Date/Time: Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM PDT
Register here:
Tuesday Oct 20, 2009
Tuesday Sep 29, 2009
Get the Communications Suite 7 software. Find out What's New in Communications Suite 7. Start a Communications Suite 7 installation.And read JimP's tribute to Comms.
Update:
Product info here.
Don't want to read, okay, watch the following video:
Monday Sep 28, 2009
The next update to Sun Java Communications Suite is getting close to shipping. Communications Suite 7 includes both new products and feature enhancements to existing products. Here's a quick look at what's new:
What's New in Sun Convergence 1 Update 3
What's New in Messaging Server 7 Update 3
What's New in Calendar Server 7
What's New in Calendar Server 6.3
What's New in Indexing and Search Service 1
What's New in Instant Messaging 8 Update 2
What's New in Delegated Administrator 7
What's New in Connector for Outlook 7.3 Update 1
What's New in Messaging Server 7 Update 3
What's New in Calendar Server 7
What's New in Calendar Server 6.3
What's New in Indexing and Search Service 1
What's New in Instant Messaging 8 Update 2
What's New in Delegated Administrator 7
What's New in Connector for Outlook 7.3 Update 1
What's New in Sun Convergence 1 Update 3
Convergence 1 Update 3 includes the following changes and new features:
- POP Access to External Email
- Sender Identities
- Single Click Creation of Events
- Attachment Search
- Autocomplete Addresses from Corporate Directory
- Multiple Select in Address Book
- Support for Internet Explorer 8
- Single Click Selection of all Messages
- Exporting Selected Entries from Address Book
- Toolbar Changes
- Address Book Notifications
- Group-wise Listing of Configuration Parameters
- Support for Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server 2.1
- Anti-Spam Functionality
What's New in Messaging Server 7 Update 3
Messaging Server 7 Update 3 includes the following changes and new features:
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Support
- Elimination of setuid binaries from Messaging Server pipe_master and l_master
- Running the Directory Server Setup Script ( comm_dssetup.pl) Required
What's New in Calendar Server 7
Calendar Server 7 includes the following new features:
- CalDAV Support
- iCal Support
- Authentication
- Scheduling Support
- WebDAV Sync
- Free-Busy Servlet
- Installation and Configuration
- Logging Service
- Notifications
- Admin Servlet
- Administrative Utilities
- Administrators Group
- LDAP Integration
- Collection tag or ctag
- Support for Multiple Back-end and Front-end Servers to Achieve Horizontal Scalability
- Hosted Domains
CalDAV Support
Calendar Server 7 provides support for the calendaring extension to WebDAV as defined in RFC 4791. The CalDAV draft extends the basic HTTP and WebDAV commands to enable all the functionality required for calendaring and scheduling activities. Included in Calendar Server 7 is support for the following:
- PUT, POST, GET, MULTIGET, REPORT, HEAD, OPTIONS, PROPFIND, and PROPPATCH methods
- MKCALENDAR method, for creating multiple calendars per user
- Enhanced query reports, to both return recurring events and tasks in expanded form (in UTC), and to return only requested properties or parameters
iCal Support
Calendar Server 7 supports the iCalendar data format as defined in RFC2445bis. The following components are supported:
- VEVENT
- VTODO
- VFREEBUSY
- VTIMEZONE
- VALARM
Recurring rules and exceptions are also supported.
Authentication
Calendar Server 7 supports basic HTTP authentication and authentication over SSL. With HTTP authentication you can do the following:
- Restrict access to authenticated users only
- Provide userid and password and execute commands on a calendar
Scheduling Support
Calendar Server 7 supports scheduling as defined in Version 04 of the CalDAV Scheduling draft. This specification defines explicit scheduling, where invitations and replies are placed in the recipient's inbox. It is then the client's responsibility to view and move them to the appropriate calendars. The latest version of the draft, which defines implicit scheduling, will be implemented in a future release.
The following list provides more information about scheduling support in Calendar Server 7:
- Free-busy queries on attendees.
