Question regarding Zimbra Ubuntu and Dapper LTS

[chunkybacon]

After an initial learning curve regarding how Zimbra does things I got a full install up and running on an Edgy i386 box. Since it seems that Zimbra is drifting into supporting the Debian/Ubuntu world as well as the Red Hat world, my question is will Zimbra basically try to follow 6 month release cycle of Ubuntu solely regarding Zimbra releases, or will there also be Zimbra software released for the Dapper Long Term Support in the long run?

[brian]

Current Ubuntu builds are done on 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake). The Network Edition will be supported for the greater of 1 year or 2 major ZCS releases and although unsupported the open source version usually follows. We typically support the latest OS builds as demand dictates or as we phase out older OS's.

hope that answers your question.

[Artturi]

Having installed a mail system in 2005 on debian sarge, I've appreciated the fact that it takes a long time for debian to release a new version.

I'm currently planning a migration to zimbra OE and wonders wich distribution to choose.
Ubuntu seems at first a good choice since it gives me the possibility to upgrade towards zimbra NE. However, I'm a bit afraid by the perspective I'll have to upgrade the system many times in order to be up to date regarding zimbra releases.

Regards,
Artturi

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Artturi

I'm currently planning a migration to zimbra OE and wonders wich distribution to choose.

I'd suggest using CentOS as it's binary compatible with RHEL and has a long life-time and support.

[Artturi]

Yes, seems like a good option, thanks !
Am I right when I understand Zimbra 4.5 can run on centos 4.0, 4.1, ..., 4.4 ? (4.0 was released on march 2005, just to give an idea of the lifetime it gives)

What about the possibility to upgrade to the network edition. Is the migration from zimbra on centos to zimbra on rhel or sles something to worry about ?

[phoenix]

Certainly Zimbra will run on 4.3 (I think that's what I had installed when I first put ZImbra on my server) but there's no reason not to go with 4.4

As for the upgrade, I'd upgrade to NE on CentOS then backup the server with the nice shiny backup features you get in NE and finally install an RHEL server then 4.5 and restore onto that - I don't believe there would be many problems with that. Have a search around the forums (and wiki) for some posts on backing-up/restoreing to a new server.

[mjfleck2000]

Originally Posted by Artturi

Having installed a mail system in 2005 on debian sarge, I've appreciated the fact that it takes a long time for debian to release a new version.

I'm currently planning a migration to zimbra OE and wonders wich distribution to choose.
Ubuntu seems at first a good choice since it gives me the possibility to upgrade towards zimbra NE. However, I'm a bit afraid by the perspective I'll have to upgrade the system many times in order to be up to date regarding zimbra releases.

Regards,
Artturi

What system will you have to upgrade - many times - in order to be up to date?
Ubuntu Dapper? Zimbra?
Zimbra is targeting Ubuntu Dapper as the main Ubuntu version. So, install Dapper, install latest Zimbra. Update Dapper, as needed, for security updates only; update Zimbra as updates are released.

How would this scenario be different using RH/Cent-OS?

[Artturi]

Seems I have misunderstood Brian's comment when he states "We typically support the latest OS builds as demand dictates or as we phase out older OS's." (If Ubuntu releases had to be phased out every 6 month, this would force OS upgrades quite often).

Thanks for your input.

Artturi