Migrating from MS/Outlook to Zimbra and Desktop

[deecee]

Hi there.

We have been evaluating ZCS network edition and Z Desktop(beta 2) in our company and I have the following questions..

1. Mac Mail (osx 10.5) client email is read directly by the Zimbra Desktop client for OSX, yet I do not leave my mail on server (we're using qpopper/Linux currently)

Why does this not happen for Outlook/ZDesktop on Wintel platforms?

Is this the case also since Zdesktop imports mailbox file formats, is the behaviour also true of Linux zimbra desktop?

2. We have 90% of our users using a mix of outlook 2002/2003.
The zimbra outlook connector only works for Outlook 2003 + later. - there are a few users who use macs and linux..

We want to give users a choice of being able to use their existing MS Outlook client or Zimbra desktop, but since the outlook zimbra connector does not work in Outlook 2002, there is no 'import' option to read either a PST file or to directly read in mail saved in Outlook 2002, plus contacts/appointments?

When will this be supported, or atleast allow OL2k users to integrate into Zimbra network edition?

We realise that they can use Zimbra webmail, or ZDesktop on Windows but why have two mail clients running at the same time?

I already considered having a ZCS desktop talking to ZCS and a pop account setup in it for users who 'leave messages on server' to the existing pop3 server, but this still does not account for email saved/sent on outlook 2k.

3. What is the difference between Zimbra desktop beta2 and the production version?

Any thoughts/ideas are gratefully appreciated.

DC.

[Klug]

Originally Posted by deecee

1. Mac Mail (osx 10.5) client email is read directly by the Zimbra Desktop client for OSX, yet I do not leave my mail on server (we're using qpopper/Linux currently)
Why does this not happen for Outlook/ZDesktop on Wintel platforms?

This happens only if you use POP3 to check mail (either in Outlook or zDesktop) and not the ZCO (Zimbra Connector for Outlook) nor the "correct" (SOAP) protocol between ZCS and zDesktop.

POP3 also only allows you to get mails : you won't get calendar nor address book.

BTW, zDesktop's behaviour is the same on Wintel, OSX and Linux.
zDesktop (with correct protocol) creates a local sync of what is on the server : if you delete a mail on the server, it'll be delete in zDesktop (and it's the same the other way round).

Originally Posted by deecee

2. We have 90% of our users using a mix of outlook 2002/2003.
The zimbra outlook connector only works for Outlook 2003 + later. - there are a few users who use macs and linux..
We want to give users a choice of being able to use their existing MS Outlook client or Zimbra desktop, but since the outlook zimbra connector does not work in Outlook 2002, there is no 'import' option to read either a PST file or to directly read in mail saved in Outlook 2002, plus contacts/appointments?

There's a PST import tool that is able to import your PST to the server (it's it the download page of the Admin WebUI).Then you'll be able to sync zDesktop with the server.

Originally Posted by deecee

3. What is the difference between Zimbra desktop beta2 and the production version?

Bugfixes and new features (briefcase sync, documents sync, etc).

[deecee]

Hi Klug, thanks for that..

When you talk about the PST import tool in the Admin GUI, does this rely on having all our users PST files locally, and will the tool import all INBOX's/sent/calendar items/contacts etc from both outlook 2k2 without issue?

I can see issues with our users trying to upload/send their huge PST files to the server.. Is there not a more elegant way to do this ?

Has anyone here done this already?

kind regards
dan

[y@w]

The PST importer is somewhat slow depending upon the server and the ISP, but it works pretty well. It does depend on the users or an admin to do the import for each account.. If your old system uses IMAP you can use imapsync. We've used that tool with quite a bit of success as well. It basically replicates your IMAP folders from one server to another. It's also scriptable which is a little harder to do with the PST importer. If all the users use POP and store all the mail locally, then you're pretty much stuck with the PST importer.

I haven't seen any issues with pushing data up from Outlook other than if someone has a large message that's larger than the max allowed upload size.

Outlook PST Import Wizard

[deecee]

Hi Y@w

thanks for the info and your experiences.. I'm thinking we'd only use the outlook importer if we have Office 2k2 users, since once we'd had our Office 2k3/2k7 users install the Zimbra Outlook connector, then it's a done deal- apart from importing contacts and locally stored calendar events, we'd probably use the PST import wizard for that.

rgds

d.

[y@w]

deecee,

I would have to double-check the documentation, but I'm pretty sure that the Outlook connector requires Office 2003 or higher. Just a quick warning so you don't run into any gotcha's in the middle of a migration

[deecee]

Y@w. i meant our outlook 2k3 /2k7 users not 2k2.. You are right, the OLC does not support OL 2k2.

[Tylast]

How would one import their PST when they aren't using a server? I'm just using Zimbra Desktop & I'm connected to Yahoo Mail. I want to migrate my PST file into Zimbra.

[jjzhuang]

no support for pst migration yet, and it won't be in 1.0. however we do have migration tool built for doing this for our online service, so the code is there but just not hooked up yet.

[Tylast]

OK, thanks for the reply. Looking forward to unifying all my e-mail.