Help with new install

[creativemedia]

We have a Zimbra 4.5.6 Release 4.5.6_GA_1044.FC5_20070703135416 FC5 FOSS edition. The server is having a lot of issue and we want to move to a new server with Fedora 8. I did not setup Zimbra on this server. I have some question for a newbie:

1. Is Fedora 8 supported yet?

2. I assume I would setup new server with Zimbra 5 first. How can I test this box to make sure everything is working correctly before moving live box over. This is important.

3. How to move email accounts over to new server?

Any addition hints or suggestion would be great.

Thank you.

[soxfan]

No, Fedora 8 is not currently supported. You can go to the downloads page on the Community page to see what Linux distributions and versions are supported. If you are starting with a fresh server I highly recommend you get off the Fedora wagon now. The highly aggressive Fedora upgrade schedule does not work out too well with Zimbra. If you want to stick to a Redhat/Fedora distribution you should check out CentOS. I'm not going to startup the whole "CentOS isn't the same as Redhat" debate, but if you install a stock version of CentOS 4 or 5, and use the corresponding Redhat version you should be fine. (I'm going on a year live, with another year of testing under CentOS and have never had a problem.)

As far as moving your existing install over to the server, the recommended methods are either upgrade to version 5 on your existing server, backup, install version 5 on the new server, restore; or backup your current install, install the same version you are currently using on the new server, then restore from backup. (Check the wiki for more information.)

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by creativemedia

We have a Zimbra 4.5.6 Release 4.5.6_GA_1044.FC5_20070703135416 FC5 FOSS edition. The server is having a lot of issue and we want to move to a new server with Fedora 8.

4.5.6 had a number of issues. You definitely want to get off it. If you don't feel comfortable going to 5.x, you should at least upgrade to 4.5.11. You'll need to do this before installing the 5.x upgrade anyhow, since it won't work straight from 4.5.6.

Originally Posted by creativemedia

1. Is Fedora 8 supported yet?

No. This list is all the supported OS choices as of right now. Fedora 7 is the currently-available package.

Originally Posted by creativemedia

2. I assume I would setup new server with Zimbra 5 first. How can I test this box to make sure everything is working correctly before moving live box over. This is important.

No, that won't work. You need to upgrade your existing server, or else move the accounts from that server to your new box on the same (4.5.6) version and upgrade on that new box. Setting up a parallel box and then migrating accounts might conceivably be possible if you (a) gave the new box a different domain from the old one, and (b) used IMAPsync to move things over, but that plan is fraught with headaches.

Basically, I would recommend the following steps:

1. The 4.5.6 binaries aren't available any more, so you'll have to upgrade at least once on your existing server. I would suggest you go for 4.5.11 for FC5 which you can download from this page. You need to get up to .11 because that's the first version that is available for Fedora 7 as well as 4 and 5.
2. Set up your new server with your choice of OS (Fedora 7 in my example, but you could go for one of the others) from among the supported flavors. Get your hosts, DNS, etc. properly configured so it is ready to function exactly as the old server did (but hopefully without the problems you are experiencing! )
3. Install 4.5.11 (this time the version for Fedora 7) on that server.
4. Stop mail services (zmcontrol stop) on BOTH machines.
5. Backup the entire /opt/zimbra directory tree from your old machine, and copy it to /opt/zimbra in your new machine, overwriting the whole tree.
6. Re-install 4.5.11 just like you did the first time. You need to do this in order for the "upgrade" to properly fix any settings that are unique to the new box (see Moving to new server? for an explanation of this)
7. Restart zimbra services to ensure that this install actually works.
8. Upgrade the new machine to 5.0.4

It's a little ponderous, I know, but this should get you through.