Zimbra 9 Open Source Edition Build by Zextras: First Time Installation | Zimbra

The Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras, is based on Zimbra’s official repositories. In this article, you will learn more about this build, and its installation for the first time. It also covers some points on the upgrades, updates, and patches. To learn more about Zextras’s decision, please read Zextras Released Its Own Build of Zimbra 9 Open Source Edition.

First Time Installation

The installation procedure is easy and very similar to a normal Zimbra installation. For more information, you can refer to How to install Zimbra on CentOS/RHEL and How to install Zimbra on Ubuntu LTS. The first thing you should do is to get the Zimbra 9 OSE from the Zextras website by entering your email address and receiving detailed instructions. However, we try to cover it briefly here.

Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras is supported by Ubuntu 18, Ubuntu 20, CentOS 8, CentOS 7, RHEL 8, and RHEL 7 operating systems.

Requirements

These are the requirements suggested for this build of Zimbra 9 OSE:

• 16 gigabytes of RAM
• 4-core CPU or 4 vCPUs
• 10 gigabytes of free hard disk space
• FQDN, MX, and A DNS records
• Set the timezone and NTP

You should configure the domain name of the server using the sudo hostnamectl set-hostname mail.company.com --static command and add A and MX records using dig -t A mail.company.com and dig -t MX company.com commands.

*** For the first-time installation, you have to make sure that the mentioned services are not active and running in your system:

1. Web Service (apache,apache2, etc.) that runs on port 80
2. Email/MTA Service (postfix,sendmail, etc.) that runs on port 25

If you find them up and running, you have to stop & uninstall them before starting the main installation process as they conflict with the process.

Procedure

Insert your e-mail address on the download page and click the “GET THE BUILD FOR FREE” button to receive an e-mail with instructions to download your corresponding Zimbra 9 OSE package.

Important: In case you are upgrading from Zimbra 9 built by Zextras, run the following command as the Zimbra user (do not run if updating from other third-party builds)

mysql -e 'update zimbra.config set value = 111 where name = "db.version";'

After downloading the Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras as a .tgz archive,

• Unpack the archive as root using these commands
  • tar zxvf zcs-9.0.0_OSE_RHEL7_latest-zextras.tgz | for RHEL 7
  • tar zxvf zcs-9.0.0_OSE_RHEL8_latest-zextras.tgz | for RHEL 8
  • tar zxvf zcs-9.0.0_OSE_UBUNTU18_latest-zextras.tgz | for Ubuntu 18
  • tar zxvf zcs-9.0.0_OSE_UBUNTU20_latest-zextras.tgz | for Ubuntu 20
• Navigate to the folder you just unpacked
  • cd zcs-9.0.0_OSE_RHEL7_latest-zextras | for RHEL 7
  • cd zcs-9.0.0_OSE_RHEL8_latest-zextras | for RHEL 8
  • cd zcs-9.0.0_OSE_UBUNTU18_latest-zextras | for Ubuntu 18
  • cd zcs-9.0.0_OSE_UBUNTU20_latest-zextras | for Ubuntu 20
• Run the installation script by sudo ./install.sh command.
• Follow the installation and configuration

The Zimbra 9 OSE web client will be available at https://mail.company.com. You can access the administrator console from https://mail.company.com:7071.

Upgrade Zimbra 8.8.15 to Zimbra 9

If you already have Zimbra 8.8.15 OSE, you can easily use the Zextras build to upgrade your mail server to Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras. The upgrade procedure is the same as a regular Zimbra upgrade. To do so, you should download the Zimbra 9 OSE from the Zextras website by entering your email address and receiving detailed instructions.

You can also read more about upgrading Zimbra on Zimbra upgrade on CentOS/RHEL and Zimbra upgrade on Ubuntu LTS.

Updating New Patches

There is no need to upgrade this build every time Zimbra releases a new patch, as this build comes with the latest patch already included in the installer. Therefore, you only need to download the new installer from the same address we mentioned above and run the installer.

For more information on this decision, please refer to How we solved the issue of updating Zimbra 9.

The Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras comes with the latest patches already included in the installer. You can check the latest patch and the release date of the build on this webpage.

Nonetheless, if you are eager to experiment yourself you’ll find a quick guide below.

The Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras can be updated using official Zimbra patches. The update procedure is the same as a regular patch update. To update to a new patch, you should:

• Check for new patches,
• Update to patches,
• Restart Zimbra services.

For more detail, you can follow the steps below. Based on your operating system run the correct commands.

To update Zimbra 9 OSE build by Zextras to new patches using system package upgrades:

On CentOS/RHEL

• Clear the yum cache as root using
  • yum clean metadata
• Check for updates so the server finds the new zimbra-patch packages in the patch repository using
  • yum check-update
• Update to available Zimbra patches using
  • yum update
• Restart Zimbra services as zimbra user:
  • su - zimbra
  • zmcontrol restart

On Ubuntu

• Check for updates as root so the server finds the new zimbra-patch packages in the patch repository using
  • apt-get update
• Update to available Zimbra patches using
  • apt-get upgrade
• Restart Zimbra services as zimbra user:
  • su - zimbra
  • zmcontrol restart

and you’re done.

To learn more about upgrades and updates you can read Zimbra upgrade on CentOS/RHEL and Zimbra upgrade on Ubuntu LTS.

More on Zimbra 9 OSE Build by Zextras

Since Zimbra version 9 is not natively available for download, Zextras provides users with the unofficial builds of Synacor’s Zimbra 9 open-source edition under the applicable open-source licenses. The Zextras build is based on the source code provided by Synacor without any significant changes.

• The original source code provided by Synacor is publicly available on Zimbra’s GitHub page.
• The Zimbra 9 OSE built by Zextras is available on the Zextras website.