Timeout reading configuration file for conaryc

[kwinstrand]

After installing Zimbra on a VMWare Virtual Server and following the rPath configuration instructions in the install docs, I receive the following error on the "Zimbra Services" page:

Timeout reading configuration file http://updates.zimbra.com/conaryrc; retrying...error: /etc/conaryrc:3: when processing includeConfigFile:
/etc/conary/config.d/zimbra:1: when processing includeConfigFile: Error reading config file http://updates.zimbra.com/conaryrc: socket timeout Release RPL1

Cannot determine services - exiting

• I tried restarting the service and I get the same error.
• I can't connect to the admin console on port 7071.
• I verified that I can resolve and ping updates.zimbra.com from the VM.
• This test machine is behind a firewall, but the firewall is configured to allow http access to *.zimbra.com.
• I searched the forums but the only reference I saw to this issue just said to check your DNS settings.

Can anybody point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Ken

[rhall]

I am seeing essentially the same thing. Final installation fails with this error. I can resolve the name wthout problem. I can't try to ping because we don't allow ICMP echo to the internet. Can't fetch with wget. Can't hit the URL with a browser. Can someone help please? What I thought was going to be a quick a dirty proof of concept before convincing my bosses Zimbra is the way to go, is rapidly turning into a failure.

[mmorse]

Welcome to the forums,

The latest VM on Zimbra - Products: Network Edition BETA Downloads is ZCS 4.5.4, I would grab VMware 1.0.6, CentOS 5.2 or Ubuntu 8.04, and throw on ZCS 5.0.9.

[kwinstrand]

Thanks Mike, I'll give it a try.

FWIW--I liked the ease of the VM Appliance installation. It's an appealing package for Windows admins like me who have second thoughts about running a Linux box for such an important role.

Hopefully the regular package will be almost as easy to set up.

[rhall]

So are there no plans to continue the VM appliance? This is really my only option for the proof of concept. I'm an experienced linux/unix admin, but my problem is that this is a skunkworks project I am doing without official blessing. Had the Zimbra test panned out, I would have been in a strong position to deploy it for our organization. But I don't believe I'll be able to carve out enough time for a scratch install. If you aren't going to support the VM, then you ought to remove the links here and on VMWare's appliance marketplace. Oh, and you ought to let the good folks at rPath know not to reference you - their piece worked flawlessly.

[mmorse]

There are certainly plans to continue having a VM image, it does make for an excellent quick showcase.

I did let the team know about the connection issue & will fwd your suggestion about 'pulling the VM's because they're so old, to not give a false impression if updates.zimbra isn't planned for fix soon.'

Remember the VM's are beta; just trying to give you a hand to get started (as the update URL is not my realm & I have no idea what the license terms were with rPath) by pointing out that rather than the beta you might try the stable GA. I think you'll enjoy 5.0.x as it's a huge improvement upon 4.5.x Why we switched to Jetty » Zimbra :: Blog Getting an OS + Zimbra installed is pretty straightforward, with missing package dependencies shown early in the process (and you'll get a port conflict if you forgot to disable say sendmail) before the install really starts, it's the DNS that gets most people.

(I'm not sure how the "my only option for the proof of concept" comes into play? I assume it's not 'time involved' because I gather you'd need to get experience installing Zimbra and thoroughly vet it for your needs anyways - and you can do that all in VMware, Xen, Virtual Box, etc, etc. Sry I'm missing your point there if you care to elaborate.)

If you don't have a DNS server handy here's some examples:
Split DNS - Zimbra :: Wiki
Making Zimbra & BIND Work Together » Zimbra :: Blog

There's a bunch of open RFE's on VM's: Bug 14927 – rPath Network VMware Beta & even Bug 13508 – Live CD

(The community could probably even maintain some current FOSS images.)

Single Server Installation Guide - Network Edition

[kwinstrand]

RHALL,

I just did an install of Ubuntu and Zimbra on VMWare Server (which is free) and I don't think it would take you long. It took me a while, but I'm not very *nix savvy.

You can probably have this up and running in an hour if you're a Linux guy.

It took me several hours because I had to figure out how to use apt-get and/or aptitude to get the missing dependencies. (One was only available through apt-get, it didn't show up in aptitude.) If I had to do it again I could finish in an hour or two, including setting up VMWare.

The only other thing that took a while was ftping over the binaries to the virtual server. If I did it again I'd figure out how to pull them from a share or mount my local disk in VMWare instead.

Ken