ZCS Multi_Server Installation Guide, Open Source 4.5

Preparing Your Server Environment

System Requirements

Modifying Operating System Configurations

Installation Modifications for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Installation Modifications for Fedora

Installation Modification for Mac Servers

DNS Configuration Requirement

In order to successfully install and run Zimbra Collaboration Suite, ensure your system meets the requirements described in this section. This section includes:

•	System requirements

•	Operating system modifications

•	DNS Configuration requirements

Important: Do not manually create the user ‘zimbra’ before running the ZCS installation. The installation automatically creates this user and sets up its environment.

System Requirements

For the ZCS system requirements see System Requirements for Zimbra Collaboration Suite 4.5

Modifying Operating System Configurations

Configuration modifications for two of the most frequently used operating systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora, are described in this guide. The SUSE configuration would be similar to those described for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The MAC OS X requires no additional modifications.

Other operating systems may require similar modifications, use this information as a reference to gauge whether your operating system may need to be modified. Also, search the Zimbra forums.

Installation Modifications for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

The Zimbra Collaboration Suite runs on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 4 operating system. When you install the Red Hat software for the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, you should accept the default setup answers to install the minimum configuration, except the following steps must be modified.

Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation guide for detailed documentation about installing their software.

•	Disk Partitioning Setup. Check Manually partition with DiskDruid. The disk partition should be set up as follows:

•	The Mount Point/RAID Volume size for the /boot partition should be 100 MB.

•	The Swap partition should be set to twice the size of the RAM on your machine.

•	The Root partition (/) should be set with the remaining disk space size.

 

•	Network Configuration>Network Devices>Hostname should be configured manually with the hostname [mailhost.example.com] of the Zimbra server.

 

•	Enter the Gateway and Primary DNS addresses.

•	In the Edit Interface pop-up screen, check Activate on Boot. Enter the IP Address and Netmask of the device. This allows the interface to start when you boot.

•	Firewall Configuration should be set to No firewall, and the Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) should be disabled.

Important: The following should also be considered before you install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

•	You must disable Sendmail in order to run the Zimbra Collaboration Suite. Disable the Sendmail service with these commands, chkconfig sendmail off, service sendmail stop.

•	A fully qualified domain name is required. Make sure that the FQDN entry in /etc/hosts appear before the hostnames. If this is missing, the creation of the Zimbra certificate fails. The FQDN entry should look like this example.

 

127.0.0.1          localhost.localdomain localhost your.ip.address        FQDN yourhostname

Installation Modifications for Fedora

The Zimbra Collaboration Suite runs on the Fedora, Core 4 operating system. When you install the Fedora software for the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, accept the default setup answers, except for the following steps. Refer to the Fedora installation guide for detailed documentation about installing their software.

•	Disk Partitioning Setup. Check Manually partition with DiskDruid. The disk partition should be set up as follows:

•	The Mount Point/RAID Volume size for the /boot partition should be 100 MB.

•	The Swap partition should be set to twice the size of the RAM on your machine.

•	The Root partition (/) should be set with the remaining disk space size.

•	Network Configuration>Network Devices>Hostname should be configured manually with the hostname name [mailhost.example.com] of the Zimbra server.

•	Enter the Gateway and Primary DNS addresses.

•	In the Edit Interface pop-up screen, check Activate on Boot. Enter the IP Address and Netmask of the device. This allows the interface to start when you boot.

•	Firewall Configuration should be set to No firewall, and the Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) should be disabled.

Important: The following should also be considered before you install the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

•

You must disable Sendmail in order to run the Zimbra Collaboration Suite application. The Sendmail command to stop the service is /etc/init.d/sendmail stop, to disable, is chkconfig sendmail off. The Postfix command to stop the service is /etc/init.d/postfix stop, to disable, is chkconfig postfix stop.

•	Make sure that FQDN entry in /etc/hosts appear before the hostnames. If this is missing, the creation of the Zimbra certificate fails. The FQDN entry should look like this example.

 

127.0.0.1           localhost.localdomain localhost your.ip.address         FQDN yourhostname

Installation Modification for Mac Servers

No modifications are required to the MAC server operating system, but Java 1.5 should be set as the default Java.

To set Java 1.5 as the default:

•

su - root

•	cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.Framework/Versions

•	rm CurrentJDK

•	ln -s 1.5.0 CurrentJDK

DNS Configuration Requirement

In order to send and receive email, the Zimbra MTA must be configured in DNS with both A and MX records. For sending mail, the MTA uses DNS to resolve hostnames and email-routing information. To receive mail the MX record must be configured correctly to route the message to the mail server.

During the installation process ZCS checks to see if you have an MX record correctly configured. If it is not, an error is displayed suggesting that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS.

You must configure a relay host if you do not enable DNS. After ZCS is installed, go to the Global Settings>MTA tab on the administration console and uncheck Enable DNS lookups. Enter the relay MTA address to use for external delivery.

Note: Even if a relay host is configured, an MX record is still required if the ZCS server is going to receive email from the internet.

 

ZCS Multi_Server Installation Guide, Open Source 4.5