[SOLVED] Two mailboxes, one server, two domains

[Baylink]

I have a Z server which serves two domains, my work, and a personal domain.

Since it's difficult (or impossible) to stay logged into two separate mailboxes simultaneously, I'm trying to figure out how to deal with this for my mailbox -- I have an email address in each domain.

I've already set up my personal mailbox, since I'm using the personal domain as the beta test for the server.

So, is this something for which I use admin-side aliases? Personae? Or both?

[mmorse]

Host of options depending on how 'separate' you want it or if your comfortable with an alias.

A) Try 'family mailboxes' - Zimbra Desktop uses this same accordion UI:



(You then have access to every app. Downside is no IM, but there's no IM in shares anyways. If you need IM you'd have to use an XMPP thick-client, or options B-E.)

zmprov ga user@personal.com | grep Id
zimbraId: {zimbraId-String-Personal}
zmprov ma user@company.com +zimbraChildAccount {zimbraId-String-Personal}
zmprov ma user@company.com +zimbraPrefChildVisibleAccount {zimbraId-String-Personal}

Other downsides include 'on-behalf':
Bug 22819 - reply to another user's message is always on-behalf-of
Bug 19146 - send on behalf of for delegate access for ZWC
Bug 27259 - Option for "On behalf of sent mail" to go to "on behalf of" user's sent items

The ability to only open one account is is intentional in 5.0.x - while 4.5.x let you have more than one session against the same server open in a single browser session, there's just too much that can go wrong. This is not specific for Zimbra but any session based application.
So some ways to circumvent that (B-E):

B) Use an alias domain name for the server: mail.domain.com > webmail.domain.com and log one user into each. You can also put webmail.domain.com in the virtual hosts tab of the domain to make login smoother/avoid typing the full username@domain.com if you have several domains.

Might not be scalable however, because if you're wanting 8 accounts open that'd be 8 webmailX.domains.com values to setup in DNS.
So if it was me, I would prefer to just make a wildcard-subdomain *.server.domain.com -> server.domain.com and have the users log in to username.server.domain.com.

C) Run multiple browsers (ie FF/Safari/IE)

D) Run multiple browser sessions of the same browser (search the web for more info).

For example-
Guide to running several independent instances of Firefox: Running two Firefox profiles simultaneously - redemption in a blog

In short, close all your FF instances, run firefox -profilemanager, craete newProfileName, open firefox, then run firefox -P newProfileName -no-remote

You can use this extension to change the window title of the running instances:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/31

E) Want another easy browser to setup? You could use prism: Mozilla Labs » Featured Projects

F) Use sharing - from UI or CLI:
None - None
Viewer - View(r)
Manager - View(r), Edit(w), Add(i), Remove(d), Accept(x), Decline(x)
Admin - View(r), Edit(w), Add(i), Remove(d), Accept(x), Decline(x), Administer(a)

(r)ead - search, view overviews and items
(w)rite - edit drafts/contacts/notes, set flags
(i)nsert - copy/add to directory, create subfolders
action (x) - workflow actions, like accepting appointments
(d)elete - delete items and subfolders, set \Deleted flag
(a)dminister - delegate admin and change permissions on shares

For instance you could make yourself a custom 'author' or 'editor' role if using SOAP/CLI/Java to add permissions - something like:
Editor - View(r), Edit(w), Accept(x), Decline(x)
Author - View(r), Edit(w), Add(i), Accept(x), Decline(x)

zmmailbox -z -m theshare@domain.com modifyFolderGrant /Folder account user@domain.com rwx

The createMountpoint command is commonly used after this:
zmmailbox z -m user@domain.com createMountpoint --view appointment "/Vacation Calendar" vacationcal@domain.com /VacationDates

You can do any of the following [account <name> |group <name> |domain <name> |all |public| guest <email> <password>] followed by the permissions like r, rw, rwix, rwixd, rwixda, none, etc.

In your case you would share the root of the account directory /

(Simply by shareing the send folder as well will auto keep track of conversations, and it will be easy to reply as the user without even setting up personas because of the built in on-behalf sending.)

G) Alias for receiving.

H) Combine sharing or aliases with personas.


To get the 'From:' field seemless (normally you can only set the reply-to) you need the permission to send as any address or specific addresses set - pic of that in the admin console:


I) Forwarding (but may get messy)

J) Kinda messy, but if you want just mail: Accounts > preferences > add external account (you'd still have to do shares for addressbooks, calendars, tasks, docs, briefcase items etc)

Account aggregation is a datasource and thus needs a polling interval set (unless you want to always hit "get external mail") [SOLVED] Automatic POP retrieval

To get the individual datasource:
zmprov gds user@domain.com
Set the individual datasource level:
zmprov mds user@domain.com [external IMAP/POP account data source name] zimbraDataSourcePollingInterval 15m

Those polling intervals are usually also set at least greater than 5 min because a lot of them can increase server load. We decided to forgo the end-user preferences on that frequency Bug 22114 - Expose external account polling interval in UI because of the server performance effects (even with an admin min); however we do plan on exposing it in the admin console: Bug 21199 - add ability to set autopolling in admin console so you don't have to user other SOAP/Java/CLI methods (outlined in above thread) to set.

[Baylink]

Since I want to have separate calendars, briefcases, etc, I assume I am forced to approach A, and to use 2 licenses. I have some headroom, so that's ok. I'll set it up by hand with those commands and see how it works. Thanks. If it works out the way I expect, I'll SOLVE it.

[mmorse]

The parent account has 'control' over the child. I gave directions for the company as the 'parent' but I can see logical reasons to make the personal the parent: Then if ever in a work situation/location you can login to user@company.com without seeing user@personal.com.

It seems you want them definitely separate (2 licences) instead of aliases or sharing.
But you can technically do more than just A. If you have 2 accounts B-E works as well if you don't mind resources for multiple sessions/browsers. (B is a cool trick)

[Baylink]

That's an excellent point, and happily, I made the personal one first.

From and Sent work automatically, then?

[mmorse]

Nope it does the 'on-behalf':


Definitely vote for:
Bug 22819 - reply to another user's message is always on-behalf-of
Bug 19146 - send on behalf of for delegate access for ZWC
Bug 27259 - Option for "On behalf of sent mail" to go to "on behalf of" user's sent items

This is the 2nd thread today where people are running into that on-behalf not doing what they want when...which may be fine if the accounts have a close relationship but there's definitely some 'gotchas' where personas still rule. (Though you don't want personas in your situation.)

[Baylink]

While we are here... what in the heck if this "Sent By" stuff? Could I just have "From:", and "Sender:", if that's different?

When you guys make up header names and rules for what to put in them, what you're *actually* doing is making technical support by people who have been doing email for 20 years nigh on impossible... :-}

I don't mean to be mean, but that guy is me.

[mmorse]

Ya the family mailboxes thing was aimed at parent-child or secretary-boss relationships; where you still want to know who actually sent the mail even when it appears as boss@domain.com

For you the synopsis is back to choices B-E if you want them 100% unrelated with no shares or 'local' account aggregation.

Though you could do some postfix header_checks I suppose:
IF From: user@personal.com & Sender: user@company.com REPLACE ....
Postfix manual - header_checks(5)
(But again that's outside the relm for every end-user, hence the 3 RFE's.)

[Baylink]

As it happens, I'll be using be, as I do have 2 separate aliases for the mail server (in addition to it's actual name), and that seems to be working fine.

So far.

Thanks.