Spain.

Zentyal 2.0 is the first stable release under the Zentyal name.

Installation: Zenyal is based on Ubuntu 10.04 server, and it uses the same installation program. The installation process is a two-stage one. In the first stage, the base system is installed, and in the second, the modules are installed. LVM, the Linux Logical Volume Manager, is the default disk partitioning scheme. RAID and iSCSI installations are supported. Full disk encryption is also supported though the process of configuring disk encryption is not as simple as Fedora’s or even that of PC-BSD. You may read how to install Zentyal on an encrypted LVM.

The module installation (during the second stage) is very flexible. You may choose to install all or some of the modules. Each module offers a set of features. You may view a short video of how to install Zentyal’s modules below. A couple of screenshots are available on the last page.

Administration: Administration of Zentyal is via a secure (https), browser-based interface and locally via a desktop interface: Local administration is via the same browser-based interface running atop the Lightweight Desktop Environment (LXDE). You may also launch a terminal and install any number of packages that you need using apt-get.

Zentyal’s default desktop

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The user account created during the first installation stage is used for all administrative tasks. However, the user account installation step (shown below) incorrectly states that the user account will be used for “non-administrative activities.” The same (user) account that is created at this step is the same that is required (by default) for both remote and local administrative tasks. It is the admin account.

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Free Features (Modules): Zentyal is free to download and use, no charge. Features are delivered via modules. The module and the features they deliver are:

Zentyal Gateway

Load balancing and WAN fail-over
Traffic shaping (QoS)
Wired and wireless interface configuration. VLAN support.
Firewall with stateful packet inspection
RADIUS authentication server
HTTP proxy with cache, content filtering, anti-virus, anti-spam, and mail filter

Zentyal UTM

VPN (OpenVPN)
Intrusion detection and prevention (Snort)

Zentyal Infrastructure

DHCP server
DNS server
Web (Apache) server
FTP (vsftp) server
NTP server

Zentyal Office

File and printer server with Samba and CUPS
Backup and restore. Encrypted, bandwidth-efficient data backup using Duplicity
Calendar, contacts and tasks sharing with Zarafa groupware
LDAP server with Active Directory synchronization (AD) and Roaming Profiles

Zentyal Unified Communications

Asterisk VoIP with support for calls to mobile phones and landlines
Jabberd2-powered Instant Messaging (IM)
SMTP and POP3/IMAP4 with SSL/TLS

With these modules, Zentyal allows you can build any type of server that you need. It is worth noting that this is not unique to Zentyal. Most of the distributions in the Firewall/Router category are similarly designed.

Fee-based Services: Under Zentyal’s Professional and Enterprise Subscription services, additional capabilities (services and addons) may be added to the default Zentyal installation. The services, which includes Quality Assured Software Updates, Virtual MSP, Advanced Security Updates, Virtual CIO, Disaster Recovery, and VoIP Calls, are available via Zentyal Cloud and addons. A review of the services and capabilities available under the Professional Subscription service will be published here early next week. Subscribe via RSS or email to have it delivered automatically to your Feed Reader or Inbox.

Resources: A free installation image (460 MB CD image) of Zentyal may be downloaded from here. The installation image is a 32-bit image and it runs on both 32- and 64-bit platforms. You may also access basic documentation, an installation guide, and developer resources.

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