Scalix: Linux Administrator`s Guide - Continued Analysis
(Page 3 of 4 )
If you are already familiar with the books published by PacktPub, then you know they have unique fonts, styles, and aesthetics. The book always starts by presenting particular scenarios. You can see how a block of code looks as well as the “important notes” and “tips and tricks” segments.
As always, I pay attention to the subtitle of the book. It is quite important to check whether the book does really deliver what it promises. In this case, the book has the following subtitle: “Install, configure, and administer your Scalix Collaboration Platform email and groupware server.” Thankfully, the book delivers exactly that. As a matter of fact, the entire book is only about those three topics.
Thanks to the appropriate line spacing and Garamond look-alike font, the book won’t strain your eyes. The contrast of the black text color on the white paper is very nice. Additionally, this book has almost one hundred visual aids—screen shots, diagrams, and sketches. Activities are accompanied by diagrams and entire processes come with screen shots.
The author's style is very coherent. As I already mentioned, this book is a sort of centralized how-to. Yeah, I made up that term, but that’s because the author explains how to work with Scalix starting from an early stage—basics—and then gradually progressing toward a really advanced stage, where lots of “tough” tasks are presented.
It is important to point out that the book’s content was reviewed by two professional experts in their field: Braam van Heerden and Kevin Anderson. I have also done my best to test and verify most of what’s written in the book and I couldn’t find a flaw. I do not consider myself an expert in Scalix, but I have seen that what’s in the book is accurate.
(Back cover of the book)
In short, let’s sum up what you can learn from this book:
Ø Dissecting an email message and understanding how email and groupware servers work;
Ø Installing Scalix on OpenSuSE 10.2, Fedora Core 5, and Windows;
Ø Setting up Scalix in a multiserver environment with clustering and replication;
Ø Troubleshooting and hardening your Scalix environment;
Ø Working with the Scalix Administration Console (SAC);
Ø Managing users and handling common tasks;
Ø Deploying the Scalix connector for Outlook and integrating with IMAP mail clients;
Ø Understanding Scalix configuration files and administrative commands;
Ø Standard Scalix monitoring tools and status reports;
Ø Integrating Scalix in your centralized Nagios monitoring system;
Ø Securing your server using firewalls, Stunnel, and OpenVPN;
Ø Performing full, incremental, and single-mailbox backups and restores;
Ø Integrating an external LDAP directory with Scalix and configuring the Scalix LDAP server;
Ø Integrating Scalix Administration tools for Active Directory;
Ø HA (high availability) and multi-server setups;
Ø Setting up an active/passive cluster with backup functions;
Ø Preparing Scalix for spam and virus filtering using smtpd.cfg, ClamAV, SpamAssasin, and much, much more.
Next: Conclusion >>
More Administration Articles
More By Barzan "Tony" Antal
