Newbie Questions and assumptions

[bluerayconcepts]

Hello,
We are a small hosting company that is looking at using OX for our customers. Looking and reading has gotten me so far so I figured I would ask some questions and post my thinking process and find out if I am right. I have been hard pressed to get in contact with any US rep so figured the forums were the next best thing.

I have downloaded the demo vmware and it looks like it is only good for single domain. I was hoping to get a look at the hosting version to see how it runs and see the admin side in hope of learning it before actually going and purchasing a server as well as a OX license.

My Assumptions:

1. I am assuming that the hosting version allows for multiple domain setups
2. OX runs as a completely separate mail server
3. As OX runs as a completely separate server setup, this will require the MX records to be pointed to it. Versus running on top of CPanel as an addon or webmail (as does roundcube or horde)
4. OX has a CPanel plugin
5. A customers entire domain email must be setup in OX, there is no 2 normal domain emails left on the cpanel server and 3 on OX. They are either all in or all out so to speak.

My questions:

1. Does OX have spam filtering built in? Or does it still require the likes of spam assassin or third party filtering.
2. Does OX have redundant capabilities?
3. Are there different versions of the Hosted Edition? I read somewhere there were different levels like basic pro etc? So I was a bit confused.
4. Can we use the App Suite with the Demo VMware?
5. Server requirements state 8gb Ram. I am presuming that if I only have a few email accounts I can start out with a smaller server (we run Rackspace Cloud Servers) and just upgrade them as needed?

We would essentially want the customers to be able to use their mobile phone, outlook, thunderbird as well as CPanel Plug In, and the new Suite Apps. Is that all part of the Hosting Edition for the $49 per month or will we need to purchase things separately or in addition too.

And finally, for those of you already using OX can I get your unbiased opinion on OX.

Edit - It Looks like I should have probably put this in the HE forum. If an admin could kindly move this thread that would be great.

Thank you

[Martin Heiland]

Hi,

regarding your assumtions:
1. yep
2. OX is not a mail server, it integrates with your existing IMAP/SMTP setup
3. Since OX is not a mail server, no MX changes are required
4. yep
5. That depends on the cPanel plugin, you may ask our sales/services people about that

Regarding your questions:
1. No, spam filtering is done by external components. Users can use a SIEVE frontent at OX to filter scanned mails to separate folders or removing them.
2. Depends on what kind of redundancy you mean. If you set up n+1 machines, they can cover failover. We also support session migration (aka. shut down a server of many without losing a session).
3. The code is the same for all Editions. There are additional services, plugins and support terms available for hosting customers.
4. I don't think there is a ready-to-run VMWare already, you may set up one following the guide at the knowledgebase
5. 8GB is a typical minimum for hosting providers that run about >1000 concurrent sessions per server. Of course you can also start with 1GB and scale up if you're requirements are changing.

Please also think about contacting our sales team (sales@open-xchange.com) for more detailed question and business related stuff.

Greetings
Martin

[bluerayconcepts]

Ok so your saying that OX does get installed on the same server as Cpanel? Reason I ask is because I read somewhere yesterday that it was not recommended to do that?

So guess I am just confused.

[Martin Heiland]

Actually i did not say that you should run OX at the same server, indeed we don't recommend to run cPanel and your OX Server(s) on the same machine since cPanel modifies the original OS big time. Administration can be performed remotely by cPanel.

Martin

[Carsten Hoeger]

Here's some installation instructions which might clarify some questions:

http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Open-Xchange_cPanel_Installation