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Installing the Zimbra mail server on Ubuntu

Until now, we have installed Postfix, Dovecot, spam-assassin, and other tools separately. In this recipe, we will learn how to install the Zimbra collaboration server, which covers all tools in a single package. The Zimbra server contains Postfix, MySQL, OpenLDAP, ClamAV, and Spam-Assassin, Calendar, and various other features. Zimbra provides a paid option as well as an open source version. We will be installing an open source version of the Zimbra server in single server mode.

Getting ready

As always, you will need access to a root account or an account with sudo privileges.

For Zimbra to work properly, you will need the following minimum configuration for your server:

At least 1.5 GHz of CPU 2 GHz recommended

Minimum 8 GB of memory

Minimum 10 GB of storage 20 GB recommended

You will need to set proper DNS and MX records for your domain.

You will also need various ports, as follows:

Postfix/LMTP 25, 7025

HTTP 80, 443

POP3 110, 995

IMAP 143, 993

LDAP 389

How to do it…

Follow these steps to install Zimbra collaboration server:

Install the dependency packages before starting with the Zimbra installation:

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install libperl5.18 libaio1 unzip pax sysstat sqlite3 libgmp10

Download and extract the Zimbra open source package using the following command:

$ wget https://files.zimbra.com/downloads/8.6.0_GA/zcs- 8.6.0_GA_1153.UBUNTU14_64.20141215151116.tgz

$ tar -zxvf zcs-8.6.0_GA_1153.UBUNTU14_64.20141215151116.tgz

$ cd zcs-8.6.0_GA_1153.UBUNTU14_64.20141215151116

Make sure you have set the proper hostname and hosts entries in respective files:

$ cat /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost

119.9.107.28 mail.server.local mail

$ cat /etc/hostname

mail.server.local

Start the Zimbra installation by executing the installer:

$ sudo ./install.sh

The installation process will ask you to agree with License Agreement. Type y and press Enter to continue:

On acceptance of agreement, Zimbra will check for dependencies and then ask for the component selection. I have chosen to skip a few components. Type y when asked for confirmation:

Type y when asked for package selection confirmation.

The installation process will take some time. As installation completes, the Zimbra configuration menu will be displayed. Here, you need to set an admin account password:

On the main menu, select 6 to choose zimbra-store and then type 4 for the admin password. The new prompt will ask for the admin account password:

Then, type r to come back to the main menu and then type a to apply settings, and again press Enter to save settings:

Finally, apply all configurations when asked. Zimbra will ask you to send installation notification to Zimbra. Choose Yes by typing y to notify Zimbra:

Now you can access your Zimbra server with the domain name of your server or IP address. Your browser may prompt for a non-trusted server certificate, as shown in the following screenshot:

You can access the Inbox panel on port 7071, https://yourserver.tld:7071.

How it works…

Zimbra combines various commonly used packages in a single package and provides a web interface to work with them. It reduces the efforts required in installing and configuring all tools separately. For any additional features, you can always switch to the Zimbra collaboration server, Network Edition.

There's more…

If you are planning to use Zimbra on your local network, you will need a DNS server set up. Alternatively, you can use the tool dnsmasq. It is a small package that sets up a quick DNS environment on your local network.

See also

Zimbra open source features at https://www.zimbra.com/open-source/features

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