Fedora 9: Citadel Email and Collaboration Install HowTo

Citadel is an open-source solution for email and collaboration. Citadel is exteremely versatile, robusts, scalable and most of all, it just works! Citadel does not require any apache, mysql, sendmail, postfix, or even exim, nor  procmail to deliver and fetch mails. Simply by issuing a single command and sitting down for less than 15 minutes, your Citadel email and collaboration for web 2.0 would be now working. I have tried it and enjoy the fun of having Citadel under my Fedora box.

Citadel email collaboration can do

* email
* calendaring/scheduling
* address books
* bulletin boards
* mailing list server
* instant messaging
* multiple domain support
* modern AJAX-style web interface

Citadel can be manually configured to work and integrate with other email components such as spamassassin, antivirus like clam-av and amavis. Citadel can be customized to work with sendmail, apache, exim, and postfix too.

Here are several detailed features Citadel has to offer:

Citadel Features highlight :

* Email, calendaring, address books, bulletin boards, instant messaging, and more … all in one tightly integrated server package. Unlike other open source groupware systems, all of Citadel's data stores are built-in. “Integrate-it-yourself” is a thing of the past.
* High-performance, multiprotocol, multithreaded server engine
* Web browser, telnet/SSH, local client software accessible
* Standards-compliant e-mail built in: IMAP, POP3, ESMTP
* Group calendaring and scheduling (GroupDAV and Kolab-1 compatible)
* Built-in listserv (mailing list server)
* Integrated server-side mail sorting and filtering. Users can choose between an easy-to-use web based rules editor, or the power of writing complex scripts using the industry standard Sieve language.
* Support for push e-mail and mobile devices
* Database-driven, single-instance message store
* Built-in full text index for fast searching
* Authenticated SMTP (no more tedious mucking about with POP-before-SMTP hacks!)
* Multiple domain support
* Built-in integration with perimiter email filtering technologies such as Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBL's) and SpamAssassin
* Very strong replication features. Users in any number of domains can be spread out across any number of Citadel servers, allowing you to put data where you need it, and enabling infinite horizontal scalability.
* Web-based access to email, calendars, and everything else through a powerful AJAX-style front end
* Very strong support for “public folders” and message forums.
* Built-in instant messenger service
* SSL/TLS encryption for all protocols
* LDAP integration capabilities. Citadel can populate your existing directory server, or it can configure a standalone directory server if you don't already have one.
* Citadel is here today and is actively maintained – it's neither vaporware nor abandonware.
* Citadel is true open source (GPL) software. Unlike other groupware servers, it isn't a cut-down version of an expensive proprietary “pro” version. We make our very best work available to everyone on the same terms.

Fedora 9: Citadel Installation

Basic Requirements

1. Fedora OS

2. Existing curl rpm package

3. Working internet setup

Curl Installation

To install curl package for fetching Citadel installation script

# yum -y install curl

Before you install Citadel, disable services like apache (httpd), sendmail, postfix, mysql, Citadel does not need them to enable its email and group colloboration service. Now, to install Citadel on Fedora, open up a CLI terminal and launch Citadel installation scripts using curl like so

# curl http://easyinstall.citadel.org/install | sh

Monitoring Citadel Installation Process

To monitor Citadel downloads and installation, create a new CLI terminal and issue

# tail -f /tmp/citadel-install-log.txt

Get a coffee for a while and get back after 15 minutes or more depending on your interent speed.

Later, on the very last installation steps, Citadel installation would ask you a few simple questions like auto starting the service and some ports, basically that's it, Citadel is ready to serve you.

Citadel Web Interface

To browse Citadel, by default point your browser to

http://your.host.name:2000/

and start Citadeling! Remember your super user password as you might delete it during the test. Have fun!

To Start/Stop Citadel Service

# service citadel stop

# service citadel start

# service webcit stop

# service webcit start

To Start Citadel Between Reboots

# chkconfig --levels 35 citadel on

If you wish to view Citadel demo, go here. More about Citadel.