Mail server on Zimbra Collaboration Suite

Not so long ago, I began to develop a project for the transition of my office to free (not necessarily free) software. In this project, one of the most important part was the rejection of the mail host and the transition to your mail server based on open source software.

I plan to implement this part of my project this summer. But he began to prepare for it now. It was necessary to find a serious alternative to Exchenge and Outlook. The choice was “Zimbra Collaboration Suite”.

Advantages:

- Has its own Zimbra email client. Which allows users to share a calendar, workflow, mail contacts, etc. There are versions for MacOs, Windows, Linux.
- Has a powerful plug-in system. The so-called Zimlet. Plugins are developed officially, as well as by the users themselves. You can implement anything you want.
- Web version of the client. You can climb into the mail anywhere in the world from any browser.
- Integration with Active Directory.
- Anti-virus / anti-spam protection right out of the box.



Actually in this article I will describe the installation of Zimbra Collaboration Suite based on Debian. The article will be ported from my personal blog, so do not blame me for the quality.

Screenshots below.

Zimbra - A full-fledged mail server (as well as a client). It provides administrators and their end users with innovative features that can solve the difficulties that organizations face using today's communications infrastructure. Key benefits include: compatibility with Windows, Mac, GNU \ Linux; scalability flexible management; Russian language; general mail components for corporate work; web client, etc.

* Get acquainted with the functions of Zimbra server for the administrator
*To get acquainted with the functions of Zimbra server for a mail user

In this article I will tell and show how to set up a full-fledged mail server for a company.

It is assumed that the initial installation \ configuration of Debian was performed. I chose Debian etch 4.0 r6 (Lenny in this stable version of ZIMBRA does not support). standard installation without a graphical shell, network settings were made, update repositories, and an ssh server was installed for convenience.

My settings:

Server name - mail
Domain name - adsl.ru
Hostname - mail.adsl.ru
Ip server address - (I put it on the external, here I give an approximate ip) 172.16.251.130

First we assign a hostname to the ip server. edit hosts

vim / etc / hosts file

127.0.0.1 localhost
172.16.251.130 mail.adsl.ru mail

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

And also, we fix our hostname to the correct one and then we are sure to reboot (so that there are no conflicts):
vim / etc / hostname

mail.ads.ru

reboot

After the reboot, check our hostname:

hostname -f

mail.adsl.ru

Next, edit the DNS, resolv.conf file. Let me remind you that on your LAN (or on the Internet) there must be a DNS server where A and MX records are written to your server with Zimbra (preferably still have a PTR record).

vim /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 172.16.251.2

Now remove the Exim packages. because we don’t need several mail agents; Zimbra has its own.

apt-get remove –purge exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light

After that, install the additional necessary packages that you may need to install the mailer:

apt-get install libc6-i686 sudo libidn11 curl fetchmail libgmp3c2 libexpat1 libgetopt-mixed-perl libxml2 libstdc ++ 6 libpcre3 libltdl3

Now we will go directly to the installation of the Zimbra mail server. Because Zimbra is a zipped archive with a bunch of packages, create the install folder where we download this archive, unzip it and install it.
mkdir / install
cd / install

We go to the Zimbra website to download the latest version - www.zimbra.com/community/downloads.html
We find in the Dtbian platforms, copy the link to the archive and upload it to our server. At the end of the race, unzip the archive.

wget h.yimg.com/lo/downloads/5.0.12_GA/zcs-5.0.12_GA_2789.DEBIAN4.0.20090126055528.tgz
tar xvfz zcs-5.0.12_GA_2789.DEBIAN4.0.20090126055528.tgz

We begin the installation. Go to the unzipped folder and run the installation script.

cd /install/zcs-5.0.12_GA_2789.DEBIAN4.0.20090126055528
./install.sh -l

Read the license agreement and press Enter. Then Zimbra will check the installed additional software. And it will produce something like: Now the installer will ask which packages to install: Installation has begun. It will take some time. After installation, the so-called main menu will appear: As you can see, a menu is displayed where the default settings are displayed. If desired, you can change them. Here I am only interested in the root password, change it to your own. Press the number 3, press Enter and enter the submenu.

