In this chapter, we've prepared an environment for Openfire, and installed and configured the server on both Windows and Linux. From installing the Java Runtime Environment to launching and tweaking the server, we've covered all the steps it takes to have to a fully-functional Openfire server.

It sounds like a lot of work, but if you get down to listing the steps, there aren't many. The whole process doesn't take more than half-an-hour. Credit must be given to the Openfire developers, not only for packaging the server for multiple Linux distributions and operating systems, but also for taking the load off the users who are setting it up.

The server we've setup in this chapter will work for most enterprises. Depending on their current system landscape, some large corporations might want to hook up their directory services with Openfire or use an external database to hold Openfire's data. We'll get to these scenarios in due course, and while they are important options, they are by no...