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Chapter 1: Introduction to
Kerio MailServer (continued)
1.2
Collaboration and directory services
1.21
WebMail and mail clients
1.22 Mailing Lists
1.23
Directory services
Next
section...
1.2 Collaboration and
directory services
Taking time to understand Kerio
MailServer collaboration features and directory services should help you
help your end users enhance their user experiences and gain greater
benefits from the mail server.
As we begin to consider
collaboration and directory services, a review of the following sections
of your manual may be helpful.
Kerio MailServer
collaboration happens primarily through WebMail and synchronization
support for mail clients.
1.21 WebMail and mail
clients
The Kerio MailServer WebMail component offers a
feature rich interface for e-mail. Features include calendars, contacts,
public and private folders, and more.
When you set up your first
user account, WebMail was also set up for use. After entering the mail
server IP address in your browser, login to one of your example user
accounts on WebMail now.
Now we will take a moment to review some of the key
WebMail features.
- Public Folders and Contacts
- Sending mail - auto reply, spell/address check
- Receiving mail - sorting, searching, mail filters
- Calendar and Tasks - share, invite, alarm settings
- User setting preferences - language, signature, skin
Let's
begin by creating a public contacts folder that includes all of the
example user accounts for the test domain you created earlier. Right-click
on "Public Folders" in the example user WebMail account you logged into
and click on "New subfolder". When the "Create new folder" dialog appears,
fill-in a folder name, e.g., "Employees", and choose the "Contacts" folder
type. When your new public folder appears, add your example user accounts
as new contacts using the "New Contact" button.
Now that we know
how public folders and contacts works, lets try sending mail. Click on the
"New Mail" button to compose a message to send. Click on "To:", "Cc:" or
"Bcc:" to bring up your contacts folders. For the "Folder:" selection,
choose your new Employees folder and click "Search" to choose one of your
example user accounts. Type a simple message like "Hello, how r u?". Try
the spelling checker, address check, attach, save and close, and send
buttons.
Use the "Out of office" tab in the User settings dialog
to test the auto-reply feature.
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When receiving mail, WebMail provides a number
of useful features to facilitate organization. After sending a few
messages, try sorting messages. Add additional columns to sort by
selecting the "..." button. Click the search icon to try a search for a
message by entering text to match to a particular subject line or message
body. Advanced search finds matches for a particular date, item type (all,
seen, unseen, deleted), and approximate kb size.
In the "User
settings" Mail tab in User settings, you can choose to display image
attachments inline, display images from the web, and/or mark displayed
messages as read. In the General tab you can set up a reading pane at the
bottom or right for easier message review.
Mail filters can be set
by clicking the downward pointing arrow next to the "User settings" button
and then selecting the "Mail filters" link. When you click on the "New..."
button in the Mail filters dialog, the "Rule designer -- Web Page Dialog"
appears. Here you can select the conditions and actions for your mail
filter rules. Let's design a filter for newsletters where the subject
contains the words "newsletter" move it move it to a specified folder
called "Newsletters". First create an INBOX subfolder called
"Newsletters." Then, go to the Mail filters Rule designer dialog and
fill-in the following.
- Select the conditions for your rule: Check "Where
the subject..."
- Select the actions for your rule: Check "Move it to
the specified folder"
- Rule description (click on an underlined value to edit
it): contains newsletter, to folder Newsletters
- Name of the rule: Newsletter rule
Powerful calendaring functions in WebMail allow calendar
sharing to coordinate meeting schedules. Share this user account's
calendar by right-clicking on the Calendar folder and selecting "Folder
sharing...". Enter some of the other example users to share with.
Now let's try adding a calendar event. Click on Calendar. You can
view the calendar by day, week, month or list. Click on "New event". In
the New event dialog, the General tab lets you fill-in subject, location,
and time of your event. You can also select a color-coded label like
business, phone call, or vacation. Other options like reminders, priority, and
how to display the event, e.g., tentative, free, busy, out of office.
Invite other example users to attend using the Attendees tab by clicking
the "more" button. If the invitee is a local user, the free/busy columns on the right hand side will indicate
if the user is free or busy with another event.
Users can also manage tasks using the "Tasks"
folder. Click on the tasks folder and try adding a new task. For tasks,
users can enter a subject, location, dates (due, start, completed), status
(not started, waiting for someone else, completed, in progress, canceled),
priority (high, normal, low), percent finished, private, alarm settings,
and include attendees. Try adding a new task.