Checking for prerequisites…
NPTL…FOUND
sudo…FOUND sudo-1.6.8p12-4
……………..
Prerequisite check complete.
Checking for standard system perl…
perl-5.8.8…FOUND standard system perl-5.8.8



Install zimbra-ldap [Y] Y
Install zimbra-logger [Y] Y
Install zimbra-mta [Y] Y
Install zimbra-snmp [Y] Y
Install zimbra-store [Y] Y
Install zimbra-apache [Y] Y
Install zimbra-spell [Y] Y
Install zimbra-proxy [N] N

The system will be modified. Continue? [N] Y




Main menu

1) Common Configuration:
2) zimbra-ldap: Enabled
3) zimbra-store: Enabled
+Create Admin User: yes
+Admin user to create: admin@mail.adsl.ru
******* +Admin Password UNSET
+Enable automated spam training: yes
…………………………
x) Expand menu
q) Quit
Address unconfigured (**) items (? – help)



Store configuration

1) Status: Enabled
2) Create Admin User: yes
3) Admin user to create: admin@server1.example.com
** 4) Admin Password UNSET
5) Enable automated spam training: yes
6) Spam training user: spam.m0bqyoayc@mail.adsl.ru
………………………..
17) Use spell check server: yes
18) Spell server URL: mail.adsl.ru:7780/aspell.php

Select, or ‘r’ for previous menu [r]

Press the number 4 and Enter. Enter the new password + Enter. Press Enter. And we return to the main menu. Now you need to confirm the configuration. Enter the letter a and press Enter. After that, the system will ask us a few questions. We answer as standard Enter. At the end, click on Y. Next, the installer will configure the server. It takes time. During this, you will see the following: At the end, the installer will ask if you want to register the server? This is not a required procedure. I politely refuse to enter the letter N. (If you want to register, press Enter). Further, the system will be initialized: Well, in principle, everything. Hit Enter to exit the installer. If you chose the standard Zimbra installation, then for working with the server you will have the following ports:

Main menu

1) Common Configuration:
2) zimbra-ldap: Enabled
3) zimbra-store: Enabled
4) zimbra-mta: Enabled
5) zimbra-snmp: Enabled
6) zimbra-logger: Enabled
7) zimbra-spell: Enabled
8) Default Class of Service Configuration:
r) Start servers after configuration yes
s) Save config to file
x) Expand menu
q) Quit

*** CONFIGURATION COMPLETE – press ‘a’ to apply
Select from menu, or press ‘a’ to apply config (? – help)




Save configuration data to a file? [Yes] Enter
Save config in file: [/opt/zimbra/config.5422]
Saving config in /opt/zimbra/config.5422…done.
The system will be modified – continue? [No] Y



Operations logged to /tmp/zmsetup.02062008-135354.log
Setting local config values…done.
Setting up CA…done.
Creating SSL certificate…done.
Initializing ldap…done.
Setting replication password…done.
Setting Postfix password…done.
Setting amavis password…done.
Deploying CA to /opt/zimbra/conf/ca …done.
Creating server entry for mail.adsl.ru…done.
Setting spell check URL…done.
Setting service ports on mail.adsl.com…done.
Adding server1.example.com to zimbraMailHostPool in default COS…done.
Installing skins…
hotrod
…………………………….
Initializing mta config…done.
Configuring SNMP…done.
Setting services on mail.adsl.ru…done.
Setting up zimbra crontab…done.
Setting up syslog.conf…done.



Starting servers…done.
Checking for deprecated zimlets…done.
Installing zimlets…
com_zimbra_date
…………………..
com_zimbra_email
done.
Initializing Documents…done.
Restarting mailboxd…done.

Moving /tmp/zmsetup.02062008-135354.log to /opt/zimbra/log





Access to Web mail: 80
Secure access to Web mail: 443
IMAP server port: 143
IMAP server SSL port: 993
POP server port: 110
POP server SSL port: 995
Server management console: serverhost : 7780 / aspell.php
Now we will check whether all Zimbra services have started. To do this, we enter the console using the Zimbra account and enter the checking command:

su - zimbra
zmcontrol status

The server will respond: If one or more services have not been started, then enter the command: zmcontrol start Exit the Zimbra account: exit That's all. We figured out the installation. Now all server settings will come through the Web interface.

Host mail.adsl.ru
antispam Running
antivirus Running
ldap Running
logger Running
mailbox Running
mta Running
snmp Running
spell Running
stats Running













We enter the management console (admin login, your password) - mail.adsl.ru : 7071 / zimbraAdmin /

Actually, I suggest getting acquainted with the interface and settings. It seems to me that even the least knowledgeable person will deal with them. By the way, the web client for mail is available at mail.adsl.ru





Well, what’s the result?

And in the end, I plan to introduce Zimbra in the summer.
The only minus using Zimbra is that in principle it is demanding on server resources. Because for example, the Web interface ... (it is written in AJAX), if 100 users use it at the same time, then the usual Pentium4 can not cope here. ;)