ldap/cyrus server

[Craig Ringer]

On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 11:05, Robin M. wrote:
> I am trying to build an ldap cyrus server.

As in an LDAP directory server and Cyrus IMAP server on the same
machine, or as in a Cyrus server that uses LDAP for user authentication?
I presume you mean the former, but wasn't certain.

>  Is there a site that anyone
> knows of with good examples of schemas for use with an ldap email server
> that resemble all the fields a user would find in an outlook address
> book, or that work well with a netscape email client.

AFAIK most LDAP servers (at least OpenLDAP) come with built in schema
for inetOrgPerson, posixAccount, and most other schema you're likely to
need. If you're using OpenLDAP, look in /etc/openldap/schema (usually)
to see what comes with it. Having not worked with MS Exchange, I
couldn't tell you if they use the standard schema or not - but if not
I'm sure people will have created compatable schema for use with other
LDAP servers.

The LDAP server is generally separate from the MTA (eg Sendmail,
Postfix) and IMAP/POP server (eg Cyrus), except that the MTA or POP/IMAP
server might use the LDAP server for user information and
authentication. Sure, they can be on the same machine, but it's not
really an "ldap email" server so much as an "ldap and email server".

One issue, though - how you do you plan to have the users access the
address data, given that most mail clients don't support writing back to
an LDAP directory? Local address books plus a company-wide employee
address book in LDAP seems to be a common solution, but if you want
people to be able to share address books etc this is less than ideal.

BTW - does anybody know of mail clients that /can/ store the primary
user address book in an LDAP directory?

> Something explaining how to simulate an Exchange-like server.

Difficult; how do you plan to handle calendar data etc? With what MUA? I
think there are groupware servers around to do this (Bynari?
OpenGroupware? Others?) but haven't done much with them. I guess it
depends on what Exchange-like functions you need, and what clients
you're using.

> My ldap/cyrus server is now looking fairly complete but this is my first
> time and I have not really seen much recent documentation in this vein.

Having a better idea of what you're trying to achieve might be very
helpful in better answering your question.

Craig Ringer

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