Finally, WebMail has
a number of User setting preferences for additional flexibility. The
General tab of the User settings helps users select their language of
choice for WebMail, including: Czech, Dutch, English, French, German,
Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Select the language you prefer. The browser detect option can also support other languages as long as the approriate languages are supported by the operating system that the browser is on.
Use
the Mail tab in the User settings dialog to add a signature.
Try
some different skins on for our WebMail by clicking the "User settings"
button. The General tab includes a "Preferred skin" setting that you can
adjust.
If you reviewed the WebMail
parameters section in your manual, you saw that the Kerio WebMail can
be easily customized with branding of your organization. If you are hosting multiple domains you can select a
custom WebMail logo for each
domain in the domain settings or set a custom default logo for all domains in Configuration > Advanced Options >
WebMail.
To customize the logo on the WebMail login screen, let's
open the WebMail directory. The default path is as follows.
(Install location) \Kerio\MailServer\webmail
If you have
access to your organization's logo, replace the current logo.gif with your
own logo. It should be 200x40 pixels in GIF format with the file name
"logo.gif". Find the logo.gif file using the following path.
(Install location) \Kerio\MailServer\webmail\default\gfx
You can customize the logo and make other customizations to the login screen by editing the login.css file
located in the following directory.
(Install location) \Kerio\MailServer\webmail\default
To add your own custom WebMail skins, add a new directory with your custom cascading style sheet (CSS) and
icons into the following directory.
(Install location) \Kerio\MailServer\webmail\default\skins
The WebMail login page also provides the Simplified option for slow internet connections, support for older
browsers, and an interface that is easier to view on a PDA. The simplified version is called WebMail Mini. WebMail
Mini only shows email and contact folders. For Calendars and Tasks, log into the Full WebMail version.
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to top...
Now that we have covered many of the more
interesting WebMail features, we are ready to review Kerio MailServer
interoperability with mail clients.
In addition to compatibility
with most any e-mail client that understands standard POP3 (Post Office
Protocol 3), IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol 4) and SMTP (Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol), Kerio MailServer also comes with the Kerio
Outlook Connector to provide support for MAPI (Messaging Application Programming Interface). So, Microsoft
Windows users can use Kerio MailServer with Microsoft Outlook.
To
setup most mail clients you need the following information.
- your POP (and/or IMAP) mail server, e.g., pop3.testdomain.lab
- your IMAP (and/or POP) mail server, e.g., imap.testdomain.lab
- your SMTP or outgoing mail server, e.g., smtp.testdomain.lab
- your e-mail login name, e.g., john.smith
- your e-mail address, e.g., john.smith@testdomain.lab
TIP: What about DNS? If a client wants to use a
pop3.testdomain.lab, imap.testdomain.lab or smtp.testdomain.lab address,
then he has to have these addresses in the local DNS.
If you are
using a standards-based mail client, try setting up that mail client to
receive mail from your Kerio MailServer test domain.
Microsoft Outlook
If you
are using Outlook, you can either install the Kerio Outlook Connector (KOC) or the Kerio Synchronization Plug-in (KSP). The Kerio Synchronization Plug-in was designed for users
that travel frequently and need to have access to email, calendar, and contacts when internet access is not
available. The Kerio Outlook Connector provides richer email groupware features for users who have a persistent
network connection to the MailServer.
The Kerio Outlook Connector and the Kerio Synchronization Plug-in cannot be used simultaneously in the same
Outlook profile, but you can run each in different profiles. To do this:
Install both KOC and KSP. Most users only need to install one of these clients depending on their needs.
Create and setup a normal KOC profile as described in the manual. Create a separate POP3 or IMAP profile and
configure KSP as described in the manual.
You can use the KOC profile when the machine has a persistent network connection to the MailServer. Before
you take the machine to work offline, you need to switch Outlook to the KSP profile and synchronize the email,
calendar and contact folders for offline availability. When you want to switch back to the KOC profile, you must
first synchronize your KSP data with the MailServer to upload new changes.
With Kerio
Outlook Connector installed, Outlook mail clients synchronize with Kerio
MailServer. Once you install the Kerio Outlook Connector on user desktops, an
update checker in Kerio MailServer distributes Kerio Outlook Connector
updates to mail clients automatically when they connect to Kerio
MailServer.
