Asterisk, Blackberry and eGroupware
Submitted by tony on Tue, 05/06/2008 - 17:25.
This is a near perfect solution. I run an Asterisk Vo/IP system for my office, and eGroupware with Cyrus for our mail system. We migrated from Microsoft Exchange some time ago and I've never looked back.
With eGroupware, we were able to replace 99% of the functionality of our Microsoft Exchange server with open source software. With sieve filters users can set up an unlimited number of server-side mail filters, something you can't do with Exchange anymore, and the web interface works much better with Firefox than Microsoft's web access. Our Asterisk phone system integrates into the mix and will deliver voicemail to the user's e-mail box.
Now, with my Blackberry I can download and play those voicemails without ever having to dial into the phone system, because they are wav files attached to e-mail that is picked up by my Blackberry. I'm feeling so "connected" right now it's not even funny :-)
Switching to an all open-source messaging suite like this was easier than I thought, but when we did the primary migration I only had about 10 users to worry about. This made it much easier. I took Outlook (or the appropriate mail client) and downloaded everything to a local storage. After setting up IMAP to the Cyrus server I pushed it all back up - not recommended if you're going to migrate a few hundred users, but effective in my case. I then set up the Funambol open source sync client for each user to sync their contacts and calendar between the server and their local store. This gives them remote access to their data, and I have a copy of that on both the desktop and the server in addition to the server backups in the event of a catastrophic failure.
On my Blackberry I again use the Funambol client to sync contacts and calendar to the server. Within 30 minutes of getting the Blackberry I'd already downloaded the Funambol client over the air and sync'd with my eGroupware server, without ever attaching the Blackberry to a computer.
Configuring Asterisk to deliver voicemails as a wav file to your e-mail box is simple. I now I have a completely integrated messaging system that doesn't tie me to a desktop computer, and every aspect of it is open source software!
What's the 1%?
You said that it's replaced 99% of the functionality of Exchange. What's the 1%? I'm curious because I'd like to be able to convert a small group of users over from Lotus Notes to a similar implementation and want to get a handle on what kinds of issues there might be.
Thanks!
The 1% is notes / tasks
I can only sync Calendar and Contacts, not notes or tasks. My users never even noticed though, it just means I'm not backing that data up in the event of a local hard drive crash.
blackberry + Cyrus
Hey Tony,
You seem to have a really nice setup. I myself am using postfix as IMAP server. I haven't yet configured an exchange frontend. I already tested openexchane,zimbra,... and they all seem to be able to replace exchange. On thing that still isn't clear is how the integration with your mobile works.
I enabled GPRS for my cellphone a couple of months ago. I found it quit usefull, but after a month a got a bill indicating I had consumed 50MB so I had to pay a lot extra (we only get 10MB for data exchange.), I found it very strange that I had used 50 MB as I only used my mail and limited every message to 2Kb. My guess is my mobile phone downloaded all the messages everytime to do a compare or something.
The next thing I wanted to investigate is the possibility to use a blackberry with my own mailserver. As blackberry devices are designed to handle email efficiently, I assume this wouldn't happen. Could you tell me how the setup for your blackberry with your cyris works? Maybe even give some figures about how much data you consume?
regards
Bjorn
ps I'm a total blackberry n00b
Mobile integration
There's two parts to integrate with my Blackberry. The first is the sync of my contacts and calendar using the Funambol free sync client. It connects to my eGroupware server and manages the sync. It's not automatic - I have to tell it when to sync. There's docs in the eGroupware site that describe how to configure the Blackberry Funambol sync. It's easy once your eGroupware is set up and accessible from the web. There's an rpc.php file on your egroupware server that the Funambol client will talk to.
The other part of course is push e-mail. I'm just using the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS). It checks my IMAP server and pushes anything new down to my Blackberry.
I'm not sure how much traffic that causes on my server, but I do know it logs into the IMAP server every somewhere between 3 and 15 minutes to look for new mail. I do this without having to buy a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES). It works with either an ISP's mail account or your own mail server - AS LONG as it's on the standard port 110 or 143. There's no way to specify what port your mail server runs on.
You don't have to worry about running your own SMTP service for the Blackberry. All your outbound mail from the Blackberry gets sent out from a blackberry.com smtp server.
I do monitor bandwidth on my network, but my mail server is such a tiny portion of the total that I can't give you a good idea of how much bandwidth the Blackberry service is actually using. I have a full T-1, and the addition of the Blackberry service hasn't impacted my overall network usage. I imagine that mail check every 3 to 15 minutes might take up a bit though.
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