OpenGroupWare is an open source groupware package intended as an alternative to proprietary applications such as Exchange and PostPath. It is fairly robust in its feature set, and even integrates well with MS Outlook.

Its strongest points, in my opinion are that it does not depend in any way on Active Directory, and that it integrates well with open source standards like Open LDAP and University of Washington IMAP. Its downsides are that the documentation is sparse and scattered, that is is backed with PostgreSQL rather than MySQL, and that the package is bundled into a TON of RPM's.

I have not tried installing it from source, though I suspect that it would not be much more work than using the RPM's. Anyhow, if you want to install it for yourself, here are some quick scripts to help you, as well as some quick cookbook instructions. I installed it on RHEL 3 Workstation, though I suspect that it would work most Linux distributions.

The first thing we have to do is install the foundation for OpenGroupWare From the RHEL CD's or Website:

Install apache
Install PostgreSQL
Install PostgreSQL-devel
Install php
Install php_PostgreSQL

Next, run the following commands to get the database and webserver started:

# /sbin/chkconfig httpd on
# /sbin/chkconfig postgresql on
# /sbin/service postgresql start
# /sbin/service httpd start

Sendmail should already be installed and running, but if not, you will have to install it as well.

OK, so I said before that there are a TON of RPM's that you will have to install. These can be found at the OpenGroupWare website. Get them however you want, but if you have "wget" installed, you can use my script to fetch everything you need. You can omit the "devel" packages if you don't want to install the source code.

Ok, so now we have a directory filled up wit RPM's. Many of these have a lot of dependancies, so the order of install is important. The script below has them in the correct order, so you can either use it as a reference to install them yourself, or just save the script in the directory that has all your RPM's and run it. Your choice.

Some things to note about the install.

These all have to be done on one line or "rpm" will complain that it can's resolve dependancies:
rpm -Uvh ogo-webui-app-1.1.5-r1717.0.i386.rpm ogo-theme-default-1.1.5-r1717.0.i386.rpm ogo-webui-resource-en-1.1.5-r1717.0.i386.rpm ogo-webui-resource-de-1.1.5-r1717.0.i386.rpm

ogo-database-setup-1.1.5-0.i386.rpm sets up your PostgreSQL database and database user for you. The output should look something like this:

Preparing...                     ########################################### [100%]
1:ogo-database-setup             ########################################### [100%]
PostgreSQL seems to be already initialized
and I can see it running:
PIDS used: 3456 3458 3459
We're on PostgreSQL 7 (7.4)
checking /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
need to patch /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf for 7.4
backup current one to /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf.20061213-153319
checking /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
need to patch /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf for 7.4
backup current one to /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf.20061213-153319
The changes we've made require that we restart PostgreSQL...
Stopping postgresql service:    [  OK  ]
Starting postgresql service:      [  OK  ]
OK! PostgreSQL runs again: (3909 3911 3912)
creating database user: OGo
creating the database itself: OGo
we've successfully created both the user OGo and the raw database OGo
we'll now fill the database with the scheme itself
checking the logfile created during scheme rollin... 
/tmp/database_setup_psql.sh.20061213-153319.log
removing log - not needed anymore

OK... Now everything is installed, and if you run the following command:

# /sbin/chkconfig --list | grep ogo

You should see the following output:

ogo-zidestore   0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ogo-webui       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ogo-xmlrpcd     0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
ogo-nhsd        0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

Now, let's fire up these services:


# /sbin/service ogo-zidestore start
# /sbin/service ogo-webui start
# /sbin/service ogo-xmlrpcd start
# /sbin/service ogo-nhsd start

Everything should be up and running now, so you can grab a web browser and go to the following RUL:

http://server.domain.com/OpenGroupware

You will be logged in as the root user, so make sure to change the password.

If you are using this system as a stand-alone server, you are pretty much all set. We needed to authenticate it against our central LDAP, and point it towards our IMAP server though, so I added the following lines to "/var/lib/opengroupware.org/.libFoundation/DefaultsNSGlobalDomain.plist":


LSAuthLDAPServer = "ldapserver.domain.com";
LSAuthLDAPServerRoot = "dc=mydomain,dc=com";
imap_host = "imapserver.domain.com";
UseSkyrixLoginForImap = YES;


Make sure to put these lines at the end of the file, but before the closing braces.

The file should look something like this:

###### SNIP #######
{
"skyrix_id" = "server.domain.com";
LSConnectionDictionary = {
  databaseName = OGo;
  hostName = "127.0.0.1";
  password = "";
  port = 5432;
  userName = OGo;
};
  LSNewsImagesPath = "/var/lib/opengroupware.org/news";
  LSNewsImagesUrl = "/ArticleImages";
  Languages = (
  English
);
  TimeZoneName = GMT;
  WOHttpAllowHost = (
  localhost,
  "127.0.0.1",
  "localhost.localdomain"
);
  LSAuthLDAPServer = "ldapserver.domain.com";
  LSAuthLDAPServerRoot = "dc=domain,dc=com";
  imap_host = "imapserver.domain.com";
  UseSkyrixLoginForImap = YES;
}
###### /SNIP #######

Since the system won't let you authenticate the "root" user against the local database if your are using LDAP, you have to create a root user on your central LDAP.

Create an LDIF file called root.ldif like so:

###### SNIP #######
dn: uid=root,ou=People,dc=mydomain,dc=com
objectClass: organizationalPerson
objectClass: top
objectClass: posixAccount
objectClass: shadowAccount
uid: root
uidNumber: 0
gidNumber: 0
sn: Root
cn: Root
homeDirectory: /root
loginShell: /bin/bash
gecos: Root
###### /SNIP #######

Finally, run the following command to add the root user:


ldapadd -x -D "cn=Manager,dc=mydomain,dc=com" -W -f root.ldif"


You should now be authenticating against your central LDAP server. Have fun!

People who looked at this item also looked at...

• Basic iptables Configuration
• Disable SSH Root Logins on RHEL
• Controlling Services With chkconfig
• Getting ntpd to work correctly on RHEL
• Toyota Yaris Review

Related items

• Horde / IMP on RHEL 4 From RPM HOWTO
• Thanks so much! It’s a permanent bookmark for me.
• RHEL Winbind Authentication Against Active Directory
• Getting ntpd to work correctly on RHEL
• Setting Up The Automounter Service on RHEL