Mac Clients
On the Mac, the Kerio MailServer supports Entourage, Apple Mail, Apple Address Book and iCal.
In Entourage you can create a POP
or IMAP or an Exchange account. For this exercise let's create an Exchange account as described in the manual. The
Exchange account in Entourage adds the ability to synchronize the Calendar, Contacts and Tasks with the Kerio
MailServer in addition to shared and public email folders.
On Apple Mail, simply create a POP or IMAP account. The Exchange account in Apple Mail does not add any
extra functionality.
Apple Address Book can be configured to search the Kerio MailServer through LDAP and synchronize it's local
cache with the MailServer through iSync. Please review the chapter on Apple Address Book Support in the manual
to learn how to configure the Address Book to search Kerio's LDAP server and to synchronize its addresses in the
Contact folder on the Kerio MailServer account.
Apple's iCal can pulish its
calendar(s) to the Kerio MailServer so it is visible in WebMail or in Outlook when using the Kerio Outlook
Connector. The calendar(s) published from iCal are read only and can only be updated through iCal. iCal can also
subscribe to the Calendars that are on the MailServer. You can subscribe to any personal, shared or public calendar
that you have read access to. These calendars are also read only and can only be updated from the Kerio MailServer
through WebMail, Outlook or Entourage.
Now that we have reviewed Kerio WebMail and
interoperability with mail clients, let's go over the use of Mailing lists.
Back
to top...
1.22 Mailing
Lists
Mailing lists are as important collaborative
features in Kerio MailServer. Mailing
lists are managed in the Domain
Settings / Mailing Lists section of the Administration Console.
Let's create a mailing list by going to the Mailing Lists section
and clicking the "Add..." button for your test domain. The Add
Mailing List dialog should appear. This particular dialog is like a Wizard
and contains 7 pages described as follows. Begin by filling-out the first
page of the dialog.
- General: The 1st page of the Add Mailing
List dialog asks for a name and description of our mailing list as well
as the language for this list. Let's say we are making a
technology-interest mailing list for prospects who have signed up on a
newsletter list.
- Comment: Go to the 2nd page which allows
you to prepend or append text messages to email that goes to this
mailing list, e.g., to unsubscribe...
- Subscription: The 3rd page let's
you decide how your mailing list participants subscribe (allowed,
moderator must approve, or denied) and what notifications should go out
for users' subscriptions and unsubscriptions.
- Posting: The 4th page determines the
posting policy and message return parameters for the mailing list. You
can decide whether members, non-members, and/or moderators are permitted
to post. For this example set the posting policy to allow members and
moderators to post, but require moderator approval for non-members to
post. To keep help keep the example mailing list current, check the
"Send delivery errors to moderators" check box so we'll know when old
addresses bounce, etc. For larger lists you may specify replies to go to
just the sender or a specified address. For relatively small lists, you
might choose to have replies go to the entire list, or the sender + list
option when you anticipate non-member participation. You may also choose
to hide the sender's address and replace it with the mailing list
address. Let's assume that this is a small list and choose to reply to
sender + list. Here you can also choose whether or not to permit empty
subject lines in mailing list messages.
- Moderators: The 5th page let's you add
your list moderators. Click the "Add..." button on this page and
click the Select button on the Mail Address dialog that appears
to select a few users and your admin account from the example accounts
you created earlier.
- Members: The 6th page is where you add
your mailing list members. Select users from the example accounts you
defined on each domain. Add a names that are not users on domains listed
in the system.
- Archive: The 7th page defines how Kerio
MailServer will archive your mailing list messages and how those
archives can be accessed. When you choose to maintain an archive of your
mailing list, it is maintained as a newsgroup through the Kerio
MailServer NNTP server.
Now that you have a basic understanding
of how to use mailing lists with Kerio MailServer,
let's move on to directory services.
Back
to top...
1.23 Directory
services
Kerio MailServer includes an internal users
database for directory services, and provides integration with several
3rd party directories. It also includes its own built-in LDAP
(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) directory to manage public and
private contacts.
The internal users database included with Kerio
MailServer is managed through the Domain Settings / Users section of the
Administration Console which you used earlier to set up several example
user accounts. When a new user account is added, a mailbox is created in
the Kerio MailServer message store which can be found in the following
directory.
