Six months

[Filippo Carletti]

Six months have passed since we switched from SME Server to
NethServer. Back in March, we were confident that the new
postfix-based mail server was stable enough to go in production.
Indeed it was, we only needed to make small adjustments to our
configuration in the past months. We switched some mail groups to
shared mailboxes with success.
The samba-based shared folders showed its stability, even if we had to
diagnose some permissions issues after the migration (every NethServer
package comes with automatic data migration from SME Server, usually
triggered from a backup file coming from SME Server).
Also the Fax Server proved to be very stable and performing, IAX
modems included.
At the time, the Chat Server was production ready and it performed flawlessly.

Meanwhile, we rewrote the Package manager to be more user friendly and
added a lot of new features.
One of the first package we added was SOGo, with Thunderbird
integration, then we did a lot of work on NUT UPS, given the
importance of a good UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply).
We also spent a lot of time integrating NethServer with an existing
Windows Active Directory, so that you could use an existing Domain
Controller as a source of email addresses for a NethServer mail
server.

In the background, we kept working hard on improving the gateway
features of NethServer, to offer a better experience on server and
gateway mode. We choose to add a server-manager panel to configure
network interfaces (with auto-detection), we built templates for
Shorewall, the well-known Linux firewall software, integrating it with
NethServer (including deep network monitoring with ntopng and traffic
shaping).
We developed a new http/https proxy with web filtering, using Squid,
squidGuard, icap and squidclamav (to offer antivirus protection on web
browsing), transparently intercepting users even on https.

Given the importance of data stored in NethServer, we gave a long and
thorough test to the backup and restore functions. Now we have a
robust backup system based on Duplicity with a server-manager
configuration panel) and some documentation for the restore (with some
ideas for a restore panel).

In these days we are testing VPNs, both in road warrior and net-to-net
setups. OpenVPN can be used in a variety of modes, easily configurable
from a simple server-manager panel. For causal road warriors that
don't want to install a VPN client, we have L2TP, nowadays found on
many different system and devices. Expect a beta release in a few
days.

We also have a working prototype of an IPS (Intrusion Prevention
System), based on Snort. After some more tuning, we're going to offer
an alpha for download.

Since we went beta, we were confident enough on NethServer stability
that we are installing it at some of our customers. We have now ten
servers in production, some of them are server and gateway.

In the coming weeks, we expect to work on porting our Asterisk based
PBX (NethVoice) to NethServer and to the integration of Owncloud.


--
Ciao,
Filippo

[Graham Wilson]

This is like sweet music. It is looking more and more likely that I will switch to NethServer, and your reports of stability are very reassuring. I particularly like the ethos behind this project. I'm installing a test rig today.

Ciao,

Graham