I got Ubuntu and Zimbra working

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by joeleo

One thing I wanted to confirm about the DNS setup is this. This article seems to imply that DNS (BIND) is to be installed and running on the same box that Zimbra is installed on. For me, I have my DNS running on separate box, therefore, don't need to install BIND9. All that would be needed is to config /etc/resolv.conf on the Zimbra box to point to your internal DNS (nameservers).

You're right, Joe. If you have a separate DNS that Zimbra can resolve properly to find what it needs to find (it's own identity and mx records), then you have what you need. The reason I installed Bind on my server was because the Zimbra box lives on a DMZ, and its public IP address is achieved by DNAT/SNAT in my firewall. So the public ip is actually an ip that doesn't correspond to Zimbra's internal hardware at all. Therefore, I have one set of mx records that the Zimbra box can resolve (hosted by that box in bind9) and a separate set of records you'd find if you were to look up my domain from out in the world. This is necessary, because otherwise Zimbra can't send mail to itself.

But whether that internal resolution is effected right on the Zimbra box or somewhere else on your LAN/DMZ is immaterial, as long as you can correctly resolve the address.

Cheers,

Dan

[joeleo]

Dan, thanks for your reply... Listen, I am new to Zimbra and I am having some problems sending & receiving emails. I posted this problem already via this thread:
http://www.zimbra.com/forums/install...send-mail.html

I just did a new re-install and same problem. The only problem I spotted during the install is this message:

Setting up zimbra crontab...sh: crontab: command not found

I am able to login via zimbra admin console and see email being stuck in the deferred queue. Please refer to previous post above for background info. Someone seems to think I have an issue with a 'file' command not being found/missing in my system - see previous post on details of this.

I would greatly appreciate if you or anyone else can help me identify and fix this problem. I am running on Ubuntu6 on a OpenVZ VPS. My Zimbra version is: Release 4.5.7_GA_1319.UBUNTU6 UBUNTU6 FOSS edition...

Thanks in advance for any help!

Joe

[dwmtractor]

Joe, this is the part that is weird:

Originally Posted by joeleo

Setting up zimbra crontab...sh: crontab: command not found

I have not heard of an installation that doesn't have crontab at all. . .which is what that looks like it's saying. If you, while logged on as root, type

crontab -l

do you get anything? If you do, did you do the last step in the instructions,

crontab -u zimbra -l

What, if any error did that line produce?

If, in fact, you don't have crontab on your system, install it with apt-get and try again. The problem that you may run into on this front tho, is that without crontab already on the system when you started your Zimbra installation, I would imagine that the rather complex crontab schedule that Zimbra uses won't be there, and will need to be re-created. crontab -l as the Zimbra user produces the following as a default:

# ZIMBRASTART -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRAEND
#
# Log pruning
#
30 2 * * * find /opt/zimbra/log/ -type f -name \*.log\* -mtime +8 -exec rm {} \; > /d
ev/null 2>&1
#
# Status logging
#
*/2 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmstatuslog
*/10 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmdisklog
#
# Backups
#
# BACKUP BEGIN
# BACKUP END
#
# crontab.ldap
#
#
#
# crontab.store
#
# Log pruning
#
30 2 * * * find /opt/zimbra/tomcat/logs/ -type f -name \*log\* -mtime +8 -exec rm {}
\; > /dev/null 2>&1
0 2 * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmroll_catalina > /dev/null 2>&1
#
# Purge messages
#
0 3 * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmpurgemessages > /dev/null 2>&1
#
# Clean up the quarantine dir
#
0 1 * * * find /opt/zimbra/amavisd/quarantine -type f -mtime +7 -exec rm -f {} \; > /
dev/null 2>&1
#
# Table maintenance
#
30 1 * * 7 /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmmaintaintables >> /dev/null 2>&1
#
# Report on any database inconsistencies
#
0 23 * * 7 /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmdbintegrityreport -m
#
# Monitor for multiple mysqld to prevent corruption
#
*/5 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmcheckduplicatemysqld -e > /dev/null 2>&1

#
# crontab.logger
#
# process logs
#
00,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmlogprocess > /tmp/logprocess.out 2>&1

