Open-source messaging from SuSE
SuSE eMail Server II is an open-source e-mail application that features simple, integrated installation and Web-based configuration. It supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, LDAP, as well as HTML access to mailboxes and public folders. In contrast to competing products such as CommuniGate Pro, SuSE's offering is based on well-known open-source components. As a result, SuSE's package is less costly and doesn't lock your organization into using a proprietary e-mail server.
Components
The key components of eMail Server II are the Cyrus IMAP server, the Postfix Mail Transfer Agent, the IMP Webmail Program, a Webmail client, and a browser-based configuration utility provided by SuSE. The Cyrus IMAP server includes its own user database (and, as a result, offers better performance than the popular open source IMAP server from the University of Washington). With the Cyrus IMAP server and Postfix, SuSE combines high-performance, open-source e-mail components under the umbrella of SuSE's browser-based configuration utility.
Installation and configuration
When you initiate the eMail Server II installation process, SuSE Linux Professional 7.0 is first installed; the product cannot be installed on top of an existing Linux distribution. After the standard Linux configuration, during which you specify crucial network settings, the eMail Server II installation program lets you configure the server's DNS information. The whole process is simple, requiring very little user interaction; installation proceeded flawlessly in our tests. If you're migrating from another mail server to SuSE's, you can import existing user accounts via comma-delimited file; but if your current mail server is also used as an Exchange server for your domain, you'll need to create an MX record on the domain's DNS server, defining it as destination host for all incoming e-mail for the domain.
Configuration of the server is completely browser based. You add new mail users and edit existing accounts via the User Administration section. SuSE's browser-based configuration makes the administration of eMail Server II a trivial task.
SuSE eMail Server II uses the Postfix MTA instead of the more complex Sendmail MTA. Postfix is very straightforward and relatively simple to configure, but it's still functionally equivalent to Sendmail. With SuSE eMail Server II, you can configure Postfix via browser--in Expert Mode, all Postfix parameters can be modified on an HTML form.
Functionality
SuSE eMail Server II supports virtual domains (multiple domains hosted on a single server); the only caveat is that all domains share the same namespace, so all e-mail usernames must be unique across the various virtual domains.
The product also supports a variety of user-configurable e-mail filters. These filters let users define actions such as automatic mail forwarding and out-of-office notifications based on expressions in the message body or subject line, or on message size. In comparison to Microsoft's Exchange Server, SuSE eMail Server II focuses on basic, key e-mail features and lacks advanced options such as multi-site replication and directory integration.
To allow users to access e-mail via Web browser, SuSE eMail Server II uses the IMP Webmail program, which lets you access PHP3 scripts via browser. Although IMP provides basic HTML e-mail access, it doesn't measure up to Web clients such as Exchange Server's Outlook Web Access (OWA), which provides a GUI that's more functionally complete and user-friendly.
Limitations
For e-mail backup, eMail Server II supports only offline backups during which users cannot access their mailboxes. This is a serious omission, since online backups are mandatory for any enterprise; the lack of such functionality immediately ranks eMail Server II below mail servers such as MS Exchange Server. We were also disappointed that eMail Server II does not include integrated virus scanning. Instead, you must manually install a Postfix antivirus option--not a trivial task.
Bottom Line
SuSE eMail Server II lists at $295, which includes 60 days of installation support. In addition, SuSE offers an annual support contract for $2,040, which covers any questions that go beyond installation issues. The well-structured and thorough printed documentation helped us install and configure eMail Server II in less than an hour.
SuSE eMail Server II's lack of an online backup facility makes it ill-suited as a replacement for Exchange-caliber mail servers, but the product will still function quite well as a mail relay server for forwarding e-mail to an e-mail system such as Exchange. It is possible to obtain and install the individual open-source components included with the eMail Server II (without actually purchasing the product); but the product's documentation, SuSE's Web-based configuration program, and SuSE's extended support option--and especially the time saved--more than justify the relatively minor expense.
Jacob is a corporate IS Director. He can be reached at jgsoedl@yahoo.com.
What's your experience with SuSE eMail Server II? E-mail Jacob, or post your thoughts in our Talkback forum below.