Moodle and Zimbra S

[adamw]

Hi!

 

i have been put with setting up moodle has the new school vle. i have set up ldap and things are working very well in the lab but i have an issue in that the head as asked for SSO solution witch links to are email system witch is zimbra witch is hosted by link2ict. are there any blocks that can store the zimbra user name and password in the VLE so i can have a single user name and password.

 

Thanks

 

Adam

[penfold_99]

Hi Adam,

 

Are you able to get the zimbra preAuth key from link2ict?

If so, as long as the user email address in moodle is the zimbra one then its possible.

 

We created a block to do this but it's part of a commercial product that handles mis integration.

[Michael]

Hi!

 

i have been put with setting up moodle has the new school vle. i have set up ldap and things are working very well in the lab but i have an issue in that the head as asked for SSO solution witch links to are email system witch is zimbra witch is hosted by link2ict. are there any blocks that can store the zimbra user name and password in the VLE so i can have a single user name and password.

 

Thanks

 

Adam

 

To the best of my knowledge Link2ICT don't support this configuration (last I heard), despite it being possible. A good alternative would be to migrate your current Zimbra setup to Office 365. You then have full control over your Moodle and e-mail provision and you can setup SSO throughout, but it does require some setting up.

[adamw]

Thanks for the help.

 

I have asked for preAuth key from link2ict. sadly i am a little stuck with them at the moment for email has i wood love to go self hosted or use office 360 but the head is not happy to move away from link2ict at the moment. if any one has any other suggestions let me no?

[adamw]

Well got the code and a block form link so will have to try it out tomorrow.

[Michael]

Thanks for the help.

 

I have asked for preAuth key from link2ict. sadly i am a little stuck with them at the moment for email has i wood love to go self hosted or use office 360 but the head is not happy to move away from link2ict at the moment. if any one has any other suggestions let me no?

 

I'd love to know the justification as to 'why' the head isn't happy to migrate to another system. Every school in Birmingham I've demo'ed it to have said a big 'yes' when they see Office 365 and its advantages over the Zimbra solution on offer

[foofighterjim]

I'd love to know the justification as to 'why' the head isn't happy to migrate to another system. Every school in Birmingham I've demo'ed it to have said a big 'yes' when they see Office 365 and its advantages over the Zimbra solution on offer

 

Sorry to go off topic slightly but were Link2ICT helpful when migrating to Office 365? I am currently reviewing our position and I see no reason to stay with Zimbra. Do you have any details on the methods of migration?

[Michael]

Sorry to go off topic slightly but were Link2ICT helpful when migrating to Office 365? I am currently reviewing our position and I see no reason to stay with Zimbra. Do you have any details on the methods of migration?

 

Obviously Link2ICT aren't going to be happy to see you go, however schools can do whatever they want. The Zimbra offering is good, but not great (in my opinion). Office 365 is simply miles better and changes the way staff work for the better too.

 

The process is quite simple really. Sign up with Office 365 here

 

Enter all your school details as required. You'll then be able to create a temporary admin account, such as:

 

yourschoolname.onmicrosoft.com

 

Once you're in, you need to add your real school domain - schoolname.bham.sch.uk for example.

 

You'll then need to confirm ownership (as per instructions in the Office 365 Control Panel). This information will need to send to Link2ICT. It's just a TXT file, unique to your domain.

 

You now need to setup licenses. I'd recommend A2 licenses, as this is 100% free. There's also optional A3 and A4, but there is a price for each of these services.

 

At this point you can import a CSV with users and their e-mail addresses, or alternatively look at SSO options, however this process is a lot more involved.

 

When you're ready to migrate, you'll then need to update the MX records for the domain. Again all this info is on the Office 365 Control Panel. Submit this to Link2ICT on a scheduled date and time and all future e-mails will then go to Office 365.

 

Your existing Zimbra domain will be renamed @old-schoolname.bham.sch.uk

 

Users can still sign in to Zimbra (as above) and optionally forward e-mails to their Office 365 account (your real e-mail address). Alternatively for users with many e-mails, configure Zimbra with Microsoft Outlook and download e-mail to a PST. The only problem is Zimbra will only do the Inbox by default and not Sent Items. By moving e-mails from Sent Items to Inbox, then back to Sent Items in Microsoft Outlook, this gets round this limitation. You can then upload the PST to Office 365, via Microsoft Outlook.

 

Exporting and Importing contacts into Office 365 can be done via a CSV file.

 

I hope this gives you the idea of the work involved. It's not the easiest process, but is definitely worth it

[foofighterjim]

Thanks Michael, that has made me feel much better about the whole situation. Like you said it doesn't look that difficult unless we get involved in SSO.