#
# Graph generation
#
10 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmgengraphs >> /tmp/gengraphs.out 2>&1
#
# Daily reports
#
10 1 * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmdailyreport -m
#
# crontab.mta
#
#
# Queue logging
#
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/zmqueuelog
#
# Spam training
#
0 23 * * * /opt/zimbra/bin/zmtrainsa >> /opt/zimbra/log/spamtrain.log 2>&1
#
# Spam training cleanup
#
45 23 * * * /opt/zimbra/bin/zmtrainsa --cleanup >> /opt/zimbra/log/spamtrain.log 2>&1

#
# Dspam cleanup
#
#0 1 * * * find /opt/zimbra/dspam/var/dspam/data/z/i/zimbra/zimbra.sig/ -type f -name
 \*sig -mtime +7 -exec rm {} \; > /dev/null 2>&1
#8 4 * * * /opt/zimbra/dspam/bin/dspam_logrotate -a 60 /opt/zimbra/dspam/var/dspam/sy
stem.log
#8 8 * * * /opt/zimbra/dspam/bin/dspam_logrotate -a 60 /opt/zimbra/dspam/var/dspam/da
ta/z/i/zimbra/zimbra.log
#
# Spam Bayes auto-expiry
#
20 23 * * * /opt/zimbra/libexec/sa-learn -p /opt/zimbra/conf/salocal.cf --dbpath /opt
/zimbra/amavisd/.spamassassin --siteconfigpath /opt/zimbra/conf/spamassassin --force-
expire --sync > /dev/null 2>&1
#
# Clean up amavisd/tmp
#
15 5,20 * * * find /opt/zimbra/amavisd/tmp -maxdepth 1 -type d -name 'amavis-*' -mtim
e +1 -exec rm -rf {} \; > /dev/null 2>&1
# ZIMBRAEND -- DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING BETWEEN THIS LINE AND ZIMBRASTART

If that isn't there, you could create a file containing the above code, save it as something like zmcron, then as zimbra user, type

crontab zmcron

to import it. However, I DON'T know if that is your only problem; it might be safer to install crontab and re-run the Zimbra installer as a clean install. . .but I'm guessing here.

Dan

[joeleo]

Dan, thanks for the info. You are right, I did not run the command crontab -u zimbra -l after the zimbra install - Somehow I missed that step entirely. This could explain the problem regarding the message:
Setting up zimbra crontab...sh: crontab: command not found

Below is the command output to:
root@mx1:# crontab -l
bash: crontab: command not found

root@mx1:# crontab -u zimbra -l
bash: crontab: command not found

I will try another install and make sure I get this step right... However, I am not sure if resolving is what could be causing mail not to be sent/received. I'll post my findings soon. Thanks for the help!

Joe

[dwmtractor]

Joe,

Looking at your reply I'm afraid I didn't make myself clear, for which I apologize. The problem is that you don't have crontab on your LINUX installation, which means when Zimbra tries to set up the crontab it can't. Just in case you're not familiar with the Unix family, crontab is the scheduler that is used by Linux (and other Unix-like operating systems) to schedule all kinds of things. I suspect among those things are the processes Zimbra uses to send and check mail, but I GUARANTEE there are a bunch of Zimbra processes that depend on this utility. I'm a little surprised it installed at all without listing crontab as a missing dependency.

On a clean Linux install, you need to run

apt-get install crontab

so that this module exists at all. This needs to be done BEFORE you run the Zimbra installer. I can't tell you that this is the only problem, but it is most definitely a problem. . .

Dan

[dwmtractor]

A little further follow-up. I think from reading your other thread, Joe, that your Linux installation itself is either broken or corrupted. Too much that's going on in that thread looks suspiciously like packages that should be part of your operating system aren't there. Part of what concerns me is, though I'm no Linux guru, I have never seen a Linux installation that didn't include crontab in the base install. Makes me wonder if your install image is broken.

Questions:

1) What image did you use to install your Ubuntu server? The image I used was ubuntu-6.06.1-server-i386.iso from the server 6.06 LTS portion of the download page at ubuntu.com.

2) Did you get all the packages Zimbra required (including perl, which it doesn't ask for) installed before you ran the Zimbra install?

3) After you verified that DNS was working and you installed your dependencies, did you run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to patch your install to current versions of installed modules?