- Calendar-outbox and calendar-inbox for every user, as well as the ability to use the POST command for invitations and replies.
- iTIP and iMIP protocols, as defined in RFC 2446 and RFC2447. Invitation emails are sent out for recipients without accounts on the calendar server, with all event details.
- iSchedule protocol, which enables Calendar Server to act as a client and perform scheduling with servers from other products that support iSchedule.
WebDAV Sync
Calendar Server 7 supports WebDAV Sync, an extension of the WebDAV protocol as described in the WebDAV Sync draft. WebDAV Sync defines a protocol for an HTTP client to query an overview of the data changes on the HTTP server. The result is that clients can efficiently synchronize their local data cache with the server.
Free-Busy Servlet
Calendar Server 7 provides a free-busy servlet to enable non-CalDAV clients to at least check users' freebusy information by using the upcoming free-busy-read URL standard. This standard is compatible with the free-busy URLs used by Calendar Server 6.0 through Calendar Server 6.3.
Installation and Configuration
You install Calendar Server software by using the Communications Suite installer. You then configure a Calendar Server instance by using the init-config configurator, which makes configuration settings for your Directory Server, GlassFish Enterprise Server, and Calendar Server (DAV server) hosts. In addition, Sun Service Tags are used solely to identify Sun products to Sun. Sun uses service tag information to better support you. Registration data is only collected when your system administrator requests gear discovery. Calendar Server 7 enables you to use the Service Tag Facility on Solaris OS 10.
Logging Service
The Calendar Server 7 logging service is a multilevel, configurable, logging module to help capture activity or debugging issues.
Notifications
Calendar Server 7 provides Java Message Service (JMS) notifications and email notifications for database changes and event or task email alarms. You can configure the server to produce JMS notifications for every database change and every alarm. If you choose, you can write your own subscribers to these notifications. In addition, Calendar Server 7 provides a subscriber program, which you can configure, that consumes the JMS notifications and sends email for database changes and email alarms.
Admin Servlet
Calendar Server 7 contains an admin servlet, providing a web interface with which you view and even delete contents in your collections. You can also use the admin servlet to import iCal data to specific calendar collections.
Administrative Utilities
By using the davadmin command, you can perform the following tasks:
- Obtain server version information
- Read and modify the server configuration
- Obtain, modify, or delete information about user collections and resources
You can use Jconsole to perform these tasks.
Calendar Server 7 also provides database utilities to back up and restore calendar collections.
Administrators Group
A predefined Admin group in LDAP is created during initial configuration, to which you can can add users for proxy login and management of any user account. The default administrator user added during initial configuration is calmaster.
LDAP Integration
Calendar Server 7 uses Directory Server with the latest Communications Suite schema to store and manage user information in its LDAP database. Support includes:
- Capability of obtaining principal information from LDAP
- Capability of matching principals to their calendar collections
- Use of LDAP information for auto-creation of basic calendars on login or invitation
- Use of LDAP caching for faster lookup results
- Use of LDAP rollover support to use a backup LDAP server if primary LDAP server is not available
Collection tag or ctag
Calendar Server 7 supports "Calendar Collection Entity Tag (CTag)," an extension to CalDAV that provides a fast way for a client to determine if the contents of a calendar collection have changed.
Support for Multiple Back-end and Front-end Servers to Achieve Horizontal Scalability
The Calendar Server 7 architecture enables you to deploy multiple front-end calendar servers and multiple back-end mySQL database servers to achieve horizontal scalability. See Calendar Server Logical Architecture for more information.
Hosted Domains
Like the rest the the Communications Suite products, Calendar Server 7 supports virtual domains, also called hosted domains, which is the ability to support users in more than one domain, on a single deployment. A default domain is configured during the initial configuration.
What's New in Calendar Server 6.3
This version of Calendar Server 6.3 includes bug fixes only.
What's New in Indexing and Search Service 1
Indexing and Search Service 1 includes the following new features:
Index
- Rapid Indexing of Existing Email: Email messages in a user's mailbox can be indexed. During this operation content is tagged in various ways to enable sophisticated searches.