Kerio/MailServer/Store/mail/testdomain.com
In
addition to adding user accounts individually, you can also import them
into the internal directory. Open the Domain Settings / Users section of
the Administration Console again. Click on the "Import..." button.
In the Import Users dialog you have the choice of importing users from a
Windows NT 4.0 domain or a Windows 2000/2003 Active Directory domain or Novell eDirectory.
Kerio MailServer integrates with several third
party directories for authentication: Microsoft Active Directory, Apple Open Directory, and
OpenLDAP.
Each domain hosted by Kerio MailServer may include local
accounts as well as accounts saved in these 3rd party
directories. Both the local users accounts and the accounts saved in
3rd party directories can be displayed in the Domain Settings /
Users section in the Administration Console. However, only local accounts
can be added (accounts for 3rd party directories must be
created with those directory's respective administration tools, e.g.
Active Directory Users and Computers). Accounts within a 3rd
party directory cannot be removed using the Kerio MailServer
Administration Console, and only some 3rd party directory
features can be edited.
Let's go through the process of who you
would activate users in a 3rd party directory.
First install the Kerio Active
Directory Extensions on the domain controller if you are going to integrate with Active Directory, or install
the Kerio Open Directory Extensions on the
Open Directory Master and all replicas if you are going to integrate with Apple Open Directory. For OpenLDAP,
configure the /etc/pam.d/keriomail file to authenticate to OpenLdap through PAM (Pluggable Authentication
Modules).
Next, go to the
Configuration / Domains section of the Administration Console. Click the
"Add..." button to add a new domain. In the General tab of the
Domain dialog, enter a domain name you know is hosted on a Mac machine
with Apple Open Directory or a Linux machine with OpenLDAP, e.g.,
mac.testdomain.com.
Then click on the Directory Service tab of the
Domain dialog. Here when you check the "Map user accounts and groups from
a directory service to this domain, you can select Active Directory or Apple Open Directory
for the directory service type. Then enter the host name, user name and
password for the directory server.
Go back to the Domain Settings / Users section of the
Administration Console. Now the selections for "Domain:" at the top of the
console should include your Mac domain. Select your new Mac domain and
click the "Add..." button. An Add User dialog will then advise,
"This domain is configured to share users with directory service. What do
you want to do?" By selecting the "Activate user in directory
service" radio button, you will get the full list of users in your Apple
Open Directory to choose from.
There is a similar process for
Linux OpenLDAP directories.
Back
to top...
For Active Directory, Kerio MailServer provides
support using Kerio MailServer Active
Directory Extensions. Kerio Active
Directory Extensions are installed using a separate Kerio component called
the Kerio Active Directory Schema Installer.
These directory
extensions let you access Kerio MailServer user accounts through the
"Users and Computers" section of Active Directory. Without Kerio
MailServer Active Directory Extensions, when a new account is created in
Active Directory, you would normally have to import that user into the
Kerio MailServer internal users database.
With Kerio Active
Directory Extensions, the dialog properties box in which new user accounts
are created in Active Directory is extended with a tab called, "Kerio
MailServer Account," in which specific information for Kerio MailServer
can be entered (email addresses, forwarding, quota, etc.). So, new
accounts only need to be created in Active Directory.
For existing users in Active Directory you can right-click on the user(s) and you will see "Kerio
MailServer Tasks..." in the contextual menu, which allows you to create or delete mailboxes without having to open
the MailServer administration console.
Kerio MailServer also includes its own built-in LDAP
directory. However, the Kerio MailServer LDAP directory is for contacts in
public and private folders, not for user accounts.
The Kerio LDAP
directory enables access to public and private contacts using either
secured or the unencrypted access. Clients use the LDAP directory to
enable users to search for other users' data (typically e-mail addresses),
and for automatic completion of e-mail addresses when they are inserted.
You can configure the Kerio LDAP directory in the Configuration /
Services section of the administration console by highlighting LDAP or
Secure LDAP and clicking the "Edit..." button.
Note that when Kerio MailServer is protected by a
firewall, the appropriate ports must be open (389 for the LDAP service and
636 for Secure LDAP) for the LDAP directory to be accessible.
This
concludes the section on collaboration and directory services.
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section...
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