Openfire chat server Active Directory integration

In a previous tutorial we had a look at installing Openfire chat server in Centos using build-in authentication method.You can find the detailed article here.

Now let us have a look at how to configure the same using Active directory authentication.
ie when login using chat client,openfire server will check the authentication in the Active directory Domain controller.

 Please refer my previous post for detailed installation steps.

1. In the installation procedure choose Directory Server (LDAP) in the profile settings.
2. Click Continue

 In the next screen.

• Server type : Active directory
• Host : Enter the host name or IP address of the AD.
• Base DN : Enter the DN where openfire will allow users to login,you can use OU also.

                            I am using the entire tree so DC=domain,DC=com

•  Administrator DN : Here we have to enter an AD administrator account (I prefer to use a read-only user for this)
• Password : Enter the administrator user password
• You can test settings or Save&Continue.

                                 

                            

Here no need to change anything ,but of course you can test and research.

Click save & Continue again.

Here we have to enter he AD account that we use to login to Openfire admin panel.

• Enter the admin account and click add.

If everythng is fine,you can login to the admin panel using the AD adminsitator account that you just provided.

And of course you can login in the clients (Spark) using the Active directory user credentials.

Thanks for reading.

Openfire chat server step by step installation in Centos with Spark

Every companies needed some sort of chatting facility which helps the users to communicate each other. Today let us have a look at how to create a free chat server which enables us to send text messages,files etc.

 Step 1

Installing ignite real time’s openfire – an open source RTC server which is widely using for instant messaging.  

Using any ssh client connect to your Centos as root, I personally use Putty for the same.

Installing dependencies

Issue the command 

#  yum -y install wget java glibc.i686

This will take some time to install the dependencies required for openfire.
  
Step 2

Now it is time to download and install the RPM of openfire, you can download it from here.

Or use the following command, don’t forget to choose the latest version.

# wget http://download.igniterealtime.org/openfire/openfire-3.9.3-1.i386.rpm

Installing the RPM

# rpm -ivh openfire-3.9.3-1.i386.rpm

Start the openfire service

# service openfire start

Step 3

 We are using MySQL as database for openfire. Let us install MySQL and create required database for openfire.

Installing mysql server

# yum -y install mysql-server

Starting mysql server

#  /sbin/service mysqld start

Demonize mysql server

#  /sbin/chkconfig mysqld on

Do the basic mysql secure install

#  /usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation

hit “enter” to give no password
give a new root password
hit “enter” on the rest of the questions

Restart mysql server

#  /sbin/service mysqld restart

# mysql -uroot -p

  mysql> CREATE DATABASE openfire;

  mysql> GRANT ALL on openfire.* to 'openfire'@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'urpassword';

  mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Restart Openfire service 

 # /etc/init.d/openfire restart

 You have to make sure that iptables is not running.

 # /etc/init.d/openfire stop

Step 4

Now it is time to configure the openfire web interface.

Launch a web browser

http://ipaddress/hostname:9090

You will get the openfire web interface 

 Choose your preferred language and continue

 Enter the preferred domain name and click continue.

 For database settings ,choose "standard database connection"

 Choose MySQL

• For database url : enter your host name and database name
• Enter the database username and password that we created earlier.
• Click continue

 For profile settings Choose default and continue.

 After that you will get a screen there you can enter your admin mail id and password please do that and press continue

Wow the setup is completed and you can access the admin console of openfire.

•  Enter your admin username and password.

 Choose users and groups from where you can create users and groups.

Our Openfire chat server installation has been completed.

There are many chat clients that we can use to configure with openfire.I am here using Spark chat client you can download 

from here.

Download and install in your machine. 

It is simple to configure 

 Just enter Username (That you have to create in openfire users)

 Password

 Server : IP/domain name of the openfire server.

Thanks for reading the article.I am preparing a tutorial on enabling Audio/Video chat with openfire. STAY TURNED!!!!