Bremen, July 16, 2019 – Our first point release of UCS 4.4 includes all minor improvements and bugfixes of the updates released over the past months and also brings some exciting new features:
Univention Directory Manager (UDM): More performance, improved functionality and a new REST API as beta version
There are significant performance improvements for managing the contents of the directory service via UDM, especially for application scenarios with complex structures. A brand new feature is the REST API for UDM, which considerably facilitates the integration of UDM with other applications. This REST API has been released as beta version for the time being. After further tests and improvements we plan to release a stable version in autumn.
Customization of the login for apps now possible via CSS stylesheet, easier configurability of the portal and new app recommendation system
The UCS Portal is the central point through which users have easy access to all IT applications in their environment. Administrators now can configure stylesheets (CSS), with which the central user login and the self services can be provided with an individual layout. Admins can also configure the session timeout of SAML considerably easier for the login at the portal or at the single sign-on-capable applications provided there. The most obvious change is certainly the new app suggestion system in the Univention App Center. Based on the apps already installed in the UCS environment, administrators receive recommendations for suitable supplementary apps. These recommendations are based on the most common already existing combinations, e.g. the combined use of apps like Nextcloud or ownCloud with the app Let’s Encrypt.
Windows Profile, AD Connector Scenarios and Samba 4 Connector Configuration
UCS 4.4-1 also brings a whole range of improvements to the area of Windows Services. Thus there are changes in the integration of Samba when dealing with server-side Windows profiles, in that the respective paths are now hidden in the file share, so that users no longer damage their profile unintentionally.
We have simplified the authentication between workstations of the AD domain and UCS file services on member servers when using UCS file servers in an AD Connector environment, which had not been possible as usual after the update to Samba 4.10. These improvements are also available for UCS 4.3. Also new: In the extended configuration of the connector between UCS LDAP and Samba 4 via Univention Configuration Registry there is now the option to exclude subtrees of the LDAP directory from synchronization. The previously required adaptation of the configuration files is no longer necessary.
News from Univention Apps OpenID Connect and UCS@school
There are also news about the apps we maintain ourselves. A stable version of the Open ID Connect App is now available in the App Center, offering extended configuration options. In addition to SAML, Open ID Connect provides another option for a single sign-on to web services. We have also updated our app UCS@school. One focus has been on the extension and hardening of the class test mode. There are new functions in the area of exporting class lists. And with the installation media of UCS 4.4-1 there is now an additional check within the installation of UCS systems that supports you during the installation of “UCS@school site servers”.
Further Information
Enhancements to NUMA architecture support have improved virtualization performance with large virtual machines. The IMAP services provided by Dovecot can now also be secured for multiple domain names via SNI.
Future Outlook
Univention’s development department is currently working on the step-by-step migration to Python 3, on enhancing the synchronization between OpenLDAP and Samba4 and on additional functions for the Office365 Connector.
