Here we explain how to integrate LDAP between SugarCRM  Lotus Foundations so that Lotus Foundations user account can login to SugarCRM without creating the new account into SugarCRM manually.

If you haven’t done to install SugarCRM on Lotus Foundations,

please go to here to download the install package

And, please check here for SugarCRM installation guide on Lotus Foundations server

also,  here for SugarCRM install package for Lotus Foundations ? SugarCRM Setup Wizard.

1. Check your Louts Foundations LDAP Base DN. The LDAP Base DN supposes to be like below
   ou=users,dc=domain,dc=com

   For example, if your server name is lfs.mydomain.net,
   then Base DN is ou=users,dc=mydomain,dc=net

   If you want to test LDAP connection by using LDAP Client such as JXplorer(Open Source LDAP Client), the configuration will become like below

   Host:  server ip address
   Port: 389
   Protocol:LDAP v2
   Base DN: ou=users,dc=mydomain,dc=net
   Level: User + Password
   User DN: uid=root,ou=users,dc=mydomain,dc=net
   Password: root password

   

   Example for LDAP Client

2. Log-in to SugarCRM as administrator
3. Click [Admin] link from top-right corner
   

   Admin Link of SugarCRM

4. Click [Password Management] link from Admin Page
   

   Password Management Link of SugarCRM

5. Check [LDAP Support] checkbox
6. Configure like below
   Enable LDAP Authentication: YES
   Server:  IP_ADDRESS
   Port Number: 389
   User DN: ou=users,dc=caicorp,dc=com
   User Filter:
   Bind Attribute: dn
   Login Attribute: uid
   Group Membership:
   Authentication:
   Auto Create Users: YES
   Encryption Key:
   

   LDAP configuration on SugarCRM

7. Click [Save] button

That’s all.

Please test if you can log-in as Lotus Foundations user.

Here we explain how to set up the SugarCRM CE 6.0.0 after installation of SugarCRM on Lotus Foundations finished.

If you haven’t done to install SugarCRM on Lotus Foundations,

please go to here to download the install package

and

please check here for SugarCRM installation guide on Lotus Foundations server.

Also after all this setup wizard, you might want to check here for integration between SugarCRM and Lotus Foundations LDAP.

1. Access to “http://<Your IP Address>/~sugarcrm/”
   <Your IP Address> take place with your ip address or host name of Lotus Foundations server.
   

   First page of SugarCRM

   Choose your language, and then Click Next button.

2. Click Next button
   

   Ready to set up SugarCRM?

3. After reading License Acceptance, check “I Accept” checkbox, and then Click Next button
   

   Lisence agreement of SugarCRM

   If you got the warning message window like below,

   

   System Check Acceptance

   Please check if “Web server” configuration of Lotus Foundation server is like below. Then restart “Web Server” and “Secure Web Server” by toggling the radio button status between [Enable] and [Disable] and save twice.
   Web Server: [Enable] or [Only Trusted Hotes]
   Secure Web Server: [Enable] or [Only Trusted Hotes]
   MySQL Server: [Enable]
   Users’ personal home pages: [Enable] or [Only Trusted Hotes]
   Content filtering: [Disable]

   

   Configure web server settings on Lotus Foundations

4. For this setup wizard guide, simply select “Typical Install”, and then Click Next
   

   Choose Install Type of SugarCRM

5. Click Next
   

   SugarCRM Database Type

6. Enter Database Administrator Username and Datbase Admin Password.
   Here simply enter Lotus Foundations “root” and root’s password
   Don’t need to change the default value of Database Name and Host Name if you are not familiar with this.
   

   Provide Database Name of SugarCRM

   Then, Click Next.
   After pop up the message regarding “Verifying DB Credentials”, Click “I Accept”
   
   

7. Enter SugarCRM Administrator User name and password, Click Next
   

   Identify Administration User of SugarCRM

8. Click Install
   

   Confirm Settings of SugarCRM

9. Click Next
   

   Perform Setup of SugarCRM

10. Register your information. In our case, Just click Next because of demo.
    

    Registration page of SugarCRM

11. Could you get the web page below? Congratulations!! SugarCRM setup is done!
    

    SugarCRM login page

    Now you can login as administrator which you created in step 7.

Do you want to integrate SugarCRM with Lotus Foundations LDAP account?

It is very simple! Please check here for LDAP integration configuration.

It is really difficult to pinpoint one particular feature of the IBM Lotus Foundations Start server as the “killer app”.  Lotus Foundations comes with so many handy, crucial SMB tools and each and every one of them is important.  However, if I was forced to choose one feature I would probably have to choose backups.

