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Anybody else tempted to operate their own "cloud"? I'm waiting for OS X Lion Server to be released to install it on my home server (really just a mac Mini runn

Anybody else tempted to operate their own "cloud"? I'm waiting for OS X Lion Server to be released to install it on my home server (really just a mac Mini running 24/7 next to my router). Since most of my sharing (calendar, docs...) is between my wife and myself, it seems doable. I'm just not sure that iCal, Mail and the file sharing features will be adequate enough to replace Gmail, Google Calendar and Docs.

koenigdavidmj 15y ago
Does anything like Exchange (but free and preferably open source) actually exist?
- protomyth 15y ago
  What features do you need?
  - koenigdavidmj 15y ago
    Nothing fancy. Just hosted calendar, address book, and email. I could roll something with LDAP for the address book, and any of the usual email-only servers (Sendmail plus UW IMAP, or more modern equivalents), but that would be a bit administration-heavy.
    - protomyth 15y ago
      OS X Server will do that (pay), I've been doing the OpenBSD / Postfix / Dovecot / OpenLDAP / WebDAV thing. Still not sure on the whole calendar thing. It really isn't that bad once you get it setup and make sure to keep up with the updates.
      - sivers 15y ago
        Would you be up for sharing your experience setting it up? Whether a blog post, an e-book, or whatever - I'll bet there are some people who would love to do the same, but use the experience of someone who's already got it working together.
        protomyth 15y ago
        sure, it will be a couple of days - I am working with 4.9 this weekend / next week and it has a different setup (they added rc.d to OpenBSD) - I will do a step-by-step next week. I am also trying to do my spam stuff a little different.
- switch007 15y ago
  Check out Zimbra.
  - BlazingFrog 15y ago
    Do you have any personal experience with Zimbra? Isn't it too feature-rich, and thus overly complicated, for home use?
    - patrickgzill 15y ago
      You will want to run it in a VM to separate the service from the rest of your system, if possible. It needs very little CPU but, should have about 2GB of RAM due to a big Java component, and because it periodically kicks off programs to clean things up every few minutes. A bit of a pain to set up, but once set up it works quite well. It might have too many features - if you want something a lot simpler, look for "qmail toaster" or a good guide to setting up Postfix.
  - eropple 15y ago
    Use it at work. I miss Exchange.
- warp 15y ago
  Check out Zarafa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarafa_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarafa_(software) (I have no experience with it myself)
minalecs 15y ago
the reason for the cloud is so you don't have to handle hardware failures, maintenance, upgrades, backups, power outages.. etc. All you need is one hardware component to go on your home server to die, and be out of your services.. and possibly lose all data.
- 27182818284 15y ago
  Yes. Besides the Four Fundamental Freedoms of Free Software, people have an additional freedom: The freedom to give up their freedom. In my case, my life is greatly simplified by giving up a little freedom and having Google's sysadmins manage the hardware and software for a lot of my personal data. The risk is even less when places like Google and Facebook allow you to export your data.
__rkaup__ 15y ago
I don't know much about AWS, but can't you host a server with them instead and get the same result, but more reliable?
enneff 15y ago
Before this "cloud" nonsense came along this was known as operating ones own services, and is still done by many. However, it is a pain. I remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Saigon next to a guy who was trying to revive his ailing mail server in London while in the middle of his honeymoon. I myself am still serving web pages and forwarding email for a handful of friends and family. When things go wrong (despite many levels of redundancy) I have to sacrifice my valuable time for what could be somebody else's problem. It sucks.

koenigdavidmj 15y ago

Does anything like Exchange (but free and preferably open source) actually exist?

protomyth 15y ago
What features do you need?
- koenigdavidmj 15y ago
  Nothing fancy. Just hosted calendar, address book, and email. I could roll something with LDAP for the address book, and any of the usual email-only servers (Sendmail plus UW IMAP, or more modern equivalents), but that would be a bit administration-heavy.
  - protomyth 15y ago
    OS X Server will do that (pay), I've been doing the OpenBSD / Postfix / Dovecot / OpenLDAP / WebDAV thing. Still not sure on the whole calendar thing. It really isn't that bad once you get it setup and make sure to keep up with the updates.
    - sivers 15y ago
      Would you be up for sharing your experience setting it up? Whether a blog post, an e-book, or whatever - I'll bet there are some people who would love to do the same, but use the experience of someone who's already got it working together.
      - protomyth 15y ago
        sure, it will be a couple of days - I am working with 4.9 this weekend / next week and it has a different setup (they added rc.d to OpenBSD) - I will do a step-by-step next week. I am also trying to do my spam stuff a little different.
switch007 15y ago
Check out Zimbra.
- BlazingFrog 15y ago
  Do you have any personal experience with Zimbra? Isn't it too feature-rich, and thus overly complicated, for home use?
  - patrickgzill 15y ago
    You will want to run it in a VM to separate the service from the rest of your system, if possible. It needs very little CPU but, should have about 2GB of RAM due to a big Java component, and because it periodically kicks off programs to clean things up every few minutes. A bit of a pain to set up, but once set up it works quite well. It might have too many features - if you want something a lot simpler, look for "qmail toaster" or a good guide to setting up Postfix.
- eropple 15y ago
  Use it at work. I miss Exchange.
warp 15y ago
Check out Zarafa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarafa_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarafa_(software) (I have no experience with it myself)

minalecs 15y ago

the reason for the cloud is so you don't have to handle hardware failures, maintenance, upgrades, backups, power outages.. etc. All you need is one hardware component to go on your home server to die, and be out of your services.. and possibly lose all data.

27182818284 15y ago
Yes. Besides the Four Fundamental Freedoms of Free Software, people have an additional freedom: The freedom to give up their freedom. In my case, my life is greatly simplified by giving up a little freedom and having Google's sysadmins manage the hardware and software for a lot of my personal data. The risk is even less when places like Google and Facebook allow you to export your data.

__rkaup__ 15y ago

I don't know much about AWS, but can't you host a server with them instead and get the same result, but more reliable?

enneff 15y ago

Before this "cloud" nonsense came along this was known as operating ones own services, and is still done by many. However, it is a pain. I remember sitting in a hotel lobby in Saigon next to a guy who was trying to revive his ailing mail server in London while in the middle of his honeymoon. I myself am still serving web pages and forwarding email for a handful of friends and family. When things go wrong (despite many levels of redundancy) I have to sacrifice my valuable time for what could be somebody else's problem. It sucks.