Scalix CE Raw
Release Notes 2006-04-03


Contents



Introduction

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Thank you for your interest in Scalix CE Raw.

This document includes late-breaking information about product capabilities, known issues and workarounds. You should read this document before installing Scalix. The document will also contain information about ongoing changes in Scalix CE Raw.

Documentation on Installation, Administration and Integration is available on the Web. Please check http://www.scalix.com/ceraw for details.

Scalix is excited about the release of Scalix CE Raw. This will give us a highly interactive channel to interact with the Linux community, including technically experienced users, system administrators and developers alike.

Please keep checking the Scalix CE Raw Website for updates to the program.

Scalix Corporation is committed to your successful work with our software. You can use the Scalix Forums at http://www.scalix.com/community to get additional information about Scalix. 

Overview

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Supported Environments

Scalix CE Raw software is currently available for the following environments:

Scalix Server

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Installing the Scalix server requires Linux system administration skills and root access to the server. Coordination with your site networking team is also required to ensure that workstations are able to connect to the server (through TCP/IP sockets) and that the server itself is visible to the network, including any necessary DNS/MX configuration. If the network uses Firewalls and/or VPNs, then additional modifications to the network might be necessary to enable the required network connections to the appropriate ports on the server, as described in the Scalix Installation Guide.

Known Issues and Workarounds

Issue

Workaround

Selinux, or Security-Enhanced Linux, may deny access to a binary unless it is in the location that the Selinux config allows it to be.

To verify this, do a 'dmesg' and you will see:

audit(1107945443.276:0): avc: denied {
append } for pid
exe=/opt/scalix/bin/ice.user
name=lock_fatal dev=sda2 ino=1039042
=root:system_r:httpd_t
tcontext=root:object_r:var_t
tclass=file

If you are not a Selinux user, you need to switch off Selinux. It comes switched on in Fedora Core 4 (FC4) and Red Hat Linux (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4).

1. Switch selinux off in

/etc/sysconfig/selinux

2. Change 'SELINUX=enforcing' to

'SELINUX=disabled' or 'SELINUX=permissive'.

3. Reboot.

SSO fails if the time stamps for domain controller, mail server and the workstation are not in sync.

The critical prerequisite to setting up successful SSO and Kerberos authentication is synchronization of TimeZone, Date and Time between the domain Controller, mail server, and the client user's workstation. The timestamp difference between mail server and Domain controller should not be greater than the "Maximum tolerance for computer clock synchronization setting" of the domain controller.

omldapsync fails to create a new Scalix mailbox for an Active Directory user that has accented characters in their friendly name.

Use a mapping table entry that includes the custom map function:

!CUSTOM=TX_IA_TO_QP_IA

For example:
mail|INTERNET-ADDR|*,1,512|!CUSTOM=TX_IA_TO_QP_IA

The result is that:'"cömmënt" <ia>' becomes '=?UTF8?Qc=C3=B6mm=C3=ABnt?= <ia>'

[iCal Information] -- Exchange 5.5 does not support iCal, therefore SWA-generated meeting requests and meeting requests sent from Outlook/Exchange using the "Forward as iCalendar" do not work correctly.

There is no calendaring interoperability between Scalix CE Raw and Microsoft Exchange 5.5. Our commercial Scalix Small Business Edition and Scalix Enterprise Edition products contain a TNEF gateway that allows for such interoperability.

[iCal Information] -- A cancelled meeting scheduled via iCal shows as "Tentative" in the Calendar rather than "Free".

The meeting should be removed from the Calendar when accepting the cancellation request, to enable the time to be displayed as "Free".

[iCal Information] -- Outlook 2002 (Outlook 10) with an IMAP profile does not recognize iCal messages. The only way Outlook XP will render iCal is if the content type is text/calendar and is the only body type. Most iCal messages are formatted as multipart/alternative. The same messages viewed with OL11/IMAP are correctly processed. Therefore you cannot use Outlook 10 in IMAP mode to connect to a Scalix server and process iCal type meetings.

This is a Microsoft issue with Outlook 10.

[iCal Information] -- All-day events across time zones appear in local time and are not marked specifically as an all day event.

None

[iCal Information] -- Advanced recurrence patterns are not supported, e.g. every two weeks, Tuesday and Sunday (where the week starts on a Monday) or yearly recurrence of the first weekend day of December.

