@Stefano,
Big MySQL-database ? ... Perhaps if you store attachements in the database (the howto doesn't, but you could) ? I don't know any reports of problems with backup/restoring zarafa-databases. I never had any problems with backup/restoring the zarafa-database from one server to another. Do you know any reports of backup/restore-problems ?
no, attachments were stored in FS.. but if you have say 20 users and you keep all the emails for years, zarafa db dumb can be big.. some GB, as I said.. this is not a problem "per se" (I use mysql at work with GBs of data) but.. but during db dump (it can take minutes, many.. 20) db is locked.. and email services (on zarafa side) could suffer..
I would add that make Zarafa's own daemons work seamlessy with SME's ones could be tricky..
Only the zarafaclient (for the Outlook-connection) is not OSS.
this is enough for SME, isn't it? without zarafaclient zarafa is nothing else than a webmail, as horde..
Do the other 'exchange-replacements' have a OSS-outlook-connection ?
Sogo (without SAMBA4 - when in SME9 ?) even isn't a exchange-replacement, because it doesn't support Outlook. And even with SAMBA4 there are a lot of 'known issues' ...
SOGo is a full exchange replacement without the problems of exchange..
Samba4 is the future, is open, widely and actively developed.
SOGo is open, supported (Inverse is a big company) and actively developed, using (and this is a pro) standard way and tools: MLs, a bug tracker (Zarafa adopted a BT only recently, before bugs were reported into forums)..
Conclusion : if you want Outlook, you need Zarafa.
since we are talking about the future (not the present), this is not true
Other Linux-SmallBusiness-Servers already integrated Zarafa as there groupware-sollution : ClearOS, Collax, Univention and Zentyal ... all ZARAFA-implementations ...
ok, should we act like them?
will zarafa work with.. say 1000 users?
I know SME will (a work mate has 2 SME working with hundred, thousand users), SOGo will.. EGW will.. because they all use the standard daemons and the standard maildir format..
SME's standard backup will work without any kind of modification and without any kind of "wait, I'm dumping all my big blob db" time waste..
will zarafa make possible to restore a single mail from SME's standard backup? I doubt.
here we are discussing about the future and the default webmail/groupware application..
I'm
quite sure Zarafa won't be one of the possible choices..
SOGo will likely be..
I was a convinced Zarafa's fan, I had used it in the past.. its webmail is superb.. but management is almost like the exchange one..
integration on SME will suffer any time they change something.. and this is not acceptable for a mail server
finally, we all should remember that:
- every contrib is created for free in free time.. if we want a full integration of Zarafa in SME a hard work must be done and there are no human resources
- installation, configuration and maintenance must be "easy" enough for every SME user, exactly like now with Horde..
- backup and restore must be bullet proof
another 2€c of mine