Zimbra on MacOSX Client and DNS

[phoenix]

Yes, it's for RHEL but the configuration of a local DNS server is still the same those instructions should give you a pointer on how to implement it. You could always search the forms and see if any other MAC users have posted details of what they've done.

It's really not that complicated, you need a local DNS server to be able to resolve the LAN IP address of your server - it's fairly straightforward.

[key]

ok, i understand.

my problem is now that i'm a little bit under stress because since yesterday i have the mx record and everything goes to mail.key-net.de...
so, i'm not receiving mails from my isp anymore.
so i have to setup the server.

if i had the time i would surf for the information on the web.

but, another question: that means, that i have to put a dns server on this mail sever, am i right?
it will be like a local dns-server, correct?

so, to do it quickly, is that scenario ok:

Scenario : DNS Enabler on a private network.

You've set up a local network behind a router or a base station for testing or for doing web development.

Let's say that the local network is on subnet 10.0.1.x and you've decided to have a web server and mail server on a static IP address 10.0.1.206. To simulate real world conditions and not have to change your code when you move it to a production environment, you want to access the web and mail servers via domain names, say cutedgesystems.com.

So this is what you do. You run DNS Enabler on the 10.0.1.206 machine and set it up like this :



You can now point all the other machines on the local network to use 10.0.1.206 as their name server. This way, all the local machines can access the web and mail server through its domain name. If you've set up an alias, like above, you can also hit the web server by typing www.cutedgesystems.com in the browser.

This is a simple thing to do and it takes only a couple of minutes to set up, but it can be made even more useful. E.g., you may have a few other machines containing projects at various stages of development. You can switch your machines around and test each machine in turn as www.cutedgesystems.com, say, just by changing the name-address assignments in DNS Enabler.

Or, since this is a private local network, you can simulate more than one domain, e.g., to test the effect of sending mail from one server to another, from roadstead.com to cutedgesystems.com, say. So you can set up DNS Enabler as shown below :



Another Scenario : This is important because it happens quite often - you may have set up a web or mail server behind a router, broadband modem, or wireless base station when you noticed that machines on the local network cannot "see" the server via its domain name, while machines outside the network can (e.g., you've used dyndns.org or some such service to obtain your own domain name).

In this case, you can use DNS Enabler to broadcast the domain name to all the local machines (using the simple configuration outlined above) and help them find their way to your server. This has helped many Postfix Enabler and MailServe users who are behind routers that are hard to configure or those using the first model of the Airport Base Station.

Another benefit of running a DNS Server on the same machine as your web and mail server, in the way described above, is that your web and mail server will both "know" what their domain name is when they each start up (which they won't if you're running off a dynamic public IP address but sitting behind a router on a private network). This is crucial, for example, in making SSL work because, for SSL, the name the server knows itself by, the name on the SSL cert, and the name that people use to access the server - all these three things must line up correctly.

Also, the mail server, in particular, will be able to resolve domain names faster, to figure out where to send the mail, if it can refer to one locally on the server machine without having to go out to an external DNS server,

it's a graphical tool to setup up dns on macosx. i would get it if it's ok for my purposes.

[phoenix]

I'm not a MAC user but I seem to remember some forum members have used DNS enabler. Here's a tutorial I found via gogle, it tells you how to do it manually. It's might have been mentioned before but it's worth repeating, you also need a correct /etc/hosts file - do you have one?

[edit]BTW, that article mentions webmin (I don't know if it runs on a MAC) it's what I use for managing my servers.

[key]

thx, phoenix.

i think i will get dns-enabler, because the things in the how-to are old, i think they changed some things in bind.

yes, i've put the machine in the hosts file like:
192.168.100.2 mail.key-net.de mail

can you take a look please to my earlier post from this morning to the dig-output and tell me if the line with the a record is ok. it ssems that the a record is already there.

key

[phoenix]

The reports from dnsstuff & pingability point to an MX record at your external IP address, you now need to configure your LAN IP with DNS enabler to point to your Zimbra server.

You can do an initial check on your server with the following (run on the zimbra server):

host `hostname`  <-- backticks not single quotes
dig key-net.de mx
dig key-net.de any

that will give you an indication about your DNS being correct.

[key]

hi bill,

well, installed dns-enabler, seems to be ok, please check the attached screenshot, i'm not sure about the primary dns server and so on.

but, zcs is still says that the mx record could not be found.

and here are the outputs from host and dig:

---
mail:~ admin$ host `hostname`
mail.key-net.de has address 217.7.247.83
mail:~ admin$ dig key-net.de mx

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> key-net.de mx
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48102
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;key-net.de. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
key-net.de. 85511 IN MX 10 mail.key-net.de.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mail.key-net.de. 85511 IN A 217.7.247.83

;; Query time: 47 msec
;; SERVER: 217.237.151.115#53(217.237.151.115)
;; WHEN: Sun Aug 12 16:19:00 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 65

mail:~ admin$ dig key-net.de any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> key-net.de any
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 25255
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;key-net.de. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
key-net.de. 85520 IN NS ns1.webpage.t-com.de.
key-net.de. 85520 IN NS ns2.webpage.t-com.de.
key-net.de. 85520 IN SOA ns1.webpage.t-com.de. dns-admin.webpage.t-com.de. 1186827455 21600 3600 604800 86400
key-net.de. 85520 IN MX 10 mail.key-net.de.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns2.webpage.t-com.de. 50701 IN A 62.157.138.30
ns1.webpage.t-com.de. 51084 IN A 80.152.31.30
mail.key-net.de. 86374 IN A 217.7.247.83

;; Query time: 49 msec
;; SERVER: 217.237.151.115#53(217.237.151.115)
;; WHEN: Sun Aug 12 16:19:10 2007
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 193
---


and here the zcs error about the mx record again:

---
mail:/opt/zimbra/libexec root# ./zmsetup.pl
Operations logged to /tmp/zmsetup.log.851
Checking java version...1.5 found
Setting defaults...

DNS ERROR resolving MX for mail.key-net.de
It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS
Change domain name? [Yes]
---
can you help me again?

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by key

hi bill,

well, installed dns-enabler, seems to be ok, please check the attached screenshot, i'm not sure about the primary dns server and so on.

but, zcs is still says that the mx record could not be found.

and here are the outputs from host and dig:

---
[I]mail:~ admin$ host `hostname`
mail.key-net.de has address 217.7.247.83

This would indicate that your hosts file is incorrect and from the DNS responses it's also likely that you are still using your external DNS server as the resolver. You'll need to modify the hosts file and change the DNS for your server to use your recently installed DNS server. As I mentioned earlier, I'm no MAC user so I don't know the location of those file or settings.

[key]

i know that you're not a mac user.
thx anyway for your support!

i don't understand now really what's going on... talked to the dns-enabler programmer, he told me, that i don't have to run dns-enabler, and i should not modify the hosts file.
so, i think i will go to bed... and my mails are going to nowhere...

it's strange, it seems so, that no mac users installed here zimbra - seems not to be a used server yet one the mac platform.. and others with my config (one ip-adress from isp, dmz router and so one) also, did not tried it yet.

i will try further, let's see what comes out...

[jholder]

The mac is pretty much BSD with a nice face.

Hosts file: /etc/hosts
DNS: /etc/resolv.cnf

We have several users who actively use Zimbra on a mac platform. Please be sure to read the quick start guide: http://www.zimbra.com/community/documentation.html

If you need anything, let us know