Okay, I Installed, Now What? (On OS X)

[Antonio]

First, a bit of a rant.

After seeing the demo and screenshots, I was really eager to install Zimbra and get it up and running.

However, the only thing on the disk image is the installer. No documentation, nor a clue where to find any, because there's no information on where things are installed, either!
So, I used spotlight to find the PDFs, which are essentially useless toward getting it up and going. They give some nice instructions about configurations, but that's all fairly worthless when attempting just to get the thing running.

In my defense. I've already installed Apache 2, MySQL, and PHP 4 with little to no help, and configured them for other purposes, so it's not as if I'm new to this sort of thing.

You really need documentation, let alone good documentation.
If there is quality documentation out there, it's buried deep enough it may as well not exist.


As for searching the forums, I've only found more threads where you tell others to search the forums and read documentation, so that's pointless, as well.

I think if you were to be constructive within a thread, instead of bolstering your egos, at least searching the forums would be effective, instead of bringing up five or so worthless forum topics where someone grows their ego out at someone else's expense.

The rant out of the way, when I type: "su - zimbra", then enter my admin password at the prompt, I get: "su: Sorry."

I think this software is probably of a high quality, and I'd like to cut thropugh the garbage and find out.

Thanks in advance.

[Antonio]

BTW, the Quickstart Guide hasn't helped.

[Antonio]

OKAY,
I just found out that Zimbra created an account for itself in System Preferences while installing (and where was this in the documentation?).

I had to set a password for it, then reconfigure my admin account password in order for ANY commands to work in the Terminal (because, thanks to Zimbra screwing with the account settings, my password wouldn't work beforehand).
YAY.

Now onto the next issue: "DNS ERROR resolving MX for groom lake
It is suggested that the domain name have an MX record configured in DNS
Re-Enter domain name? [Yes]"

EDIT:
I cancelled the session I was in and started the entire command line process over again.

Now, I have this: "It is suggested that the hostname be resolveable via DNS
Change hostname [Yes]"

[phoenix]

Is the documentation really that hard to find? Is it also that difficult to find the wiki?

Is your hostname resolvabe by DNS? Does it have an MX record pointing to the server?

[Antonio]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Is the documentation really that hard to find? Is it also that difficult to find the wiki?

Is your hostname resolvabe by DNS? Does it have an MX record pointing to the server?

What comes with the software?
Yeah. God forbid someone wants to install offline, or where they can't access the internet and online to download the same PDF buried in the installed files.

BTW, it's because everything is installed in an invisible folder.
This is probably a bad idea. Documentation ought to be easy to find.
My other server apps are installed in plain view within my Library folder (root/Library).

As for the DNS issue, that's more difficult. As far as I know, the hostname matches up with the static IP addy. As for the MX record... no one is accessing mail from my machine from over the 'net.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Antonio

What comes with the software?
Yeah. God forbid someone wants to install offline, or where they can't access the internet and online to download the same PDF buried in the installed files.

Sorry, but this is a nonsensical argument. While you're on-line downloading the software how about reading the documentation? Are you seriously telling me that you go to a web site download the software without reading anything about it and just install it? I don't for one minute believe that's what you do.

Originally Posted by Antonio

BTW, it's because everything is installed in an invisible folder.
This is probably a bad idea. Documentation ought to be easy to find.
My other server apps are installed in plain view within my Library folder (root/Library).

I've no idea about it being in a hidden folder as know nothing about the MAC.

Originally Posted by Antonio

As for the DNS issue, that's more difficult. As far as I know, the hostname matches up with the static IP addy. As for the MX record... no one is accessing mail from my machine from over the 'net.

Well, without knowing your hostname I'll have to take your word that it matches your IP address. The error message thrown is that it can't be resolved by DNS - without any supporting info I can't give you any useful answer.

[Antonio]

Well, I solved the issue with the hostname.
The name I assigned doesn't work, which is odd,as even typing "hostname -s" in the terminal brings me the name I assigned.
So, I typed "host" and what I know to be the static IP address, which gave me the default hostname (the generic name, usually localhost or something similar).

Odd, but that's one issue down, and maybe some other OS X user can learn from it.

[Antonio]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Sorry, but this is a nonsensical argument. While you're on-line downloading the software how about reading the documentation? Are you seriously telling me that you go to a web site download the software without reading anything about it and just install it? I don't for one minute believe that's what you do.

Normally, there's documentation on the disk image with the installer, not in an invisible folder.
Your rebuttal is nonsensical, especially when you yourself state that you don't believe it's what I do.
Of course I read up on the software; I wouldn't have enough reason to install it had I not.

It makes more sense to put the guide on the disk image or in the ZIP compressed file, along with everything else. It just makes good sense that it's all in one place for the end user, and I'd wager it takes no more effort for the software maker than putting it elswhere on their site, so there's little reason not to.

More unique issues should be handled through wikis and Google. Otherwise, users shouldn't have to look all over the place for the usual install guides.

Nonetheless, it's completely lackluster. Past the instructions regarding the download and OS X installer package, it's full of holes (as evidenced by nearly every OS X thread I've seen thus far).
And, many of the issues mentioned here in the forums are the same or at least related, so you'd think they'd merit some mention in the documentation, which would really prevent this sort of thing.

I think this is an instance of technically knowledgeable individuals completely overlooking the obvious.

[Antonio]

Well, I found that neither aforementioned assigned nor the default hostname for my computer would work, so I eventually opted not to re-enter the hostname or change the domain name. It was a situation running me in a circle. The rest of the install has been fine and the servers are starting.

[gmsmith]

Originally Posted by Antonio

Well, I found that neither aforementioned assigned nor the default hostname for my computer would work, so I eventually opted not to re-enter the hostname or change the domain name. It was a situation running me in a circle. The rest of the install has been fine and the servers are starting.

The MacOS X install is perhaps the easiest of the installs. It doesn't install in a "Secret" folder of any kind, if you are familiar with terminal at all (and you should be or you have no business installing this software), you will know that opt is available at /. If you really want to see it in the GUI for whatever reason just do: cd /opt and then open .

It is clear you did no research about the product prior to installing it and you didn't read the directions when the OS X installer completed. Also you must have missed the link called "Documentation" on the same page you downloaded the installer from (http://www.zimbra.com/community/downloads.html).

When I first started on the forums, I wondered why people lost there temper when people asked some questions, now I know why