Univention Corporate Server

Univention Corporate Server (UCS ) is a derivative of Debian server operating system with an integrated management system for centralized and cross-platform management of servers, services, clients, desktops and users, and operates under a UCS virtualized computers. Since version 3.0 software Univention Samba 4 supports by integrating the open source also provided in many companies, Microsoft Active Directory functions for managing computers that run Microsoft Windows. UCS is due to this very good Microsoft AD compatibility since been used increasingly as an alternative to Windows Small Business Server.

The company Univention is a member of the Open Source Business Alliance and supports the development of the Open Source Business Alliance open source software stack.

History

Starting point for the development of UCS started in 2002 was the lack of a standardized Linux server operating system which offered an alternative to Microsoft's domain concept with the proprietary Active Directory directory service for companies and organizations. Comparable Linux solutions (eg SUSE or Red Hat ) did not provide integrated, cross-system user and computer management, had to be so that appropriate solutions individually configured and maintained. Relevant early drivers for the development of UCS were initially Oldenburgische Landesbank and the authority of the Bremen Senator for Education and Science until the product became the market in late 2004. Since then, in addition to new releases, some based on the main product UCS software solutions have been published. Originally UCS was used mainly in German-speaking businesses and public organizations in various industries and areas, including by the National Administration of Brandenburg. The Baden- Württemberg media center, which supplies two-thirds of secondary and about half of the vocational schools in Baden- Württemberg with the paedML, plans to switch to 2014 UCS @ School the basis of their paedML Linux. 2005 Univention UCS began to sell in the German-speaking countries through system houses. It is now used in many other European countries and outside Europe, such as in Nigeria and Australia.

License

UCS is open source software, in-house developments contained in the UCS Univention GmbH have been published up to version 2.3 under the GNU GPL. With the release of version 2.4, the company switched to the GNU AGPL. There are some built on UCS software appliances (eg groupware, desktop or IT service management area).

Construction and components

Univention Corporate Server is based on the Debian Linux distribution. Many open-source applications, such as Samba, the Kerberos authentication service, virtualization software Xen and KVM, Nagios for monitoring servers and services, and the Bacula backup solution are integrated in UCS. However, core and key USP of UCS is the central administration tool " Univention Management Console", which enables a system-and multi-site management of IT infrastructures. UCS uses the OpenLDAP directory service to store data for identity and systems management. The operation of the administration tools is done via web-based applications and command line interfaces. The administration tools allow, due to the integrated management service UCS Virtual Machine Manager ( UVMM ), also the central management of virtualized servers and clients, hard drive, CDROM and DVD images, together with the physical systems on which they are running. The manufacturer strives for ways to integrate UCS into existing IT environments through the use of open standards and supplied connectors. To allow the integrated Active Directory Connector bidirectional synchronization between the Microsoft Active Directory directory service and the directory service used in UCS OpenLDAP. UCS also offers several interfaces for producers of application software with which they run their applications integrated in the UCS management system. From UCS 3.1, which was released in December 2012, Univention offers the " Univention App Center " also has its own graphical management component for the installation and removal of UCS components as well as in UCS integrated third-party applications. In addition to the Univention solutions provides, inter alia, the Open Source groupware solutions Zarafa, Open -Xchange, Kolab and Tine 2.0, the backup solutions SEP sesam and Bareos, the document management system agorum core, the customer management solution SugarCRM and find the Dropbox alternative ownCloud and installed in UCS. The Univention App Center since the initial release constantly broadened to other third-party solutions that are certified for UCS. Since March 2014, are in the App Center is also the possibility that available there applications not only to install, but also to buy directly from the supplier. Univention is pursuing a new strategy and would like the App Center to position itself as a central source for open source applications.

In UCS -based products in the Univention App Center

Univention Corporate Client ( UCC)

Univention Corporate Client (UCC ) is an efficient manageable operating system for PCs, notebooks and thin clients in business and government. The software includes an optimized for business use desktop environment based on Linux. UCC provides integrated administration procedures for users, clients, desktops, or privileges safely and effectively eliminates the use of different, uncoordinated administration tools. It serves as a platform for accessing remote desktop solutions and virtualized desktops as well as on the browser or terminal server -based applications.