- Real-time Indexing: As email messages are received, sent, and moved to various folders, the index is updated in real-time. This reduces to near zero the chances of a false search result based on stale index information.
Search
- Attachment Search: Users can search the body of attachments for keywords or phrases. Attachments can be in a variety of formats such as PDF; Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio; StarOffice/Open Office; HTML; and more.
- Body Search: Users can search the body of a message for any relevant content. With Indexing and Search Service, body search includes search of supported attachment types as well as the plain text body of a message.
- Search Integration with Sun Convergence: Indexing and Search Service integrates with Convergence through its existing search interface. Body searches are much faster and more powerful because they now not only search message text but also attachment contents.
- Search Integration with Messaging Server: Other email clients can leverage improved body search and expanded attachment body search by using Messaging Server's IMAP search integration with Indexing and Search Service. The underlying search mechanism is transparent to a Messaging Server client.
- RESTful Search Web Service API: Based on the OpenSearch 1.1 specification, the RESTful Search Web Service API provides RSS 2.0, Atom 1.0 or JSON format output. This interface is used by Messaging Server when it redirects IMAP SEARCH requests to Indexing and Search Service and by the sample search user interface. It can also be used by developers to mash up their email search results with other applications if desired.
Indexing and Search Service and Convergence
ISS integrates with Convergence through its existing search interface, that is, Convergence continues to execute searches by using the compact WMAP protocol with the mshttpd daemon. The mshttpd daemon continues to service these requests by using the IMAP protocol. Messaging Server integrates with ISS through an enhanced IMAP SEARCH functionality, and a subset of these search requests (particularly, body searches) go to ISS for fulfillment. Messaging Server consumes the ISS output and reformats it for the email client.
The result is that no changes are needed to Convergence or Thunderbird clients because ISS integrates with Messaging Server rather than the end-client.
The long-term plan for integrating Convergence and Thunderbird (through a plug-in) with ISS will be to have the clients communicate directly with ISS directly by using ISS's RESTful web service for search.
What's New in Instant Messaging 8 Update 2
Instant Messaging 8 Update 2 includes the following changes and new features:
- Using Shoal for Automatic Discovery of Peer Servers in a Pool
- Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
What's New in Delegated Administrator 7
Delegated Administrator 7 includes the following changes and new features:
Provisioning for Calendar Server Users
Delegated Administrator 7 now supports Calendar Server 6.x and
Calendar Server 7 provisioning.
What's New in Connector for Outlook 7.3 Update 1
This version of Connector for Outlook 7.3 Update 1 includes the following new features:
- Viewing Quota and Size Information
- Saving File Attachments in Optimized Mode
Thursday Jul 16, 2009
In the never-ending chore of tracking Communications Suite component patches, you'll want to bookmark the Communications Suite Component Patches page, which lists patches for both Communications Suite 5 and Communications Suite 6 releases.
Many thanks to Shane Hjorth for pulling this page together.
Thursday Jul 09, 2009
Anthony Waldron has released a new version of the EMRA toolkit. See his blog for details, or go directly to Go and download the toolkit.
For those unfamiliar with EMRA, here's the blurb: The EMRA Toolkit provides a powerful yet flexible framework to automate the deployment of the Communications Suite components in a reliable and repeatable manner. By leveraging Solaris silent install, and using a few shell scripts, you need to only obtain copies of the Communications Suite software (for the Communications components), the Java Enterprise System software (for the other non-Communications components, such as Directory Server), and Solaris OS to get started with a hands- and worry-free Communications Suite deployment.
More EMRA info here.
Tuesday Jun 30, 2009
Just published: a white paper on designing tiered storage with Messaging Server, with the eye on cutting storage costs. Abstract:
Service providers face unrelenting pressure to increase storage for user mailboxes. This paper explains how using production products, such as Sun Communications Suite software, the Solaris ZFS file system, and a Sun Storage array, can cut storage costs by half, while performance (measured by messages per second) can be increased by more than 50 percent in environments with millions of users. Extensive load testing has shown that this single-rack solution provides a cost-effective message store for two million users. It is easily replicated and highly modular.
