Hi Rob,
Is not about only my situation.
I give this example because is real and is complex enough. Let say it’s a case study for business application of the NethServer. I always thought to NethServer as a business product and then as a home product, not viceversa.
Many of discussions are about how to install a lot of applications which are nothing to do or related with NethServer as product. Those apps can be installed on CentOS, on Ubuntu, …
I always ask for apps as integrated modules that can make NethServer a competitor to Endian, Zentyal, iRedMail, …, and also a very good tool for administrators.
Also, IMO, if you want to beat the competition, you must know their products.
The designers of the product must know very well the competition.
Let’s talk about the UTM as the core for this network (IMO, for any network) with an example.
If we look to the DMZ, we will see a lot of servers which use HTTP and/or HTTPS protocols.
I am very lucky because I own a private IP subnet. Usually, the ISP give no more than 3 private IPs. So, what do you do in this case? You will need another server for reverse proxy. For me, the competitors for NS as UTM are: Endian and Sophos. No one of them have reverse proxy for free versions, only for paied versions. Why can’t we have Reverse Proxy on NethServer as integrated module? Of course with GUI. I bet that the answer will be: for a few lines with CLI it’s not worth it.
Let’s talk about the Email Server.
I use it for different domains: company 1.ro, company 2.ro, …
IMO, the competitors for NethServer are Zentyal and iRedMail.
For this approach, iRedMail should be the best solution because has completely separate domains for administration and for sharing contacts and calendar separately for each domain. But you must paid for full admin functions.
Because neither Zentyal or NethServer are not designed for work with separated domains, I ask here: Sorting Users and Email addresses by "Domain" for a minor thing. Nothing.
I gave some example from Zentyal about email log files. Nothing.
I like the idea to make NethServer modular but i know that is very complex design and implementation.
Look at the CUPS. I configured NethServer as UTM. Nothing to do with Print service. In /var/log/messages hundreds of lines like this:
Jan 10 03:38:37 ns-utm smbd[10546]: Unable to connect to CUPS server localhost:631 - Connection refused
Jan 10 03:38:37 ns-utm smbd[30880]: [2016/01/10 03:38:37.736297, 0] printing/print_cups.c:528(cups_async_callback)
Jan 10 03:38:37 ns-utm smbd[30880]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
Jan 10 03:51:38 ns-utm smbd[10646]: [2016/01/10 03:51:38.376735, 0] printing/print_cups.c:151(cups_connect)
Jan 10 03:51:38 ns-utm smbd[10646]: Unable to connect to CUPS server localhost:631 - Connection refused
Jan 10 03:51:38 ns-utm smbd[30880]: [2016/01/10 03:51:38.377682, 0] printing/print_cups.c:528(cups_async_callback)
Jan 10 03:51:38 ns-utm smbd[30880]: failed to retrieve printer list: NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
And is not only about lines. It’s about traffic and the system works for nothing.
Another thing: if you want to see if there are any updates, you must go to the Software Center section. After you go there and the system has finished to check available packages, you will see a message for updates if are available. If I remember well, when I have installed first time NethServer (I think was 6.5), after login, in Dashboard was a message for updates, when the updates was available. Or I confused with Zentyal.
And IPS. From my point of view, the module doesn’t work because there is nothing in log file. How can I do something against nothing?
And we can continue.
Maybe there are minor things that don’t worth attention. But can make the difference.
Again, I thought it can be a case study for all to design, make, implement a very good tool for business environment: NethServer.
Kind regards,
Gabriel