[Kroupware] Custom UID

[Christopher Lewis]

On Friday 20 June 2003 12:33 pm, kroupware-request at mail.kde.org wrote:
> --On Freitag, 20. Juni 2003 11:08 -0700 Christopher Lewis <> wrote:
> > Thanks for the info.  I'll look for your patch, since I didn't notice it
> > before.  It's nice that all this information is still there, even if it
> > isn't  working right now.  As far as your 500+ users go, all I can say is
>
> I'm still struggling with the code and how everything works together. I
> haven't worked with Cyrus IMAP before and I have no experience with
> LDAP-enabled Postfix systems. Cyrus IMAP also seems to be poorly
> documented.
>
> I think I reverted everything back to the old behaviour in the kolab script
> and create_user.php. Please see the attached patch for details.
>
> However, I still don't get incoming mail delivered to the right mailbox.
> The  virtual map works correctly but the lmtp process is unable to deliver
> an incoming message to the maildrop (the uid is "aa", the email address
> "aa.aa at domain.tld"):
>
> Jun 20 19:19:07 mail <info> postfix/lmtp[14044]: 3607DB3A73:
> to=<aa at domain.tld>, orig_to=<aa.aa at domain.tld>, relay=/kolab/var/kola
> b/lmtp[/kolab/var/kolab/lmtp], delay=13, status=bounced (host
> /kolab/var/kolab/lmtp[/kolab/var/kolab/lmtp] said: 550-Mailbox unknown.
> Either
> there is no mailbox associated with this 550-name or you do not have
> authorization to see it. 550 5.1.1 User unknown (in reply to RCPT TO comm
> and))
>
> > Since I'm not really a programmer (only work with VB and Access for now),
> > I  guess I don't really understand why the multi-domain is so difficult
> > to  implement with user defined UID's.  Okay, I also don't know anything
>
> If you have multiple domains, e.g. domain1.tld and domain2.tld and you have
> two people with the same name, e.g. "Peter Miller", they would have two
> unique email addresses (peter.miller at domain1.tld and
> peter.miller at domain2.tld). How do you pick the username, especially if you
> want to auto-create the UID? If you use the email address as the UID, you
> don't need any logic in your software for this step because the email
> address always has to be unique. Apart from that, administration becomes
> easier because you don't have to look up the UID of a user if you want to
> change mailbox parameters.
>
> hh

Okay, I understand that point.  I have multiple domains, and I have people 
with the same names.  I can see the advantage of auto-creation of the UID.  
The problem here is the assumption that 2 people with the same name will be 
in different domains.  In my case, they need to be in the same domain.  The 
other problem is the big boss, who needs an e-mail address in each domain 
(He's got business cards for each company).  Of course, he only needs 1 
account.  (Actually, all his e-mail is forwarded to his personal account, so 
that's a completely different problem.)

As far as picking the usernames, I have to do that anyway because each person 
needs a Unique ID to log on with.    My point is that I want simple user 
administration.  I want to have 1 place where I enter a username, e-mail 
address and assign permissions.  I'm not going to make my users remember 
different ID's to logon to their computers, get their e-mail and use their 
applications.  (Our ERP system only allows up to 4 characters for the user 
id, damn Fourth Shift!)  I'm also not going to have my users enter their full 
e-mail addresses to logon to their computers.  I've just started using LDAP 
authentication because of the fact that I can enter this information in 1 
place and use it for different applications.  (Except that damn Fourth Shift 
again!)  Okay, and since we're still mostly running Windows, it was easy with 
Active Directory, but I'll deal with that later.

So, those are the problems I have with it.  Thanks again for the help.
-- 
Christopher Lewis
Systems Administrator
Maxim Lighting International
chris at maximlighting.com
(626) 964-7500 x268