Demo, Docker, and Installation

A grommunio demo on its website, Linux packages for many distributions, and ISO images for download and installation can help you get started. Docker images are available, as well, and all sources can be found on GitHub. SUSE already has RPMs in their repositories (zypper se gromox). The ISO images from the company's website are based on openSUSE Leap and can be installed in any virtualization.

Figure 3 shows a fresh grommunio installation on a KVM Libvirt system in virt-manager, with the help of the grommunio console user interface. The tool that guides you through the installation is also available after a login; on console 1, press F2 to see the menu-based configuration utility.

Figure 3: The grommunio console interface isn't only used during installation; it offers a fast and easy-to-use access point for basic configuration.

If you're running the grommunio example from the ISO files, you will have the full power of SUSE Linux underneath, including network setup with YaST or the like. No matter which distribution you are using, the grommunio configuration files will always reside in /etc/gromox (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The ISO image of grommunio comes with a full-featured SUSE Linux underneath. All the well-known tools such as YaST and Zypper are available. Grommunio's configuration can be found and changed in plain-text files.

Administration

Administering grommunio can be done through Files, the console user interface (CUI), the API, or the web interface (Figure 5). The Admin API for PowerShell (AAPIPS) gives you a grommunio PowerShell interface. Keycloak supplies single sign-on in Active Directory environments, as well (with Simple and Protected Generic Security Service Application Program Interface (GSSAPI) Negotiation (SPNEGO) support). Grommunio Web features OpenID Connect, including support for two-factor authentication (2FA) and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) 2.1 compliance.

Figure 5: Grommunio offers a modern, intuitive, and comprehensive management interface that allows settings for a full domain, services, users, and roles – here in the web version.

Grommunio is also the world's first groupware with a multitenant-enabled LDAP server. Administrators of extensive hosted environments, especially, will appreciate that they can configure complex setups with a few mouse clicks: All configuration for the multitenancy needed in large-scale setups can be done in grommunio's admin user interface.

By specifying a separate LDAP back end for their organizations, administrators can establish independent yet seamless integration with individual user's back ends, a configuration especially needed in hosted environments. This immediate, organization-level integration allows hosters and customers to maintain enterprise policies without the otherwise common sync or replica issues and removes many inconvenient steps in authentication and user management.

Clients and Features

For many users, Outlook on their smartphone will be the number one client platform on which they interact with grommunio, and they won't notice any differences. A user also can use both the web application (Figure 6) and the grommunio desktop application (Figure 7) created with the help of the Electron framework.

Figure 6: The user web client features mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, file sync, chat, archive, web conference, and more.

Figure 7: For those who don't want to use Outlook or a browser window, grommunio offers its own Electron-based client that can connect to multiple servers.

The cross-platform Electron makes the desktop app look exactly the same on any platform, creating a consistent user experience and a safe environment independent of a browser. The only difference is that the desktop app runs as a standalone application and has its own menubar where you can select the grommunio server to which you want to connect – making the desktop app a multiaccount client. The client is available for Windows and Apple clients, and packages exist for a variety of Linux systems (Debian, RPM, AppImage, and tar.gz).