Simply taken from its website, Zimbra Collaboration Server is the most capable open source email and collaboration suite available today. Zimbra provides organizations major productivity boosts with global address lists, shared calendars and document management on the web or offline with Zimbra Desktop. Support for standard protocols enables use of virtually any desktop client or device for added end user flexibility.
This tutorial shows you how to install Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 7.0.0 GA Release on Centos 5.5.
The guide starts with the installation of Centos 5.5’s packages required by ZCS 7.0, the installation of ZCS 7.0 on Centos 5.5 and then later configures everything to make it work as a powerful email and collaboration suite application.
I assumed that you already know how to install Centos 5.5. Firstly run ‘yum update’ to make sure the system is up to date. Then you need to disable the firewall and SELinux feature. Later you can easily enable it if you want.
Run ‘system-config-securitylevel’ to disable security level and SELinux. Also disable ‘sendmail’ so it will not conflict with postfix. Also disable the iptables and ip6tabels as well.
/etc/init.d/sendmail stop
chkconfig sendmail off
chkconfig iptables off
chkconfig ip6tables off
Let’s start with the installation of Centos 5.5 packages required by ZCS 7.0.
The following are required packages need to be installed before installing ZCS:
– NPTL (Native POSIX Thread Library – installed by default)
– sudo
– libidn
– gmp, and
– libstdc++
The suggested prerequisite packages: Perl, sysstat, and sqlite. Remember that some packages may be already installed.
Run yum install to install those packages above:
yum install sudo sysstat gmp libidn libstdc++ sqlite
Configure hostname of the server and DNS for the domain
Make sure that in /etc/hosts, the hostname of the server has been pointed to the IP address of the server. It should look like below:
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.137.2 mail.mydomain.com mail
::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
Beside as a mail/Zimbra server, we also will use the server as a DNS server.
For example, we will use a simple domain name ‘mydomain.com’ with the MX record point to mail.mydomain.com.
Create a file /var/named/chroot/var/named/mydomain.com with the following configuration:
;
; Addresses and other host information.
;
@ IN SOA mydomain.com. hostmaster.mydomain.com. (
2011030801 ; Serial
43200 ; Refresh
3600 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
2592000 ) ; Minimum
; Define the nameservers and the mail servers
IN NS ns.mydomain.com.
IN A 192.168.137.2
IN MX 10 mail.mydomain.com.
mail IN A 192.168.137.2
ns IN A 192.168.137.2
Edit the /var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf file to match the mydomain.com
options {
directory "/var/named";
dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
forwarders { 8.8.8.8; };
};
include "/etc/rndc.key";
// We are the master server for mydomain.com
zone "mydomain.com" {
type master;
file "mydomain.com";
};
Start named on the server
/etc/init.d/named start
Enable autostart for named
chkconfig named on
Verify that the dns is working:
host -t mx mydomain.com
mydomain.com mail is handled by 10 mail.mydomain.com.
nslookup mail.mydomain.com
Server: 192.168.137.2
Address: 192.168.137.2#53
Name: mail.mydomain.com
Address: 192.168.137.2
Until this step we have installed the Centos 5.5 packages required for Zimbra Collaboration Suite 7.0.0 GA Release and configured the domain in the DNS server.
The next step, in the second part of this tutorial, we will go forward to install the Zimbra 7 on Centos 5.5.
Hi Fuad ,
First thank you for your tutorial. I have a strange issue when i tried to follow this tutorial. let me explain my requiremnts and i ll be grateful if you help me installing zimbra correctly. basicaly i have a small company with a local network. I want to install zimbra in the local server and create an account for every employee that will be related with an external account ( the original account are in an external server ). This is what i’ve done till now.
-add a host , i called it mail.local-example.com
-add a dns zone for local-example here’s the content of zone:
;
; Addresses and other host information.
;
@ IN SOA local-example.com. aladin.local-example.com. (
2011030801 ; Serial
43200 ; Refresh
3600 ; Retry
3600000 ; Expire
2592000 ) ; Minimum
; Define the nameservers and the mail servers
IN A 10.13.1.20
IN NS mail.local-example.com.
IN MX 10 mail.local-example.com.
i created the named.conf file and added this content:
options {
directory “/var/named”;
dump-file “/var/named/data/cache_dump.db”;
statistics-file “/var/named/data/named_stats.txt”;
forwarders { 8.8.8.8; };
};
include “/etc/rndc.key”;
// We are the master server for excel.com
zone “local-example.com” {
type master;
file “local-example.com”;
};
this is the /etc/hosts content:
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.13.1.20 mail.local-example.com mail
::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6
the 10.13.1.20 is my local server ip .
when i tried nslookup i get this output :
nslookup mail.local-local.com
Server: 127.0.0.1
Address: 127.0.0.1#53
** server can’t find mail.local-example.com: NXDOMAIN
can you help me troubleshooting this issue ?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Aladin,
This is a DNS/BIND related configuration issue. You haven’t defined the ‘mail.local-example.com’ sub-domain in the local-example.com zone record above.
Add this line just after the ‘IN MX 10 mail.local-example.com.’:
mail IN A 10.13.1.20
Restart the ‘named’ service ‘/etc/init.d/named restart’ and then try the nslookup check again.
Hi
thanks for the solution , it works fine but when i tried to install zimbra i get an error :DNS ERROR resolving MX for mail.excel-local.com It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS(choosed another name for mail).
I may explain what i need exactly: I have a domain name mail.we-excel.com and i want to install zimbra locally and create an account for each employee . I don’t want them to have access to mail.we-excel.com so i m planning to create a a local mail account for each one and bind it with the original account , also i want to give for some employee the right to access the original mail .
CAn you help me please ?
Hello Fuad NAHDI!
I have a problem when Start named on the server, i receive a message of fail.
Do you know how I can fix this?
Thanks, your site’s great!
Hi Luan,
What the error message said? I will happily help you to fix your problem.
Thanks for visiting my site.