Univention Corporate Server @ school (UCS @ school )

UCS UCS @ school expanded to include functions designed specifically for use in schools and educational institutions. This is, for example, tools to distribute study materials and computers can block, and an on-screen control software.

UCS Virtual Machine Manager ( UVMM )

UVMM is a standard component in the UCS management system for the management of virtualized IT infrastructures of different virtualization technologies such as KVM and Xen on Microsoft Windows, UCS and other Linux distributions.

OX App Suite for UCS

OX App Suite for UCS is a based on UCS and the Groupwareystem Open-Xchange Softwareappliance.

KIXbox

KIXbox is an open source service management solution based on Open Ticket Request System ( OTRS ) and UCS. Customers and service agents can be administered centrally via the UCS management system. Nagios bidirectional integrated as a free system and network monitoring with the service management system OTRS.

SAML Identity Provider

Integrated in UCS SAML app provides a single sign-on Identity Provider for UCS based on the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML ) protocol and the SimpleSAMLphp frameworks. This allows a single sign-on functionality for web services and third-party applications ( such as Google Apps, Salesforce.com, etc. ) are offered. The authentication is performed directly on the Identity Provider. Users are managed by UCS and individually enabled for certain services.

KVM virtualization server

This app provides the hypervisor to virtualize systems by KVM. Multiple KVM nodes in the environment can be managed using UCS Virtual Machine Manager, the Management Server for KVM or Xen.

Xen virtualization server

This app provides the hypervisor to virtualize systems prepared by Xen. Several Xen nodes in the environment can be managed using UCS Virtual Machine Manager.

Active Directory compatible domain controller

This UCS component allows the use of UCS as an Active Directory Domain Controller for Windows systems.

UCS Active Directory Connector

In order to transparently connect Active Directory and UCS with each other and establish a migration path, UCS Active Directory Connector was developed, with which an automatic alignment (synchronization) between Microsoft Active Directory and Univention Corporate Server enables including encrypted passwords, group definitions and other directory service objects. Thus, the parallel operation of Microsoft Windows and Linux environments is possible smoothly and without high administrative overhead. UCS AD connector avoids a double, sophisticated, complex and error-prone administration.

Desktop Environment (KDE)

One designed to access the web-based interface desktop environment, consisting of the X.org surface, the GDM login manager, KDE and the Firefox browser.

DHCP

The DHCP server is a service for dynamic IP Management for IPv4 networks. It can be configured and managed, even large networks reliably. In the configuration you can choose between a dynamic or fixed assignment of IP addresses. By specifying the MAC address systems can be assigned a fixed IP address and other systems are excluded.

Print Server ( CUPS)

Printer server based on the software Common Unix Printing System ( CUPS). PPD drivers for most printer models are included.

Fetchmail

Fetchmail is a program for fetching mail from mail servers and transfer to the local delivery system. Fetchmail can be started as a daemon to check multiple mail server at specified intervals for new e -mails.

Mail Server

Mail server environment based on postfix for sending mail via SMTP and Cyrus for the provision of mailboxes via IMAP and POP3. Virus scans from the scanner ClamAV and spam detection using SpamAssassin are integrated. Shared IMAP folders and mailing lists can be defined in the Univention Management Console.

Network monitoring ( Nagios)

System and network monitoring software based Nagios. In addition to the standard Nagios plugins also UCS- specific plug-ins are included ( eg for monitoring the domain replication).

Proxy Server / Web cache ( Squid)

The web proxy allows you to use a browser's cache to increase the performance and traffic control. Response times for the user as well as transfer volume can be reduced via the Internet. In addition, the control and administration of access is enabled on Internet content. For example, to specify which users or groups have access to which sites can and can not access.

RDP server ( xrdp )

RDP server - This app installed xrdp, an open source RDP server and allows connecting to a RDP client, such as Microsoft Remote Desktop Client or FreeRDP on Linux, the graphical interface, the UCS system.

Software Installation Monitor

The software monitor is a database that records the information about the software packages installed on UCS systems. Through this database, an administrator can get an overview of the release and package versions are installed on the systems of the domain.

Windows NT -compatible domain controller

Allows the use of UCS as a primary domain controller (PDC), Backup Domain Controller ( BDC ) and file server in a Windows domain based on NT technology domain.

Windows compatible file server

Windows compatible file server based on Samba 3 for UCS member server.