Installation (Zimbra)

Zimbra FOSS Installation Guide

This procedure was originally written for a Zimbra v6 installation, using the Zimbra Wiki site as a guide. It's since been updated whilst installing v7 (the installation process hasn't changed). Note that if you are installing on a server with a private address that is to be NAT'ed to a publicly accessible address you'll need ensure that you've got Split-DNS set-up, and I'd recommend a quick read through the DNS requirements regardless.

Pre-Requisites

• Working Ubuntu LTS Server installation - see Ubuntu Installation for further install info, and http://www.zimbra.com/downloads/os-downloads.html for supported OS versions
  • Base install with OpenSSH Server
  • DNS Server - Only required if you need to use Split DNS and need to provide resolution of the internal IP address of the server (EG you don't have an existing local DNS Server under your control that you can add your Zimbra server in to)
• Internet/public IP address
  • Can be shared with other services so long as there's no TCP port conflicts and you have a router that can perform the appropriate NAT'ing
    • See http://wiki.zimbra.com/wiki/Ports#External_Access for required TCP ports
• MX (Mail Exchange) DNS record pointing to public IP address
  • Additionally an internal only MX record pointing to the server's internal/private IP address - only if you need to use SplitDNS

Server Specification

Specification	CPU	Memory	Free Disk	Comments
Eval / Test	1 x 1.5 GHz	1 GB	5 GB	Could be used for low-user count (< 10 active accounts) production environments - but certain operations will be slow.
Minimum	1 x 2.0 GHz	2 GB	10 GB	Absolute minimum production spec advised by Zimbra
Recommended	2 x 2.0 GHz	4 GB	10 GB	Recommended minimum production spec advised by Zimbra

Note: Free Disk does not include allocation for mail storage So you will need additional free space for users data.

Memory seems to be the main choke point for Zimbra, and will run a bit faster if you can spare a bit more. The less RAM the server has, less data can be cached into memory, and so the more disk IO that is required, and consequently the higher demand there will be on getting good IO throughput from the servers disks.

Procedure

1. Locate the appropriate download URL at http://www.zimbra.com/downloads/os-downloads.html, a copy the link to the download
2. Download the target of the link to your server (eg here downloading to tmp folder
   • EG wget -P /tmp/ http://files2.zimbra.com/downloads/7.2.0_GA/zcs-7.2.0_GA_2669.UBUNTU10_64.20120410002303.tgz
3. Uncompress the package
   • tar -xzf zcs-7.2.0_GA_2669.UBUNTU10_64.20120410002303.tgz
4. Start the install
   • ./install.sh
   • Acceprt the EULA, the install will fail due to missing packages! Note which are missing.
5. Install the missing prerequisite packages
   • EG apt-get install libperl5.10 sysstat sqlite3
6. Restart the install, accepting the default packages to install
7. Once the packages are installed the installer may complain about your domain not having a DNS record - DNS ERROR resolving MX for ...
   • Change the domain to your publicly registered domain (without server hostname, so sandfordit.com rather than mail.sandfordit.com
   • If this fails to resolve the error, there is a problem with your network/DNS setup
8. At the end of the base install, address the unconfigured item (ie an admin password)
9. Write the config to disk and allow the system to be configured

Once the install is completed, login to administer the exchange server using a URL similar to https://your-mail-svr:7071

To enforce https for Zimbra Desktop clients use the following commands (requires a restart to take effect)...

su - zimbra
zmtlsctl https

High CPU Workaround

Zimbra seems to have some real issues with constant high CPU spikes every minute, to limit reduce the logging retention and failed process checking.

su - zimbra
zmlocalconfig -e zmmtaconfig_interval=6000
zmprov mcf zimbraLogRawLifetime 7d
zmprov mcf zimbraLogSummaryLifetime 30d
/opt/zimbra/libexec/zmlogprocess

crontab -e
*/60 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmstatuslog 

• zmlocalconfig -e zmmtaconfig_interval=6000
  • Increase service failure watchdog interval to 6000 secs

Above seems to help, but doesn't fix things...! Additionally, to disable the logging process, maybe (uncomplete)

su - zimbra
hostname                # Gives your server's hostname
zmprov ms <hostname> -zimbraServiceEnabled logger