You’re only as safe as your most recent, reliable backup.  Without a proper backup, you could find yourself spending hours re-inputting data, recreating a spreadsheet, updating your address book, etc…  We all know how important backups are, but it is often the last thing on our laundry list of business to dos.  And, even if you did regularly take backups, what is the probability that the backup was a reliable one?  How often do you really do test restores to make sure that what you backed up is actually intact?

What about disaster recovery?  Have you planned for the worst case scenario?  Sure, you’re performing backups, but are you making sure that recent backups are also being taken off-site to another location for disaster recovery purposes?  If you are, how recent are those off-site backups?

Sure, you could use an online backup service for disaster recovery.  However, that can become expensive as you amass more files and data.  If you wanted to restore from an online backup, it will take as long as the download speed of your Internet connection.  For gigabytes of data, a full restore could take hours or days.

The Lotus Foundations Start server appliance has integrated IBM’s Intelligent Disk Backup (IDB) technology into its backup toolbox.  IDB allows you to perform incremental backups as often as 15 minutes.   You can backup daily, weekly, or as often as you need to.  If you are backing up frequently, IDB also makes “incremental” copies of recently modified files.  So, if you modified a file an hour ago and the same file two hours ago, you are able to restore either file to your system with the click of a button.  This is very useful if you realize that the file you saved an hour ago was somehow corrupted or you erased important information from it right before saving it.

In addition, the backups are encrypted.  So, even if the backup drive were to fall into the wrong hands, the data is secure.

Finally, what happens if your main hard drive fails?  Well, you just push a button and all of the server configuration and software is restored in minutes.  No need to reinstall the operating system, re-configure your software, or re-assign rights to folders and printers.  The IDB  backs everything up, not just your data files.

What about disaster recovery?  If you buy additional IDB drive cartridges with the server, you merely need to pull out one cartridge at the end of the day on Friday, plug in your other cartridge and take the first cartridge home with you so the data is off-site.  The act of plugging in a new cartridge tells Lotus Foundations to start backing up the whole system from scratch automatically.  No need to let the IDB know about the new cartridge.  It is all taken care of automatically.

If the unthinkable happens, and your server at the office were to be lost in a calamity, you would only need to buy a new IBM server, plug in the cartridge that you took home with you, push a button and you’re right back where you started, since your last backup.

So, yes, IBM’s Intelligent Disk Backup technology that comes with the IBM Lotus Foundations Start server appliance is the bomb.  Finally, no more tapes, no more carrying around an external USB drive from PC to PC, and no more worrying about disaster recovery.  And best of all, no more shelling out monthly fees to continue making online backups.  Let the IDB take care of the backups for you so you can just sit back, relax and focus on work.

A potential customer for IBM Lotus Foundations Start (LFS) server recently inquired whether the server appliance is able to support a RAID configuration.   At first, I thought that a RAID configuration was not supported.  However, after some research this is what I found out.

First of all, you may already know that the LFS server appliance advertises its inclusion of Intelligent Disk Backup (IDB) for true disaster recovery by taking incremental backups, as often as every 15 minutes, of all data and operating system and software settings.  However,  if the very unlikely event that the main hard drive fails for whatever reason, the server is only available in minimal operational mode until a full restore is possible.  Of course, a full restore can occur in minutes with a push of a button, but this can still be an inconvenience for a business in the middle of a business day.

If the LFS server appliance could also support a RAID configuration, then downtime could be drastically minimized with a hard drive failure.  After looking over the LFS administration manual, I was able to verify that a RAID configuration is possible.  In fact, with only a few clicks, LFS can put a RAID configuration into place quickly and easily. RAID 1 is supported if you 2 main drives of the same type, and RAID 5 is supported if you have 3 or more.  So, from the software standpoint, RAID is obviously supported.

If you look at the server appliance hardware specifications neither the Entry Level or Advanced Level servers from IBM make any mention of RAID.  Both server types come with one 250Gb main drive and a 500Gb (Entry) or 1Tb (Advanced) hard drive for IDB backups.  This is not a supported RAID hardware configuration.  So I inquired further.  What I found out was that you can add additional 250Gb hard drives to the standard server configuration to achieve RAID through the software configuration process.  You just need to specifically request the extra hard drives be added.

So, it appears, that RAID is an “unadvertised” feature of the LFS server appliance that will make this an even more appealing all-in-one-it-solution for SMBs!