Zentyal is
a Linux small business server, that can be configured as a Gateway,
Infrastructure Manager, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Unified
Communication Server or a combination of them. All network services managed by
Zentyal are tightly integrated, automating most tasks. This helps to avoid
errors in the network configuration and administration and allows to save time. Zentyal is
open source, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and runs on
top of Ubuntu GNU/Linux.
Zentyal consists
of a series of packages (usually one for each module) that provide a web
interface to configure the different servers or services. The configuration is
stored on a key-value Redis database but users, groups and domains
related configuration is on OpenLDAP . When you configure any of the
available parameters through the web interface, final configuration files are
overwritten using the configuration templates provided by the modules. The main
advantages of using Zentyal are: unified, graphical user interface to
configure all network services and high, out-of-the-box integration between
them.
Installation
Zentyal 2.3 is available on Ubuntu 12.04
Universe repository. The modules available are:
·
zentyal-core
& zentyal-common: the core of the Zentyal interface and the
common libraries of the framework. Also include the logs and events modules
that give the administrator an interface to view the logs and generate events
from them.
·
zentyal-network:
manages the configuration of the network. From the interfaces (supporting
static IP, DHCP, VLAN, bridges or PPPoE), to multiple gateways when having more
than one Internet connection, load balancing and advanced routing, static
routes or dynamic DNS.
·
zentyal-objects
& zentyal-services: provide an abstraction level for network addresses
(e.g. LAN instead of 192.168.1.0/24) and ports named as services (e.g. HTTP
instead of 80/TCP).
·
zentyal-firewall:
configures the iptables rules to block forbiden connections, NAT and
port redirections.
·
zentyal-ntp:
installs the NTP daemon to keep server on time and allow network clients to
synchronize their clocks against the server.
·
zentyal-dhcp:
configures ISC DHCP server supporting network ranges, static leases
and other advanced options like NTP, WINS, dynamic DNS updates and network boot
with PXE.
·
zentyal-dns:
brings ISC Bind9 DNS server into your server for caching local
queries as a forwarder or as an authoritative server for the configured
domains. Allows to configure A, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT and SRV records.
·
zentyal-ca:
integrates the management of a Certification Authority within Zentyal so users
can use certificates to authenticate against the services, like with OpenVPN.
·
zentyal-openvpn:
allows to configure multiple VPN servers and clients using OpenVPN with
dynamic routing configuration using Quagga.
·
zentyal-users:
provides an interface to configure and manage users and groups on OpenLDAP.
Other services on Zentyal are authenticated against LDAP having a centralized
users and groups management. It is also possible to synchronize users,
passwords and groups from aMicrosoft Active
Directory domain.
·
zentyal-squid:
configures Squid and Dansguardian for speeding up browsing
thanks to the caching capabilities and content filtering.
·
zentyal-samba:
allows Samba configuration and integration with existing LDAP. From
the same interface you can define password policies, create shared resources
and assign permissions.
·
zentyal-printers:
integrates CUPS with Samba and allows not only to configure
the printers but also give them permissions based on LDAP users and groups.
To install Zentyal, in a terminal on the server enter
(where <zentyal-module> is any of the modules from the previous list):
sudo apt-get install <zentyal-module>
First steps
Any system account belonging to the sudo
group is allowed to log into Zentyal web interface. If you are using
the user created during the installation, this should be in the sudo group by
default.
If you need to add another user to the sudo
group, just execute:
sudo adduser username sudo
To access Zentyal web
interface, browse into https://localhost/ (or the IP of your remote server). As
Zentyal creates its own self-signed SSL certificate, you will have to accept a
security exception on your browser.
Once logged in you will see the dashboard
with an overview of your server. To configure any of the features of your
installed modules, go to the different sections on the left menu. When you make
any changes, on the upper right corner appears a red Save changes button
that you must click to save all configuration changes. To apply these
configuration changes in your server, the module needs to be enabled first, you
can do so from theModule Status entry on
the left menu. Every time you enable a module, a pop-up will appear asking for
a confirmation to perform the necessary actions and changes on your server and
configuration files.