[SOLVED] "Public service host name" in domain creation

[ArcaneMagus]

While creating a domain I saw a new field that must have been introduced with 5.0.x that doesn't seem to have a clear meaning (at least to me).
The new field is "Public service host name"

I have searched the help documentation, the wiki, and the forums and not found anything relevant. Can somebody explain what this field is supposed to do?

[mmorse]

The server uses zimbraPublicServiceHostname to generate REST URLs, ie: briefcase, document, calendar sharing etc.

Say it's generating a URL like http:// server1.domain.com and you'd rather have it http:// mail.domain.com:

zmprov md domain.com zimbraPublicServiceHostname mail.domain.com

(As long as 'mail' has a proper DNS entry to point at 'server1' both internally and externally.)

[mmorse]

& before you ask

Say you have domainA & domainB:

If you point users at just one address (say it's mail.domainA.com) you just set:

zmprov mcf zimbraDefaultDomainName domainA.com

and users can login with username/pass.

However, user's in domainB.com on the other hand will have to type the full login username@domainB.com/pass.

To solve that you can create a virtual host. This becomes the default domain for a user login so web-client users can log in without having to specify the domain name as part of their user name.

Admin console GUI > Domains > Virtual Hosts tab. The virtual host requires a valid DNS configuration with an A record.
OR

zmprov md domainB.com zimbraVirtualHostname webmail.domainB.com

Users enter the virtual host name as the URL address (webmail.domainB.com) where they enter just their username/pass.
The authentication request searches for a domain with that virtual host name and authentication is completed against that domain.

Now, if you have a multi server setup you can deploy a login load balancer for the Zimbra server so that all users can log in using the same address/name instead of having to remember which server their mailbox is on.

You set up a virtual hostname of mail.example.com and configure four mail servers, mail1.example.com to mail4.example.com.

When users log on to mail.example.com, the load balancer directs the user to any one of the mail servers to verify the log on information. After successfully logging on, users are redirected to the actual server their mail is stored on. While they are logged on, all subsequent requests go directly to their server.

In order to configure this you must turn on the following for each mail server:

zmlocalconfig -e zimbra_auth_always_send_refer=true

We also have an upcoming Bug 9469 - ZCS Mailbox Server Proxy (think of the IMAP/POP proxy principle) to take care of http, soap, rest, caldav, Zimbra Mobile, ZCO, etc.
-You should see most of that mailbox proxy completed in 5.0.3 as an alpha, except for a few things that we'll announce when it's released.

[ArcaneMagus]

Ok thanks for the info. We have been using virtual hosts for a while now to allow users to login as email.domainname.com (we have ~20 domains running on this server).

For a while there I was sure that it was generating the share links using the virtual host address but either I was imagining that or it changed recently. I will now put in the address it should show up as in the public service host name field.

Thanks!

[iway]

A user in the standard default domain defauldomain.com logs in via ssl.webmaildomain.com (our standard webmail login) and views his documents.

When he clicks on a document, the link generated is : https://mail.defaultdomain.com... instead of https://ssl.webmaildomain.com/...

How can we change that to always be the correct https://ssl.webmaildomain.com ?

Thanks

[ArcaneMagus]

Do you have your public service hostname set to ssl.webmaildomain.com?
That is what is used to generate the links.

[mmorse]

Just another note: In 5.0.9+ REST URL's are now composed of 3 attributes: zimbraPublicService[Protocol + Hostname + Port] to avoid dependency on zimbraServer objects. 'Protocal' & 'Port' are automatically configured on upgrade if you have 'Hostname' set. Bug 29978 - remove requirement that zimbraPublicServiceHostname have a corresponding zimbraServer object

[iway]

OK, but how exactly do I set those parameters?

And do I have to set them for every domain? All users (although they have mail addresses in different domains) log in via one webmail domain.

Thanks

Chris

[ArcaneMagus]

As mmorse stated previously:

Originally Posted by mmorse

The server uses zimbraPublicServiceHostname to generate REST URLs, ie: briefcase, document, calendar sharing etc.

zmprov md domain.com zimbraPublicServiceHostname mail.domain.com

Say it's generating a URL like http:// server1.domain.com and you'd rather have it http:// mail.domain.com:
(As long as 'mail' has a proper DNS entry to point at 'server1' both internally and externally.)

So you will need to login to the zimbra user and run

zmprov md defaultdomain.com zimbraPublicServiceHostname ssl.webmaildomain.com

Edit: And yes it looks like you will have to set it up for every domain.

[mmorse]

So you'd use like: zmprov md interways.de zimbraPublicServiceHostname mail.interways.de
I didn't go check but there might be fallback to server objects if you forget to provide protocol and/or port. You probably want 'https' & '443' based on the URL's you provided (zmprov gs `zmhostname` | grep zimbraMailMode would tell us more).