Its_All.Lost

Because hope just breeds everlasting misery…

ClearOS

Since Zentyal decided to drop support for all of the modules that I was using it for I had to switch, and I chose ClearOS. It does the job, but I miss Zentyal. Things were just easier with Zentyal, sure they both have a web GUI but Zentyal just seemed to have it all together. Things made more sense, and I feel like Zentyal was faster. The internet and local network all seem a little slower than before. I can’t say for certain but it feels that way.

One major thing I am missing from Zentyal was the firewall and Traffic Shaping. In my experience with Zentyal the firewall was super easy to understand and setup, and it worked. The traffic shaping (qos) was also easy to setup, and it worked! ClearOS has a firewall and it works, but it requires a lot of pre-configuration to get working properly. I still have issues with my setup. ClearOS doesn’t have QoS either (its in beta). Zentyal’s traffic shaping made it super easy to segregate the phones from computer and the rokus in the house. Making it easy to prioritize your netflix experience for example.

Dealing with ClearOS for now.

Synergy

I use an app called Synergy, it is a KVM switch that works without hardware over your network. I went to update Synergy on the Mac the other day, because it always breaks with OSX updates, and they have gone from free software to no longer free software. They are calling it a donation I believe, but thats BS cover. Charging for whatever reason is still a fee/cost of a product, don’t hide behind the wording. It is a small fee I will say though, currently (as of this posting) $5.00. Or head over to their site and grab a nightly for free, if you don’t mind betas. It is a great piece of software, very handy with multiple machines on the same desk I must say.

Goodbye Zentyal

Well this is a sad day. I was just reading the roadmap for Zentyal 4.0 (currently I’m running 3.4). With the last few releases they have been dropping modules left and right, nothing has changed it seems. With Zentyal 4.0 they have dropped support and integration with more modules than they had previous. IPS, UPS (NUT), Backup, Monitor, RADIUS, Web Server, Webmail, and IPSec modules are all getting the axe with the 4.0 upgrade, along with Gateway mode.

What the fuck.

The reason I found Zentyal picked it up and ran with it was because of all of those modules. I was looking for a router replacement and wanting to merge all of my separate servers into one. I was looking for a nice streamlined way to manage my home network. With these modules gone this severely blows. While I could do without some of these modules, Backup, and Monitor, Web Server and Gateway was imperative! Yes I can install Apache and Munin but I did not want all of these programs to be separate, and I really wanted a nice GUI to manage it all. Yes, I do know how to manage the server via terminal – I can get my hands dirty.

So off to find a replacement for Zentyal. I found and settled on ClearOS. While it is based of RHEL/CentOS(?) which I don’t care for actually (gimme Debian/Ubuntu please), it seems to be the best fit for the hole Zentyal 4.0 left. Currently have the server up and running on ClearOS 6.3 Community Edition. More later on the issues that brought. And I remembered to backup the SQL this time!! haha

Plex with Zentyal

Visit http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2208386

sudo apt-get install avahi-daemon sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Then add “deb http://www.plexapp.com/repo lucid main” to the file.
Edit for saucy

Ta-da!

for further integration install a torrent client, such as transmission, and download your files straight from the server on to the server. Configure Plex to auto update every so often and bam! If you don’t already know Plex also has apps for Android, iPhone, Kindle and Roku. The DLNA portions works well with Smart TVs and Playstations as well. Happy streaming.

Zentyal and VPN

I am so happy I could dance a jig. I finally figured out Zentyal’s VPN server, and have I have it working with all of my Android devices. As it turns out, the solution was so simple if it was a snake it would have bit me. I found a lot of help for Zentyals VPN just none for using it with an Android device. This is how I was able to get it all to work.

Create a new VPN Server, something like mydomain.vpn.

I don’t remember having to do much to the defualt configuration.

  • UDP Port 1194.
  • I used the default IP address.
  • Choose your server certificate, vpn-mydomain.vpn. This was automatically generated if I recall correctly?
  • Client Auth, choose your server. If your Zentyal installation was named MyHomeServer then that is what this would be as well.
  • Enable TUN interface.
  • Enable NAT.
  • Enable Client-to-Client connections (this is optional, it is not required).
  • DISABLE Allow Zentyal-to-Zentyal tunnels. If you need them then you probably don’t need my simple advice.
  • DISABLE Reject routes pushed by Zentyal tunnel clients.
  • Listen on ALL interfaces.
  • Redirect Gateway is enabled.*
  • First nameserver. Should be the IP address of your Zentyal server.
  • Second nameserver. Not required but I have mine set to 8.8.8.8.
  • Search Domain is BLANK.
  • WINS Server is BLANK.

No changes where made to Advertised Networks.

Now this is where I have always had issues in the past. Trying to get my Android device to connect to the VPN. I have been successful in the past using OpenVPN-AS and the Android software but not with Zentyal.

I am still using the official OpenVPN Android app from the Play Store the trick here is you need to import the profile from the SD card instead of automatically downloading it from the server like when using OpenVPN-AS.

  • Client type, select Linux.
  • Client’s certificate, select the name of your Zentyal server.
  • Server address, this is the external address of your Zentyal server. Either a static IP or domain.
  • Additional and Second Additional server addresses are BLANK.
  • Then download the configuration file.

You should now have a file called something like mydomain.vpn-client-myservername.tar.gz. Open it up and extract the files. You should have:

  • 0EFC76386GC758CJ.pem (your file name will vary)
  • cacert.pem
  • mydomain.vpn-client.conf
  • myserver.pem

Now you to get it all to work with Android you need to rename the .conf file to .ovpn.

  • rename: mydomain.vpn-client.conf –> mydomain.vpn-client.ovpn

Copy all of these files to your Android device (with OpenVPN installed). I just emailed myself all of the files that makes it easy to get them on all of my devices. Once copied to your Android open up OpenVPN.

  • Menu > Import > Import Profile from SD Card > (the location you saved the files to)

You should be good to go from there and able to connect! Hope that helps.