I am considering installing zimbra on a working server. Is it ready for that?

[rodolico]

I do not know if this is the correct forum. I have a corporate client who has fairly straight-forward requirements. They have only around 1000 messages a day (including spam), but many of the ham messages have large attachments (>5M).

They are a pure Debian shop for servers, but are considering installing RH in order to use Zimbra.

Question: What is the stability. I see it is beta code. Actually, I don't trust RH for production, so what is the stability of RedHat now days.

Can the system handle a lot of large attachments. The current system stores its e-mail in a single file (old style), and simply indexing a dozen messages means the webmail must scan through 12-60 Meg of file just to get the headers. Does Zimbra handle this in a database, or in Maildir, or both.

Finally, where can I find a list of outstanding bugs.

I would rather wait until Zimbra matures, especially until it can be ported to Debian, but the UI is excellent (I'm jealous, and want to scan your code to see how you did it), and just what the client needs, so if I can get a warm fuzzy off of it, I will bite the bullet, create an RH server and install. Otherwise, I'll tell the client to wait.

I would greatly appreciate any input.

Thanks,

Rod

[anand]

Question: What is the stability. I see it is beta code.

Stability is as labelled.

Actually, I don't trust RH for production, so what is the stability of RedHat now days.

Zimbra Network supported distro list definitely includes RHEL. We wouldn't take that leap if we didn't think it was a stable platform to run mail.

Can the system handle a lot of large attachments. The current system stores its e-mail in a single file (old style), and simply indexing a dozen messages means the webmail must scan through 12-60 Meg of file just to get the headers. Does Zimbra handle this in a database, or in Maildir, or both.

Message store is file per message. Message meta data - including what you need for folder listing - is in database and fast.

Finally, where can I find a list of outstanding bugs.

We plan on having bugzilla up soon, you will be able to see the bug database then.

Glad you like the UI. The stuff in the pipeline is even more amazing.

[rodolico]

Sorry, but one other question I wanted to ask. Does Zimbra act like an IMAP server also, or is there a configuration that allows external IMAP clients to connect also?

[andreychek]

Originally Posted by rodolico

Sorry, but one other question I wanted to ask. Does Zimbra act like an IMAP server also, or is there a configuration that allows external IMAP clients to connect also?

Howdy,

Yes, Zimbra offers both IMAP and POP support. You can have external clients connect with no problem.

Have a good one,
-Eric

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by rodolico

Finally, where can I find a list of outstanding bugs.

Just to add to Anand's comment. When we do open up bugzilla you'll see there is quite a long list of bugs. Just trying to give folks out their fair warning who are thinking of trying to go to production ahead of our official release.

[rodolico]

I'm used to working in Debian, generally playing with the "testing" version (not in my production machines, however). I am very used to large bug lists. Just want to know what I'm getting into and if any of the bugs are things we can't live with.

Looks like the upgrade path is fairly straight-forward. I'm thinking I'll just put in a standard SMTP and IMAP, and then update when the thing stabalizes some. I would be very happy to assist in the Debian port when you get that far. Feel free to let me know what needs to be done and I'll see if I can help with it.

Thanks very much for all the input.

Rod