Zimbra on Solaris?

[Static Electrician]

I've got a Solaris 8 server and I'd like to get Zimbra on it to test it out (because horde is just...ugh). Downloaded and untarred the zcs-3.0.0_M2_740-src.tgz but don't see any sort of documentation for building -- no README, INSTALL, scripts, nothing. Is there some online howto on building it? I've read through the PDFs, but they're assuming an RPM-based system running postfix (I'm running qmail) so they're not much help.

[KevinH]

ZimbraServer/docs/* There is a cvs howto (which by the way may be easier to use) and some other related docs.

[Static Electrician]

thanks for the pointer, I looked through the forum and only found this thread that discussed it and was hoping for a link to a howto, such as the cvs one thanks.

[KevinH]

Well I heard a rumor that we might try to get the thing to bulid on Solaris x86. If that happens getting it to build on other arch and versions of Solaris would be a bit easier.

[Static Electrician]

Do the install rpms install the JRE/JDK stuff as well? Looking over some other threads, it looks like the java stuff is fairly essential ... this might present a problem vis-a-vis a FreeBSD install (since installing Java on FreeBSD is not the easiest thing in the world in x86 and if not actually impossible on FreeBSD/SPARC, very very close to it.)

If you do get a solaris pkg built, it's quite likely the sunfreeware.com and blastwave.org folks will be happy to host the packages.

[marcmac]

The rpms install everything you need to run the system, modulo a few minor things that you should have installed anyway (libbind, sudo, etc).

As KevinH mentioned, tho, it would be solaris x86 - solaris 10, actually. The chances of a sparc build are pretty slim - we don't have any sparc hardware here, and aren't likely to buy any.

As for FreeBSD - that's not high on the list, and if installing java on it is so difficult, I can't see going through the process, since it's not _that_ popular a system for enterprise. (For enterprise, I said - don't flame me, if it's your distro of choice - I'm not opposed to BSD per se...)

Bottom line is, we're expanding our distro support as time and resources permit, and trying to hit the ones that are most likely to be seen in enterprise settings. We, and our investors, want to be successful, which means that we have to make some hard choices in this area.

(That said, the more the merrier - our software is cool, and we want as many people using it as possible, so nothing's off the table.)

[Static Electrician]

I mostly run RHEL3 and Solaris 8 servers at work (large university), and although we're trying to get away from sparc/sol8, there's some legacy apps that just require it. I do like FreeBSD, but I can see how it might be close to impossible to get a binary install for it (unless you make the installer tell the admin to install the JDK first and THEN proceed). Porting between Solaris x86 and Solaris Sparc should be fairly trivial as the OS isn't really that different -- some kernel processor calls are different and x86 doesn't have the OpenBoot firmware -- but structurally, they're pretty close to identical from a sysadmin POV. As long as your install doesn't do weird "check if uname returns x86 || fail" checks for no reason, there really shouldn't be a big difference that I know of. _that said_, it looks like I'll have to install Zimbra on a RHEL server instead of the Solaris server I was planning on doing it on; not a deal breaker for me, but I would encourage your dev team to strongly consider buying a cheap sparc or three off ebay or something (sunfire v100's go cheap, ditto workstations like the ultra60*) because a lot of companies are so heavily invested in Sparc hardware that it would be a good idea.

*worth noting that the free solaris OS downloads don't support multi-proc (except I think sol10, which does dual proc -- for multi proc OS capabilities, you'll want to buy a copy of the OS)

[marcmac]

Originally Posted by Static Electrician

Porting between Solaris x86 and Solaris Sparc should be fairly trivial as the OS isn't really that different -- some kernel processor calls are different and x86 doesn't have the OpenBoot firmware -- but structurally, they're pretty close to identical from a sysadmin POV. As long as your install doesn't do weird "check if uname returns x86 || fail" checks for no reason, there really shouldn't be a big difference that I know of.

They're not binary compatible tho, are they? So the packages would have to be different in that they included specific binaries for mysql, postfix, java, etc, etc...

[Static Electrician]

that is true; they do not have binary compatibility (although very often there is binary compatibility between different versions of the OS on the same platform (e.g., sparc/sol8, sparc/sol9, sparc/sol10).

[theuser]

Originally Posted by Static Electrician

Porting between Solaris x86 and Solaris Sparc should be fairly trivial as the OS isn't really that different -- some kernel processor calls are different and x86 doesn't have the OpenBoot firmware -- but structurally, they're pretty close to identical from a sysadmin POV.

A developer probably doesn't need the sysadmin POV that much, and
a project like zimbra would be badly portable if they relied on highly architecture dependant calls. The OpenBoot firmware layer isn't exactly an issue for them either, nor should the differing device paths matter to them. Unless they're trying to address network cards the hard way, they're most likely perfectly happy with the abstraction layer offered by the tcp stack. Any differences between x86/sparc Solaris should be neglectible.

Originally Posted by Static Electrician

*worth noting that the free solaris OS downloads don't support multi-proc (except I think sol10, which does dual proc -- for multi proc OS capabilities, you'll want to buy a copy of the OS)

There's no difference between the distribution downloadable from Sun for free and the bought media in that regard. Depending on the OS Version and platform, there was a limit on how many CPUs a system was allowed to possess to still run the OS legally.
There is no such limit for OpenSolaris or Solaris10.

Originally Posted by marcmac

we don't have any sparc hardware here, and aren't likely to buy any.

If you're looking into older Solaris releases such as requested by Static Electrician, some elderly used Sparc system might even be preferable, since all Sun Sparc Systems have their Solaris License included and the price of these systems is close to neglectible.
An elderly 2-CPU Sparcstation 20 for example should be "free to a good home", since the sun4m CPU architecture isn't supported by Solaris 10. Still fine for compiling Solaris 7/8/9 binaries, though.
An Ultra 60 (sun4u architecture) is supported by Solaris 10 and 11, able to run 2 CPUs (the 450 MHZ Variant is preferrable, since the doubled cache does show), and a reasonable base for development at less than USD 100 for a reasonably equipped system
(Example).

Originally Posted by marcmac

They're not binary compatible tho, are they? So the packages would have to be different in that they included specific binaries for mysql, postfix, java, etc, etc...

No, they're not binary compatible. Considering that many sites already will have mysql, postfix, etc installed anyway, you might consider taking a look at
Blastwave, a community site offering binary packages (with version information and dependencies) of most if not all the additional software you're requiring. It might save you a few headaches to just recommend installing easily available packages from distributions like this one.

Hope any of this is of help - I'd really appreciate if Zimbra would support the Solaris platform.