ZCS 7.1 (DoubleHelix)

[mmorse]

Exciting news! We’ve just release VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server 7.1 and I thought I’d take a few minutes to explain the details behind the release.

After 7.0.1 some may have been expecting a typical 7.0.2 maintenance release. Rest assured 7.1 is primarily comprised of the bug fixes and enhancement requests you would expect in any maintenance release from Zimbra. So why the special 7.1 version number? We’ve done some important plumbing to set the stage for a few new features coming later in the year, as well as added internationalization enhancements to improve localization, such as Japanese for instance.

What are these new future features you ask? Namely, steps towards S/MIME encryption (keep an eye on 9046) and support for smartcard authentication. I know many in the community have noticed the activity in Bugzilla around S/MIME, so we’ve reved the minor version to indicate a sign of good things to come. The release however does not include any changes in behavior or big ticket features that you need to spend weeks figuring out in a lab. So all you 6.0.x (possible 6.0.13) and 7.0.x customers, 7.1 is your next step.

Below are a few important links to more information and the actual bits themselves.

Product Management Portal:
pm.zimbra.com/pm_release.php?rel=7.1

Web-Client Overview:
ZWC UI Changes 7.1.pdf

Release Notes:
7_1_NE_GA_Release Notes.pdf | 7_1_OS_GA_Release Note.pdf (no 's')

Go get it:
Network Edition Downloads | Open Source Edition Downloads

EDIT:

Notable issues during upgrade:
58733 - zmconfigd doesn't respond to stop/kill signal (easy fix, remove/opt/zimbra/log/zmconfigd.pid)

Once again, basically what was going to be 7.0.2 became 7.1 - it's like a normal maintenance release plus groundwork - which warranted an increment of the minor version instead of micro. In hindsight perhaps we could have called it 7.2 to avoid confusion with 7.0.1, but most can figure out that versioning follows our standard Major.Minor.Micro concept - some good DoubleHelix 'DoubleRainbow' puns aside - enjoy!