None

[iCal Information] -- Responding to an iCal meeting request and proposing a new time is not supported. Scalix does not currently support the COUNTER method of iCal.

None

[iCal Information] -- Updating text for a series of recurring meetings may fail to display the update where the recurring meeting previous had exceptions.

None

[iCal Information] -- Acceptance of updated meeting sent from SWA to Exchange may fail to track the acceptance with the banner showing: "The attendee sent another response after this response."

None

[iCal Information] -- Sending a meeting request from Evolution to Outlook with Scalix loses the attendee status of "Optional". As a result, all attendees for a meeeting request appear as "Required".

None

To disable the "Change Password" option in the Scalix Rules Wizard (a feature of Scalix Web Access), a modification of a Scalix server file must be made.

To disable the Change Password option, you must first determine the language profile currently in use. To do so, run the following command:

omwebconf -ql

The resulting output will be "C", "AMERICAN" or "ENGLISH".

Open this file:

~scalix/omhtml/{RW-profile}/page/rules-lffunc.html

NOTE: Replace the "profile" placeholder in {RW-profile} with the language profile from omwebconf.

After opening this file, find and change this line:

var fEnableChangePassword = true

The final edited version should match this example:

var fEnableChangePassword = false

If you modify an email user's name using SAC or CLI (the ommodu command) while the user is actively connected to the server, the user may not be able to sign on again using SWA or Outlook/Connect.

To avoid this problem, first use SAC or CLI to verify that the user is logged off. You can then use SAC to modify the user record, or use CLI and issue the following command:

ommodu --requireSignoff -o "<name> "

Where <name> is the user's Scalix name.



Scalix Connect for Microsoft Outlook

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ALERT: Scalix Connect for Outlook only works on 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office. Support for 64-bit versions of Windows and Office (currently shipping) will be incorporated in a future release of Scalix.

Scalix Recommendations

For Outlook bug fixes, Scalix recommends reviewing the SP1 bug fixes/descriptions at:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/872839

Known Issues and Workarounds

Issue

Workaround

OLE objects embedded in the body of an email message may not be usable by the message recipient.

Transfer OLE data as an attached file.

In Outlook 2002, enabling "Instant Messaging in Microsoft Outlook" (Tools > Options > Other) might reduce response time when viewing messages in the Preview pane.

Disable this option.

The contents of any of the standard ("default") folders disappear from the Outlook folder list when the user is working offline.

In offline mode, despite logging into the server and synchronizing folders between Outlook and the server, the contents of the standard Outlook folder contents are missing. (The standard folders--Inbox, Sent Mail, etc.-- appear in the folder list.)

At this point, a solution is to log out of the mail server before re-enabling offline working.

When using the German-language version of Outlook (with Scalix Connect), opening and using the Scalix Rules Wizard may result in a rule, but the process triggers an I-E script error, referring to "sclxresDE.dll".

The script error is triggered by clicking through the Wizard to the exceptions screen, whether any exception is chosen or not. The rule is, however, created successfully and works as configured by the user.

If users create additional folders using existing standard folder names ("Inbox", etc), they will not be able to open or use them in SWA or other IMAP clients that do not utilize MAPI.

Solution: Don't create folders named "Inbox" (or "Draft" or "Junk E-mail", etc.) if you want to use SWA to check your mailbox.


Scalix Connect for Evolution

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Known Issues and Workarounds

Issue

Workaround

Recurring appointments with exceptions

Evolution 2.4 does not handle exceptions to recurring appointments well. Exceptions created in Outlook do not show up in Evolution. Furthermore Evolution won't let you create a real exception to a recurring appointment. It will however allow you to "detach" an instance, which results in an additional appointment that is not related to the series.

Making instance of series movable crashes Evolution

Detaching a single instance from a series (making it movable) may crash or hang Evolution.

Recurring appointments "Every Xth Y of month M every year" cannot be created or edited in Evolution

You can create recurring appointments with the pattern "Every Xth Y of month M every year" in Outlook and SWA but not in Evolution. If created in SWA or Outlook, though, it displays correctly in Evolution although you cannot edit them.

Nested PDLs (address-lists)

You cannot create nested PDLs in Evolution. When created in Outlook, nested PDLs only show with their top-level members in Evolution.

Freebusy data of organizer not displayed

The "Scheduling" section of the meeting editor does not show the free/busy data for the organizer.

