--- ## Migration of CERN e-mail system to open source ### Challenges and opportunities ###### HEPIX, 14.10.2019: Amsterdam Thomas Baron Dominik Táborský, Giacomo Tenaglia, Leopold Gattinger, Paweł Grzywaczewski, Riccardo Candido --- ### E-mail service at CERN - 40 000 mailboxes - 65 TB of data - ~500k/day messages from Internet - Microsoft Exchange: - E-mail, calendar, contacts - Supported e-mail clients: - Outlook, Mail/Calendar/Contacts on Mac, Thunderbird, Alpine <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_ed6ed075dc1ab9ad55e38149e2db4a04.png" data-background-opacity=".2" --> --- ### Problems with licenses - Microsoft revoked CERN academic/education status in 2017 - We do not fit in any of the special categories: Government, Education, Health, Non-profit - Consequence: potentially a 10 fold increase in price - Other similar organisations have faced similar problems - Although not (yet) for everybody and some benefit from the special categories --- ### Alternatives to Microsoft ##### Find a replacement for Exchange - Market research for FOSS (no lock-in) - Evaluation of different solutions - Deployment of simple PoC for all solutions - Kopano selected for validation - Kopano PoC validated - Technical validation - End user validation <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_f192f50d68cb5e89b89d884c934ee876.png" data-background-opacity=".3" --> --- <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_eb1c6db17ca671ed77abb6846e1efa9e.png" data-background-opacity=".1" --> ### Kopano overview - Free and Open Source Software (AGPL3) - Groupware system (e-mail, calendar, contacts) - Deployed in enterprises of similar scale - Developed by Kopano BV (Netherlands/Germany) - Defines roadmap and provides support - Integrates with other services (Mattermost, OwnCloud/NextCloud etc.) - Develops other solutions: - MEET: online meetings based on WebRTC - Z-Push: open source implementation of ActiveSync protocol --- ### Challenges: Technical ##### Move from monolithic solution to microservices - Exchange: - Physical machines - Full stack managed by e-mail admins - All components well integrated with each other - Kopano: - Kubernetes cluster (Openstack Magnum) - Different components managed by different groups - Openstack Magnum, managed by computing group - Databases (MySQL), managed by DB team - Storage for attachments (CEPHFS), managed by storage group - New technology, new concepts, new operating system <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_043733f9417d25583e9975f08df2aeab.png" data-background-opacity=".2" --> --- ### Kopano on k8s + Postfix on VMs  --- ### Challenges: Technical ##### E-mail is a complex system - Multiple protocols for e-mail clients - HTTPS, ActiveSync, MAPI, IMAP, CalDav, CardDav - Re-develop integration with other systems - Lifecycles for mailboxes - Proper scaling of the infrastructure - Finding proper mapping between Exchange and Kopano - Migration of mailboxes - Some old mails and calendar events might be corrupted - Some rules can't be recreated - Outlook delivers messages based on legacyExchangeDN (not e-mail addresses) <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_b6d402a0985f20bf801e77f34b1481d0.png" data-background-opacity=".1" --> --- ### Challenges: People (customers, colleagues) ##### "What e-mail client will I use?" - 70% of users will use the same e-mail client - Mobile clients: no change - Mac OSX: no change (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) - Thunderbird: no change + support for calendar & contacts - 30% will replace Outlook by Kopano DeskApp - Similar, but it's not 1:1 replacement <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_da52feef84c8bf4e3677a13e2cf6d9a7.png" data-background-opacity=".2" --> --- ### Recommended e-mail client  --- ### Opportunities: Technical - Move from a proprietary solution to fully open source - Rethink the e-mail infrastructure - Deployment based on modern technologies --- ### Opportunities: Organizational - Reduce resources: use in-house expertise - Encourage collaboration between groups - Share knowledge, tools with other institutes - We were contacted by other institutes in similar `license` situation <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_6bb63f70acfdd2ac5ea156925ed3f54c.png" data-background-opacity=".2" --> --- ### Opportunities: People (customers, colleagues) - Address long standing requests (CalDav, CardDav etc.) - Provide better integration with other systems at CERN: - CERNBOX - Mattermost - Indico --- ### Next plans - Pilot in IT has started - Mass migration of mailboxes Q2 2020 - Q4 2020 --- ### Summary - CERN is redesigning several systems, including e-mail - Open source, microservices and integration is promoted - How collaboration services are provided in your institute? - Can we learn something from you? - Can we share something with you? <!-- .slide: data-background="https://codimd.web.cern.ch/uploads/upload_a99b507dbb7b2603516f83bdc60c29df.png" data-background-opacity=".2" --> ---