All of these things need to be done before anything from Zimbra even touches the system. My own limited, but painful experience tells me that you can't install packages after the fact and have Zimbra work correctly.

And if I'm stating the obvious to someone who already knows, please accept my humble apologies. . .

Dan

[dijichi2]

Setting up zimbra crontab...sh: crontab: command not found

this is fairly normal artifact on a new install, just means the zimbra crontab didnt exist and the installer was creating a new one.

All of these things need to be done before anything from Zimbra even touches the system. My own limited, but painful experience tells me that you can't install packages after the fact and have Zimbra work correctly.

dns and prerequisites, yes. updates can be installed any time. it's good practice and makes sense to the updates first but as zimbra lives in its own little world in /opt/zimbra, updates have no effect.

[joeleo]

Dan, thanks for the comments, It seems that I do not have the crontab package install. I am surprise that Zimbra complete the install without having this critical package installed and working. However, I've tried to install the package and I am getting this error:

root@mx1:# apt-get install crontab
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package crontab

I don't think I have a issue with my sources.list but I'd thought I post it here anyway. FYI, I am able to apt-get install other packages...

deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper main restricted 
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates main restricted 
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-updates main restricted 
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper multiverse universe main restricted

I am running Ubuntu6 which is a OpenVZ OS template. I wll try to re-download and re-install this in case what I have installed may be corrupted somehow. Stay tune!

Joe

[joeleo]

Hi All, I went and re-installed zimbra and made sure I had the cron package installed. I am no longer getting the crontab file error - So, that issue is fixed.

However, I am still not able to send or receive emails. As before, emails are being received but stuck in deferred queue. Below is the output for /var/log/zimbra.log... Notice the error regarding: Unix utility file(1) not available

Oct 10 11:41:43 mx1 postfix/smtpd[28046]: connect from MyUserName.MyDomain.com[192.168.1.10]
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 postfix/smtpd[28046]: 0F0CB55006A: client=MyUserName.MyDomain.com[192.168.1.10]
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 postfix/cleanup[28050]: 0F0CB55006A: message-id=<9445859.01192016503447.JavaMail.root@MyUserName.MyDomain.com>
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 postfix/qmgr[24557]: 0F0CB55006A: from=, size=512, nrcpt=1 (queue active)
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 postfix/smtpd[28046]: disconnect from MyUserName.MyDomain.com[192.168.1.10]
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 amavis[24283]: (24283-01) ESMTP::10024 /opt/zimbra/amavisd/tmp/amavis-20071010T114144-24283:  ->  SIZE=512 Received: from MyUserName.MyDomain.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (MyUserName.MyDomain.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP for ; Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:41:44 +0000 (UTC)
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 amavis[24283]: (24283-01) Checking: fmB6qe0tMDfM [192.168.1.10]  -> 
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 amavis[24283]: (24283-01) (!!)TROUBLE in check_mail: parts_decode_ext FAILED: Unix utility file(1) not available, but is needed at (eval 54) line 113.
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 amavis[24283]: (24283-01) (!)PRESERVING EVIDENCE in /opt/zimbra/amavisd/tmp/amavis-20071010T114144-24283
Oct 10 11:41:44 mx1 postfix/smtp[28051]: 0F0CB55006A: to=, relay=127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1], delay=0, status=deferred (host 127.0.0.1[127.0.0.1] said: 451 4.5.0 Error in processing, id=24283-01, parts_decode_ext FAILED: Unix utility file(1) not available, but is needed at (eval 54) line 113. (in reply to end of DATA command))
Oct 10 11:42:01 mx1 CRON[28062]: (pam_unix) session opened for user zimbra by (uid=0)

I've been trying to find out what package is needed to get the file command tool. Any ideas?

Joe

[dijichi2]

Hi All, I went and re-installed zimbra and made sure I had the cron package installed. I am no longer getting the crontab file error - So, that issue is fixed.

sorry didn't notice it actually said crontab *command* not found, ignore my mumblings.

file is part of 'file' package

any modern unix expects file and cron to be installed. if you don't have these very very basic utils, either something went wrong with your OS install or you've chosen too minimal an install option/template. i remember reading openvz does strange things like this in the past, but i can only guess it's an install option error. i've never seen any unix without cron!