Non-VMWare Zimbra?

[HayleyIT]

Hi all,

We're looking to trial Zimbra, with a view to go Appliance Pro for somewhere between 300 and 400 mailboxes.

A stumbling block is that we don't run any VMWare servers and quite frankly I don't want to. This however presents a problem as I can't seem to locate any install packages for Zimbra 6 or 7 which can just be installed traditionally onto CentOS.

Is there any hope, or is it VMWare or nothing?

Thanks.

[dedisoft]

You didn't absolutely needs VMware ESXi server to run Zimbra (if you didn't want virtualize your server).

But only officially supported OSes are on the download page.

If you want to try installing Zimbra on CentOS, you can't have any official support from Zimbra/VMware.

But Google can help you to do this...

For 300 - 400 mailboxes, it will be more efficient to use an official supported OS. Trying Zimbra on non official OS isn't recommended for production use (no support).

[HayleyIT]

Hi dedisoft,

Thank you for the quick reply!

As CentOS is RedHat I thought it was officially supported as you can download the Network Edition for RedHat: Network Edition Downloads: Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration Software by Zimbra.

As regards to going the non-VMWare route, does Zimbra host the source/rpms/package installers for download? All the download links they have sent me for trialling Appliance Pro are purely for VMWare downloads.

Thanks!

[uxbod]

CentOS is NOT RedHat it is a community distributed release based on the upstream packages which have been debranded.

[dedisoft]

Originally Posted by HayleyIT

All the download links they have sent me for trialling Appliance Pro are purely for VMWare downloads.

Yes, appliance is virtual appliance...

To try Zimbra on a physical server, you need to download the package on the download page and request a trial license key.

[HayleyIT]

uxbod, for all intents and purposes CentOS = Redhat. As you have said, it's RedHat debranded. CentOS is merely RedHat for those who don't want to pay for commercial support.

"CentOS exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream source, Red Hat" (CentOS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

[raj]

for all Network Edition Paid Support services..which you intend to buy CentOS is NOT = RHEL

That is what uxbod ment.

"CentOS exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream source, Red Hat" (CentOS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

We all know this..you dont need to post it.

So in short..Zimbra RHEL package will work on CentOS you will not get support for it from Zimbra Support...but we will help you here online.

CentOS support is long due and we hope it gets supported soon.

Raj

[Tripple]

I did not test this and I'm not sure if this is legal but you can convert the appliance and use KVM qemu on your CentOS.

Maybe like this:

# vmware-vdiskmanager -r appliance.vmdk -t 0 myImage.img
# qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 "myImage.img" "appliance_converted.qcow2"

Boot qemu and import "appliance_converted.qcow2".

A few years ago I left VMWare because they focused too much on Windows.

[raj]

How To Migrate From Vmware To KVM - KVM

[leog21]

I ran Zimbra for 2 years under CentOS perfectly fine. Now we are running it under Citrix Xen - RHEL. This was mainly due to the fact that we moved zimbra over to a SAN and didn't want any issues with the SAN vendor/zimbra support regarding CentOS.

As a long time Zimbra user, running both NE and Free editions, I can say that both the support and the community are very helpful.