Offline mode

Only mail features are currently supported in offline mode. While certain calendar and contacts operations do work, they are not officially supported.

Message filters

Message-filters do not file new messages automatically although the "apply filters to new messages in the Inbox" option in the account profile is checked. "Apply Filters" from the Message menu however works.

SMTP configuration

You cannot configure the SMTP and IMAP servers separately. They are always the same and the SMTP port is always 25. If you need a different configuration, manually change your account profile settings through gconf-editor:

  • Run gconf-editor
  • Expand /apps/evolution
  • Select mail
  • Double-click on accounts in the right-hand pane
  • Select the relevant account and click "Edit"
  • In the text box, find the XML element <url> inside the <transport> element and add ":###" after the hostname, where ### is the port of your SMTP server.

Modifying an existing Scalix account in Evolution to a new account does not update the calendar and contact data for the new user.

Delete the existing Scalix account by choosing Edit ->Preferences in Evolution and then create a replacement ("New") Scalix account.

Modifications to an appointment in Evolution -- for example adding an attachment -- may delete both the description and the attachment.

None

Outlook and SWA may create duplicate appointments in the calendar, even if the meeting has already been accepted using Evolution as the client.

None

When accepting a meeting request in Evolution, adding a comment results in an empty message attachment in the response when viewed by an Exchange user in the Outlook client.

None

Evolution users cannot accept updated instances of recurring meetings sent from Outlook.

None

Cannot send meeting requests with attachments when working in Evolution.

None

Updating a recurring meeting in the Outlook calendar is not represented when viewed with Evolution.

None

Additional invitees to a recurring meeting may not display when the appointment is viewed in Evolution.

None

Resource booking is not supported in Evolution.

None

Evolution does not display priority or sensitivity levels set in SWA or Outlook.

None

Evolution does not show message formats as saved in the Outlook Drafts folder.

None

Messages sent to PDLs arrive in Evolution as "Undisclosed-Recipient."

None


Scalix Web Access

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Known Issues and Workarounds

Issue

Workaround

When using Internet Explorer with high-resolution displays, users with dpi settings other than 96 dpi may experience that certain modal dialogs within Scalix Web Access do not display all of the information that the dialog contains.

Set dpi setting to Normal size (96 dpi) through Windows Control Panel > Display Properties.

When composing Scalix Web Access messages in Mozilla or Firefox browsers, URLs and email addresses do not get underlined.

You can mark text as hyperlinks by using Insert > Hyperlink from the Scalix Web Access menu, or by selecting the Create Hyperlink button.

Popup-blocking software installed on your machine might prevent SWA from starting up.

You need to either disable pop-up blocking or add the Scalix Web Access URL to the list of allowed sites.

You lose Rich Text (RTF) formatting if you edit the Notes field of an appointment or contact in Scalix Web Access.

If you need to edit this field and want to maintain RTF formatting, use Outlook to do the editing.

You may need to disable the "Change Password" option in the Scalix Web Access feature, "Scalix Rules Wizard".

See the information detailed in "Scalix Server" issues, by clicking More.


Scalix Administration Console

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Known Issues and Workarounds

Issue

Workaround

Restarting Tomcat on machines where the Remote Execution Service is deployed requires an interval of few seconds.

If you have to restart Tomcat, stop Tomcat first, let it shut down properly by waiting for a few seconds, and then restart it.

Users created in the Scalix Administration Console with passwords that contain characters with umlauts cannot log in to Scalix Web Access.

Change user passwords to text entries without diacritical marks.

Users do not receive messages after you remove mailbox limits for a user who has exceeded their specified limit(s).

Restart the Client Interface, Service Router, and Local Delivery services.

In environments that have the Remote Execution Service (RES) operating in Kerberos mode and have other large applications deployed on the server, you must have Tomcat running on the RES server before you start Tomcat on the server that runs the Scalix Administration Console.

Ensure that the Remote Execution Service is deployed first in Tomcat (before other large applications) and that all Tomcat instances are started before you start the Scalix Administration Console service.

If you modify an email user's name using SAC or CLI (the ommodu command) while the user is actively connected to the server, the user may not be able to sign on again using SWA or Outlook/Connect.

To avoid this problem, first use SAC or CLI to verify that the user is logged off. You can then use SAC to modify the user record, or use CLI and issue the following command:

ommodu --requireSignoff -o "<name> "

Where <name> is the user's Scalix name.