With the latest patch, Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open-Source Edition 8.8.15 LTS has added full support for the long-running release of the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS operating system. Thanks to this, system administrators can create server infrastructures with Zimbra OSE that will be supported and receive security updates until the end of 2022. The ability to implement a collaboration system in your enterprise that will remain relevant for more than three years, and at the same time will not require significant labor costs for maintenance, is a great opportunity for an enterprise to reduce the cost of owning an IT infrastructure, and for SaaS providers, this option for implementing Zimbra OSE will make it possible to offer customers more favorable rates for them, but at the same time more marginal rates for the provider. Let's figure out how to install Zimbra OSE 8.8.15 on Ubuntu 18.04.
The server system requirements for installing Zimbra OSE include a 4-core processor, 8 GB RAM, 50 GB hard disk space, and an FQDN, forwarding DNS server, and MX record. We note right away that the βbottleneckβ that limits the performance of Zimbra OSE is usually not the processor or RAM, but the hard drive. That is why it would be wise to purchase a high-speed SSD for the server, which will not greatly affect the overall cost of the server, but at the same time significantly increase the performance and responsiveness of Zimbra OSE. Let's create a server with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Zimbra Collaboration Suite 8.8.15 LTS on board and the mail.company.ru domain name.
The biggest difficulty in installing Zimbra for beginners is creating the FQDN and forwarding DNS server. In order for everything to work, let's create a DNS server based on the dnsmasq utility. To do this, first disable the systemd-resolved service. This is done using the commands sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved ΠΈ sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved. We will also remove the resolv.conf file with the command sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf and immediately create a new one using the command echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf.
After this service is disabled, you will need to install dnsmasq. This is done using the command sudo apt-get install dnsmasq. After the installation is complete, you need to configure dnsmasq by editing the configuration file /etc/dnsmasq.conf. The result should be something like this:
server=8.8.8.8
listen-address=127.0.0.1
domain=company.ru # Define domain
mx-host=company.ru,mail.company.ru,0
address=/mail.company.ru/***.16.128.192Thanks to this, we have set the server address with Zimbra, set up a forwarding DNS server and an MX record, and now we can move on to other settings.
With the help of the command sudo hostnamectl set-hostname mail.company.ru set the domain name for the server with Zimbra OSE, and then add the relevant information to /etc/hosts using the command echo "***.16.128.192 mail.company.ru" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts.
After that, we will only have to restart the dnsmasq service using the command sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq and add A- and MX-records using the commands dig A mail.company.ru ΠΈ dig MX company.ru. After all this is done, you can proceed to install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open-Source Edition itself.
Installing Zimbra OSE begins with downloading the distribution. You can do this with the command wget . After the distribution is downloaded, you will need to unpack it using the command tar xvf zcs-8.8.15_GA_3869.UBUNTU18_64.20190917004220.tgz. After the unpacking is completed, you will need to go to the unpacked folder using the command cd zcs*/, and then run the installation script with the command ./install.sh.
After launching the installer, you will need to accept the terms of use, as well as agree to use the official Zimbra repositories to install updates. You will then be prompted to select packages to install. When the packages are selected, a warning will appear that the installation will change the system. After the user agrees to the changes, the missing modules and updates will be downloaded and installed. Upon completion of the installation, the installer will offer to perform the initial configuration of Zimbra OSE. At this point, you will need to set an administrator password. To do this, you must first go to menu item 7, and then select item 4. After that, the installation of Zimbra Open-Source Edition will be completed.
After the installation of Zimbra OSE is over, all that remains is to open the web ports necessary for its operation. This can be done using the standard Ubuntu firewall called ufw. In order for everything to work, you must first allow unrestricted access from the administrative subnet using the command ufw allow from 192.168.0.1/24and then in the config file /etc/ufw/applications.d/zimbra create a Zimbra profile:
[Zimbra]
title=Zimbra Collaboration Server
description=Open source server for email, contacts, calendar, and more.
ports=25,80,110,143,443,465,587,993,995,3443,5222,5223,7071,9071/tcpThen using the command sudo ufw allow Zimbra you need to activate the created Zimbra profile, and then restart ufw using the command sudo ufw enable. We will also open access to the server via SSH using the command sudo ufw allow ssh. Once the necessary ports are open, you can access the Zimbra administration console. To do this, in the address bar of the browser, type mail.company.ru:7071, or, in the case of using a proxy, mail.company.ru:9071, and then enter admin as the username, and the password that you set when installing Zimbra as the password.
Once Zimbra OSE is installed, your enterprise infrastructure will have a complete email and collaboration solution. However, the capabilities of your mail server can be greatly expanded through the use of Zextras Suite Pro extensions. They allow you to add support for mobile devices, collaboration with documents, spreadsheets and presentations to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite Open-Source Edition, and if you wish, you can add support for text and video chats, as well as video conferencing, to Zimbra OSE.
Installing Zextras Suite Pro is quite simple, just download the distribution kit from the Zextras official website using the command wget , then unpack this archive tar xfz zextras_suite-latest.tgz, go to the folder with unpacked files cd zextras_suite/ and run the installation script with the command ./install.sh all. After that, all that remains is to clear the Zimbra OSE cache using the command zmprov fc zimlet and you can start using Zextras Suite.
Note that for the Zextras Docs extension to work, which allows employees of the enterprise to work together on text documents, tables and presentations, you need to install a separate server application. On the Zextras website you can download its distribution kit for the operating system . In addition, the functionality of the solution for online communication between Zextras Team employees is available on mobile devices using the application, which can also be downloaded absolutely free from ΠΈ . In addition, there is a mobile application for accessing the Zextras Drive cloud storage, which is also available for and devices on .
Thus, by installing Zimbra OSE 8.8.15 LTS and Zextras Suite Pro on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, you can get a fully functional collaboration solution, which, due to the long support period and low licensing costs, will significantly reduce the cost of ownership of the enterprise IT infrastructure.
For all questions related to Zextras Suite, you can contact the Representative of Zextras Ekaterina Triandafilidi by e-mail [email protected]
Source: habr.com