Introduction to Zimbra

Zimbra is an open source package, is a group of software developed by Zimbra, Inc. Zimbra is also known as Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS). Zimbra software released as a commercial edition includes technical support, but the open source package doesn’t have the technical support feature. ZCS consists of client interface and a server software that together provides e-mail, managing documents, project management, social media tools, workspaces, etc.

The data synchronization is also possible by Zimbra with the mobile devices like Android, Windows, iPhone, etc. Zimbra is also capable of being together with email clients like Windows Outlook and Thunderbird, also it is supported with Linux, Apple & Windows operating systems.

Advantages of Zimbra

1) Low cost compared to other email collaboration services.

2) Provides browser-based AJAX interface for clients.

3) Compatible with Windows Outlook & Thunderbird.

4) High security with robust spam and virus protection.

5) Provides Mobile access for every platform.

6) Data synchronization is possible.

7) Provides Email backup and Restore.

Package Information

Link:

http://files2.zimbra.com/downloads/8.0.4_GA/zcs-8.0.4_GA_5737.RHEL6_64.20130524120036.tgz

Compressed size : 569 M

Extracted size: 575 M

 Zimbra dependencies

Install all dependencies to avoid error while running make command. You can install all the dependencies using yum package manager.

# yum install perl sysstat nc gmp gcc libtool-ltdl

Pre-Installation steps

System informations

Operating system  : Centos 6

Domain Name     : example.com ( change it with your choice )

mx record        : mail.example.com

master          : ns1.example.com, 192.168.0.33 (static)

1) Login as root user to system. And install Bind service on it.

# yum install bind

2) Modify the hostname in /etc/sysconfig/network file as mail.example.com . Then save & exit.

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING=yes

HOSTNAME=mail.example.com

3) Add the name server entry in /etc/hosts file. Then save & exit.

# vi /etc/hosts

192.168.0.33 mail.example.com

192.168.0.33 ns1.example.com

4) Modify name server IP in /etc/resolv.conf file. Then save & exit.

# vi /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 192.168.0.33

5) Modify /etc/named.conf file and change these lines as below.

# vi /etc/named.conf

listen-on port 53 127.0.0.1; 192.168.0.33; ;

allow-query     localhost; 192.168.0.0/23; ;

Create a zone at the bottom of /etc/named.conf file as below. Then save & exit.

zone “example.com” IN

type master;

file “db.example.com”;

allow-update none; ;

;

 6) Create a database for the above created zone in /var/named/ directory. And add the below contents in it.

# vi /var/named/db.example.com

$TTL 1D

@       IN SOA  ns1.example.com. root.example.com. (

0       ; serial

1D      ; refresh

1H      ; retry

1W      ; expire

3H )    ; minimum

@       IN      NS      ns1.example.com.

@       IN      MX  0   mail.example.com.

ns1     IN      A       192.168.0.33

mail    IN      A       192.168.0.33

Start the named service on the system.

# service named start

7) Disable Selinux on the system.

# vim /etc/sysconfig/selinux

Change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled.

Also stop firewall iptables, sendmail, postfix services.

# service iptables stop

# chkconfig iptables off

# service sendmail stop

# chkconfig sendmail off

# service postfix stop

# chkconfig postfix off

Installation of Zimbra

1) Download the Zimbra binary file from the download link specified in above Package information field.

# cd /opt

#wget -c http://files2.zimbra.com/downloads/8.0.4_GA/zcs-8.0.4_GA_5737.RHEL6_64.20130524120036.tgz

2) After downloading the file, extract the binary file of Zimbra. Then move into the extracted directory.

# tar -zxvf zcs-8.0.4_GA_5737.RHEL6_64.20130524120036.tgz

# cd zcs-8.0.4_GA_5737.RHEL6_64.20130524120036

3) Install Zimbra by running install.sh script with the option –platform-override, which allows installer to continue on an unknown operating system.

# ./install.sh –platform-override

When asking the License agreement, type Y.

4) After sometime it shows ‘Configuration complete – press return to exit’, which means the installation of Zimbra has been finished. Check status of Zimbra using the following command and make sure all services are running fine.

# service zimbra status

You can access the Zimbra-Email administration console via browser through the url: https://mail.example.com:7071.

The Clients Zimbra-Email web console access is through the https://mail.example.com url.