Upgrading Zimbra on Oracle Linux | Zimbra

This guide will show you how to upgrade (major.minor changes) and update (patches) Zimbra on your Oracle Linux from an older version (previous to 8.8.15) to the latest one.

What we are showing in this article is suitable for every Zimbra release up to 8.8.8, since after this one the update process is managed with a simple “yum update” command for zimbra-patch package.

Please remember that is really important to upgrade your Zimbra to the latest version, in order to avoid security breaches, as we explain in this article from our blog.

Single Server

We start with a single server installation of Zimbra. I recommend that you be sure to have a good backup for all users (just in case …) before proceeding with update.

If you need any information related to basic Zimbra installation on Oracle Linux, you can refer to this article.

Download

Please note that the upgrade process automatically stops and starts services, so you don’t need to stop them before starting the upgrade.

First of all you need to download the latest version of ZCS for CentOS / RHEL:

wget https://files.zimbra.com/downloads/8.8.15_GA/zcs-8.8.15_GA_3953.RHEL8_64.20200629025823.tgz

Note that you have the check on Zimbra website for the latest version available and eventually replace the link above with the right one.

Then unpack the archive using tar command:

tar xvf zcs-8.8.15_GA_3953.RHEL8_64.20200629025823.tgz

Upgrade

Now we can start the upgrading process:

Enter the folder you created by unpacking the archive:

cd zcs-8.8.15_GA_3953.RHEL8_64.20200629025823

Then from within the folder run the “install” script:1sudo screen ./install.sh

Note: To help prevent an upgrade (or install) session from terminating before it is completed, it is suggested and reccomended to use “screen” command. It is important when the upgrade includes restoring a configuration that has a large number of accounts. Syntax is very simple. Just type : < screen ./install.sh >. You can find more info on it inside the Zimbra installation on Oracle Linux article.

You will be asked a couple of questions. Just reply “Y” to continue:

Checking current number of databases...

Do you want to verify message store database integrity? [Y]
Verifying integrity of message store databases.  This may take a while.
mysqld is alive
No errors found

Checking for installable packages

Found zimbra-core
Found zimbra-ldap
Found zimbra-logger
Found zimbra-mta
Found zimbra-snmp
Found zimbra-store
Found zimbra-apache
Found zimbra-spell
Found zimbra-memcached
Found zimbra-proxy

The Zimbra Collaboration Server appears already to be installed.
It can be upgraded with no effect on existing accounts,
or the current installation can be completely removed prior
to installation for a clean install.

Do you wish to upgrade? [Y] y

At the end he will ask you if you want to modify the system. Obviously say Yes:

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

After a while (time depends  on how many accounts you have on your server) it will end the configuration.

Press “enter”

Fix Globalconfig Values

Before the update is finished there are still a couple of steps left to do.
The first one is to fix the default globalconfig values. Open a zmprov interactive shell giving the command zmprov (and then pressing enter) and execute as follows:

modifyConfig zimbraMtaCommandDirectory /opt/zimbra/common/sbin
modifyConfig zimbraMtaDaemonDirectory /opt/zimbra/common/libexec
modifyConfig zimbraMtaMailqPath /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/mailq
modifyConfig zimbraMtaManpageDirectory /opt/zimbra/common/share/man
modifyConfig zimbraMtaNewaliasesPath /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/newaliases
modifyConfig zimbraMtaSendmailPath /opt/zimbra/common/sbin/sendmail

The final step is to disable DSPAM, since it is not longer shipped since ZCS 8.7. To do so type:

zmprov modifyserver $(zmhostname) zimbraAmavisDSPAMEnabled FALSE

zmlocalconfig -e amavis_dspam_enabled=false

zmamavisdctl restart

Now the upgrade process is complete.

Multi Server

If you are running a multi server installation of Zimbra, you have to perform upgrading on every single server in the following order:

• LDAP master server. The LDAP master servers must all be upgraded before proceeding, and they must be running as you upgrade the other servers.
• LDAP replicas where present
• MTA servers
• Proxy servers
• Mailstore servers

The upgrade procedure for each individual server is the one described in the first part of this article.