Is Scalix 11 GA ready?

[meganet]

Is Scalix 11 GA ready for production use? Could I "safely" upgrade my 10.x.x version?

[florian]

we've officially released Scalix 11 on 12/22 and obviously this is now our main stable version, therefore recommended for production use.

However, it's a major release and a very new and fresh version, so I guess it is in the state every new release of major software products is in and we have reports of some issues. Please check bugzilla.scalix.com for what it's there. We still think that most sites should actually consider to upgrade asap.

Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

We have 2 sites which runs Scalix 10.0.5
I upgraded one of them 2 weeks ago, and i will not upgrade the second one untill new Scalix maitanance release of Scalix 11.

This is because i found a couple of issues with Scalix 11.
The main target - full unicode support is Great ! But there is a regression in Outlook Connector and SWA.

[florian]

Hi Ivaylo,

I also received your email, but I assume it's probably best to take this discussion here so that everybody understands the state of the issue.

I cannot reproduce the issue you reported. I just did the following:

- On Scalix 11.0 GA:
* create a new user account
* create a non-cached Outlook profile (OL2003/WinXP)
* login Outlook through this profile
* login SWA through a browser.
+ in the browser, send 2 emails to myself
+ in the browser, create a inbox-subfolder
+ in the browser, create a top-level folder
+ in the browser, delete one of the messages from inbox
+ in the browser, move the other message to the inbox subfolder
+ open the inbox subfolder, move the message to the top-level subfolder
+ open the top-level subfolder, delete the message

After all actions marked with "+", i look at the outlook UI and the action had refreshed/replicated in Outlook, without restarts of any kind.

Therefore, I think what you're reporting must be installation- or data-related. Could you therefore please check your installation or work with Scalix support (support -att- scalix dott com) to resolve the issue with your system. This is not a known regression with Scalix 11, therefore I cannot see why anyone should hold back an upgrade because of this behaviour.

Cheers,
Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

Hi Florian,

The issue is with Outlook 2000/ SP3.

And if this is not an issue for all - then sorry.

[florian]

Ivo,

when you do the scenario as I describe - online and with both windows sitting on the same client machine and with a new user account - is this reproducible for you?

Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

Florian,
Just tested:

With totally new account - there is no problem. SWA and Outlook are in sync.

The problem arises with some of the upgraded mailboxes. Those which are more complicated as num of items and num of folders and subfolders.

I did for them omtydi... -M but it didnt help.
--------------------------
So it seems that for very new installations Scalix 11 is OK, excluding some of the bugs in bugzilla.

For upgrade - personally me - i have problems.

[florian]

Hi Ivo,

thanks for this info; i think this must really be investigated for those accounts - can you open a support case?

Thx,
Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

I will, but first will try to fix them by myself ( backup , delete, import ...) and if succeed i will write in the forum.

And just one other thing, for which i wrote in my previous letter to you - Unable to see digitally signed messages in Outlook 2000 with Connector 11 - is this really related to bug: #14192 ?

And a feature request for SWA - to have some nice icon which alerts that the message is digitally signed. And if we will be able to digitally sing and encrypt wih SWA - will be great !

[florian]

well, if you see the bugs, maybe you can attach your comments to them. for S/MIME - not sure if there is already an enhancement, if not, I'd think it's a good thing to log two seperate ones, one to show that a message is signed and one to actually handle S/MIME. interest on those is low, however - most people nowadays prefer to handle S/MIME on the gateway, not on the server.

cheers,
Florian.

[florian]

also, i would suggest that you don't try to workaround/fix, because then you might destroy evidence on why this happened and this might be important...

cheers,
Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

Of course - i will try just with one.
About digital signature and encryption: I dont understand - how to handle them on gateway ??!

I want when i recieve a digitally signed/encrypted mail , to see the certificate of the person.

[florian]

there are several gateway-type products that work on the outgoing internet mail gateway, e.g. a german product called Julia Mail Office (or PGP universal, but it doesn't handle S/MIME).

It does do all encryption and dig sig stuff and send the message extract with an attachment describing the security feature to the internal senders and recipients.

this way, mail is stored inside the internal mailserver unencrypted and unsigned, which is bgetter for archiving purposes. also, key management is centralized and encryption and signature requirements can be setup by policy and admin and is no longer dependent on client and user cooperation.

Florian.

[ivo_toshev]

I see. This is like MS Exchange Certificate Store. Do you investigate such kind of server-side solution for Scalix ?

And we prefer to recieve the messages signed and encrypted in the mail store. I hope this will be possible in Scalix for now ( after bug 14192 fix ) and for the future.

[florian]

well, this is provided by 3rd-party products (like the one mentioned) and they are known and tested to work....

your wish is pretty uncommon these days - as especially with encryption this does not provide the company with access to employees emails in cases needed for litigation - which is something of an archiving requirement.

Florian.