Thursday Jun 25, 2009
Have a look at the top twenty most frequently accessed pages on the Communications Suite wiki(s) for June. I see a noticeable uptick in access to Communications Suite 6 Update 2 information.
Monday Apr 27, 2009
Wednesday Jan 28, 2009
I've been collecting a few items of interest for the Communications Suite community. So, in no apparent order, here goes:
- Communications Suite 6 Update 1 requires that you install Application Server 9.1 Update 2 (enterprise version including HADB support) as the web container for Convergence 1 Update 1. The Communications Suite 6 download site provides links to the Application Server 9.1 Update 2 bits for Solaris SPARC, Linux, and Solaris x86 packages. Note, however, that these bits are not multi-language versions. If you require the multi-language version of Application Server 9.1 Update 2 (enterprise version with HADB support), you'll have to first install the older Application Server 9.1 Update 1 version, then obtain and apply the patch for Update 2 to yield the Application Server 9.1 Update 2 multi-language version.
- There's a recent SPECmail2008 benchmark with the Sun Fire X4540 server and Messaging Server. (Unfortunately, it's for Messaging Server 6.2, but it's of interest nonetheless.)
- Shane Hjorth has updated an old BigAdmin article, and placed in on the Comms wiki now, on how to configure Messaging Server for SSL and the Solaris Cryptographic Framework (SCF) to use the Cryptographic Accelerator of the UltraSPARC T1 and T2 processors. Wiki version is here.
- Grab a cup of coffee, kick back, and watch some Comms Videos. This is our first foray into video-tizing Comms so by all means let us know what you think.
- Virtual images for Communications Suite 6 Update 1 are in the works. Apologies that we pulled the Communications Suite 6 virtual images, in anticipation of the new ones coming online. (In the future, in retrospect, we should probably leave the older images around.)
Friday Jan 16, 2009
Just in case you're wondering what happened to the Communications Suite 6 download page, it has been taken down. Now that we're shipping Communications Suite 6 Update 1, that's the software that we are providing. The Communications Suite 6 Update 1 download page is here.
And in case you're wondering about the availability of VirtualBox and VMware images for Communications Suite 6 Update 1, yes, they are in the works. There is currently an issue with the Instant Messaging configurator that is being worked on.
Tuesday Jan 06, 2009
In case you missed it, Communications Suite got an update and a new add-on:
- Communications Suite 6 Update 1: For more information, see What's New and Get the Software.
- Mobile Communications 1: A new product, Mobile Communications acts as a gateway to provide synchronization services for business users, synchronizing their Sun Java Communications Suite accounts with their mobile phone. Mobile Communications supports synchronization of contacts, calendar events and tasks between SyncML enabled mobile phones and the back-end server. For more information, see Mobile Communications 1 Documentation.
Tuesday Dec 09, 2008
Expect the release of Communications Suite 6 Update 1 in the very near future. For a summary of all features in Communications Suite 6 Update 1 that are new or have been enhanced, see the What's New document on the Communications Suite wiki.
Thursday Nov 13, 2008
Monday Aug 04, 2008
Actually, based on the amount of mail I receive from Barack's surrogates, I think we're closer than 6 hops.
Thursday Jul 31, 2008
Emailus Interruptus:
According to a report to be published in October by the New York-based research firm Basex, interruptions such as spam, other unnecessary e-mail and instant-messages take up 28% of the average knowledge worker's day.On top of that is what Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira refers to as recovery time -- the time to get back to where you were before you were interrupted, which Spira says is 10 to 20 times the duration of the interruption. These interruptions account for up to 2.1 hours per worker per day. Multiply that by 56 million knowledge workers in the U.S., he calculates, and the cost is $650 billion per year.
This blog copyright 2009 by mb